Editing John Constable (section)

== Art ==
[[File:Constable - The Cornfield.jpg|thumb|left|''[[The Cornfield]]'' (1826). [[National Gallery, London]].]]
Constable quietly rebelled against the artistic culture that taught artists to use their imagination to compose their pictures rather than nature itself. He told Leslie, "When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I try to do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture".<ref>{{Harvnb|Thornes|1999|p= 51}}</ref>

Constable attributed his gift 'to all that lay on the Stour river', however, biographer [[Anthony Bailey (author)|Anthony Bailey]] attributed his artistic development to the influence of his well to do relative, Thomas Allen and the London contacts he introduced Constable to.<ref>{{Citation |author=Bailey, Anthony |title=John Constable : a kingdom of his own |date=2008 |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/218805873 |publisher=Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic |oclc=218805873 |access-date=2022-10-02}}</ref>

Although Constable produced paintings throughout his life for the "finished" picture market of patrons and R.A. exhibitions, constant refreshment in the form of on-the-spot studies was essential to his working method. He was never satisfied with following a formula. "The world is wide", he wrote, "no two days are alike, nor even two hours; neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike since the creation of all the world; and the genuine productions of art, like those of nature, are all distinct from each other."<ref name="Parkinson 1998 p= 64">{{Harvnb|Parkinson|1998|p= 64}}</ref>

Constable painted many full-scale preliminary sketches of his landscapes to test the composition in advance of finished pictures. These large sketches, with their free and vigorous brushwork, were revolutionary at the time, and they continue to interest artists, scholars and the general public. The [[oil sketch]]es of [[:File:Constable3.jpg|''The Leaping Horse'']] and [[:File:John Constable 014.jpg|''The Hay Wain'']], for example, convey a vigour and expressiveness missing from Constable's finished paintings of the same subjects. Possibly more than any other aspect of Constable's work, the oil sketches reveal him in retrospect to have been an ''[[avant-garde]]'' painter, one who demonstrated that landscape painting could be taken in a totally new direction.
[[File:John Constable - Stonehenge - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Stonehenge'' (1835). [[Victoria and Albert Museum]], London.]]
Constable's watercolours were also remarkably free for their time: the almost mystical ''Stonehenge'', 1835, with its double rainbow, is often considered to be one of the greatest watercolours ever painted.<ref name="Parkinson 1998 p= 64"/> When he exhibited it in 1836, Constable appended a text to the title: "The mysterious monument of [[Stonehenge]], standing remote on a bare and boundless heath, as much unconnected with the events of past ages as it is with the uses of the present, carries you back beyond all historical records into the obscurity of a totally unknown period."<ref>{{Harvnb|Parkinson|1998|p= 89}}</ref>

In addition to the full-scale oil sketches, Constable completed numerous observational studies of landscapes and clouds, determined to become more scientific in his recording of atmospheric conditions. The power of his physical effects was sometimes apparent even in the full-scale paintings which he exhibited in London; [[:File:Constable2.jpg|''The Chain Pier'', 1827]], for example, prompted a critic to write: "the atmosphere possesses a characteristic humidity about it, that almost imparts the wish for an umbrella".<ref name="Parkinson 1998 p= 9"/>

[[File:Constable - Seascape Study with Rain Cloud.jpg|thumb|''Seascape Study with Rain Cloud'' (''c.''1824). [[Royal Academy of Arts]], London.]]
The sketches themselves were the first ever done in oils directly from the subject in the open air, with the notable exception of the oil sketches [[Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes]] made in Rome around 1780. To convey the effects of light and movement, Constable used broken brushstrokes, often in small touches, which he [[Glaze (painting technique)|scumbled]] over lighter passages, creating an impression of sparkling light enveloping the entire landscape. One of the most expressionistic and powerful of all his studies is ''Seascape Study with Rain Cloud'', painted about 1824 at Brighton, which captures with slashing dark brushstrokes the immediacy of an exploding cumulus shower at sea.<ref name="Thornes 1999 p= 128"/> Constable also became interested in painting rainbow effects, for example in ''[[Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows]]'', 1831, and in ''[[:File:John Constable - Cottage at East Bergholt.jpg|Cottage at East Bergholt]]'', 1833.

