The Art Story of John Constable

He was an English painter. He was born on 11th June 1776 in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England and died on 31st March 1837 in London. He revolutionised landscape painting of the nineteenth century along with J.M.W. Turner. His paintings had a far reaching impact on European art, especially in France. He turned away from the idealised landscapes that were an expected norm during his times and preferred realistic depiction of the natural world around him through a close and keen observation. He is remembered for his pastoral images, in and around Stour Valley. He is also remembered for his portraits that are more than hundred in number. He has left behind a large number of preparatory sketches that were often completed in oil. He experimented in these sketches with a free style of representation which allowed him to capture the effects of elementary changes in the countryside quite spontaneously, which he was able to transfer to the finished works. At close observation, his sketches are actually impressionistic, carrying less detail than his display canvases. The bottom line is that he managed to depict the scenery, which he captured in a realistic manner. Constable said, “Landscape is my mistress, ‘tis to her that I look for fame and all that the warmth of the imagination renders dear to Man.” Constable used colour more than what his contemporaries did. He wanted to reflect the hues that he would find in nature. He is recognized for his addition of pure white highlights that represented the sparkle of light on water. Constable was always fascinated by the changing patterns of clouds and light and he wanted to capture these moments in his oil sketches. He worked with loose and large brushstrokes to represent an overall sense of what he actually observed and experienced. His work can actually be described as a precursor to the Impressionist art that followed three decades later. He abandoned the conservative and invisible brushstrokes that were expected in Academic art of that period. He decided to apply paint in a large range of ways that included even a palette knife to give his canvases an imperfect and textured finish that went on to boost their realism. Dedham Vale (1802) is one of Constable’s first major paintings. He was only twenty-six when he created it. This painting illustrates his commitment to his keen powers of observation of nature by the details rendered of the sky and the trees. Your eye is led through the painting from the foreground along the river route to the distant town of Dedham Church, which forms a focal point for this work. The trees on both sides of the canvas form a central focus of this image. These experiences may have formed a crucial part of Constable’s childhood. He made another painting in 1828, twenty-six years later and called it `The Vale of Dedham’. He included few figures in that painting. He made another masterpiece in 1821 - `The Hay Wain’. This is perhaps his most celebrated work. River Stour is depicted in it as it divides the counties of Essex and Suffolk. The cottage of Willy Lott stands to the left. The cart is standing in a small pond. The image displays serenity by means of the colour palette. The blue of the sky is reflected in the tones of the water. The terracotta of the house is reflected in the harness of the horse. The green of the vegetation in the meadow also stands out. Hay Wain is glorifying nature without much exaggeration. Another noteworthy masterwork of Constable is his `Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows’ of 1837. This is the last of his large six-foot canvases and he considered it as his finest work. The sky is depicted as a violent one and the rainbow adds to the drama. He used the rainbow effectively in another great work of his - `The Stonehenge’ of 1835. It is a symbol of hope in the Romantic Movement for painters. Constable wrote, “Nature, in all the varied aspects of her beauty, exhibits no other feature lovelier nor any that awakens a more soothing reflection than the rainbow.” The rainbow helps in heightening the drama in the blustery sky. Constable is known for realistic depictions of the natural world. He rejected the styles that were contemporary in his days for landscapes, stating that “the vices of the present day are bravura; it is an attempt to do something beyond the truth.” He created his own distinct style of representation that was based on transferring what he saw amidst nature as truthfully as possible to a canvas.