Located in the grounds of Alresford Hall, near Colchester, ‘The Quarters’ were used as a picnic, fishing and boating lodge by Major-General Francis Slater-Rebow and his family. Slater-Rebow’s father-in-law built the lodge during the 1760s in the fashionable Chinoiserie style, at a time when garden pavilions were frequently used for informal parties.
Constable’s patron and friend Slater-Rebow commissioned the artist to paint ‘The Quarters’ behind Alresford Hall and a larger companion picture, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, during a visit there in July 1816. He returned to paint these works in August and September and began by making a detailed drawing of the subject, which was used as a basis for preparing the painting.
The close foliage on the right-hand border of the painting frames the composition and leads the eye to the focal point: the pavilion placed in the exact centre of the painting. The contrast between the natural landscape of the woodland and the artificiality of the oriental pavilion is revealed through texture and colour. Constable’s closely observed details of the shadows of the trees, the reflections on the still water, and the swallows skimming the water’s surface and flying in the sky, indicate not only the season but the time of day, a late summer’s afternoon.
Discussion
• Compare this painting with The Glebe Farm c. 1830 (click on number 16 on the menu to the left or click on 'view related work' beneath small image on the left) and discuss the change in Constable’s approach to the handling of paint and representation of light.