The Tomb of James Gubbins, Epsom Churchyard
Beckett, R. B. “Constable at Epsom.” Apollo 82 (1965): 191.
Beckett, R. B., ed. John Constable’s Correspondence: Early Friends and Maria Bicknell (Mrs Constable). Vol. 2. Ipswich, UK: Suffolk Records Society, 1964.
Beckett, R. B., ed. John Constable’s Correspondence: Various Friends. Vol. 5. Ipswich, UK: Suffolk Records Society, 1968.
Fleming-Williams, Ian, and David Thomson. Constable and His Drawings. London: Philip Wilson 1990.
Lehmann, H. L. “John Constable at Epsom.” Surrey Archaeological Society Bulletin, no.153 (January 1979): 5–6.
Parris, Leslie. The Tate Gallery Constable Collection. London: Tate Gallery Publications, 1981.
Parris, Leslie, Ian Fleming-Williams, and Conal Shield. Constable: Paintings, Watercolours, and Drawings. London: Tate Gallery, 1976.
Reynolds, Graham. The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
Reynolds, Graham. The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 1984.
Reynolds, Graham, Charles Rhyne, and Julius Meier-Graefe. John Constable, R.A. (1776–1837). Exh. cat. New York: Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, 1988.
Smithsonian Institution. Sketches by Constable from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Exh. cat. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1966.
ProvenanceDavid Robert Alexander Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford (1900–1975); by descent to the present owner; private collection; [Guy Peppiatt, Fine Art, London, by 2022]; purchased by the MFAH, 2022.John Constable’s drawn studies were essential to his artistic production. They were kept together during his lifetime and not intended for exhibition. After his death, his drawings were widely distributed. Ian Fleming-Williams noted, “To know and understand Constable as well as to enjoy his art to the full, we need to give almost as much time to the drawings as to the paintings.”1
Constable often spent time out-of-doors walking around recording nature and everyday occurrences with a pencil in hand. In his sketchbook of 1814, he wrote, “I have filled as usual a little book of hasty memorandums of the places which I saw.”2 That same year, he noted, “I took several beautiful walks in search of food for my pencil this summer when I hope to do a great deal in ‘Landscape.’ I love the idea of this ‘food’ by putting marks on paper we too can feed our pencils.”3
Between 1806 and 1812, Constable paid several visits to Epsom to visit his aunt and uncle, Mary and James Gubbins. About 1770, Mary Watts, the younger sister of Constable’s mother, married James Gubbins, a successful surveyor and builder in London who eventually retired to a house in Epsom, Surrey. By 1804 they were living in what was called Hylands House, 73 Dorking Road, identified by Dr. H. L. Lehmann. Constable produced an oil study of their house.4
Constable often recorded his wanderings in small- and medium-sized sketchbooks, usually made of sheets of Whatman paper, many of which could fit in his pocket. Though few of his sketchbooks remained intact, he utilized four in 1815. The size of this sheet suggests that it originates from one of the dismembered sketchbooks that Constable used in 1815 and picked up again in 1816.5 This intimate drawing dates from a previously unrecorded trip to Epsom by Constable in June 1816, presumably to see his aunt Mary.6 The subject of the present drawing and the inscription on the reverse suggest that he was also there to see the newly installed tombstone for his uncle James in the cemetery behind the Church of St. Martin of Tours in Epsom.7 Constable’s own parents had recently died, his mother in March 1815 and his father on May 14, 1816. Graham Reynolds points out that the design of James Gubbins’s tomb closely resembles that of Constable’s parents in East Bergholt.8 This drawing reinforces the theory that the latter was based on the former. The verso of this sheet is inscribed with the first part of what was written on his uncle’s tomb. When Constable made the drawing, his cousin James, who had died at Waterloo, was also commemorated on the tomb: Beneath this Stone are deposited the mortal remains of JAMES GUBBINS Esqr. of Epsom who departed this Life on the 7th day of June 1814 Aged 69. And it is Also inscribed to the memory of his Son Captn. JAMES GUBBINS of the 13th Dragoons who was killed on the 18th of June 1815 in the battle of Waterloo in Flanders.9
On the recto, inscribed “Epsom June 11. 1816,” Constable has drawn from a slight distance his uncle’s tomb surrounded by an iron railing topped by spikes and classical vase forms. The sheet appears rapidly worked. Confident parallel hatch marks flush out the trees and the grass in front. Constable made a more finished drawing, giving further definition to the cemetery plots and the billowy trees with pen and wash, from a similar vantage point in 1822 prior to his aunt Mary's death.10 —Dena M. Woodall
Notes
1. Ian Fleming-Williams and David Thomson, Constable and His Drawings (London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 1990), 21.
