John Constable Cloud Study 1821 oil on paper, mounted on panel Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable Cloud Study 1821 oil on paper, mounted on panel Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable Cloud Study 1822 oil on paper, mounted on cardboard National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
" . . . the interest in clouds has long been seen as a characteristic preoccupation of the Romantics. They epitomize the evocative and emotive power of atmospherics. Constable's famous remark that the sky was the 'chief organ of sentiment' in a picture has often been quoted as a sign of this new concern. In his case this interest was combined with a precise observation of cloud types informed by recent meteorological advances, notably those by Luke Howard, the creator of the modern system of cloud classification. Indeed, the evolution of the scientific study of meteorology can be seen as part of that great upsurge of 'earth sciences' in the Romantic era that brought a new understanding of the transient and effervescent."
– William Vaughan, from Samuel Palmer: Shadows on the Wall (Yale University Press, 2015)
John Constable Cloud Study 1822 oil on paper, mounted on panel Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable Coastal Scene with Cliffs ca. 1814 oil on paper, mounted on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable Waterloo Bridge 1815-25 oil on canvas Cincinnati Art Museum |
John Constable Landscape at East Bergholt ca. 1805 watercolor Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable Golding Constable's House, East Bergholt (the artist's birthplace) ca. 1809 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable Study of Cloudy Sky ca. 1825 oil on paper, mounted on panel Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable Ploughing Scene in Suffolk 1824-25 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
"Constable's 'realistic' landscape constituted a strike against the traditional image of rural bliss, the Pastoral. In his view (and that of many others) he was challenging the idyllicism of the conventional Pastoral and replacing it with an authentic view of the countryside as a working environment. . . . This was the position proclaimed by Constable with his call for a 'natural painture'. His work had become, particularly since his successful exhibition of The Haywain in 1821, a rallying point for the supporters of the view that landscape should address the observable and everyday."
– William Vaughan, from Samuel Palmer: Shadows on the Wall (Yale University Press, 2015)
John Constable Hampstead Heath with Bonfire ca. 1822 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable Osmington Village 1816-17 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable View on Hampstead Heath, early morning 1821 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
John Constable Stonehenge at Sunset 1836 oil on paper, mounted on panel Yale Center for British Art |