John Constable One of the Outcomes of the Pandemic and All The

John Constable

One of the outcomes of the pandemic and all the restrictions related to it I would argue has been the emphasis on the glorification of the English countryside, nature and walks. These have always been present and romanticised, however, in the light of these recent events, their appeal and popularity have peaked.

But the countryside, and more specifically the British countryside, has fascinated artists and writers for decades. There is a certain nostalgy and embedded history attached to the fields, the hills and the orderly yet enchantedly settled natural landscape.

If we are to talk about the British natural yet man-made landscape we cannot help but think about John Constable.

John Constable was the son of a wealthy farmer and landowner. He lived and worked as a painter in a time period generally known as Romanticism. The cultural movement Romanticisms has some defining characters and narratives, besides a certain stylistic and visual appeal. Conceptually, Romanticism emphasises strong (therefore genuine) emotions such as awe, terror, horror, exaltation. Nature had a central place in this narrative not only as a source of inspiration, but as the source of these strong and genuine emotions. For example we see a lot of paintings which depict storms: terrifying but enchanting, or the agitated ocean or a lightning storm. I have attached below a couple of visual examples.

(Romanticism) Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818

John Martin, The Great Day of His Wrath 1851–3, Tate

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth exhibited 1842

Coming back to Constable, he is indeed captivated by nature, but less so in its chaotic overwhelming power, instead, he depicts a natural landscape defined man-made canals, dams or mills. Constable depicts lucrative landscapes populated by people, who are, rather than supressed or overwhelmed by the power of nature, working alongside it in a maybe mutual harmony.

Constable would construct his paintings in the studio, however, prior to that he would have studied the composition and the landscape in-situ. He created multiple sketches, some of which would have been the same size as the final image. Trying to record the atmosphere, light and feel of a place, Constable complained about the limitations of the oil palette, which at that time required artists to work indoors based on outdoors sketches.

Throughout his career, Constable was not as successful as we tend to assume today. He only sold about twenty paintings. This may be because what Constable was depicting was not in fashion at the time. Constable is renowned for his depiction of the common folk, of simple life. As mentioned previously, Nature was indeed a subject to de depicted in art at that time, but with a very different emotion and narrative to that captured by Constable. This may have led to the artist not gaining popularity nor recognition in his life.

John Constable, The Hay Wain (1821), National Gallery, London

John Constable. Windmills in landscape First quarter of 19th century . oil on canvas. 51 × 75.5 cm (20 × 29.7 ″). Warsaw, National Museum in Warsaw (MNW).

John Constable, British, 1776 - 1837, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.10

John Constable, The Cornfield (1826), National Gallery, London

Another interesting point to make about Constable is that he would mainly paint the lands that his family owned. Of course not all his work is about the Suffolk landscape but he does prefer it as a subject. In one lecture, one of my tutors made a case for Constable’s paintings as being visual records of his (or his family’s) wealth. Personally I have not done enough research into this topic to agree or disagree with that statement. However, I can see that this viewpoint encourages a very different way of experiencing Constable’s landscapes. I am curious how you feel about this. Do you have a different experience looking at his work and reading it as a description of the beauty of the countryside landscape as opposed to a record of the common life’s harmony with nature or a record of the wealth of one family?

Let me know your thoughts Kindest,

Ioana

Constable, Stonehenge (1835). Victoria and Albert Museum, London