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In his lifetime, Constable sold only 20 paintings in England, but in France he sold more than 20 in just a few years. Despite this, he refused all invitations to travel internationally to promote his work, writing to Francis Darby: "I would rather be a poor man [in England] than a rich man abroad." In 1825, perhaps due partly to the worry of his wife's ill-health, the uncongeniality of living in Brighton ("Piccadilly by the Seaside"), and the pressure of numerous outstanding commissions, he quarrelled with Arrowsmith and lost his French outlet in his gallery.

After the birth of their seventh child in January 1828, Maria fell ill and died of tuberculosis on 23 November. at the age of 41. Thereafter, he dressed in black and was, according to Leslie, "a prey to melancholy and anxious thoughts". He cared for his seven children alone for the rest of his life. The children were John Charles, Maria Louisa, Charles Golding, Isobel, Emma, Alfred, and Lionel. Only Charles Golding Constable produced offspring, a son.

He was elected to the Royal Academy in February 1829, at the age of 52. In 1831 he was appointed Visitor at the Royal Academy, where he seems to have been popular with the students.

He began to deliver public lectures on the history of landscape painting, which were attended by distinguished audiences. In a series of lectures at the Royal Institution, Constable proposed a three-fold thesis: firstly, landscape painting is scientific as well as poetic; secondly, the imagination cannot alone produce art to bear comparison with reality; and thirdly, no great painter was ever selftaught.

His lectures prove him to have been a wide discerning judge of painting, endowed with powers of clear reasoning and of eloquence. His eloquence is well exemplified by one quotation in which he states one of his central beliefs: 'No arrogant man,' he says, 'was ever permitted to see Nature in all her beauty. If I

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may be allowed to use a very solemn quotation I would say most emphatically to the young painter, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." '

He also spoke against the new Gothic Revival movement, which he considered mere "imitation".

In 1835, his last lecture to students of the Royal Academy, in which he praised Raphael and called the Academy the "cradle of British art", was "cheered most heartily". He died on the night of 31 March 1837, apparently from heart failure, and was buried with Maria in the graveyard of St John-at- Hampstead, Hampstead. (His children John Charles Constable and Charles Golding Constable are also buried in this family tomb.)

With regard to the development of Constable's art, the moral quality that most strikingly stands out is his perseverance. His earliest efforts make it not in the least surprising that his best friends should have told him that he showed little promise of being able to paint or to draw. Unlike Turner, who was skilful at twelve and masterly at seventeen, Constable at thirty was just beginning to express his ideas, but did not work with real assurance until he was forty. Thus to the student not gifted with facility of hand or eye, to whom Turner appears as a kind of demi-god, Constable becomes an encouraging example of what sheer sincerity and tenacity can achieve.

Style and works

Constable's aims in painting were clear and consistent. 'There is still room,' he said, 'for a natural painter.' From the first what he cared about most was truth to the effect of light, truth to the weather, truth to the time of day and truth to the local colour of the scene portrayed. In this last he found little to guide him in the works of his predecessors. It is true that Wilson and Gainsborough were both great colourists, but both adapted what they saw to a preconceived pictorial scheme. Constable began with what he had seen and made his picture fit that. In that sense he was an impressionist. So when he studied Ruysdael, Wilson or Girtin, he was learning how to paint, not how to see. His development in its various phases can be fairly completely studied at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Such pen and ink sketches of 1796 as An Old Cottage among Trees, though childishly ill-drawn and scratchily executed, show some appreciation of contrasted textures.

Of oil-paintings of 1802, Dedham Vale shows a sincere but by no means brilliant attempt to paint the cool greens of Nature over the traditional warm background. In Barnes Common of 1805, Constable has used the oil medium more skillfully, keeping to a warmer and more pleasing colour-scheme, though at some sacrifice of truth in favour of artistic convention.

The first of Constable's works in which his technical struggles have not hindered his expression are his water colours of the English Lakes painted in the autumn of 1806. These again have a breadth and spaciousness akin to Girtin's, though the paint is never so cleanly applied.

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In Dedham Vale of 1809, there is already a striking effect of light, though the colour remains slightly conventional. But in several sketches of 1811 Constable has recorded forcible contrasts of tone and of colour, in a manner new to landscape-painting contrasts such as he himself did not dare to introduce into larger work intended for sale until at least some seven or eight years later. Two Views on the Stour show how much Constable enjoyed the rich qualities of paint only possible in the oil medium. This gives Constable's paint a quality akin to Wilson's, although it is applied with less deliberation. Turner's oils, as has been said, seldom show such enjoyment of the medium, a fact which caused Constable to say that Turner was always at heart a water-colourist.

The two sketches by Constable in question belong to about 1810 and 1811, that is, to the time when Miss Bicknell was discouraging his addresses. This, it is tempting to think, accounts for the evident turmoil of mind in which they were painted. The first, with its leaden greys of skies and water, only relieved by a touch of cool green in the grass, seems to express a mood of passive gloom. The second is wilder and more vehement; the wind is terrific; even the rifts of blue in the sky bring no promise of calm. Untidy patches of the hot brown foundation of the canvas have been left visible. These and the emphatic, if subdued, scarlet of the figure on the left are in fierce contrast with the dark greens of the trees, which are all cold and bluish in colour. The whole effect has been so vividly seen and felt as to form without any conscious calculation the most telling of designs.

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If such sketches as these are tragic in spirit, much of Constable's work that immediately follows is stamped with a new quality a sort of fierce self-discipline a determination to be methodical. This is particularly noticeable between 1811 and 1816, when Maria Bicknell, though still adverse to 'love in a cottage,' was ready to answer his letters. Constable made great advances as a draughtsman at this time. He was then painting a certain number of portraits on commission; and, though most of these themselves betray a lack of mastery of anatomical structure, they necessitated the practice of attempting to grasp one kind of solid form, which helped him to give weight and definition to the objects that occurred in his landscapes.

In the Flatford Mill of 1817, Constable has at last dared in a large picture to give local colour its full force, to an extent totally new in landscape painting. Though his landscape is not quite so fresh in colour as when it was painted, such things as the mauve-grey clouds and the lichen on one of the roofs are still a joy to the eye. This belongs to Constable's happiest period, the first year of his married life. The composition, which has been criticised for including too much, is characteristic of him. He selects what Nature has to give him instead of rearranging her units like Turner and his predecessors.

But no such charge of over-complexity can be brought against the equally joyous painting of the same year. The Cottage in the Cornfield. Moreover here the colour seems as fresh as when it was painted. The delicate tints of violet and blue in the sky, the varying reds on the chimney, the flowers and the donkey's fillet, the golds of the corn and the plaster, the green of the grass and the mousecolour of the thatch are redeemed from mere prettiness by their truth, which avoids equally the grey or brown colour-conventions of the past and the loud exaggerations of colours all too frequent in landscapes of today. This truth depends much on the relation of the colours to the light, whether it hits the object directly or is reflected back into its shadows. A cloud has passed over the most distant trees, but the cottage and what surrounds it is in the sun. Though no human being is visible to break in upon the quiet, the trim garden and the

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faithful tethered ass are signs of humanity, which tell that the little cottage standing deep in the corn is not utterly deserted.

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In the anxious years that followed. Constable never quite returned to the sweet clarity of this little idyll. For his full powers were yet to find expression in masterpieces in a sterner fiercer vein. The gradual change can be traced by studying the following pictures with their dates: The Cottage in the Cornfield

(1817), Dedham Mill (1820), The Hay wain (1821), Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishops' Garden (1823), The Leaping Horse (1825).

The use of specks of light could sometimes when indiscriminately scattered, as in the Glebe Farm of 1827, become a mere mannerism destructive to pictorial unity. But in the earlier Leaping Horse of 1825 they so much contribute to the impression of sunshine sparkling after showers and of wind driven clouds that it is impossible to imagine so brilliant a result attained by any other means; for each gleam helps to define the shape of what it illumines and has its place as a selected point of emphasis in the design. As a whole the Leaping Horse exemplifies Constable at the height of his powers better than any other of his finished works. It is instructive therefore to trace the development of the theme in his mind through the water-colour sketches in the British Museum and the full sized sketch in oil at South Kensington. The water-colours, which are in monochrome, show the conception in its initial stages. At the exhibition of English Art at Brussels in 1929, the oil sketch could be studied side by side with the finished picture and was seen to be at least its equal in point of purely emotional inspiration. But the very fervour with which the theme was at first conceived had led Constable into some clumsiness and confusion.

His alterations in the final version are all in the direction of clearer drawing, of clearer spacing and of the elimination of distractions. This evidence

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of his power to improve upon a subject is noteworthy, since other instances have been frequently pointed out in which his finished production has lost the freshness of the sketch. Here there has been no such loss. In the sketch there are too many glittering lights towards the left and the action of the people in the boats is distracting. In the final version, apart from the wind which blows everywhere, the only animate movement is the leap of the horse and rider who are racing against it. Again in the sketch the willow blown in their faces seems to retard their progress and a confusion of clouds blurs the horizon. In the final version they have left the tree behind them and have a clear space in front along which to ride beside the river to the church. It is tempting to draw an analogy between this physical conquest of obstacles and the great conquest which Constable himself achieved in the difficult race of life.

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If the Leaping Horse has not the happy serenity of the Cottage in the Cornfield, it is not only a more powerful achievement, but is capable of communicating an exhilaration of its own that may justly be termed joyous. It marks the climax of his achievement. His work during the remaining twelve years of his life was spasmodic, often rising to great heights of beauty but following no traceable line of development. It is true that in oils (as already stated) he tended to use the palette knife more and more, but late examples could also be found of a return to an earlier smoother technique.

To 1830 belong some studies of clouds in water-colour. In freshness and delicacy of colour these and still more certain cloud-studies in oil, recently exhibited at Hampstead, may claim to excel any work of the same kind by any other painter. To about this time belong some of the most brilliant oil sketches.

Salisbury is a typical example, which has every mark of being painted at great speed on the spot in a mood of excitement so intense that it could equally be described as painful or pleasurable. Scarcely a shape has been defined. Constable's aim has merely been to record a fleeting effect, before it vanished, of storm clouds passing behind the cathedral and of sunlight catching wet

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objects near at hand. This is a striking example of the lesson that he learned in his youth from Benjamin West: 'Remember that light and shade never stand still.' It also recalls his own pronouncement that he was determined that whatever else his pictures lacked they should have chiaroscuro, both frequently made a composition out of something that they had seen many years back and that had since subconsciously perfected itself in their minds.

Thus Turner returned with joy to Petworth, Yorkshire or Switzerland again and again and Constable to Salisbury and Suffolk. Otherwise they differed almost as much as two painters of landscape could differ. Turner was at heart a water-colourist, who happened to work in oil brilliantly, but seldom enjoyed the peculiar properties of that medium. Constable's natural medium was oil, though he happened to paint some fine water-colours. Turner excelled in delicate discriminations of tone. Constable's use of light and shade was forcible, but seldom subtle. Constable could give mass to what he drew but not delicacy of form. Turner was the more exact draughtsman, but the more arbitrary colourist. Constable led the way in the observation of local colour. Their seascapes exemplify this; Turner's waves have more volume, Constable's more delicacy of hue; of this his Harwich is a good example.

Turner could draw and paint with ease and always retain a visual image. Constable achieved a style of his own at last, but only after many struggles, and could place little reliance on his visual memory. To the last fact we owe his brilliant sketches painted in the open. In their attitude towards design they differed most widely. Turner rearranged the units of Nature to fit a pictorial conception. Constable's pictures were selections of Nature, chosen but unaltered. They have both been called Impressionists, and were both in many ways pioneers of the movement of that name. For they were both students of light. But while Constable loved to record a fleeting instant of time when light was passing, Turner's peculiar gift lay in representing the gradual increase or decrease of light upon an abiding spacious area. Turner was ultimately always concerned with form. Even when most vague in his drawing he aimed at making the horizon appear immeasurably far away. Turner's accuracy of perception of tone, combined with the system of colour he used in his later works, makes him the forerunner of the scientific Impressionists. Constable's indifference in his sketches to fact and absorption in the momentary effect make him the forerunner of the emotional Impressionists.

