CONTENTS
First published on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Late Constable’ Royal Academy of Arts, London, 30 October 2021 – 13 February 2022 Supported by Kathryn Uhde Rosemary Lomax-Simpson Copyright © 2021 Royal Academy of Arts, London
This exhibition has been made possible as a result of the Government Indemnity Scheme. The Royal Academy of Arts would like to thank HM Government for providing indemnity and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity. Exhibition Curators Anne Lyles Per Rumberg assisted by Rose Thompson Exhibition Organisation Rebecca Bailey Idoya Beitia Exhibition Design EBBA Architects Photographic and Copyright Co-Ordination Giulia Ariete
Any copy of this book issued by the publisher is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including these words being imposed on a subsequent purchaser. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-912520-72-5 Distributed outside the United States and Canada by ACC Art Books Ltd, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4SD
Exhibition Catalogue Royal Academy Publications Florence Dassonville, Production and Distribution Co-ordinator Carola Krueger, Production and Distribution Manager Peter Sawbridge, Head of Publishing and Editorial Director
Distributed in the United States and Canada by ARTBOOK | D.A.P., 75 Broad Street, Suite 630, New York, NY 10004
Copy-editing and proofreading: Tom Neville Design: Rebecca Penmore
Dimensions of all works of art are given in centimetres, height before width.
Colour origination and print: Gomer Press, Wales
Illustrations Page 2: detail of cat. 18 Page 6: detail of cat. 48 Page 8: detail of cat. 15 Page 52: detail of cat. 46 Page 64: detail of cat. 9 Page 124: detail of cat. 3 Page 130: detail of cat. 47
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Editorial Note All works illustrated are by John Constable RA (1776–1837) unless otherwise stated.
Acknowledgements The Royal Academy would like to thank the following individuals for their invaluable assistance during the making of the exhibition and this catalogue: Benni Allan Susanna Avery-Quash Margot Bailey Christopher Baker Maria Balshaw David Blayney Brown David Bomford Antonia Boström Julius Bryant Caroline Campbell Hugo Chapman Delphine Charpentier Amy Concannon Sarah Cove Wayne Daley Helen Dawson Ana Debenedetti Andrew Dempsey Michele DeShazo Terry van Druten Donato Esposito Alex Farquharson Gabriele Finaldi Hartwig Fischer Susan Foister David Fraser Jenkins Ann Gallagher Ketty Gottardo James Hamilton Tristram Hunt Michael Kauffmann Larry Keith Dorothy Kosinski John Leighton Chloe Le Tissier Adam Levine Naomi Lewis
Jeremy Lewison Lowell Libson Elenor Ling Staff of the London Library Claire Lyon Lino Mannocci Courtney J. Martin Anya Martsenko Rosie Martyr Janette Moran Lori Mott Jane Munro Corey Myers Christopher Newall Jenny Newall Larry Nichols Charles Nugent Pippa Parris Sandra Penketh Alyson Pollard Mark Ramirez Christine Riding Jacqueline Riding Elena Saggers Peter Schade Tico Seifert Nicholas Serota Kim Sloan MaryAnne Stevens Deborah Swallow Luke Syson Sophie Szynaka William Vaughan Ernst Vegelin Ian Warrell Stephen Wildman Jonny Yarker
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President’s Foreword
9
Truth to Painting: Constable’s Late Work Anne Lyles
53
Majestic Darkness: Constable’s Late Drawings Matthew Hargraves
65
Catalogue Plates
125
Late Constable: A Timeline Annette Wickham and Mark Pomeroy
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131
Endnotes
136
Further Reading
138
Lenders to the Exhibition
139
Photographic Acknowledgements
140
Index
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CONTENTS
First published on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Late Constable’ Royal Academy of Arts, London, 30 October 2021 – 13 February 2022 Supported by Kathryn Uhde Rosemary Lomax-Simpson Copyright © 2021 Royal Academy of Arts, London
This exhibition has been made possible as a result of the Government Indemnity Scheme. The Royal Academy of Arts would like to thank HM Government for providing indemnity and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity. Exhibition Curators Anne Lyles Per Rumberg assisted by Rose Thompson Exhibition Organisation Rebecca Bailey Idoya Beitia Exhibition Design EBBA Architects Photographic and Copyright Co-Ordination Giulia Ariete
Any copy of this book issued by the publisher is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including these words being imposed on a subsequent purchaser. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-912520-72-5 Distributed outside the United States and Canada by ACC Art Books Ltd, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 4SD
Exhibition Catalogue Royal Academy Publications Florence Dassonville, Production and Distribution Co-ordinator Carola Krueger, Production and Distribution Manager Peter Sawbridge, Head of Publishing and Editorial Director
Distributed in the United States and Canada by ARTBOOK | D.A.P., 75 Broad Street, Suite 630, New York, NY 10004
Copy-editing and proofreading: Tom Neville Design: Rebecca Penmore
Dimensions of all works of art are given in centimetres, height before width.
