Missing Constable sketch discovered at British Library

A 'lost' early sketch by John Constable and hundreds of original artworks and autographs by prominent 18th and 19th century artists have been discovered at the British Library. The beautifully bound 13-volume collection entitled The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., features over 1,600 additions including portraits, views, autographs, engravings and original drawings including Turner correspondence and works by the artist's contemporaries, many previously unknown or considered 'lost'.

The finds include a pencil drawing of 'Hyam Church, Suffolk' by John Constable (1776 – 1837). It was bought in 1896 from the sale of John Constable’s grandson, Eustace Constable. The drawing is recorded as 'whereabouts unknown' in the catalogues of Constable's work.

The collection also includes original work by Thomas Girtin (1775 – 1802) of whom Thornbury quotes Turner as saying “If Tom had lived I should have starved”, and further works by Paul Sandby (1731-1809), Thomas Hearne (1744–1817), John Robert Cozens (1752–1797), Francis Nicholson (1753–1844), Philip Reinagle (1749-1833) and Joseph Farington (1747–1821).

A range of major artists, writers and art patrons from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are also represented in the collection's manuscript material, which includes five letters and one signature by Turner, one of the letters previously recorded as untraced. Other insertions include a sheet from the Royal Academy Schools' attendance book, showing Turner’s signature alongside those of his fellow students, and a handwritten draft introduction by Constable to his set of 22 mezzotints, English Landscape – the only publication produced by the artist in his lifetime, a self-financed attempt to gain a wider audience. Dated 20 May 1832, this draft predates the example held by the Fitzwilliam Museum by over a week, previously thought to have been the earliest existing draft.

All the material was collected by John Platt (1842 – 1902), a retired businessman who painstakingly inserted these valuable items, neatly annotated in his own hand, into a copy of the two-volume work The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., (London, 1862) by George Walter Thornbury – a standard biography of the great British artist. The Thornbury book was transformed into a unique 13-volume collection handsomely bound in red morocco leather. Bequeathed to the British Museum in 1919, and subsequently moved to the British Library in the early 1970s, its importance was recently discovered by British Library curator Felicity Myrone during the course of her research.

Platt’s additions illuminate Turner's career and the previously untraced watercolours and drawings by some of the most significant figures in the history of British art illustrate the golden age of English landscape painting.

Felicity Myrone, Curator of Topography at the British Library, commented:

“I was thrilled to discover this remarkable collection during the course of my research. John Platt was clearly an avid art collector and enthusiast, amassing over 1,600 portraits, views, engravings, drawings and letters relating to Turner and his contemporaries, resulting in an exquisite and important thirteen volume collection of 18th - 19th century art and manuscripts. This collection illuminates Turner’s career and its context in the golden age of English landscape painting and I am certain that it will prove to be an invaluable resource for researchers in years to come.”

The collection will go on display in the British Library's Sir John Ritblat Gallery from 24 August until 24 October 2007.

For further information or images, contact Ruth Howlett at the British Library Press Office: +44 (0)20 7412 7112 or ruth.howlett@bl.uk

Notes for Editors

The Life of J.M.W. Turner, R.A. by George Walter Thornbury, extra-illustrated by John Platt, will be displayed in The Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library from 24 August – 24 October 2007.

The collection was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1919 by John Platt, a businessman and Justice of the Peace from Warrington who made his money in velvet cutting before retiring to Llandudno. The sales of Platt’s library and art collections in 1919 and 1920 show that he collected a full set of Turner's Liber Studiorum including prints from the artist’s own collection, and created many valuable extra-illustrated volumes, including D.E. Williams’s Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1831, extended from two to thirteen volumes, Wilkie Collins' Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq, 1848, extended to nine volumes and J. K. Laughton’s The Nelson Memorial, 1896, extended to six volumes and including fourteen autograph letters from Nelson. Both the 13-volume collection and collector John Platt are the subjects of ongoing research.

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