2. See R. B. Beckett, ed., John Constable’s Correspondence: Early Friends and Maria Bicknell (Mrs. Constable), vol. 2 (Ipswich: Suffolks Records Society, 1964), 127.
3. Ibid., 121.
4. John Constable, Hylands House, c. 1806–12, oil on panel, private collection. See Graham Reynolds, The Early Paintings and Drawing of John Constable, vol. 1, Text (London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies of British Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 88–89, cats. 06.104 and 06.105. Constable was carrying a sketchbook at this time; see intact sketchbook used at Epsom in 1806, graphite and ink, Musée du Louvre, Paris, cat. 06.86.
5. Thanks to Anne Lyles for her suggestions about this sheet. Graham Reynolds lists other drawings from this sketchbook that he calls 1815 (a). Another sketch from this sketchbook is Shipping near Ipswich, no date, graphite on paper, Victoria and Albert Museum, London [308-1888]; see Reynolds, The Early Paintings and Drawing of John Constable, 207 [cat. 15.16], 214, 234–35, 257.
6. Other Constable drawings, watercolors, and oil sketches of Epsom from this period survive, such as Constable, View of Epsom, August 6, 1806, watercolor on paper, former collection of Michael Sadler collection; see R. B. Beckett, “Constable at Epsom,” Apollo (March 1965): 189, fig. 1; Constable, Pitt Place, Epsom, the House of Mr. Digby Neave, September 1831, graphite, pen, and watercolor on paper, Victoria and Albert Museum, London [236-1888]; Constable, Near Epsom, 1806, graphite on paper, Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, Gilbert Davis Collection [59.55.263] (see Beckett, “Constable at Epsom,” 190, fig. 3); Constable, Leatherhead Church, near Epsom, from the Northeast, 1806, graphite on slightly textured, cream wove paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection [B1975.3.247]; Constable, An Extensive View of Epsom Common, August 10, 1806, London, Christie’s, June 19, 1979, lot 127; and Constable, Epsom Common, 1806, London, Sotheby’s, November 13, 1980, lot 98.
7. Constable’s uncle had done some consulting work for the church in 1806 and 1811. See an image of the church, S. Rawle, after J. Nixon, published by J. Asperne, Epsom Church, Surry [sic], A View from the North East, 1807, engraving with hand coloring, Bourne Hall Museum [1998.144-028]. Constable portrayed the church in the background of the watercolor Pitt Place, Epsom, the House of Mr. Digby Neave; the house was constructed on Church Street next to the Church of St. Martin of Tours. See John Constable, Pitt Place, Epsom, the House of Mr. Digby Neave, September 1831, graphite, pen, and watercolor, Victoria and Albert Museum, London [236-1888].
8. Graham Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, vol. I, Text (London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 102, cat. 22.7.
9. The rest of the tombstone reads: And likewise beneath this Stone are deposited the mortal remains of MARY the Widow of the above named JAMES GUBBINS ESQ. who departed this life on the 22nd day of May 1827 Aged 73 Years. And it is also Sacred to the memory of Lt. Colonel Richd. GUBBINS C.B. Son of the above named JAMES and MARY GUBBINS who departed this life 2nd January 1836 Aged 54. His mortal remains are deposited in the Catacombs of the Cemetery at Kensall Green, Middlesex.
10. His aunt died in 1827. For the drawing of his parents’ tomb and the 1822 drawing and its replica, see Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, vol.1, 22, cat. 18.30, and 102, cats. 22.7 and 22.8, and vol. 2, pls. 57, 337, 338.