Colour origination and print: Gomer Press, Wales
Illustrations Page 2: detail of cat. 18 Page 6: detail of cat. 48 Page 8: detail of cat. 15 Page 52: detail of cat. 46 Page 64: detail of cat. 9 Page 124: detail of cat. 3 Page 130: detail of cat. 47
RA_Constable_Spreads_9 September 21.indd 4
Editorial Note All works illustrated are by John Constable RA (1776–1837) unless otherwise stated.
Acknowledgements The Royal Academy would like to thank the following individuals for their invaluable assistance during the making of the exhibition and this catalogue: Benni Allan Susanna Avery-Quash Margot Bailey Christopher Baker Maria Balshaw David Blayney Brown David Bomford Antonia Boström Julius Bryant Caroline Campbell Hugo Chapman Delphine Charpentier Amy Concannon Sarah Cove Wayne Daley Helen Dawson Ana Debenedetti Andrew Dempsey Michele DeShazo Terry van Druten Donato Esposito Alex Farquharson Gabriele Finaldi Hartwig Fischer Susan Foister David Fraser Jenkins Ann Gallagher Ketty Gottardo James Hamilton Tristram Hunt Michael Kauffmann Larry Keith Dorothy Kosinski John Leighton Chloe Le Tissier Adam Levine Naomi Lewis
Jeremy Lewison Lowell Libson Elenor Ling Staff of the London Library Claire Lyon Lino Mannocci Courtney J. Martin Anya Martsenko Rosie Martyr Janette Moran Lori Mott Jane Munro Corey Myers Christopher Newall Jenny Newall Larry Nichols Charles Nugent Pippa Parris Sandra Penketh Alyson Pollard Mark Ramirez Christine Riding Jacqueline Riding Elena Saggers Peter Schade Tico Seifert Nicholas Serota Kim Sloan MaryAnne Stevens Deborah Swallow Luke Syson Sophie Szynaka William Vaughan Ernst Vegelin Ian Warrell Stephen Wildman Jonny Yarker
7
President’s Foreword
9
Truth to Painting: Constable’s Late Work Anne Lyles
53
Majestic Darkness: Constable’s Late Drawings Matthew Hargraves
65
Catalogue Plates
125
Late Constable: A Timeline Annette Wickham and Mark Pomeroy
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131
Endnotes
136
Further Reading
138
Lenders to the Exhibition
139
Photographic Acknowledgements
140
Index
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PRE SIDENT’S FO RE WO RD
Although John Constable was a student at the Royal Academy Schools in 1800, it was not until 1829, by which time he was aged 52, that he was finally elected a Royal Academician. This exhibition, the first monographic show devoted to Constable at the Royal Academy, is similarly long overdue. In The Leaping Horse, the last of his six-foot Suffolk river scenes, Constable first departed from the strict topographical accuracy that had been a hallmark of his earlier art. This points the way forward to his later, more synthetic method of working, which has never been the subject of detailed examination, either in an exhibition or a related publication. Distinguished by its rich technical vocabulary, Constable’s late output, from 1825 until his death in 1837, though often conservative in subjectmatter, is increasingly expressive in style. The selection here considers late paintings and oil sketches as well as watercolours, drawings and prints, enabling the visitor to appreciate the extensive cross-fertilisation of the artist’s ideas between different media. Constable died unexpectedly in 1837. When his final picture, Arundel Mill and Castle, was exhibited posthumously in 1837 at the Academy’s new premises in
Trafalgar Square, it prompted critics to bemoan the loss of that ‘able and very powerful artist’. For their generous support of the exhibition, we are most grateful to Kathryn Uhde and Rosemary LomaxSimpson. ‘Late Constable’ has been expertly curated by Anne Lyles, former Curator at Tate Britain, and Per Rumberg, Curator at the Royal Academy. Originally proposed by Tim Marlow, now Director of the Design Museum in London, the exhibition would not have been possible without the dedication of Rose Thompson, Idoya Beitia, Rebecca Bailey, Florence Mytum and the exhibition designers Ebba Architects and Daley & Lyon. We thank Anne Lyles, Matthew Hargreaves, Annette Wickham and Mark Pomeroy for their contributions to this handsome catalogue, which has been produced by the Royal Academy’s dedicated publishing team. Rebecca Salter PRA President, Royal Academy of Arts
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PRE SIDENT’S FO RE WO RD
