- ^ From the Library of Frank Simpson / ^ ty£ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/constableOOtomp LITTLE BOOKS ON ART GENERAL EDITOR: CYRIL DAVENPORT CONSTABLE LITTLE BOOKS ON ART Demy lQmo. 2s. 6d. net . SUBJECTS BOOKPLATES. Edward Almack GREEK ART. H. B. Walters. Second Edition ILLUMINATED MSS. J. W. Bradley ROMAN ART. H. B. Walters tTHF. ARTS OF JAPAN. Edward Dillon JEWELLERY. Cyril Davenport CHRIST IN ART. Mrs. H. Jenner OUR LADY IN ART. Mrs. H. Jenner CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM. H. Jenner ENAMELS. Mrs. Nelson Dawson ENGLISH FURNITURE. Egan Mew MINIATURES. Cyril Davenport ARTISTS ROMNEY. George Paston DURER. L. Jessie Allen REYNOLDS. J. Sime. Second Edition WATTS. Miss R. E. D. Sketchley HOPPNER. H. P. K. Skipton TURNER. Frances Tyrrell-Gill BURNE-JONES. Fortunes de Lisle. Second Edition LEIGHTON. Alice Corkran REMBRANDT. Mrs. E. A. Sharp VELASQUEZ. Wilfrid Wilberforce and A. R. Gilbert VANDYCK. M. G. Smallwood HOLBEIN. Beatrice Fortescue COROT. Ethel Birnstingl and Mrs. A. Pollard MILLET. Netta Peacock GREUZE AND BOUCHER. Eliza F. Pollard RAPHAEL. A. R. Dryhurst CLAUDE. E. Dillon CONSTABLE. Herbert W. Tompkins CONSTABLE BY HERBERT W. TOMPKINS AUTHOR OF “A LITTLE GUIDE TO HERTFORDSHIRE ETC. WITH FORTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS SECOND EDITION METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET, W.C. LONDON First Published .... October, IQ07 Second Edition .... igo8 CONTENTS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY Reynolds and Hazlitt quoted — Landscape Art — In Greece — In Europe — In England — Richard Wilson — Thomas Gains- borough — John Crome — Thomas Girtin — J. M. W. Turner — John Varley — Peter de Wint — David Cox — “A Natural Painter” ..... page i CHAPTER II EARLY DAYS The Constables — Schools — John Dunthorne — Sir George Beaumont at Dedham — The miller — Essays in Art — London — John Thomas Smith — Further Essays — Portraits and characteristics — Student at the Royal Academy — Visits Ipswich — Scarcity of his Ipswich pictures . . . . . . 15 CHAPTER III EARLY PICTURES Progress — Helmingham Park — Drawings — Visit to Derbyshire — Rathbone Place — Anatomy — First exhibited picture — Benjamin West — Dr. Fisher — Voyage to Deal in the Coutts — Exhibits four pictures in 1803 — Assurance of success . . 28 CHAPTER IV TRANSITION Lack of correspondence — Altar-piece at Brantham and at Nay- land — Ramble in the Lake District — Exhibits “ H.M.S. Victory,” etc. — Visits Birmingham and paints portraits — Some small oils — “Church Porch, Bergholt” — Changes in method . . . . . . 38 A a VI CONSTABLE CHAPTER V LOVE AND MARRIAGE Maria Bicknell — Dr. Durand Rhudde — A letter — Much advice — Stothard and Fisher — More letters — More portraits — The “Reynolds” Dinner and Exhibition — Meeting with Turner — Ramble in Essex-“-Renewed study of Landscape — Sells two pictures — Loss of parents — Miss Bicknell’s consent — Marriage . . Pcige 49 CHAPTER VI SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES Constable’s favourite scenery — Development of style — “Boat- building near Flatford Mill” — “ Flatford Mill on the River Stour ’’—“The White Horse” — “Stratford Mill on the River Stour” — “The Hay Wain” — “The Leaping Horse” — “The Cornfield” — “ The Glebe Farm ” . . . 61 CHAPTER VII WANDERINGS AND CHARACTERISTICS Tour with Fisher — Sketches — At Salisbury — Salisbury pictures— The Wretched Read — “Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden ” — Gillingham — Cole-Orton Hall — The Reynolds Cenotaph — Brighton — A reminiscence of Redhill — London diversions — Woodmanstone — Brighton again — Hamp- stead activities — Illness of Mrs. Constable--An abiding sorrow — A legacy— Royal Academician . . . 78 CHAPTER VIII CONSTABLE AND LUCAS A great project— Homeliness of subjects— Preliminary difficulties — Mr. Constable's English Landscape — Changes of plan — The final choice — Some characteristic plates— Contemporary work and recreation— A second series — Conjectures and ap- preciation — Discouragements — Limited popularity — An ex- planation . . . . ... 95 CONTENTS vii CHAPTER IX LAST PICTURES AND DEATH Illness — Politics — In the Studio — Love of family — Hampstead pictures — “The Opening of Waterloo Bridge” — A Turner anecdote — Berkshire drawings — A Lecture at Hampstead — Death of Fisher, and of Dunthorne, jun. — Constable’s Country — First visit to Arundel and Petworth — Work in 1834 — Rambles in Sussex — Wicked Hammond’s House — Burn- ing of the Houses of Parliament — “Salisbury from the Meadows” — “The Valley Farm” — Visit to Worcester — “The Cenotaph” — “Arundel Mill and Castle” — Last Hours — Death — The Grave of Constable — Characteristics . page no CHAPTER X APPRECIATIONS A basis of criticism — Limitations of comparison— Some questions — Constable a great topographical artist— Methods and results — Unconventionality — Avoidance of imitation, especially of Turner — Ruskin on Constable’s defective draughtsmanship — Sketches, experimental and preparatory — Gradual change of style — Subject and treatment — Methods conducive of “in- evitableness” — Realist and Impressionist . . 132 LIST OF WORKS BY JOHN CONSTABLE, R. A. . 149 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . ... 17? INDEX • 175 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS JOHN CONSTABLE, DRAWN BY C. R. LESLIE Frontispiece PAGE DEDHAM MILL, ESSEX . . l6 APPROACH TO A BRIDGE . . 21 JOHN CONSTABLE AT THE AGE OF TWENTY, BY DANIEL GARDNER . . 23 PORTRAIT OF CONSTABLE, DRAWN BY HIMSELF . 24 BENTLEY, SUFFOLK . . 26 STUDY FROM NUDE MALE FIGURE . 30 VIEW OF HOUSE IN WHICH ARTIST WAS BORN . 45 CHURCH PORCH, BERGHOLT . . 46 FOLKESTONE HARBOUR . . • • 55 BOAT-BUILDING NEAR FLATFORD MILL . . 63 FLATFORD MILL ON THE RIVER STOUR . . 66 THE HAY WAIN . . . 70 STUDY OF SKY AND TREES . . 71 STUDY OF CLOUDS . . ... 72 THE LEAPING HORSE . . • • 73 THE CORNFIELD . . ... 74 THE GLEBE FARM . . ... 76 HARWICH : SEA AND LIGHTHOUSE . 78 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD . • • 79 CART AND TEAM . . 80 WATER MEADOWS NEAR SALISBURY . . 8 1 X CONSTABLE PAGE SALISBURY CATHEDRAL FROM THE BISHOP’S GARDEN 83 THE BRIDGE AT GILLINGHAM . . . 84 THE ENTRANCE INTO GILLINGHAM . 85 WATER MILL AT GILLINGHAM . 86 THE GLEANERS . . ... 87 STOKE-BY-NAYLAND '. . . . 89 A COUNTRY ROAD WITH COTTAGES AND FIGURES . 90 HAMPSTEAD HEATH . . 92 THEAL, BERKSHIRE . . . . 115 VIEW AT HAMPSTEAD . . . Il6 OLD SARUM . . . . 1 18 STOKE POGES CHURCH . . . . II9 DESIGN FOR GRAY’S “ELEGY” . . . 121 TREES NEAR HAMPSTEAD CHURCH . . . 122 THE VALLEY FARM . . . 1 24 WORCESTER AS SEEN FROM THE NORTH . .126 THE CENOTAPH . . ... 127 LITTLEHAMPTON . . . . 1 38 I44 A LOCK PREFACE RITTEN as a handbook rather than as a biography, and concerned with the artist rather than the man, this volume follows no strictly chronological arrangement. The story of Constable’s life was told in detail, once for all, by C. R. Leslie, whose Memoirs of the Life of fohn Constable , R.A . , was first published in 1843. But whilst biography is largely con- cerned with facts, the Little Books on Art are largely concerned with criticism ; they are necessarily influenced, though not wholly con- trolled, by individual prejudice and taste. Our opinions are modified as the lengthening annals of Art provide fresh standards of comparison. Hence, while it is difficult to say anything new concerning Constable, there is still much to say regarding his place in the domain of Art, and it is hoped that this book may prove fresh and suggestive. The writer desires to thank Mr. James Orrock, r.i., and Mr. Thomas J. Barrett for xii CONSTABLE kindly affording* him access to their treasures, and Mr. John J. Culley for assistance in com- piling the list of paintings, drawings, and sketches at South Kensington. Nor can he omit to record his gratitude to the attendants in the Print Room at the British Museum, to whose unfailing courtesy he is so deeply indebted. “Verulam,” W. T. SOUTHCHURCH, Essex. CONSTABLE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY Reynolds and Hazlitt quoted — Landscape art in Greece — In Europe — In England — Richard Wilson — Thomas Gainsborough — John Crome — Thomas Girtin — J. M. W. Turner — John Varley — Peter de Wint — David Cox — “A Natural Painter.” “ ' I 'HE beginning, the