{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O14900"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O14900/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AR1046/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AR1046/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AR1046","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014HD5896","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JW5433","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O14900/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O14900","accessionNumber":"323-1888","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"Study of Tree Trunks","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"This outdoor sketch brilliantly captures the effect of broken sunlight falling through foliage. In May 1819 Constable expressed his delight in such subjects: 'Every tree seems full of blossom of some kind & the surface of the ground seems quite lovely'. The figure at the right may be the artist's wife, with one of their children.","physicalDescription":"View from above of a large tree trunk and a woman with a bonnet, possibly holding a child.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Constable, John (RA)","id":"A8267"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"oil on paper","categories":[{"text":"Images Online","id":"THES48937"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AR1046","2014HD5896","2017JW5433"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"WS","id":"THES49603"},"free":"","case":"R","shelf":"47","box":"R"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1821","earliest":"1816-01-01","latest":"1825-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Isabel Constable","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"24.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"29.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"estimate","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"45.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Frame","note":"Taken from frame"},{"dimension":"Width","value":"55.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Frame","note":"Taken from frame"}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from <i>Catalogue of the Constable Collection</i>, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Given by Isabel Constable, 1888","historicalContext":"The chief of Constable's four exhibits in 1821 was 'Landscape: Noon' ('The Hay Wain') (National Gallery No. 1207; for the full-scale sketch see No. 209 [987-1900] in this Catalogue).  His third child, Charles Golding Constable, was born on 29 March.  He accompanied Archdeacon John Fisher on his visitation of Berkshire in June, took No. 2 Lower Terrace, Hampstead, for his family during the summer and autumn and paid a visit to Fisher at Salisbury in November.\r\n\r\n [G Reynolds, 1973, p. 135]","briefDescription":"Study of Tree Trunks by John Constable (British, 1776-1837); oil on canvas; Britain; 19th century.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Catalogue of the Constable Collection</i>, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973, pp. 135, 145-147"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum.</i>London: V&A, 1985, p.108"},{"reference":{"text":"Gayford, Martin and Anne Lyles, <i>Constable portraits: the painter and his circle</i>, London, National Portrait Gallery, 2009.","id":"AUTH356756"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"Landscape","id":"x31100"},{"text":"Trees","id":"AAT132410"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Label [Author unknown]\r\nThis study is no more than a fragment of a scene, a study of the way in which sunlight filters through the leaves of a tree and illuminates its trunk.  The leaves are painted with a yellow that reflects the brilliance of the sun and the tree trunk is painted with smooth strokes that blend into one another and suggest the sheen on the bark of the tree.  The composition is deliberately oblique and the spectator's eye is led out to the right of the composition where a girl is portrayed in the sun at the bottom of the bank.","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["323-1888"],"accessionNumberNum":"323","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1888,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Reynolds catalogue no.","id":"THES50402"},"number":"234, plate 178"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-19","recordCreationDate":"1999-12-15","availableToBook":false}}