|
|
Constable's Great Landscapes:
The Six-Foot Paintings
Title: The White Horse (full size sketch), c. 1818
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, Widener Collection
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
For the first time in a century John Constable's magnificent and ground-breaking six-foot
works have been reunited with their full-size sketches and are on display at Washington's National Gallery.
Title: The White Horse , 1819
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: The Frick Collection, New York, Purchase
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
On view are eight finished six-foot paintings which include The White Horse (1819), Stratford Mill (1820), The
Hay Wain (1821), View in the Stour near Dedham (1822), The Lock (1824), The Leaping Horse (1825), Hadleigh Castle (1829), and Salisbury
Cathedral from the Meadows (1831), are paired with their corresponding full-size oil sketches while Chain
Pier, Brighton (1827) is presented with related smaller oil sketches. Two large finished versions of The
Opening of the Waterloo Bridge (c. 1829–1832) and what is believed to be a full-size sketch from the end of Constable's life,
Stoke-by-Nayland (c.1835–1837).
Title: Stratford Mill (full-size sketch), c. 1819
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
"The idea of bringing together this body of work came originally from
the National Gallery of Art in the late 1990s, inspired by the cleaning
of our full-scale sketch for The
White Horse," said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art.
Title: Stratford Mill, 1820
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: The National Gallery, London
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Biography
Title: The Hay Wain (full-size sketch), c. 1820
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
Bequeathed by Mr. Henry Vaughan
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
John Constable was the second oldest son of Golding Constable and Ann Watts. He was born in 1776 in East Bergholt, Suffolk. Golding Constable was a successful
corn merchant owning first Flatford Mill and later Dedham Mill. The artist was expected to join the family business, especially given the oldest brother was
mentally handicapped. Eventually a younger brother would take over the family firm giving John the opportunity to pursue his artistic gifts.
Title: The Hay Wain, 1821
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: The National Gallery, London
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
In the 1824 French Salon his landscapes were well received and their admirers included Delacroix.
It was that same year that Constable made his first visit to Brighton.
That locale would be one of his favorite painting places.
Title: Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (full-size sketch), c. 1829-1831<
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Six-Foot Paintings
Title: Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, 1831
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Private Collection
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
|
Title: The Lock (full-size sketch), c. 1823
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: Philadelphia Museum of Art
The John Howard McFadden Collection
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
|
In 1821 John Constable wrote in a letter to his friend Archdeacon John Fisher, "I do not
consider myself at work without I am before a six-foot canvas." Fisher
purchased the first two of Constable's six-foot paintings.
|
|
It was around 1818 and 1819 that Constable made the decision to embark on his six-foot paintings. It was unprecedented at the time and added to that was his
choice to make his preliminary sketches, normally tiny works, in full scale.
|
Title: The Lock, 1824
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection,
On loan at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
|
Title: The Leaping Horse (full-size sketch), c. 1824
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
Bequeathed by Mr. Henry Vaughan
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Constable wanted his works to stand out at the Royal Academy exhibitions,
while impressing his views of current landscape painting, on the level of
the classical views of the genre.
Title: The Leaping Horse, 1825
Artist: John Constable (English 1776 - 1837)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Permanent Collection: Royal Academy of Arts, London
Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Constable's Great Landscapes:
The Six-Foot Paintings
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC:
through December 31, 2006
Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino:
February 3 2007 – April 29, 2007
|
|
