On John Constable as a proto-abstractionist of pastoral landscape
One of Britain’s greatest landscape painters, John Constable was brought up in Dedham Vale, the valley of the River Stour in Suffolk. The eldest son of a wealthy mill owner, he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1800 at the age of 24, and thereafter committed himself to painting nature out of doors. His “six-footers,” such as The Hay Wain and The Leaping Horse, were designed to promote landscape as a subject and to stand out in the Academy’s Annual Exhibition. Despite this, he sold few paintings in his lifetime and was elected a Royal Academician late in his career. With texts by leading authorities on the artist, this handsome book looks at the freedom of Constable’s late works and records his enormous contribution to the English landscape tradition. John Constable (1776–1837) is one of Britain’s best-known artists, and is often considered one of the greatest landscape painters of all time. He was born near the River Stour in Suffolk, an area the artist depicted so frequently that it is referred to as “Constable country.” Pastoral scenes were unfashionable at the time and Constable struggled to establish himself as a painter. He was finally elected a Royal Academician in 1829, and in 1832, he exhibited The Opening of Waterloo Bridge—an effort 13 years in the making—at the Summer Exhibition.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Late Constable'.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Guardian
Jonathan Jones
Recasts John Constable as the godfather of the avant garde, producing explosive, nightmarish paintings of a vanishing world.
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FORMAT: Hbk, 10.25 x 7.5 in. / 128 pgs / 100 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $61 ISBN: 9781912520725 PUBLISHER: Royal Academy of Arts AVAILABLE: 12/14/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Royal Academy of Arts. Text by Anne Lyles, Matthew Hargraves.
On John Constable as a proto-abstractionist of pastoral landscape
One of Britain’s greatest landscape painters, John Constable was brought up in Dedham Vale, the valley of the River Stour in Suffolk. The eldest son of a wealthy mill owner, he entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1800 at the age of 24, and thereafter committed himself to painting nature out of doors. His “six-footers,” such as The Hay Wain and The Leaping Horse, were designed to promote landscape as a subject and to stand out in the Academy’s Annual Exhibition. Despite this, he sold few paintings in his lifetime and was elected a Royal Academician late in his career.
With texts by leading authorities on the artist, this handsome book looks at the freedom of Constable’s late works and records his enormous contribution to the English landscape tradition.
John Constable (1776–1837) is one of Britain’s best-known artists, and is often considered one of the greatest landscape painters of all time. He was born near the River Stour in Suffolk, an area the artist depicted so frequently that it is referred to as “Constable country.” Pastoral scenes were unfashionable at the time and Constable struggled to establish himself as a painter. He was finally elected a Royal Academician in 1829, and in 1832, he exhibited The Opening of Waterloo Bridge—an effort 13 years in the making—at the Summer Exhibition.
