Purpose

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

Decision

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.