Although John Constable was a student at the Royal Academy Schools in 1800, it was not until 1829, by which time he was aged 52, that he was finally elected a Royal Academician. This exhibition, the first monographic show devoted to Constable at the Royal Academy, is similarly long overdue. In The Leaping Horse, the last of his six-foot Suffolk river scenes, Constable first departed from the strict topographical accuracy that had been a hallmark of his earlier art. This points the way forward to his later, more synthetic method of working, which has never been the subject of detailed examination, either in an exhibition or a related publication. Distinguished by its rich technical vocabulary, Constable’s late output, from 1825 until his death in 1837, though often conservative in subjectmatter, is increasingly expressive in style. The selection here considers late paintings and oil sketches as well as watercolours, drawings and prints, enabling the visitor to appreciate the extensive cross-fertilisation of the artist’s ideas between different media. Constable died unexpectedly in 1837. When his final picture, Arundel Mill and Castle, was exhibited posthumously in 1837 at the Academy’s new premises in
Trafalgar Square, it prompted critics to bemoan the loss of that ‘able and very powerful artist’. For their generous support of the exhibition, we are most grateful to Kathryn Uhde and Rosemary LomaxSimpson. ‘Late Constable’ has been expertly curated by Anne Lyles, former Curator at Tate Britain, and Per Rumberg, Curator at the Royal Academy. Originally proposed by Tim Marlow, now Director of the Design Museum in London, the exhibition would not have been possible without the dedication of Rose Thompson, Idoya Beitia, Rebecca Bailey, Florence Mytum and the exhibition designers Ebba Architects and Daley & Lyon. We thank Anne Lyles, Matthew Hargreaves, Annette Wickham and Mark Pomeroy for their contributions to this handsome catalogue, which has been produced by the Royal Academy’s dedicated publishing team. Rebecca Salter PRA President, Royal Academy of Arts
7
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Dedham Church’s tower had often appeared in the distance in Constable’s earlier paintings of the Stour valley: it was – and remains – a significant feature in the landscape from various viewpoints. Now, however, by including it towards the edge of The Leaping Horse, Constable was wilfully distorting topography, apparently for the first time in an exhibition canvas. He may have included the tower here simply for compositional reasons, or perhaps to reflect his belief in the Anglican Church as a focus of order in the rural community.12 Whatever the reason, this decision marks a significant turning point in his art, and was an augur of things to come. For distortion of topography was to become increasingly common in Constable’s work, as he gradually moved away from his previous concept of ‘truth to nature’ towards a new form of synthetic picture-making, one that more closely conformed to contemporary notions of the Picturesque. Meanwhile, 1825 marks another turning point in Constable’s career in terms both of his painterly handling and of an emerging tendency – as demonstrated by his treatment of The Leaping Horse after it returned from exhibition – to be unable to leave his paintings alone.
Fig. 3 The Hay Wain, 1821. Oil on canvas, 130.2 x 185.4 cm. The National Gallery, London. Presented by Henry Vaughan, 1886. Inv. no. NG1207 Fig. 4 The Lock, 1824. Oil on canvas, 142.2 x 120.7 cm. Private collection
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Dedham Church’s tower had often appeared in the distance in Constable’s earlier paintings of the Stour valley: it was – and remains – a significant feature in the landscape from various viewpoints. Now, however, by including it towards the edge of The Leaping Horse, Constable was wilfully distorting topography, apparently for the first time in an exhibition canvas. He may have included the tower here simply for compositional reasons, or perhaps to reflect his belief in the Anglican Church as a focus of order in the rural community.12 Whatever the reason, this decision marks a significant turning point in his art, and was an augur of things to come. For distortion of topography was to become increasingly common in Constable’s work, as he gradually moved away from his previous concept of ‘truth to nature’ towards a new form of synthetic picture-making, one that more closely conformed to contemporary notions of the Picturesque. Meanwhile, 1825 marks another turning point in Constable’s career in terms both of his painterly handling and of an emerging tendency – as demonstrated by his treatment of The Leaping Horse after it returned from exhibition – to be unable to leave his paintings alone.
