John Constable: being a romantic and a scientist

John Constable

Constable, naturalist or romantic ?I. Loving English landscapesII. Being an artist and a scientistIII. Was Constable a romantic?

John Constable , Ramsey Richard Reinagle

I. Loving English landscapes

“I should paint my own places best. Painting is but another word for feeling. I associate my “careless boyhood” to all that lies on the banks of the Stour. They made me a painter (& I am grateful)”Constable writing to John Fisher, 1821

Hampstead Heath, with the House Called ‘The Salt Box’ c.1819–20, Tate

Hampstead heath, 1820-1836, Tate

I. Loving English landscapes

The cornfield, 1826, National Gallery

- England, Constable’s kingdom

I. Loving English landscapes

The Hay Wain, 1821, National Gallery London

The Hay Wain (full-size sketch), c. 182, V&A Museum0

Landscape sketch, 1821

I. Loving English landscapes- Inspiration from the Old Masters

The Three Trees, Rembrandt, 1643, Victoria and Albert Museum,

Château de Steen, Rubens, 1636

I. Loving English landscapesC) Apart from reality ?

Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, National Gallery of Art, Washington

II. Being an artist and a scientist

• Art as a form of experimental science

'Painting should be understood...as a pursuit, legitimate, scientific and mechanical'.John Constable

A cottage in a cornfield 1815. Pencil - Victoria and Albert Museum

The Cottage in a Cornfield 1817 – Oil -National Museum of Wales

II. Being an artist and a scientist

• “Constable skies”Sky as “the chief organ of sentiment in a landscape painting”

Clouds 5 September 1822 - National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Study of clouds 5 September 1822 – Victoria and Albert Museum, London

II. Being an artist and a scientist

• Constable skies VS Turner skies

Wivenhoe Park, 1816 - Constable – National Gallery of Art, Washington

Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, Turner 1812 – Tate Gallery, London

“I do not consider myself at work without I am before a six-foot canvas”– Constable to John Fisher, 1821

'Dedham Lock and Mill' John Constable, 1820, V&A MuseumCompositional lines on 'Dedham Lock and Mill' by John Constable

III) Was Constable a romantic?

• Symbolism and sublime Rainbows and double rainbows

Landscape with a double rainbow 1812– Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Hampstead heath with a rainbow 1836 – Tate Gallery, London

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831 – National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff

III. Was Constable a romantic?

• God, Nature and civilization

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s grounds 1823 – Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s grounds 1824 – The Frick Collection, New York

Rainstorm over the sea 1824-28 – Royal Academy of Arts, London

III. Was Constable a romantic?

'Painting is with me but another word for feeling‘John Constable

Hadleigh castle,1829

James Thomson's poem The Seasons (1726 –1730):The desert joysWildly, through all his melancholy boundsRude ruins glitter; and the briny deep,Seen from some pointed promontory's topFar to the blue horizon's utmost verge,Restless, reflects a floating gleam.

Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1833-36, National Gallery

References• Website of the V&A museum - Constable: The Making of a Master – About the Exhibition (V&A museum) 2014-2015• Website of the Frick Collection• http://art.yodelout.com• http://www.nga.gov/• http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/anne-lyles-sublime-nature-john-constables-salisbury-cathedral-from-the-meadows-r1129550• http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/CONSTABLE/Default.cfm?mystartrow=37&realstartrow=37• John E. Thornes John Constable’s skies: A Fusion of Art and Science• Constable's England, By Graham Reynolds• John Constable: A Kingdom of his Own, By Anthony Bailey