John Constable Weymouth Bay 1816 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum |
John Constable London from Hampstead Heath in a storm 1831 watercolor British Museum |
John Constable (1776-1837) was moderately successful as a landscape painter in early 19th century England. After the passage of two centuries he is now established as one of those most fortunate of artists, better loved by posterity than ever they were by their living fellows. Such individuals are the great winners in the enterprise of making art that is important to humans, yet they themselves can never know it. Like Blake and Palmer and Turner, Constable has been posthumously raised to the skies. Which is exactly where he always felt most at home. "His ultimate goal," as curators at the British Museum write, "was to paint the sky – which he deemed landscape's 'chief organ of sentiment' – more expressively."
John Constable Study of clouds, Hampstead Heath 1830 watercolor British Museum |
John Constable Pond and cottages, storm approaching 1821 watercolor British Museum |
John Constable Study of clouds, Salisbury 1829 oil on paper Victoria & Albert Museum |
John Constable The Vale of Dedham 1805 watercolor British Museum |
John Constable London from Hampstead Heath c. 1820 watercolor British Museum |
John Constable London from Hampstead Heath 1830 watercolor British Museum |
John Constable Theale, Berkshire 1832 watercolor British Museum |
John Constable Water meadows 1820s oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum |
John Constable Trees at Hampstead 1821 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum |
John Constable Hampstead Heath 1828 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum |