Constable   By: C. Lewis Hind (1862-1927)

MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR

EDITED BY T. LEMAN HARE

CONSTABLE

1776 1837

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PLATE I. THE VALLEY FARM.

(Frontispiece).

National Gallery.

In "The Valley Farm," exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1835, two years before his death, Constable returned to the scenes of his boyhood, to Willy Lott's house on the banks of the Stour. His hand and eye have lost something of their grip and freshness, but his purpose is as firm as ever. "I have preserved God Almighty's day light," he wrote, "which is enjoyed by all mankind, excepting only the lovers of old, dirty canvas, perished pictures at a thousand guineas each, cart grease, tar, and snuff of candle." The old Adam, you perceive, was still strong in him.

[Illustration: PLATE I. THE VALLEY FARM.]

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CONSTABLE

BY C. LEWIS HIND

ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR

[Illustration: title page art]

LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK

NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.

1907

CONTENTS

Chap.

I. The Year 1824 II. The Brown Tree III. His Life IV. His Sketches V. His Pictures VI. His Personality and Opinions

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Plate

I. The Valley Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece (National Gallery)

II. The Hay Wain (National Gallery)

III. The Corn Field (National Gallery)

IV. Flatford Mill (National Gallery)

V. Dedham Mill (Victoria and Albert Museum)

VI. A Country Lane (National Gallery)

VII. Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Garden (Victoria and Albert Museum)

VIII. Salisbury (National Gallery)

[Illustration: Constable]

CHAPTER I

THE YEAR 1824

John Constable was forty eight years of age in 1824, a memorable year in the history of landscape painting. A date to be remembered is 1824, for in that year Constable's "Hay Wain" was hung in the French Salon. That picture, which is now in the National Gallery, marked an epoch in landscape art.

Reams have been written about the influence of "The Hay Wain" upon French art, by critics who are all for Constable, by critics who are complimentary but temperate; and by critics who are lukewarm and almost resentful of the place claimed for Constable as protagonist of nineteenth century landscape art. A guerilla critical warfare has also raged around the influence of Turner. Constable and Turner! Most modern landscape painters have, at one time or another, learnt from these two great pioneers. Turner is more potent to day, but his influence took longer to assert itself. It was not until 1870 that Monet visited London to be dazzled by the range and splendour of Turner at the National Gallery. Forty six years had passed since "The Hay Wain" was exhibited at the Salon. In that half century the Barbizon School, those great men of 1830, Corot, Rousseau, Millet, Daubigny, Troyon, Diaz, and the rest had come to fruition. Constable has been claimed as their parent. Thoré, the French critic, who wrote under the name of G. W. Burger, affirms that Constable was the point de depart of the Barbizon School; but Albert Wolff, another eminent French critic, was not of that opinion. Thoré, writing in 1863, also said that although Constable had stimulated in France a school of painting unrivalled in the modern world, he had had no influence in his own country, a far too sweeping statement.

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PLATE II. THE HAY WAIN. National Gallery.