middle, and the end JL of everything that invaluable in taste is comprised in the knowledge of what is truly nature ; for whatever notions are not conform- able to those of nature, or universal opinion, must be considered as more or less capricious. ,, So spoke Sir Joshua Reynolds on December ioth, 1776, when John Constable lay in his cradle, an infant six months old. Reynolds would assuredly have been gratified could he have foreseen how great an exponent of the principles thus enunciated the child was to be- come. In the same discourse he showed the B 2 CONSTABLE students of the Royal Academy how compre- hensive was his interpretation of the word “nature,” and did so in words to which Con- stable would perhaps have taken exception. I have quoted this dictum from Reynolds be- cause it in part expresses the principles that inspired and controlled “the beginning, the middle, and the end ” of the art of Constable. Hazlitt, with habitual lucidity and conciseness, expressed similar doctrine when Constable was at the zenith of his powers. “There is nothing fine in art but what is taken immediately, and, as it were, in the mass, from what is finer in nature. Where there have been the finest models in nature, there have been the finest works of art.” The student of art may be likened to one who surveys an extensive landscape — who can see clearly the trees near by, but cannot gauge their relative height or appreciate the full beauty of their configuration. For such purposes he selects trees farther off, whose superficial charac- teristics, however, are in part blurred by the chiaroscuro of Nature. Similarly, our know- ledge of an artist’s work may be intimate and personal while he stands near us as a contem- porary, but our estimate of its worth can only be provisional. Our successors, from a greater INTRODUCTORY 3 distance, must appraise its merits and assign the artist his niche in the Temple of Fame. But time passes ; the artist’s pictures are scat- tered among families and in the galleries of the world, and knowledge of the environment in w T hich he worked grows fainter with each suc- ceeding generation. Hence, as it seems to me, we criticise prematurely when we pronounce judgment on recent art, and vaguely when we do so on the art of remote antiquity. In art, as in so much else, the best understood periods lie between the extremes of time. Constable stands between an old and a new world. His work has neither the glamour of novelty nor the halo of age. Moreover, it is more accessible than the work of many others. The greater half of his pictures may be studied during a ramble in London. Several master- pieces are at the National Gallery ; many sketches are in the Print Room at the British Museum ; a large collection of paintings, sketches, and drawings, illustrating the whole range of his art, fills a room at South Ken- sington. Two generations of artists have lived and died since Constable painted, and the interval is sufficient to help us when we essay to measure his merits. That his merits are great is not now disputed. It is acknowledged, 4 CONSTABLE for instance, that although there have been greater artists in England, the influence of Constable on his successors has been wider than that of any other English landscape painter. To neglect his work is dangerous, for he stands for much. As the student of portrait painting cannot ignore Reynolds, so the student of landscape painting cannot ignore Constable. Landscape painting is, comparatively speak- ing, a young art in an old world. No “land- scape,” as we now understand the term, was depicted on the walls of Egypt or Babylonia or Nineveh. Even the Greek, in all his manifesta- tions of the artistic sense, groped here ten- tatively ; during the age of Polygnotos of Thasos, four centuries before Christ, he essayed only the rudiments of landscape ac- cessories on those vases we now prize so highly. Polygnotos adorned the Lesche at Delphi with representations of the destruc- tion of Troy and a vision of Hades ; and in these, as we infer from Pausanias, landscape detail w^as crudely symbolised rather than de- lineated. Hypothesis often leads astray, and it is difficult to surmise how the Greek might have painted landscape had he essayed the task more zealously. As it was, his hand INTRODUCTORY 5 displayed little cunning in the depicting of landscape, even when he reared temples for eternity and shaped the exquisite proportions of the Aphrodite of Melos. Indeed, there are few traces of Greek landscape art earlier than the frescoes of Pompeii, executed under Roman influence and environment. Nor, in the long story of Etruscan art, do we find specialised effort devoted to the representation of landscape. Etrurian and Tuscan alike exer- cised their skill in the manifestation of saint and devil rather than grove or field, seldom essaying more than decorative details — such as the birds and trees which they painted on the walls of Tarquinii. In other lands, and in far later days, the story is repeated. To understand how modern is the synthetic exposition of landscape art we may consider, with Ruskin, the glaring fal- sities of Salvator Rosa and the limitations of Titian and Tintoret. Titian, indeed (1477- i 576), did much for the development of this branch of art ; a picture sent by him in 1552 to Philip II, is said to have been the earliest Italian “landscape” designated as such. More- over, apart from his landscapes so called, there are in his other works many vistas and not a few prospects of wide country, characterised 6 CONSTABLE both by precision and breadth, as in the “ Noli me tangere ” in our National Gallery, or the “ Venus Reposing ” in the Uffizi at Florence, with its strange, Claude-like sky. Perhaps the full value of Titian’s contributions to landscape art can hardly be appreciated unless we re- member that — as Mr. Dillon has pointed out in his volume on Claude — we can find no fully developed landscape until we meet those mar- vels of artistic handiwork — the illuminated manuscripts of the fifteenth century, so nearly synchronising with Titian’s own work. Pro- fessor Palgrave, indeed, in his essay on the Decli?ie of Art , considers that we find, in the work of Claude and Gaspar Poussin, the true beginnings of landscape art — “of landscape as an interest by and for itself, not treated as a background for man.” On the subsequent developments of land- scape painting in Europe this is no place to dwell. It was long ere those developments were appreciated and adopted in England — in fact, there was little worthy exercise of the art even in days immediately preceding Wilson, when Zuccarelli of Venice astonished the con- noisseurs of England with his slight but pleas- ing pictures of scenery — “ mere handicraft,” as they were once described by Hazlitt. It is INTRODUCTORY 7 Richard Wilson (1714-82) whom we now re- gard as our first English landscape painter. At the time of his birth, as long before, the more or less feeble imitation of Holbein and Vandyck, of Lely and Kneller, was almost the only road to success as a painter ; for collectors seldom found space for a landscape among the portraits of their ancestors. So prevalent was the taste for portraits, and so often, con- sequently, was the artist devoted to their pro- duction, that we search among our portrait painters for the beginnings of English land- scape art. Wilson was apprenticed to a por- trait painter named Wright, and for many years produced little save innumerable like- nesses. But the bent of his genius was irresistible. He turned more and more to the study and expression of landscape, composing, it is true, after the manner of Claude’s many imitators — placing a tree here and a temple there, in deference to the pseudo-classical pro- prieties, rather than sketching, for subsequent elaboration, such scenery as lay near at hand. But Wilson had something of his own to im- part too ; his fame as a landscape painter has been steadily rising ; and we have learned to appreciate his unruffled lakes and serene skies with a sincerity which recently found hearty 8 CONSTABLE utterance by the pen of Sir James D. Linton, in the first number of the Magazine of Fine Arts. Lovers of Wilson should compare that eulogium with the words of Constable, written when at the height of his powers, after a visit to a private gallery: “I recollect nothing so much as a large, solemn, bright, warm, fresh landscape by Wilson, which still swims in my brain like a delicious dream.” Born when Wilson was in his teens, Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) reversed the practice of his predecessor ; for, broadly speaking, he may be said to have commenced with land- scape and ended with portraiture. Whether he was — as Ruskin thought — the greatest colourist since Rubens or not, must remain a matter of dispute ; but we need only look attentively at his few pictures in the National Gallery to conclude that Ruskin had good grounds for his opinion. So lovingly had Gainsborough studied Nature that he made great advances in the reflection of mood. If he was indeed, as he has been called, the first of the Impres- sionists, he was hardly an Impressionist as the term is commonly understood. He strove to record the impressions that he received from Nature, and although, as the late William Sharp insisted, he did not paint trees with INTRODUCTORY 9 minute botanical fidelity, he nevertheless differentiated between tree and tree as perhaps no painter had ever done before — “ his beeches are beeches, his chestnuts are chestnuts, his oaks are oaks.” 1 In this, as in some other respects, the student will notice that the land- scapes of Gainsborough occupy a position between those of Wilson and those of Con- stable. The change from Wilson to Constable — say from “ Lake Nemi ” to “ The Cornfield/* — is not so startling if we glance at the “Land- scape near Cornard ” as we turn from the one to the other. Like Wilson, and like Constable afterwards, Gainsborough knew the Dutch Masters, and the disciples of Claude ; but he looked around in his own country for his land- scapes. Few critics now deny that he was the greatest artist who had thus far seriously turned his attention to the topographical por- trayal of England. The sale of the “Grove Scene, Carlingford,” in May, 1905, for so large a sum as three thousand guineas, and Mr. W. F. Dickes* recent volume on the Norwich School of Paint- ing have tended to revive public interest in 1 Ruskin in his Elements of Drawing , emphatically denies this. Readers acquainted with Gainsborough’s landscapes will form their own conclusions. 10 CONSTABLE John Crome (1768-1821). Moreover, as I write, there comes to hand Mr. H. S. Theo- bald’s able book on Crome’s Etchings, which should send many students to the etchings themselves at the British Museum. Crome’s love of landscape in and for itself is shown in all he painted, drew, sketched, or etched — it looks out upon us from his “ Mousehold Heath ” at the National Gallery, from “ On the skirts of the Forest,” at South Kensington, from his etchings of Norfolk scenes, so full of intricate bough-work, so faithful to a choice of subjects almost as homely as those of Mor- land. Largely contemporary with Constable, Crome was inspired by many similar influences. Constable, as we shall presently see, owed much to Hobbema, whose name, we are told, was uttered rapturously by Crome upon his death-bed. So far as I can trace, the two East Anglian artists knew little of one another’s work. This, at least, we know : their work was equally characterised by what Dawson Turner, in his Memoir prefixed to Crome’s Etchings of Views in Norfolk , wrote of as “a happy feeling for genuine, unsophisti- cated Nature.” How genuine, how heartfelt this love of Nature had become ere the eighteenth century INTRODUCTORY 1 1 closed is revealed in the work of every land- scape painter of the period. We see it, for instance, in the water-colour drawings of Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), whose “ Ruin of Kirkstall Abbey ” is brooded over by a peace and tranquillity which are even as “the gentlest of all gentle things.” The name of Girtin is important to us here ; for, as has been truly said, it is to the rise of the English water- colour painters that we look for the stream which “fed the genius of John Constable.” That Constable knew and admired Girtin’s work is matter of common knowledge ; more- over, in his first lecture at Hampstead, he attributed the revival of landscape painting in England to Wilson, Gainsborough, Cozens, and Girtin. Girtin, had he lived longer, might, as Ruskin admitted in the third volume of Modern Painters , have become a serious rival to Turner ; but he died almost in his youth, leaving a name and fame which may be coupled with the name and fame of Keats. A calm beauty, the beauty of Nature in her serener moods, was seldom absent from his mind and hand ; in this respect he differed widely not only from Constable, but from his friend and fellow-student, Turner. Dr. Munro displayed more shrewdness than was supposed when he 12 CONSTABLE refused to sell, for a small sum, a drawing by his pupil Girtin, which he regarded as worth a ten-pound note. Those who have lovingly pored upon that artist’s small water-colour vision of Totnes, where, behind the Dart, the church tower rises above trees into a serene sky, cannot fail to see how widely the art of landscape drawing was developed by Girtin. To write of Turner (1775-1851) is, as Mr. Lang has said in a different connexion, to hold a candle to the sun. Moreover, as a glance at the Turner bibliography will show, it is hardly necessary to write of him here. While Con- stable was fully sensible of the rare merits of his great contemporary — he thought the Venetian pictures by Turner fit to live and die with — they seem to have had little influence on his own theories or practice. The eighteenth century had yet some years to run when, as boys of nearly equal age, Turner rambled beside the Thames and Constable beside the Stour ; and when we think of their united work — so largely inspired, as we must suppose, by those early wanderings — we see how difficult it is to select two other English landscape artists whose genius can be compared with theirs. They uttered, so to say, the master- statement ; there is no “ Abingdon ” save that INTRODUCTORY 13 of Turner, no “ Stratford Mill” save that of Constable. “ Others abide our question ; they are free.” Three other names, however, must be men- tioned here. John Varley (1778-1842), Peter de Wint (1784-1849), and David Cox (1783- I 85g) were all giving expression to their ideas concerning landscape art when Constable seriously began life as an artist. Varley was copying Claude and Gaspar Poussin, or sketching in Hornsey Wood and elsewhere near London, when Constable was working in his father’s mills ; de Wint, chiefly known to many students by his fine landscapes at Kensington, was the author of water-colour sketches which for “freshness, purity, and strength have never been surpassed ” ; but the great range and technical excellence of Cox’s many paintings and drawings have made him far more widely appreciated than either of his contemporaries. The depth of his appeal to our English tastes may be gauged by all who know and love his drawings in the British Museum, and in the Ionides Collection at Kensington. The cattle in lush midland pas- tures ; haymakers in the summer fields ; anglers beside quiet, rush-fringed streams ; wind-driven boats labouring in choppy seas ; Dryslwyn 14 CONSTABLE Castle, rising against a background of purple hills and mellow sky ; the homely water-mill in North Wales ; the ruins of Bolton Abbey : these appeal to us with directness and force not always attained by even greater artists. Constable died some years before Varley, de Wint, or Cox ; and with their work, as a whole, he was imperfectly acquainted. The revolt against classical composition in land- scape was already far more complete than he knew, when, in May, 1802, he wrote to his friend Dunthorne, “ There is little or nothing in the exhibition worth looking up to. There is room for a natural painter.” In the follow- ing chapters I shall try to show how Constable became a great painter of Nature, and how he helped to fill that void which he had himself discovered. CHAPTER II EARLY DAYS The Constables — Schools — John Dunthorne — Sir George Beaumont at Dedham — The miller — Essays in Art — London — John Thomas Smith — Further essays — Por- traits and characteristics — Student at the Royal Academy — Visits Ipswich — Scarcity of his Ipswich pictures. J