(Abridged from: John Constable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Constable; Ch. Johnson "English Painting from the Seventh Century to the Present Day" http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook/English_Painting_from_the_Seventh_Century_to_t he_Present_Day)

1. Match the words on the left to their synonyms on the right.

2. Insert in/at

... that sense; ... some sacrifice; ... favour of; ... least; ... the oil medium; ... heart;

... question; ... the sky; ... fierce contrast; ... colour; ... spirit; ... a large picture; ...

the sun; ... a sterner fiercer vein; ... the design; ... the height of his powers; ... his mind; ... monochrome; ... its initial stages; ... the exhibition; ... point of; ... first;

... the final version; ... the sketch; ... the difficult race of life; ... great speed; ... a mood of; ... hand; ... his youth; ... last; ... the open air; ... their attitude; absorption ... the momentary effect.

3. Choose the best answer

1.What natural phenomenon impelled Constable to start painting?

A.the sea

B.the sky

C.the river

2.Constable took a course of drawing

A.at his childhood

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B.after two years' work in his father's business, at the age of twenty three

C.when he was seventeen, after having been introduced to Sir George Beaumont

3. Constable and Maria Bicknell were not allowed to marry first because

A.Mary's grandfather was against it

B.Archdeacon Fisher refused to unite them

C.Constable had already had a family by that time

4.Constable's position in England can be described as follows

A.he was recognized by his contemporaries-compatriots

B.his works met often with misunderstandings

C.he was unknown to his contemporaries-compatriots

5. At the Royal Academy Constable

A. worked as an organiser of public events

B. gave lessons on landscape painting in the open air

C. delivered public lectures on the history of landscape painting

6. Constable considered that for someone who was eager to become a great painter it was

A.enough to have natural talent

B.important to learn from other great masters

C.enough to have a rich imagination

7.One of the most surprising things about Constable is

A.Turner appears to be a kind of demi-god for him

B.his perseverance as he did not work with real assurance until he was forty

C.his marriage with Maria Bicknell

8. What Constable first cared about was

A. to adapt a preconceived pictorial scheme he saw

B. truth to the effect of light in delivering natural phenomena C. to be guided by the works of his predecessors

9. Constable was an impressionist because when he studied the works of other painters he was learning

A.how to paint

B.how to find inspiration for his pictures

C.how to see

10. Dedham Vale of 1809 demonstrates

A. a striking effect of light, though the colour remains slightly conventional B. an absolutely conventional manner of execution

C. a strive for abstract painting

11. Constable's Views on the Stour show how much the artist enjoyed painting

A.in water colours

B.in charcoal

C.in oil

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12.Constable's portraits are rather often marked by

A.a distortion o f anatomical proportions

B.an unusual colour scheme

C.a presence of animals in them

A.a fully accomplished work by the painter

B.a beautiful example of the impressionism in conveying natural phenomena

C.an instructive example of the painter's dexterity in painting in oil and water colours

15.The main difference between Turner and Constable lies in

A.conveying the peculiarities of solid objects

B.painting seascapes

C.applying colours

4.Compare the style and colour scheme of any two works by W. Turner and J. Constable.

5.a) Comment on Constable's words 'No arrogant man was ever permitted to see Nature in all her beauty'. What do you think the painter meant?

b) How do you understand 'a three-fold thesis' proposed by Constable: 'firstly, landscape painting is scientific as well as poetic; secondly, the imagination cannot alone produce art to bear comparison with reality; and thirdly, no great painter was ever self-taught'.

c) What do you think the author of the essay (Charles Johnson) meant claiming that 'Constable becomes an encouraging example of what sheer sincerity and tenacity can achieve'?

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