John Constable - Boat Building Near Flatford Mill [c.1815]

John Constable - Boat Building Near Flatford Mill [c.1815], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The scene is a pleasant summer's day on the banks of the river Stour. A barge is being constructed in Constable's father's boat-yard by the mill to carry his flour down to Mistley in Essex on its way to London. The unfinished boat is shown with a degree of detail unusual for Constable, but it is not painted with any more care than the surrounding trees. The general effect is of a placid, tranquil and uneventful day.

[Victoria & Albert Museum, London - Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 61.6 cm]

John Constable - Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Grounds [c.1825]

John Constable - Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Grounds [c.1825], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In 1822, John Fisher, bishop of Salisbury, commissioned John Constable to paint the version of this composition now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Fisher and his wife are visible at lower left in all versions of the composition. In July 1824, he asked Constable to revise it, whereupon the present canvas was begun. Infrared reflectography reveals that it started with an outline traced from the first version, and that the artist then improvised directly on the canvas, painting in the sky and opening up the foliage arching over the south transept to give the spire a more dominant role in the composition. In Constable's estate sale, this work was described as "nearly finished." It is indeed a study for the final version, completed in 1826 (Frick Collection, New York).

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 87.9 x 111.8 cm]

John Constable - Study of Clouds, Hampstead Heath [c.1821-22]

John Constable - Study of Clouds, Hampstead Heath [c.1821-22], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

From 1819 to 1826 John Constable rented various small houses in Hampstead, an escape in the summer months from the bustle and pollution of London, but an easy coach journey from his house and painting room in Charlotte Street. Hampstead Heath, with its panoramic views and fresh breezes, had attracted writers such as John Keats and Leigh Hunt and artists such as John Linnell, William Collins and F W Watts to live there in the second and third decade of the nineteenth century. It was an ideal spot for Constable’s wife Maria, who was in delicate health, and her growing brood of children. The family settled there permanently, at 6 Well Walk, in 1827.

In his early summers at Hampstead, particularly in 1821-22, Constable produced an extraordinary series of nearly one hundred plein air sketches of skies. Mostly in oil on prepared paper, they range from full-size 20 x 24 inch standard paper sheets to fractions of such sheets: the present work is roughly an eighth of such a sheet. Subjects range from hot sunsets viewed through a fringe of trees at the western edge of the Heath, to pure cloud studies, to works such as the present one, where a delicate cloudscape is anchored and put in context by the merest line of horizon.

[Oil on paper laid down on board, 14 x 21.5 cm]

John Constable - Salisbury Cathedral from Lower March Close [1820]

John Constable - Salisbury Cathedral from Lower March Close [1820] , a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Constable frequently depicted Salisbury’s famous spire, which, at 404 feet, is the tallest in England. Piercing the air, the lofty steeple attracts attention to the atmosphere around it. One of Constable’s main interests was portraying the weather, a process he called skying.

When the Gothic cathedral was finished in the 1300s, its grounds were walled or enclosed; this Close forms a lush, marshy park. The couple strolling through the Close’s avenue of elms may be John Fisher, the Archbishop of Salisbury, and his wife. Their nephew, an archdeacon and art patron, was Constable’s closest friend. This personal souvenir, kept by the artist, freshly observes the sunshine dappling the lawn. With long shadows falling from the west, the time is early evening. The canvas was executed spontaneously on the spot, and its brown under-painted layer is still visible beneath the trees.

[Oil on canvas, 73 x 91 cm]

John Constable - Wivenhoe Park, Essex [1816]

John Constable - Wivenhoe Park, Essex [1816], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This picture, exhibited at Britain’s Royal Academy in 1817, demonstrates Constable’s wish to be a natural painter because it was created almost entirely out-of-doors. During August and September 1816, the artist documented this country estate of old family friends and recorded his progress in letters to his fiancée. The commission financed their wedding.

Centred in the panoramic design, the red brick manor house stands out by reason of its warm colour in an otherwise cool scheme of blues, greens, and grays. Constable wrote about the great difficulty of incorporating the thatch-roofed deer barn. To add this requested motif, he cleverly sewed about an inch of extra fabric to the canvas at the far right. Then, in order to restore the composition’s symmetrical balance, he stitched a similar strip to the left side, where he showed the owners’ daughter, Mary Rebow, driving a donkey cart.

[Oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm]

John Constable - Stratford Mill [1820]

John Constable - Stratford Mill [1820], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

First exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1820. Stratford Mill is one of six major exhibition paintings by Constable depicting scenes on the River Stour in Suffolk, a group which includes The Hay Wain. The watermill at the left, which was used for manufacturing paper, was demolished in the last century. After Constable's death, Stratford Mill acquired its more familiar title, The Young Waltonians, a reference to Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler.

Constable was born in East Bergholt, Suffolk. He was largely self-taught, and developed slowly. In 1799 he was a probationer, and in 1800 a student at the Royal Academy schools. He exhibited from 1802 at the Royal Academy in London, and later at the Paris Salon. He influenced the Barbizon School and the French Romantic movement.

[Oil on canvas, 127 x 182.9 cm]

John Constable - The Grove, or the Admiral’s House in Hampstead [1821-22]

John Constable - The Grove, or the Admiral’s House in Hampstead [1821-22], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

After 1819 Constable, one of the leading English landscape painters of his day, used to spend the summers in Hampstead. He later moved there altogether. In Hampstead he produced numerous landscape and cloud studies that are fascinating for their lively perception of atmospheric conditions and for their spontaneous, infinitely subtle painterly technique. The admiral’s house is romantically secluded among trees and shrubs, and touched by an uneasy light. The building itself combines the characteristic shape of English chimney stacks with an unusual flat roof that the admiral had had put on a few years previously. The house succumbs to the superior power of nature, as do the small accessory figures in the foreground. The force of the elements, the light, and even the damp breeze following a passing shower are palpable. The intensity of Constable’s observation of nature readily identifies him as a precursor of the plein air painters. In this work he goes beyond the mere depiction of light effects, bringing to life the movement and texture of the clouds, the wind, and the damp air.

[Oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm]

John Constable - Weymouth Bay, Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill [1816-17]

John Constable - Weymouth Bay, Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill [1816-17], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

A view looking west, showing the small Jordan River flowing over the sands, and Jordan Hill and Furzy Cliff behind. In October 1816 Constable went to Osmington near Weymouth for his honeymoon; the idea for the painting probably dates from this period. A larger version called Osmington Shore was exhibited by him at the British Institution in 1819.

[Oil on canvas, 53 x 75 cm]

John Constable - Salisbury Cathedral and Leadenhall from the River Avon [1820]

John Constable - Salisbury Cathedral and Leadenhall from the River Avon [1820], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

In the foreground, the River Avon; right, the Canonical House, Leadenhall, which Constable's friend, Archdeacon John Fisher, was granted for life in 1819; left, the grounds of King's House in front of the Cathedral spire. The painting was made when Constable stayed with Fisher.

Constable is famous for his landscapes, which are mostly of the Suffolk countryside, where he was born and lived. He made many open-air sketches, using these as a basis for his large exhibition paintings, which were worked up in the studio. His pictures are extremely popular today, but they were not particularly well received in England during his lifetime. He did, however, have considerable success in Paris.

This is a special posting for BlueNote97.

[Oil on canvas, 52.7 x 77 cm]

John Constable - The Hay Wain [1821]

John Constable - The Hay Wain [1821], originally uploaded by Gandalf's Gallery.

Constable's painting is based on a site in Suffolk, near Flatford on the River Stour. The hay wain, a type of horse-drawn cart, stands in the water in the foreground. Across the meadow in the distance on the right, is a group of haymakers at work. The cottage shown on the left was rented by a farmer called Willy Lott and stands behind Flatford Mill. Today, the cottage and river path are still much as they were in Constable's time. Although the painting evokes a Suffolk scene, it was created in the artist's studio in London. Constable first made a number of open-air sketches of parts of the scene. He then made a full-size preparatory sketch in oil to establish the composition. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821, the year it was painted, but failed to find a buyer. Yet when exhibited in France, with other paintings by Constable, the artist was awarded a Gold Medal by Charles X.

[Oil on canvas, 130.2 x 185.4 cm]