OHN CONSTABLE was born at East Bergholt, in Suffolk, on nth June, 1776, A frail infant, he was not expected to live, so was baptised, on the day of his birth, in the parish church of St. Mary. His father, Golding Constable, had passed his early life at Bures St. Mary, in the same county; in 1774 he removed to East Bergholt, and built there the substantial house of red brick made familiar to us by the pencil of his son. His wife, Ann Watts, bore him three sons — of whom John was the second — and three daughters ; she was a woman of sterling character, very solicitous for the honour and welfare of her children. Southwards, about a mile from Golding Constable's house, the Stour winds 15 1 6 CONSTABLE its erratic course from west to east ; two water- mills upon its banks — one at Dedham and one at Flatford — were his property ; two windmills in the immediate neighbourhood were his also. The miller’s house was untenanted when, in 1840, Leslie visited Flatford and East Bergholt ; it was demolished many years ago. The little that we know of Constable’s boy- hood may be summarised in a paragraph. No stories of infant precocity are recorded for our wonder ; nor have we any evidence that, while yet a boy, he could draw more skilfully than his companions. He was sent to the old Grammar School at Lavenham, where he suffered so severely at the hands of a “ flogging usher ” that he cherished thoughts of revenge long afterwards, but did not, apparently, win any distinction as a scholar. The school was in Lady Street ; its last master, Augustus Ambler, died in 1887, and the buildings, con- verted into a factory, still stand. From Laven- ham, Constable was removed to the kinder atmosphere, nearer home, of the Grammar School at Dedham, then under the control of Dr. Grimwood. Of his studies we know hardly anything ; he acquired a little Latin, he re- ceived some private lessons in French, and was considered a good penman — an opinion South IS? u s lut EARLY DAYS 17 sufficiently justified by many brief memoranda of time and place scribbled on his sketches and drawings. There lived, in a cottage near Golding Constable’s house, a plumber and glazier named John Dunthorne. Dunthorne was a young man of considerable artistic gifts, and was at least a persevering sketcher and painter of landscape scenery. Similarity of tastes bred a close friendship between Constable and Dunthorne, a friendship destined to be life- long. The miller seems to have had no objec- tion to his son’s study of art in the open air, nor to the friendship with Dunthorne, but he cherished hopes that John might enter the Church, and had no desire that his son should devote his life to the painting of pictures. So the two young men studied and sketched to- gether during their leisure hours, sometimes in Dunthorne’s cottage, sometimes in a room in the village which they hired as a rude studio, but more often in the fields and lanes of the neighbourhood, or beside the Stour at Dedham or Flatford. There are still folk at East Bergholt who can remember pictures painted by Constable in those early days ; these are now, I believe, almost entirely dispersed or lost ; and I may here mention that a sepia c 1 8 CONSTABLE “ Study after Claude/’ executed in 1795, 1S the earliest dated work by Constable known to Mr. C. J. Holmes. To the work of Claude, destined largely to inspire his early pictures, Constable was intro- duced either before or soon after leaving school. He had copied, with pen and ink, several of Dorigny’s engravings from the cartoons of Raphael, and these copies had been seen and admired by Sir George Beaumont, who some- times visited at Dedham, where his mother resided. Mrs. Constable obtained for her son an introduction to Sir George, and at the house of the Dowager Lady Beaumont a picture by Claude was first seen by Constable. This was the well-known “ Annunciation,” afterwards called “The Angel appearing to Hagar,” so greatly esteemed by Sir George that he was wont to carry it with him from place to place. At Dedham, too, Constable first saw a collec- tion of water-colour drawings by Girtin, and, as we may well suppose, learned the useful lesson that the love of Nature must go hand in hand with technical skill in the delineation of her charms. Sir George, himself a better critic than artist, urged Constable to study these drawings carefully, and pointed out their great “breadth and truth.” EARLY DAYS 19 Meanwhile, Golding* Constable continued to cherish the desire that his son should take Holy Orders. But John had shown no apti- tude or inclination for the necessary studies, and as his liking* for art grew stronger, de- spite the lack of sympathy at home, the wish was wisely relinquished, and Constable worked for some time in his father’s mills. I have talked with an old man who remembered hear- ing how John and his younger brother Abram worked together in the mill at Dedham ; they seem to have worked also at Flatford, and in the two windmills. One of the latter stood on East Bergholt Common ; it figures in the en- graving entitled “Spring,” in the “English Landscape ” series by David Lucas. On one of its timbers there still remained, after the artist’s death, a carving of the mill in outline, executed with a penknife and signed “John Constable, 1792.” The mill has long since gone the way of many others. Wise after the event, we can see that Con- stable was not to be readily turned from his purpose. He practised his art diligently — so diligently that he acquired rapidity of execu- tion, and, if local stories may be trusted, he drew and sketched from every point of view some miles around his home. Mr. Arthur 20 CONSTABLE Chamberlain is probably correct when he tells us that Constable “knew’ by heart every part of the country in the immediate neighbourhood of Bergholt and Flatford. Every reach of the willow T -fringed river Stour was stored in his brain, down to the smallest details ; every tree in the fields and lanes round his father’s mills had been studied until he could draw each one from memory.” As will be seen, this love for his native scenes never forsook him, even when he was at liberty to wander where he pleased. His entire pictures of the valley of the Stour must have numbered many hundreds. Even to-day, the remnant of such still known to us justify the statement that hardly any other English landscape artist has left to posterity so many illustrations of his native county. Gainsborough, probably enough, was his equal in industry when, as a mere boy, he rambled and sketched in the woodlands and by the riverside near Sudbury ; but the early work of Gainsborough is almost wholly lost, nor did he return from time to time to sketch in Suffolk as Constable did more than half a century later. At length, in 1795, Constable obtained his father’s permission to visit London, and there ascertain “what might be his chance of suc- cess as a painter.” Provided, by a lady friend, approach to a bridge Etching. British Museum 21 EARLY DAYS with a letter of introduction to Farington, Constable came to London when Varley and Girtin and Turner were making those sketches which we now pore upon so lovingly ; but he does not appear to have met any one of the three artists at that time. Farrington, we are assured, received him kindly, foretold his success, and predicted that his style would presently form a distinct feature in landscape art. Few predictions have been so completely verified in the course of time. Whilst in London, Constable became ac- quainted with John Thomas Smith, a draughts- man and engraver, author of a Life of Nol - lekensy and subsequently Keeper of Prints at the British Museum. This friendship elicited much good feeling on both sides ; a corre- spondence ensued, and Smith seems to have given Constable some serviceable advice. He cautioned him, for instance, not to create figures by the mere exercise of fancy and then introduce them into actual landscape scenery — advice which, in the main, see*ms to have been followed with unusual fidelity, for the figures in Constable’s landscapes are invariably such as he might have seen upon the spot at the time. From Smith he also learned something of the processes of etching, and the few etchings that 22 CONSTABLE have been traced to his hand were probably the outcome of this