Borrowdale: Evening after a Fine Day, 1 October 1806

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Artist: John Constable (British, 1776–1837)
Medium: Watercolor and graphite with scratching out on medium, slightly textured, beige wove paper
Size: Sheet: 7 × 10 1/2 inches (17.8 × 26.7 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

In September 1806 Constable left his home at East Bergholt for a two-month tour of the Lake District. Hitherto his landscapes had attracted no attention in the London exhibitions, and this discouraging fact probably induced him to make the journey north, since views of the Lakes were almost certain to be noticed. By the end of September Constable was sketching at Borrowdale, where he spent three weeks making numerous somber watercolor studies such as this. Typically his focus was on transitory weather conditions, the inscription on the back of this drawing noting the date, "1 October 1806," with the added detail that it was made in the "Evening after a fine day."

Text: Yale Center for British Art.