John Constable was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area on the borderland of Suffolk and north Essex surrounding his home – now known as "Constable Country" – which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling."
Paintings by John Constable
Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831)
Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows was painted by John Constable in 1831, three years after the death of his wife, Maria. It is currently on display in London, at Tate Britain, in the Clore gallery. The painting displays a cathedral, looking across the River Nadder. Three horses pull a cart across the river, while cattle and a sheepdog are also visible.
Constable later added nine lines from The Seasons by the eighteenth-century poet James Thomson that reveal the painting's meaning: that the rainbow is a symbol of hope after a storm that follows on the death of the young Amelia in the arms of her lover Celadon. Constable exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1831, but continued working on it during 1833 and 1834. The art historians Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-Williams have described the painting as the climax of his artistic career.
The Hay Wain (1821)
The Hay Wain – originally titled Landscape: Noon – is a painting by John Constable, completed in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It hangs in the National Gallery in London and is regarded as "Constable's most famous image" and one of the greatest and most popular English paintings. It is considered as one of the quintessential paintings from the Romantic movement of arts and literature.
Painted in oils on canvas, the work depicts as its central feature three horses pulling what appears to be a wood wain or large farm waggon across the river. Willy Lott's Cottage, also the subject of an eponymous painting by Constable, is visible on the far-left. The scene takes place near Flatford Mill in Suffolk, though since the Stour forms the border of two counties, the left bank is in Suffolk and the landscape on the right bank is in Essex.
Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds (1823)
Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds is an 1823 landscape painting by the English landscape painter John Constable (1776–1837). This image of Salisbury Cathedral, one of England's most famous medieval churches, is one of his most celebrated works, and was commissioned by one of his closest friends, John Fisher, The Bishop of Salisbury. The prime version from 1823 of the painting has been in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London since its was given as part of the Sheepshanks Gift in 1857.
Constable painted other versions of this composition, as well as other treatments of the cathedral, and it has been reproduced in print form in various techniques.
The Cornfield (1826)
The Cornfield is an oil painting by the English artist John Constable, completed from January to March 1826 in the artist’s studio. The painting shows a lane leading from East Bergholt toward Dedham, Essex, and depicts a young shepherd boy drinking from a pool in the heat of summer. The location is along Fen Lane, which the artist knew well. Constable referred to the piece as The Drinking Boy.
On the advice of Constable's friend, the botanist Henry Phillips, The Cornfield was painted with the trees and plants depicted as accurately as possible. Constable commissioned the engraver David Lucas to produce the plates of the painting for a book, Various Subjects of Landscape, Characteristic of English Scenery, first published in July 1830. The art historian Anthony Bailey considers The Cornfield to have "opened the gate through which a great number of people were to pass into Constable's country". It was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in April 1826, under the title Landscape: Noon, and shown in Paris from early November to the spring of 1828. The painting was praised but Constable did not find a buyer. After the artist’s death, funds were raised to purchase the work for the National Gallery.
Wivenhoe Park (painting) (1816)
Wivenhoe Park is a painting of an English landscape park, the estate of the Rebow family, by the English Romantic painter, John Constable (1776–1837).
John Constable was born in Suffolk, and is known principally for his landscape paintings, especially the landscapes of the countryside where he spent his childhood. His paintings are now considered among the most popular and valuable in British art.
Flatford Mill (painting) (1816)
Flatford Mill is an 1817 landscape painting by the British artist John Constable. It depicts a view of Flatford Mill in East Bergholt on the River Stour. It is also known by the subtitle Scene on a Navigable River.
Although based in London, Constable frequently painted scenes from the area around the village in his native Suffolk. His later landscape painting The Hay Wain, perhaps Constable's best-known work, was also set by Flatford Mill. Along with his contemporary Turner, Constable was the leading landscape painter of the Regency era. His frequent depictions of the area where he grew up in rural Suffolk led to it being known as Constable Country.