Fig. 3 The Hay Wain, 1821. Oil on canvas, 130.2 x 185.4 cm. The National Gallery, London. Presented by Henry Vaughan, 1886. Inv. no. NG1207 Fig. 4 The Lock, 1824. Oil on canvas, 142.2 x 120.7 cm. Private collection
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Fig. 14 Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, 1831. Oil on canvas, 153.7 x 192 cm. Tate: Purchased by Tate with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Manton Foundation, Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation) and Tate Members in partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service, National Galleries of Scotland, and The Salisbury Museum in 2013. Inv. no. T13896
it had been weakened by the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. They could now see further change looming with the growing clamour for electoral reform. On one level it might be easy to interpret the turbulent sky and the streak of lightning above the roof of the cathedral as features simply intended to evoke a sense of awe and grandeur, and thus to conclude that the picture is another exercise in the Burkean Sublime. Yet, as ever with Constable, for whom personal resonances were usually at the forefront of a picture’s ‘meaning’, we can reasonably assume these dramatic natural phenomena carry additional, more symbolic overtones. Like Hadleigh Castle, Salisbury Cathedral seems to carry a message of renewed hope following adversity and of the ultimately healing role of nature – certainly if one judges by the lines of verse, again from Thomson’s Seasons, that Constable asked the Academy to include in its catalogue.59 Constable was always nervous when exhibiting a large picture at the Academy for the first time. His expectations, and fears, about the reception of Salisbury Cathedral in 1831 may have been greater than usual. In submitting a painting of such a famous building, Constable was taking a risk, for there was a chance it might give rise to
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associations far beyond the personal realm of the painter, especially bearing in mind the debates about the role of the Anglican Church in the context of pending electoral reform.60 In fact, the critics did not comment on any narrative significance in the painting, but this could not have been foreseen. Acting on the Hanging Committee in 1831, it seems Constable could not resist the temptation to secure the very best position for his new large painting on the Academy walls. As the quality and interest of Salisbury Cathedral essentially spoke for themselves, it was not surprising that the painting should in the first instance have received – with or without manipulation from Constable – an excellent placing in the Great Room at ‘the upper end’. There it was initially placed close to – perhaps even directly next to – two paintings by Turner, Caligula’s Palace and Bridge (fig. 15) and The Vision of Medea. In this original hang, Caligula’s Palace (the largest of the three works) had been placed in the centre. However, Constable subsequently decided to move his picture into the middle. He may genuinely have thought that, in making this change, he was separating ‘Turner’s very different – and differently sized – pictures so that they did not knock
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Fig. 14 Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, 1831. Oil on canvas, 153.7 x 192 cm. Tate: Purchased by Tate with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Manton Foundation, Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation) and Tate Members in partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service, National Galleries of Scotland, and The Salisbury Museum in 2013. Inv. no. T13896
it had been weakened by the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. They could now see further change looming with the growing clamour for electoral reform. On one level it might be easy to interpret the turbulent sky and the streak of lightning above the roof of the cathedral as features simply intended to evoke a sense of awe and grandeur, and thus to conclude that the picture is another exercise in the Burkean Sublime. Yet, as ever with Constable, for whom personal resonances were usually at the forefront of a picture’s ‘meaning’, we can reasonably assume these dramatic natural phenomena carry additional, more symbolic overtones. Like Hadleigh Castle, Salisbury Cathedral seems to carry a message of renewed hope following adversity and of the ultimately healing role of nature – certainly if one judges by the lines of verse, again from Thomson’s Seasons, that Constable asked the Academy to include in its catalogue.59 Constable was always nervous when exhibiting a large picture at the Academy for the first time. His expectations, and fears, about the reception of Salisbury Cathedral in 1831 may have been greater than usual. In submitting a painting of such a famous building, Constable was taking a risk, for there was a chance it might give rise to
37
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associations far beyond the personal realm of the painter, especially bearing in mind the debates about the role of the Anglican Church in the context of pending electoral reform.60 In fact, the critics did not comment on any narrative significance in the painting, but this could not have been foreseen. Acting on the Hanging Committee in 1831, it seems Constable could not resist the temptation to secure the very best position for his new large painting on the Academy walls. As the quality and interest of Salisbury Cathedral essentially spoke for themselves, it was not surprising that the painting should in the first instance have received – with or without manipulation from Constable – an excellent placing in the Great Room at ‘the upper end’. There it was initially placed close to – perhaps even directly next to – two paintings by Turner, Caligula’s Palace and Bridge (fig. 15) and The Vision of Medea. In this original hang, Caligula’s Palace (the largest of the three works) had been placed in the centre. However, Constable subsequently decided to move his picture into the middle. He may genuinely have thought that, in making this change, he was separating ‘Turner’s very different – and differently sized – pictures so that they did not knock
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Fig. 16 J. M. W. Turner, Helvoetsluys; – the City of Utrecht, 64, Going to Sea, 1832. Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 122 cm. Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Fig. 17 The Opening of Waterloo Bridge (‘Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817’), 1832. Oil on canvas, 130.8 x 218 cm. Tate: Purchased with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Clore Foundation, the Art Fund, the Friends of the Tate Gallery and others 1987. Inv. no. T04904
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Fig. 16 J. M. W. Turner, Helvoetsluys; – the City of Utrecht, 64, Going to Sea, 1832. Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 122 cm. Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Fig. 17 The Opening of Waterloo Bridge (‘Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817’), 1832. Oil on canvas, 130.8 x 218 cm. Tate: Purchased with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Clore Foundation, the Art Fund, the Friends of the Tate Gallery and others 1987. Inv. no. T04904
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1792, Beaumont was to acquire Michelangelo’s so-called Taddei Tondo and later bequeath it to the Royal Academy. Constable made a pen-and-ink sketch of the marble tondo in July 1830 (cat. 40), shortly before he wrote a letter to The Athenaeum describing Beaumont’s acquisition of the marble and its bequest to the Academy.94 Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds is based on a drawing of the grove that Constable had made in the autumn of 1823 when staying with Beaumont at Coleorton (cat. 36), hence the autumnal palette of the related oil painting. The Michelangelo and Raphael terms do not appear in the drawing, as in reality they were sited further back – Constable brought them forward in the painting to create a more condensed image.95 The stag is Constable’s own addition, and is usually interpreted as another homage to Beaumont, given its role in the baronet’s favourite Shakespeare play, As You Like It, and indeed its appearance in his own painting Jacques and the Wounded Stag (1819), which features a scene from that play.96 In fact, it seems that at one stage Constable had even contemplated incorporating the figure of Beaumont himself into the painting.97 However, given the resemblance of Constable’s
Fig. 20 Titian, The Death of Actaeon, c. 1559–75. Oil on canvas, 178.8 x 197.8 cm. The National Gallery, London. Bought with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust and through public appeal, 1972. Inv. no. NG6420
I would like to dedicate this essay to the memory of John Gage (1938–2012), with whom I worked on the exhibition ‘Constable: Le choix de Lucian Freud’ at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2002 when the seeds for the idea of a survey of Constable’s late work were first sown.
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handling in The Cenotaph to the work of Titian, the stag may also provide a link with the Venetian painter’s The Death of Actaeon (fig. 20), which both Reynolds and Constable knew well.98 With Titian’s presence thus implied in The Cenotaph, and the picture being painted on the eve of the Academy’s move to a new home, one wonders whether Constable may have been suggesting a subtle reference to, even an implied reconciliation of, the longrunning Academy debate between the relative merits of disegno and colore, between the ‘great’ Florentine and ‘ornamental’ Venetian styles?99 After all, pictures by these Old Masters were soon to share space with contemporary British art in the new National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. If so, it may be that The Cenotaph also suggests that Constable had come to terms with the concept of a National Gallery, something to which he had originally been strongly opposed. In all events, the painting was to be the last he exhibited at New Somerset House – and also the last he would see exhibited at the Royal Academy. It could not have been a more fitting tribute to the Academy itself or summation of all that Constable had hoped to achieve for British landscape art during his highly productive lifetime.
