John Constable (June 11, 1776 – March 31, 1837)

   

Flatford Mill from the Lock

c.1811

Yetserday, in my post on Turner, I mentioned Constable quite a bit, so today I thought I might give you some visual context. To begin with, despite what most people think of him today, Constable was quite unorthodox at times; and it was in those times he was absolutely brilliant, such as in the pre-Impressionistic pieces Flatford Mill from the Lock and Tree Trunks. And though the revolutionary aspects of his works might have been less common and less fantastic than Turner's, it is only because the comparison between the two tends to be forced, owing to their tense history, that the legacy of Constable is small in the world of art today: a sad and unwarranted placing, I think. And I should add, while labeled generally as a Romanticist, he displayed many similarities to Realists, especially to Corot, such as in Malvern Hall and in The Cornfield, below. 

Malvern Hall

1809

Tree Trunks 

c.1821

Stonehenge

1836

The Cornfield

1826 

The painting beneath is from the infamous encounter between Constable and Turner mentioned in the previous post. And, quite frankly, among the oeuvres of both painters, I prefer many other works. Still, it's a very interesting part of art history. 

The Opening of Waterloo Bridge

1817