friendship. Constable, indeed, like a living statesman, seems to have had what Mr. John Morley has called “a genius for friendship,” as will be seen as this narrative progresses. Back at East Bergholt, and still without clear views as to his “ chance of success,” he wrote often to Smith, and some extracts from his letters are preserved by Leslie. These are now of great interest, for they help us to trace Constable’s progress in the theory and practice of art. We learn, from a letter dated 29th October, 1796, that he had carried home from town Leonardo’s Treatise on Painting and one of Algarotti’s many works — presumably that quoted by Reynolds in his eleventh Discourse — and he asks Smith to send him more books, particularly Gessner’s Essay on Landscape . His evenings, he wrote, were devoted to anatomy ; but landscape was still the master- passion, and he often adorned his letters with tiny sketches of cottages. Some of these were etched by Smith for a serial on which he was working, and Constable presently had occasion to thank his friend for kindly words of praise touching these efforts. Four such cottage scenes, drawn with pen and ink, are preserved PORTRAIT OF JOHN' CONSTABLE, R.A., AT THE AGE OF 20 By Daniel Gardner. South Kensington EARLY DAYS 23 at Kensington ; they are dated 1796, but are much larger than those sent to Smith. He was busy, too, with oils ; two pictures, which he named, “A Chymist,” and “An Alchymist,” are now apparently lost, but they were seen by Leslie, who thought they had little merit. Con- stable had to labour long and arduously before he mastered the difficulties of his art, and several years were yet to pass ere he painted any picture now prized as a proof of his genius. Meanwhile, some time during 1796, Con- stable’s portrait was drawn by Daniel Gardner ; the picture is now at Kensington and a repro- duction of it is given here. But the portrait in pencil, drawn by the artist’s own hand in 1801, and now in the National Portrait Gallery, gives a better idea of his appearance in the light of such descriptions as have come down to us. He was tall and strong, with regular features and keen, dark eyes, and sufficiently prepos- sessing to be known in the neighbourhood of his home as the “ handsome miller.” He was, however, somewhat reticent and retiring, and then, as in after life, was notable for the warmth of his friendships rather than for their number. To his parents he was ever a dutiful son ; and when, the year after his first return 24 CONSTABLE from London, his father lost the services of an old servant, he filled that servant’s place with a willingness very creditable to one whose aspirations lay in so different a direction. And yet, perhaps, this willingness was not un- mingled with a sadder spirit of resignation. Early in March he wrote to Smith : “I must now take your advice and attend to my father’s business . . . and now I see plainly that it will be my lot to walk through life in a path contrary to that in which my inclination would lead me.” This self-effacement, however, was destined to be but temporary. We do not know exactly how long he toiled in his father’s counting house ; but Golding Constable must have observed, with a father’s eye, his son’s sincere attachment to art, and some time in 1799 that son resumed his pencil “not again to lay it aside.” A few sketches still known to us are attributed to this period. One, an exterior of East Bergholt Church, is drawn with pen and water-colour ; another, similar in subject, is executed in oils, and was formerly in the possession of the artist’s second son, Captain Charles Constable. From this time Constable’s career as an artist was unbroken. On 4th February, 1799, he wrote from London, “ I am this morning EARLY DAYS 25 admitted a student at the Royal Academy ; the figure which I drew for admission was the Torso.” He hired rooms at No. 23 Cecil Street, Strand, close to Somerset House, where the Academy then held its exhibitions. He certainly worked hard to extend his know- ledge and improve his skill. He copied a “sweet little picture” by Ruysdael ; a small landscape by A. Caracci ; two landscapes by Wilson, and doubtless many others. More- over, it is probable that at this time he painted some picture or pictures intended for next year’s Exhibition, as he told Dunthorne that besides his copies he had done “some little things ” of his own ; but if he did so they were rejected. In the August of 1799 visited Ipswich, and was charmed with the surroundings of that old town. He thought it a delightful country for a painter, and fancied, as he him- self recorded, that he saw Gainsborough in every tree. The mention of Gainsborough is significant, for, although there is no actual evidence on the point, we must suppose that Constable had by this time seen many of Gains- borough’s paintings and sketches, if only be- cause several of his own drawings show un- mistakably the influence of the Master. There 26 CONSTABLE is, I think, no doubt that in most of Constable’s pencil drawings we can trace the influence of Gainsborough ; sometimes it is not very obvious, but — in however small degree — it is assuredly there. It would be easy to multiply illustrations, but one will suffice. Readers may compare Constable’s pencil drawing of a scene at Bentley in Suffolk, with the “ Pencil Sketch ” by Gainsborough, reproduced in a recent issue of the Studio from the original in the possession of Mr. C. Fairfax Murray. Except for such pictures as may be in private hands, and unknown to students generally, Constable’s artistic records of his first visit to Ipswich are lost. We can hardly doubt that he sketched much in a neighbourhood which he so warmly admired ; but it is remarkable that neither in 1799, nor at any subsequent period, did he make it the subject of a great painting. There are spots between Pin Mill and Ipswich which must have arrested the attention of one who was destined to paint “The Valley Farm” and “The Cenotaph”; but these, as well as the river-side from Shotley Gate to Ipswich, were only illustrated by him in some slight sketches, hardly any of which are referred to as characteristic work. The “On the Orwell,” engraved by Lucas, is no exception to this state- BENTLE'Y, SUFFLOk' Pencil Drawing. British Mns EARLY DAYS 27 ment, as although the plate was excellent from many standpoints, the subject was rejected as unsuitable for the “ English Landscape ” series, and was not published until after the death of Constable. CHAPTER III EARLY PICTURES Progress — Helmingham Park — Drawings — Visit to Derby- shire — Rathbone Place — Anatomy — First exhibited picture — Benjamin West — Dr. Fisher — Voyage to Deal in the Contts — Exhibits four pictures in 1803 — Assurance of success. HE year 1800 was an important one in the life of Constable. As we have seen, he had definitely begun his career as an artist ere that year dawned ; he was destined, ere it closed, to accomplish work which, however crude and tentative we regard it in the light of his subsequent art, was of promise sufficient to assure him of ultimate success, and to elicit praise from older and more experienced practi- tioners. What was perhaps even more essen- tial to his future welfare, he was this year much alone both in London and the country, and gained deeper insight than hitherto into the secrets of the art he loved. It may be true enough, as Aristotle assures us in the Nicomachean Ethics, that man is by nature a 28 EARLY PICTURES 29 social being, but it is equally true that the artist (I use the term in its widest sense) has ever found it needful to hold in check his gregarious propensities. Constable, in the year 1800, spent some weeks in the solitude of Helmingham Park, whence he wrote to Dunthorne one of the most interesting letters he ever penned. “Here I am quite alone, ” he wrote, “among the oaks and solitudes of Helmingham Park. I have taken quiet possession of the parson- age, finding it empty. A woman comes from the farmhouse, where I eat, and makes my bed, and I am at liberty to wander where I please during the day. There are abundance of fine trees of all sorts, and the park on the whole affords good objects rather than fine scenery. But I can hardly judge yet what I may have to show you. I have made one or two drawings that may be useful.” Two such