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1792, Beaumont was to acquire Michelangelo’s so-called Taddei Tondo and later bequeath it to the Royal Academy. Constable made a pen-and-ink sketch of the marble tondo in July 1830 (cat. 40), shortly before he wrote a letter to The Athenaeum describing Beaumont’s acquisition of the marble and its bequest to the Academy.94 Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds is based on a drawing of the grove that Constable had made in the autumn of 1823 when staying with Beaumont at Coleorton (cat. 36), hence the autumnal palette of the related oil painting. The Michelangelo and Raphael terms do not appear in the drawing, as in reality they were sited further back – Constable brought them forward in the painting to create a more condensed image.95 The stag is Constable’s own addition, and is usually interpreted as another homage to Beaumont, given its role in the baronet’s favourite Shakespeare play, As You Like It, and indeed its appearance in his own painting Jacques and the Wounded Stag (1819), which features a scene from that play.96 In fact, it seems that at one stage Constable had even contemplated incorporating the figure of Beaumont himself into the painting.97 However, given the resemblance of Constable’s
Fig. 20 Titian, The Death of Actaeon, c. 1559–75. Oil on canvas, 178.8 x 197.8 cm. The National Gallery, London. Bought with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust and through public appeal, 1972. Inv. no. NG6420
I would like to dedicate this essay to the memory of John Gage (1938–2012), with whom I worked on the exhibition ‘Constable: Le choix de Lucian Freud’ at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2002 when the seeds for the idea of a survey of Constable’s late work were first sown.
51
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handling in The Cenotaph to the work of Titian, the stag may also provide a link with the Venetian painter’s The Death of Actaeon (fig. 20), which both Reynolds and Constable knew well.98 With Titian’s presence thus implied in The Cenotaph, and the picture being painted on the eve of the Academy’s move to a new home, one wonders whether Constable may have been suggesting a subtle reference to, even an implied reconciliation of, the longrunning Academy debate between the relative merits of disegno and colore, between the ‘great’ Florentine and ‘ornamental’ Venetian styles?99 After all, pictures by these Old Masters were soon to share space with contemporary British art in the new National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. If so, it may be that The Cenotaph also suggests that Constable had come to terms with the concept of a National Gallery, something to which he had originally been strongly opposed. In all events, the painting was to be the last he exhibited at New Somerset House – and also the last he would see exhibited at the Royal Academy. It could not have been a more fitting tribute to the Academy itself or summation of all that Constable had hoped to achieve for British landscape art during his highly productive lifetime.
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M A J E S T I C D A R K N E S S : C O N S TA B L E ’ S L AT E D R AW I N G S Matthew Hargraves
In December 1834 Constable found himself in a painful dispute with the engraver David Lucas, a protégé who had undertaken to reproduce one of Constable’s landscapes in mezzotint without his blessing. He told Lucas plaintively: ‘now for some wide purpose is every bit of sunshine clouded over in me’.1 He then unburdened himself in a letter to his fellow painter C. R. Leslie: ‘Every gleam of sunshine is blighted to me in the art at least. Can it therefore be wondered at that I paint continual storms? “Tempest o’er tempest rolled” – Still the “darkness” is majestic, and I have not to accuse myself of ever having prostituted the moral feeling of art’.2 This episode captures many of the preoccupations of Constable’s last years. Depressed, in ailing health and dressed in perpetual mourning after his wife’s death in 1828, Constable found his final decade a period of profound suffering but also artistic fruition. He could truthfully assert that he had never made a proper living from his art and so could not accuse himself of prostituting his principles to please a vulgar public. But that he, like the poet James Thomson, whom he was quoting, could find majesty in the enveloping darkness came from a firm confidence that he was abiding in truth.
