Miss Lewis with a rabbit, bust-length

This charming portrait and its pendant (see following lot) were painted in 1804 and depict the daughters of Constable's friend, John Lewis, who, like the artist, lived in the vicinity of Dedham. So close were the Constable and Lewis families that John Lewis' eponymous son served as the model for the child held in Christ's arms in Constable's early altarpiece Christ Blessing the Children, commissioned for St. Michael's Church, Brantham, in 1805. D.S. MacColl relays that, according to family history, Constable, a frequent visitor to the Lewis household, painted these portraits as a gift (loc. cit.). A portrait of the girls' brother painted by Constable in 1807 was sold Sotheby's, London, 29 November 1978, lot 26 (see G. Reynolds, op. cit., I, p. 117, no. 07.11; II, fig. 682).