drawings, dated late in July, were in Leslie’s possession ; these, despite some limitations incident to early work, showed “a true sense of the beautiful in composition.” A small oil painting, known as “The Harvest Field,” is thought to have been executed about this time. This picture, formerly in the collection of Captain Constable, I have not seen ; it is de- 30 CONSTABLE scribed by Mr. Holmes as i ‘in the manner of Gainsborough,” and was probably sketched from some field in the neighbourhood of Helm- ingham Park. To the same period we may also attribute the pencil drawing, “ A Woody Road with Peasant,” which changed owners in 1902. Constable was probably back in London when he drew, in black and white chalk, the carefully executed “ Study of the Nude Male Figure,” now at Kensington. The drawing is almost the only example of his studies from the nude preserved in any public gallery, nor do I think there are many such in private hands. Indeed, the human figure provides no very essential feature in his work as a whole. While too shrewd to ignore any subject con- ducive to the perfecting of his art, he devoted his greatest energies to the delineation of such scenery as had always appealed to him most strongly. This course, in the main, he had adopted even before he became a student at the Royal Academy. Hence his earlier draw- ings known to us are mostly of such objects as he afterwards introduced into his larger pictures — a boat, a cottage, a harvest field, a church porch, a farmhouse, a tree. He was always at heart a student of landscape and of EARLY PICTURES 31 landscape painting*, however alien his object of study might appear at any given moment. From memoranda preserved in one of his sketch-books, we know that Constable visited Derbyshire in 1801. A few sketches served as mementoes of that tour. Views of Haddon Hall, Chatsworth, and other spots were executed in pencil and wash ; two scenes near Bakewell, “smooth, thin, clever, ” were sketched in oils. If he wrote any journal at this time, it has apparently been lost. This is to be deplored. The tone and matter of his letters are usually admirable, and the jottings of so observant an artist, written by the wayside or at the inn, would certainly have proved interesting and of permanent value. As it is, we know little of Constable’s life during this year. His letters tell us that he moved to No. 50 Rathbone Place, that he rented three large rooms, not without an artist’s regard for their lighting, and, having established his easel in a suitable position, resolved to keep “more to himself” — a resolution which he duly chronicled in a letter to Dunthorne. He was more grimly in earnest than before, and his earnestness soon bore fruit. As a student at the Royal Academy, Con- stable had now free access to the lectures by 32 CONSTABLE Brookes at the Anatomical Theatre. From these, by his own admission, he derived great benefit. He deemed anatomy a sublime study, the more so as it points to the “divine archi- tect ” of the human frame ; and most of his anatomical drawings were perhaps destroyed because he thought them unworthy records of such studies. The subject was fraught with lessons far other than artistic. From his letters we infer that he contemplated with wonder the consummate perfections of the ideal human figure, and was deeply grieved with the sin- marred lineaments of some of his fellow- students, whom, in a letter to Dunthorne, he likened to “ reprobates.” Fortunately, his own record is clean, and the biographer of Constable finds no chapters which must be left unwritten, no letters which he need ignore, no stories which he need hesitate to repeat. After several unsuccessful attempts, as we have reason to suppose, Constable first ex- hibited a picture in the Royal Academy Exhibi- tion of 1802. It bore the title “Landscape”; but nothing is recorded as to its merits or de- merits, nor have I been able to trace its present owner. Possibly, indeed, the picture is now lost — hanging in some humble cottage home whose inmates appreciate its beauties but have EARLY PICTURES 33 no knowledge of its worth. The year brought with it other issues of importance, with much kindly advice and proffered assistance. Two instances of this must be noticed here. Benjamin West was at this time President of the Royal Academy. West was an American, with a keen eye for merit from whatever quarter it might come. In 1801, Constable had painted a view of Flatford Mill — “ his first carefully considered picture,” as William Sharp puts it, and had sent it to the Exhibition. The picture was rejected ; but West noticed its good points, and spoke of it to Constable in words which must have been as music to the artist’s ear. Said West, “ You are not to be disheartened by the rejection of your picture, for you must have loved Nature very much before you painted this, and we shall hear of you again.” He then gave Constable, as he afterwards gave John Linnell, some really serviceable advice. He demonstrated, with a piece of chalk, the defects of the picture, and showed how its chiaroscuro might be improved. He urged Constable to remember that light and shadow never stand still ; to keep in mind an object’s prevailing character rather than its accidental appearance ; to impart brightness to his skies; and to render his darks ‘Mike the D 34 CONSTABLE darks of silver, not of lead or slate.” All who know Constable’s most characteristic land- scapes know that West’s advice did not fall upon deaf ears. From West, presently, Constable sought advice on a more mundane topic. In the spring of 1802, Dr. Fisher, Rector of Lang- ham, and afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, pro- cured for his young friend a situation as drawing-master, thinking, naturally enough, that regular employment for his artistic gifts would keep his mind free from anxiety. But Constable, who was more busily employed than Fisher knew, was not anxious to lay aside his studies for such journeyman work. He con- sulted West, and was pleased when the kindly President advised him to decline the offer. Fisher, however, was an old friend, and Con- stable felt reluctant to pain him by refusing his kind offices ; so West consented to act as mediator, and the situation was eventually de- clined without offence. How strongly Con- stable felt at this juncture may be gathered from the tone of his letter to Dunthorne. The acceptance of a situation as drawing-master would, he wrote, be a 4 4 death blow to all my prospects of perfection in the art I love.” Early in 1803, Constable made a voyage to EARLY PICTURES 35 Deal in an East Indiaman. The vessel was named the Coutts , and a friend of his father was her captain. The story of that voyage must be told in his own words, for his letter to Dunthorne, dated 23rd May, is the only record we have. “ I was near a month on board,” he wrote, “ and was much employed in making drawings of ships in all situations. I saw all sorts of weather. . . . When the ship was at Gravesend, I took a walk on shore to Rochester and Chatham. . . . Rochester Castle is one of the most romantic I ever saw. At Chatham I hired a boat to see the Men of War, of which there were great numbers. I sketched the Victory in three views. She was the flower of the flock, a three-decker of (some say) 112 guns. . . . On my return to Rochester I made a drawing of the Cathedral, which is in some parts very picturesque and is of Saxon archi- tecture. I joined the ship again at Gravesend, and we proceeded on our voyage, which was pleasant enough till we got out to sea, when we were joined by three more large ships. We had almost reached the Downs when the weather became stormy, and we all put back in the North Foreland and lay there three days. I came on shore at Deal, walked to Dover, and the next day returned to London. 36 CONSTABLE The worst part of the story is that I have lost all my drawings. The ship was such a scene of confusion when I left her, that although I had done my drawings up very carefully, I left them behind. When I found, on landing, that I had left them, and saw the ship out of reach, I was ready to faint. I hope, however, I may see them again some time or other.” His hope was realised, for, as Leslie records, he sub- sequently recovered his lost treasures. He was again successful as an exhibitor this year, four of his pictures being accepted by the Hanging Committee. Two of these were “Landscapes”; the other two “Studies from Nature.” He had learned that skill and perseverance were necessary to the would-be exhibitor ; he had yet to learn that to exhibit pictures was not necessarily to become famous at a bound. He had acknowledged, in a letter to Dunthorne, penned shortly before, that he was not free from the vices of imitation ; he had gone to pictures for inspiration instead of to Nature, and was in danger of forfeiting the advantages of his earlier schooling in the fields and lanes of his native county. But, although coming short of his own ideals, he was yet sufficiently gratified with his progress as to feel sure of ultimate success. He felt that he EARLY PICTURES 37 would yet execute works which posterity would cherish, although he himself might reap little material benefit from them. Meanwhile, he enriched his own collection by the purchase of some prints and drawings by Waterloo, and of two small landscapes by Gaspar Poussin. He was now, in leisure as in business, always an artist, and a seeker after such treasures as artists love. CHAPTER IV TRANSITION Lack of correspondence — Altar-piece at Brantham, and at Nayland — Ramble in the Lake District — Exhibits “ H. M.S. Victory, ” etc. — Visits Birmingham and paints portraits — Some small oils — “Church Porch, Bergholt” — Changes in method. SLIE records that he could trace no letters, either to or from Constable, during the years 1804-7. From Leslie’s Memoirs we de- rive most of our knowledge of Constable’s life, and where Leslie is silent those who follow him can say but little. We have, however, now reached a period when our interest in the man pales before our interest in his w^ork, and where w r e fail to see the artist it is still possible to pursue the story of his art. Constable had no picture in the Royal Academy in 1804. But to that year is assigned his “ Sketch in a Wood,” a study in oils, now at South Kensington. It is, I think, notice- able for a certain freedom in execution some- what disconcerting to the student who may TRANSITION 39 pore upon it for instruction. A pencil drawing, entitled “Park Scene with Trees, " now in private hands, was also executed about the same time. In 1804, moreover, Constable painted an altar-piece. The subject chosen was “Christ Blessing Little Children " — a subject of infinite possibilities, as the artist doubtless perceived readily enough. Originally placed over the altar, in the Church of St. Michael at Bran- tham in Suffolk, the painting now hangs over the south doorway in the same church, and is naturally prized by the men of Brantham. It depicts Christ with a child on His left arm ; an older child stands in the foreground ; the re- maining figures are perhaps grandsire, sire, mother, and two grown sisters. The painting has elicited much unfavourable comment. Mr. Holmes finds in it “a feeble imitation of West's religious works"; Leslie thought that while the arrangement of the masses was good it had “no other merit." One lady, indeed, thought so highly of it that she felt assured of the artist's ultimate success — but she was his mother. The figure on the extreme right of the canvas was painted from a lady once well known in the neighbourhood of Brantham ; her niece had promised to write down some 40 CONSTABLE incidents touching the composition of the picture, but she died with the promise unful- filled. Only once again did Constable paint an altar-piece — that now in Nayland Church, within a short ramble from East Bergholt. This, representing Christ blessing the cup, was praised, as a whole, by Constable’s maternal uncle, David Pike Watts. Watts, however, subsequently dissected its demerits, and did so in twenty-five separate and searching criticisms. He came to praise, and remained to blame. But Watts did Constable a more substantial service, which it is only fair to record. Having, in 1805, exhibited a moon-lit landscape at the Royal Academy, and painted the picture en- titled “ On Barnes Common,” now in the National Gallery, Constable once again looked about him for freshness of subject and experi- ence, and during the following year he decided to visit the English Lakes. The journey was undertaken by Watts’ advice and at his ex- pense ; it was prolonged during about two months, and provided many subjects for sketches. Some, executed in water-colour, are now esteemed more highly than Constable’s later sketches in the same medium ; but few considerable pictures were ever painted from them, and they remain the chief record of what TRANSITION 41 was doubtless a delightful tour. His footsteps may in part be traced by the titles of his sketches. We trace the artist from Kendal to Thirlmere ; in the Vale of St. John ; at Kes- wick ; at Borrowdale ; in the Langdale Valley. He loitered in the neighbourhood of Borrow- dale about three weeks, sketching frequently. Some of those sketches are at South Kensing- ton ; one of them (No. 182) is chosen by Lord Windsor as a typical example of Constable’s best work in water-colour. Constable’s sketches in the Lake District were hardly faithful to the scenes which they portrayed. His love of chiaroscuro for its own sake here carried him somewhat out of bounds, and the atmosphere of his sketches was cer- tainly foreign to the mist-shrouded scenes which inspired them. Such scenery did not appeal to him so strongly as the scenery of Suffolk, and this perhaps explains why, although he sketched it from so many stand- points, those sketches were obviously regarded by him merely as studies, without thought of subsequent elaboration. This journey, how- ever, furnished the subjects of some small pictures exhibited by the artist subsequently. A previous sketch provided Constable with material for his picture for this year’s Exhibi- 42 CONSTABLE tion. We have seen that among his sketches executed during his voyage in the Contis, were three of the Victory . The subject had ap- pealed to him strongly. He knew a Suffolk man who had fought at Trafalgar, and had heard him describe the battle as only warriors can ; and the recital led him to paint and exhibit the water-colour now at South Kensing- ton, entitled “H.M.S. Victory, in the Battle of Trafalgar, between two French Ships of the Line ” (No. 169). The vessels are sketched with sufficient boldness, and the picture must surely have appealed to Englishmen in 1806 ; but the subject was far different from any of those which he afterwards delineated with such incomparable skill. Constable was truer to his own taste and aspiration when he drew, during the same year, the four water-colour sketches of East Bergholt Church, now hang- ing near his “ H.M.S. Victory. ” Constable apparently visited Birmingham to- wards the end of 1806, but there are, I believe, no written records of his visit. He stayed awhile, we may suppose, with the family of bankers named Lloyd, several of whose portraits he painted, including “ Charles Lloyd, Esq.,” “Sophia Lloyd and Child,” and “James Lloyd.” His portrait of James Lloyd is re- TRANSITION 43 produced in Mr. Arthur Chamberlain’s little monograph, and is perhaps as typical a speci- men of Constable’s portraits as could well be selected. The artist had from time to time experimented in this difficult branch of art ; but while his portraits seem to have given satisfaction to his sitters, and were by others deemed faithful likenesses, they lacked that subtle reflection of character which is indispens- able, and is invariably present in the work of master portrait-painters — from Titian to Rembrandt, from Van Dyck to Gainsborough, from Reynolds to Watts. Other portraits by Constable are in the possession of Mr. W. Cuthbert Quilter ; these include likenesses of Golding and Abram Constable, and of the artist’s sisters, Ann and Mary. Doubtless these have at least the merit of fidelity, and are valuable accordingly ; the likeness of Golding Constable is that of a man in whom integrity and kindness are blended, and suffi- ciently accords with what we know of him from other sources. Several landscapes, preserved in our London galleries, were painted by Constable during this period. The student who would study Constable’s pictures in chronological order, and whose business keeps