To the sky studies he added notes, often on the back of the sketches, of the prevailing weather conditions, direction of light, and time of day, believing that the sky was "the key note, the standard of scale, and the chief organ of sentiment" in a landscape painting.<ref>{{Harvnb|Parkinson|1998|p= 110}}</ref> In this habit he is known to have been influenced by the pioneering work of the [[meteorologist]] [[Luke Howard]] on the classification of clouds; Constable's annotations of his own copy of ''Researches About Atmospheric Phaenomena'' by Thomas Forster show him to have been fully abreast of meteorological terminology.<ref>{{Harvnb|Thornes|1999|p= 68}}</ref> "I have done a good deal of skying", Constable wrote to Fisher on 23 October 1821; "I am determined to conquer all difficulties, and that most arduous one among the rest".<ref>{{Harvnb|Thornes|1999|p= 56}}</ref>

Constable once wrote in a letter to Leslie, "My limited and abstracted art is to be found under every hedge, and in every lane, and therefore nobody thinks it worth picking up".<ref>{{Harvnb|Parkinson|1998|p= 129}}</ref> He could never have imagined how influential his honest techniques would turn out to be. Constable's art inspired not only contemporaries like [[Géricault]] and [[Eugène Delacroix|Delacroix]], but the [[Barbizon School]], and the French [[impressionists]] of the late nineteenth century.

In 2019 two drawings by Constable were found among the possessions of the late playwright and poet, [[Christopher Fry]]; the drawings later sold for £60,000 and £32,000 at auction.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://addisongazette.com/unearthed-john-constable-drawings-sell-for-92k/65469/|title=Unearthed John Constable drawings sell for £92k – Addison Gazette|access-date=25 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/03/john-constable-sketches-found-among-box-dusty-drawings-son-playwright/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/03/john-constable-sketches-found-among-box-dusty-drawings-son-playwright/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=John Constable sketches found among box of dusty drawings by son of playwright during clearout|first=Dalya|last=Alberge|newspaper=The Telegraph |date=3 February 2019|access-date=25 May 2019|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== Gallery ===
<gallery widths="300" heights="300">
File:Flatford Mill from the Lock.png|''[[Flatford Mill from the Lock]]'', 1812. [[Private collection]]
File:Constable - Boat-Building near Flatford Mill, 1815, FA.37.jpg|''[[Boat-Building Near Flatford Mill]]'', 1815. [[Victoria and Albert Museum]], [[London]].
File:John Constable - Flatford Mill.jpg| ''[[Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River)]]'', c. 1816, oil on canvas, [[Tate Britain]], [[London]]
File:Constable, Stratford Mill.jpg|''[[Stratford Mill (Constable)|Stratford Mill]]'', 1820, oil on canvas, [[National Gallery]], [[London]]
File:John Constable - Harwich- The Low Lighthouse and Beacon Hill - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Harwich Lighthouse (painting)|Harwich Lighthouse]]'', oil on canvas, 1820.
File:John Constable - Waterloo Bridge - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Waterloo Bridge (Constable)|Waterloo Bridge]]'', oil on canvas, 1820.
File:Malvern hall.jpg|''Malvern Hall'' (1821), oil on canvas, 21 5/16 x 30 13/16 in. (54.1 x 78.3 cm), [[Clark Art Institute]]
File:Distant view.jpg|''Distant View of Salisbury Cathedral'' (1821), oil on panel, 6 13/16 x 10 1/16 in. (17.3 x 25.6 cm), [[Clark Art Institute]]
File:Constable, View on the Stour near Dedham.jpg| ''[[View on the Stour near Dedham]]'', 1822, oil on canvas, [[Huntington Library]], [[Los Angeles County]]
File:The Leaping Horse (1825) by John Constable - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[The Leaping Horse]]'', 1825, oil on canvas, [[Royal Academy of Arts]], [[London]]
File:John Constable - Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath (1820s).jpg|''[[Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath]]'', oil on canvas, 1825
File:John Constable - Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Garden - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds]]'' c. 1825. As a gesture of appreciation for [[John Fisher (Anglican bishop)|John Fisher]], the [[Bishop of Salisbury]], who commissioned this painting, Constable included the Bishop and his wife in the bottom left corner. [[Frick Collection]], [[New York City]].
File:John Constable - Parham Mill, Gillingham - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Parham Mill]]'', 1826
File:Constable2.jpg|''[[Chain Pier, Brighton (painting)|Chain Pier, Brighton]]'', 1826–27, oil on canvas, [[Tate Britain]], [[London]]
File:The Opening of Waterloo Bridge seen from Whitehall Stairs John Constable.jpeg|''[[The Opening of Waterloo Bridge]]'', oil on canvas, c. 1832. [[Tate Britain]], [[London]].
File:John Constable - Sir Richard Steele's Cottage, Hampstead - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Sir Richard Steele's Cottage, Hampstead]]'', oil on canvas, 1832.
File:Arundel Mill and Castle ).jpg|''[[Arundel Mill and Castle]]'', oil on canvas, 1837.
File:John Constable carro de feno.jpg|A detail of ''The Hay Wain'' by John Constable|alt=An oil painting of a large steerable cart being drawn by two strong horses through a river
</gallery>