Constable’s late drawings are bound up in his conviction that there is no salvation save through truth: truth in art, in politics and in religion. The mid-1820s marked a watershed in his art.3 Until then Constable had experienced a relatively uncomplicated relationship between nature and truth. The youthful desire to stop ‘running after pictures and seeking the truth at second hand’ and instead to make ‘laborious studies from nature’ in order to forge a ‘natural painture’ untouched by false taste prompted him to sketch outdoors in watercolour and graphite in 1802, and later in oil.4 But by the mid-1820s that early certainty was strained by his physical distance from his native landscape as well as profound political changes that challenged his most deep-seated convictions about the natural order. In this period of uncertainty Constable turned first to drawing to transform his art. The first signs of this shift appeared in the early 1820s as he began to explore how landscape art could bear meaning through its affective power alone rather than through its range of intellectual associations.5 In the summer of 1821 he praised the work of the watercolourist John Robert Cozens for being ‘all poetry’ in a letter to 53
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M A J E S T I C D A R K N E S S : C O N S TA B L E ’ S L AT E D R AW I N G S Matthew Hargraves
In December 1834 Constable found himself in a painful dispute with the engraver David Lucas, a protégé who had undertaken to reproduce one of Constable’s landscapes in mezzotint without his blessing. He told Lucas plaintively: ‘now for some wide purpose is every bit of sunshine clouded over in me’.1 He then unburdened himself in a letter to his fellow painter C. R. Leslie: ‘Every gleam of sunshine is blighted to me in the art at least. Can it therefore be wondered at that I paint continual storms? “Tempest o’er tempest rolled” – Still the “darkness” is majestic, and I have not to accuse myself of ever having prostituted the moral feeling of art’.2 This episode captures many of the preoccupations of Constable’s last years. Depressed, in ailing health and dressed in perpetual mourning after his wife’s death in 1828, Constable found his final decade a period of profound suffering but also artistic fruition. He could truthfully assert that he had never made a proper living from his art and so could not accuse himself of prostituting his principles to please a vulgar public. But that he, like the poet James Thomson, whom he was quoting, could find majesty in the enveloping darkness came from a firm confidence that he was abiding in truth.
Constable’s late drawings are bound up in his conviction that there is no salvation save through truth: truth in art, in politics and in religion. The mid-1820s marked a watershed in his art.3 Until then Constable had experienced a relatively uncomplicated relationship between nature and truth. The youthful desire to stop ‘running after pictures and seeking the truth at second hand’ and instead to make ‘laborious studies from nature’ in order to forge a ‘natural painture’ untouched by false taste prompted him to sketch outdoors in watercolour and graphite in 1802, and later in oil.4 But by the mid-1820s that early certainty was strained by his physical distance from his native landscape as well as profound political changes that challenged his most deep-seated convictions about the natural order. In this period of uncertainty Constable turned first to drawing to transform his art. The first signs of this shift appeared in the early 1820s as he began to explore how landscape art could bear meaning through its affective power alone rather than through its range of intellectual associations.5 In the summer of 1821 he praised the work of the watercolourist John Robert Cozens for being ‘all poetry’ in a letter to 53
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4 Cloud Study, 27 September 1821 Oil on paper laid on board, 25.8 x 30.5 cm Royal Academy of Arts, London. Given by Isabel Constable 1888. Inv. no. 03/1994
3 Cloud Study, 11 September 1821 Oil on paper laid on board, 24.1 x 29.9 cm Royal Academy of Arts, London. Given by Isabel Constable 1888. Inv. no. 03/455 68
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4 Cloud Study, 27 September 1821 Oil on paper laid on board, 25.8 x 30.5 cm Royal Academy of Arts, London. Given by Isabel Constable 1888. Inv. no. 03/1994
3 Cloud Study, 11 September 1821 Oil on paper laid on board, 24.1 x 29.9 cm Royal Academy of Arts, London. Given by Isabel Constable 1888. Inv. no. 03/455 68
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8 The Leaping Horse (full-size sketch), 1825 Oil on canvas, 129.4 x 188 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Bequeathed by Henry Vaughan. Inv. no. 986-1900
9 The Leaping Horse, 1825 Oil on canvas, 142 x 187.3 cm Royal Academy of Arts, London. Given by Mrs Dawkins 1889. Inv. no. 03/1391
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8 The Leaping Horse (full-size sketch), 1825 Oil on canvas, 129.4 x 188 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Bequeathed by Henry Vaughan. Inv. no. 986-1900
9 The Leaping Horse, 1825 Oil on canvas, 142 x 187.3 cm Royal Academy of Arts, London. Given by Mrs Dawkins 1889. Inv. no. 03/1391
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47 Old Sarum, 1834 Watercolour, 30 x 48.7 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Given by Isabel Constable, daughter of the artist. Inv. no. 1628-1888 114
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47 Old Sarum, 1834 Watercolour, 30 x 48.7 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Given by Isabel Constable, daughter of the artist. Inv. no. 1628-1888 114
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