The Vale of Dedham (painting) (1828)
The Vale of Dedham is an 1828 oil painting by the English painter John Constable which depicts Dedham Vale on the Essex-Suffolk border in eastern England. It is in the permanent collection of the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.
Scholars believe the subject of the painting references Constable's inspiration from Claude Lorrain's Hagar and the Angel, and the painting was meant to pay homage to Claude. The small, ridged shelter in the foreground, with a woman nursing a child, may have actually been real, rather than an imaginary and sentimental addition by Constable.
Weymouth Bay: Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill (1816)
Weymouth Bay: Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill is an oil-on-canvas painting executed between 1816 and 1817 by the English landscape artist John Constable. It is the second of three oil versions of this view painted by Constable and now hangs in the National Gallery, London.
From mid-October to December 1816, Constable and Maria Bicknell spent their six-week honeymoon at his friend John Fisher's vicarage in the village of Osmington, near the seaside town of Weymouth in Dorset. The idea for this painting dates from this period. The painting shows a view of Weymouth Bay looking west which includes Bowleaze Cove, Jordan Hill and the small Jordan River flowing over the beach, with Furzy Cliff behind. Beyond that in the far distance is the beach at Greenhill.
Boat-Building Near Flatford Mill (1815)
Boat-Building Near Flatford Mill is an 1815 landscape painting by the English artist John Constable. It depicts a scene on the River Stour near to Flatford Mill on the Essex-Suffolk border. Constable's father owned Flatford Mill and the area around it is now known as Constable Country. Portraying the process of boat building, it has been described as a forerunner of his best-known Six-Foot paintings depicting scenes from the area.
The painting was one of five Constable displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1815 at Somerset House. It formed part of the Sheepshanks Gift of 1857 and is today in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Hadleigh Castle (painting) (1829)
Hadleigh Castle is an oil painting by the English painter John Constable, created in 1829. It is held at the Yale Center for British Art, in New Haven.
Constable visited Hadleigh Castle in 1814 and made a drawing of the castle. This he developed into a full-sized oil sketch in preparation for a finished painting, executed in 1829 and exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1829. The sketch is displayed at the Tate Gallery, London, while the finished painting now hangs in the Yale Center for British Art at New Haven, United States. Constable's painting, "one of his most monumental works" according to art historians Tammis Groft and Mary Mackay, shows Hadleigh Castle as a decaying man-made structure, succumbing to the elemental power of nature. The piece is also especially representative of English Romanticism in the nineteenth century as evidenced by spiritual presence of nature dominating the subject of the castle, as well as the rough brushstrokes enhancing this intensity.
Dedham Lock and Mill (1820)
Dedham Lock and Mill is an c.1820 landscape painting by the English artist John Constable. It shows a view of the River Stour at Dedham in Essex close to the border of his native Suffolk, an area now known as "Constable Country". Constable's father owned the mill as well as nearby Flatford Mill, which he painted on numerous occasions. St Mary's Church is seen in the distance.
There is a possibility that the work was begun in 1817 and exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in 1818. However the 1820 date for this work is more likely and is the date Constable gave it and which his friend and biographer Charles Robert Leslie gave to it. Several variations of it now exist including one in the Currier Museum of Art in New Hampshire. The oil sketch is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, having been donated as part of the Sheepshanks Gift by the art collector John Sheepshanks in 1857.
The Lock (Constable) (1824)
The Lock is an oil painting by English artist John Constable, finished in 1824. It depicts a rural scene on the River Stour in the English county of Suffolk, one of six paintings within the Six-Footer series. It was auctioned for £22,441,250 at Christie's in London on 3 July 2012.
The Lock is painted in oil on canvas. It depicts a working rural scene from Suffolk, as a figure struggles to open a canal gate at Dedham Lock near Flatford Mill in Suffolk to allow a lighter barge to progress on the River Stour. There is a distant view of Dedham church across the quintessentially English water meadows. The scene is set under a towering tree and a dramatic, cloud-filled sky.