Decision details

This decision relates to two new loan requests for items in the Ipswich Borough Council Museum collections.

1. The National Gallery (IPSMG.LO.2023.02)

The National Gallery is marking the bicentenary of its founding in 1824 with a

programme of celebrations, including an exhibition exploring the significance of John Constable’s The Hay Wain in its local, national and international setting.

This will be the National Gallery’s first loan exhibition on the artist John Constable, and the first to explore the social, political and artistic context of the English landscape at the time of The Hay Wain. A principal aim of the exhibition is to show how the artist came to be established as a master in the history of British art and the requested loaned artworks from the Ipswich Borough Council Collections will form an important role in telling this story.

IPSMG:R.1929.31 – Willy Lott’s House by John Constable, 1816, oil on board

IPSMG:R.1941.72 – The Mill Stream by John Constable, 1814-1815, oil on board

IPSMG:R.1955.96.1 – Golding Constable’s Flower Garden by John Constable, August

1815, oil on board

IPSMG:R.1955.96..2 – Golding Constable’s Kitchen Garden by John Constable, July

1815, oil on board

IPSMG:R.1942.20 – East Bergolt Singers by John Constable, wooden sculpture

The East Bergholt Singers will form a section introducing Constable’s early life and rural craft; Willy Lott’s House and The Mill Stream will help explore Constable’s process of building final works from sketches and studies he produced of the same location over many years; and introducing his deep connection with the lanscape he knew and loved are Golding Constable’s Flower Garden and Golding Constable’s Kitchen Garden.

T

his loan provides the opportunity for the Ipswich Borough Council Collections to be seen on a national scale at one of the most prestigous art instutions in Britain. It also provides the opportunity to build relationships with a view to future loan requests from Ipswich Museums to The National Gallery.

Loan commences: 2nd October 2024

Loan ends: 14th February 2025

IBC Officer Decision Recording Sept 2014.

Exhibition dates: 17th October 2024 – 2nd of February 2025

2. Compton Verney Art Gallery, Warwickshire (IPSMG:LO.2023.03)

Compton Verney is an award-winning art gallery which exists to connect people with art, nature and creativity.

In 2024 Professor Christina Payne will guest curate the exhibition Landscape and Imagination, exploring the connection between painting and gardening and between formal and ‘natural designs’ from the sixteenth century to the present day, and making links between the Capability Brown landscape surrounding Compton Verney and the exhibition spaces. Visitors

will explore how as humans we continually create and manipulate green space, and what the future might hold in the context of climate change.

IPSMG:R.1955.96.1 – Golding Constable’s Flower Garden by John Constable, August 1815 Golding Constable’s Flower Garden is of particular interest as flower and kitchen gardens were neglected in eighteenth-centruy landscape designs, but became popular in the nineteenth century.

This loan offers the opportunity to continue an established programme of lending to Compton Verney; Ipswich Borough Council Collections last featured here in 2017 as part of Seurat to Riley: The Art of Perception which was critically acclaimed. This is an opportunity for the Ipswich art collection, and especially its Constables, to become more widely known through

exhibition at one of England’s leading art galleries.

Loan commences: 8th March 2024

Loan ends: 21st June 2024

Exhibition dates: 19th March 2024 – 16th June 2024

To approve both loan requests.

Reason:

To allow for the Ipswich Borough Council Collections to be seen on a national scale and provides the opportunity to build and maintain relationships with The National Gallery and Compton Verney.