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National Gallery of Art - THE COLLECTION
image of Wivenhoe Park, Essex
John Constable (artist)
British, 1776 - 1837
Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816
oil on canvas
overall: 56.1 x 101.2 cm (22 1/16 x 39 13/16 in.) framed: 77.8 x 122.5 x 8.8 cm (30 5/8 x 48 1/4 x 3 7/16 in.)
Widener Collection
1942.9.10
On View
From the Tour: Constable and Turner — British Landscapes of the Early 1800s
Object 1 of 11

Provenance

Painted for Major-General Francis Slater-Rebow, Wivenhoe Park and Alresford Hall, near Colchester, Essex; by descent through Mary Martin Slater-Rebow and John Gurdon-Rebow to Hector John Gurdon-Rebow [b. 1846].[1] (Leo Nardus, Suresnes, France, and New York); acquired 1909 by Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[2] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] The names of Mary Martin Slater-Rebow and John Gurdon-Rebow are from The Getty Provenance Index, and NGA curatorial files.

[2] The date of purchase, approximated by William Roberts in Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. British and Modern French Schools, privately printed (Philadelphia, 1915), [unpaginated], is given as 1906 in notes written by Edith Standen, the Widener curator, in NGA curatorial files. However, letters between P.A.B. Widener and his lawyer, John G. Johnson, and Nardus and his assistant, Michel van Gelder, indicate that the painting, along with NGA 1942.9.58 and NGA 1942.9.64 (two small heads by a follower of Rembrandt), were part of a restitution swap made in 1909 to settle Widener's claims against Nardus for selling him [Widener] paintings that were not what they were purported to be. This information about Nardus' activities is found in the John G. Johnson Collection Archives at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (specifically Box 5, Folder 5 [Nardus & Van Gelder, Correspondence, 1896, 1902-1910, n.d.] and Folder 6 [Nardus & Van Gelder, Correspondence re fakes. Incl. third party and letters from Johnson]). The correspondence was found and transcribed by Jonathan Lopez, who kindly shared it with the NGA (letter of 24 April 2006 to Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., in NGA curatorial files).

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