him in London, may 44 CONSTABLE begin with the small oil painting, entitled “On Barnes Common,” already mentioned, No. 1066 in the National Gallery. This, dated 1805, bears several of the artist’s most characteristic features, displayed on a canvas of less than a square foot. The National Gallery Catalogue describes it thus: “In the foreground, the banks of a rivulet with two children, one standing, the other seated. Beyond, the high road, along which a stage coach passes rapidly. More distant, a tall windmill, a cottage, and some trees. A cloudy sky.” It would be difficult to name another picture more typical of the artist’s choice of subject and methods of treatment at this early date. Such bona-fide portrayal of a commonplace scene, with but little attempt to idealise or reconstruct, was natural enough from the hands of an artist who declared that he could observe no “ handling ” in Nature, and the same may be said of the two contiguous but dissimilar little oils entitled respectively, “ View at Epsom ” and “ Dedham Vale,” with their bold, unconventional brush- work and disregard for the minutiae of draughts- manship. This latter subject was one to which he returned again and again — the winding Stour, the wooded slope, the open valley, the tower of Dedham Church in the middle 'ritish Art , Millban, TRANSITION 45 distance, the cloudy sky. This early “ Dedham Vale,” No. 1822 in the National Gallery, is dated 1809 ; it was probably painted about the same time as the “View of the House in which the Artist was Born,” now at Millbank. Here, again, the objects which go to the making of the picture are such as might be seen together at a thousand different spots in England. The house, a large, flat-faced structure, devoid of gable or turret — such a house as was common enough all over our country a century ago — is in the background of the picture ; in the fore- ground a hedgerow is indicated rather than delineated ; on the right, a broad road sweeps round sharply, heavily shaded by trees ; over all broods a serene sky — more serene than Constable was wont to depict, even at that period. Simple as it is, one feels that the picture has both atmosphere and sentiment, and that the artist could not have painted the scene with such directness of appeal had he loved it less. Indeed, Constable had by this time mastered, at least in part, those subtle technicalities of execution which enable the artist to impress upon his canvas not only the configuration of any particular scene but also its sentimental and spiritual associations. His “ Church 46 CONSTABLE Porch, Bergholt,” is an excellent illustration of this truth. Painted in 1811, it was presented by Miss Isabel Constable, in 1888, to the National Gallery of British Art, and is one of six pictures by Constable now exhibited in that fine national collection. It shows more than a trace of influence from the Dutchman, and is pervaded by an unmistakable feeling of quiet- ness — the quietness of early evening, when the setting sun throws shadows on church and pathway and tomb, and when village folk linger to chat in the little graveyard whose every headstone they know so well. It must have convinced his more critical contemporaries that Constable was destined to become an artist of wide range in the domain of land- scape, for it was in some respects an advance on previous work — an advance in a direction which had hitherto been but little attempted. We may, perhaps, regard it as an example of the truth that : Each might his several province well command, Would all but stoop to what they understand ; for assuredly Constable understood and loved such incidents of English life as that recorded so perfectly in this picture of a scene close to his own home. He must have known the churchyard of East Bergholt as he knew no CHURCH PORCH — BERGHOLT National Gallery of British Art , Millbank TRANSITION 47 other ; and had the wit to perceive that the simplest phase of life may be one that touches us all most nearly, and that the artist who can see no picture in the precincts of the church and of “ God’s acre ” is merely to be pitied. This subject — the porch of East Berg-holt Church — was one that had already greatly in- fluenced Constable’s theories and practices. It has been pointed out by Mr. Holmes that an earlier sketch (No. 138, at South Kensington) shows the change in style to which I have referred, but in the painting at Millbank the transition is far more obvious and complete. “ The monochrome foundation,” writes Mr. Holmes, “ still remains, but it has become quite subordinate to the exquisite colour of gray walls, deep grass, and dark foliage lighted by a quiet evening glow. Nature and Art at last seem reconciled, and henceforth Constable’s work proceeds without any hesitation in a straightforward and definite course.” Of this principle of a monochrome foundation, sub- sequently toned, modified and enriched by the super-imposition of more natural colour, the artist had learned much from Reynolds ; and had profited greatly thereby. For Constable — like Milton among poets, and like Mr. Lang among our living essayists — could study models 48 CONSTABLE without detriment to his own originality. What went in Hobbema or Ruysdael or Wilson came out Constable, and we may well believe that even the comparative drudgery of copying, undertaken at the suggestion of early patrons, such as the Earl of Dysart, was almost wholly beneficial. Constable’s habits and manner of life were beneficial too ; for he seems to have shunned all forms of intemperance, to have husbanded his scanty funds with care, to have dressed simply, and to have cultivated a cheerful dis- position. He knew, among other artists, Stot- hard, Wilkie, and Jackson, and was now a regular exhibitor. He loved music, and was considered shrewd and entertaining in con- versation. He was not, however, so robust in health as he could have wdshed, and this, by those who knew him best, was attributed to the fact that he had fallen in love, and that the course of his love did not promise to run smoothly. CHAPTER V LOVE AND MARRIAGE Maria Bicknell — Dr. Durand Rhudde — A letter — Much advice — Stothard and Fisher — More letters — More por- traits — The “Reynolds” Dinner and Exhibition — Meet- ing with Turner — Ramble in Essex — Renewed study of Landscape — Sells two pictures — Loss of parents — Miss Bicknell’s consent — Marriage. S OME time during the year 1800, when Constable was twenty-four years old, a little girl came on a visit to East Bergholt. She came at the invitation of her maternal grandfather, Dr. Durand Rhudde, for many years rector of East Bergholt, and of Brantham hard by. The child’s name was Maria Bicknell ; her father, Charles Bicknell, was Solicitor to the Admiralty, and resided in Spring Gardens, London. The visit to East Bergholt Rectory was several times repeated, and Maria Bicknell became thereby acquainted with John Con- stable, who was destined, after very many days, to become her husband. Constable, so far as I can ascertain, had E 49 50 CONSTABLE known Maria Bicknell for about ten years before he seriously entertained any desire to make her his wife, and six years more were to elapse before he reached the consummation of his wishes. The young couple were met by many hindrances. Dr. Rhudde was known to have bequeathed a large sum to his grand- daughter Maria, but unfortunately it also be- came known that he did not wish her to marry Constable, an impecunious artist and a second son, and there were others who did not wish her to sacrifice her prospective fortune. Mr. Bicknell, indeed, seems to have been somewhat less mercenary than others, and certainly bore the artist no personal ill will ; but he would not consent to an engagement so long as Dr. Rhudde remained obdurate. When we further remember that Golding Constable had squab- bled — as the rumour ran — with Dr. Rhudde, and that his son John was believed to have executed a caricature of the rector, we may realise how great were the hindrances in the way. The story of Constable’s courtship and marriage may be read in the charming series of letters preserved in Leslie’s Memoirs . That story must be touched lightly here, for it has only an indirect interest for students of LOVE AND MARRIAGE 51 art. The first letter in that series is dated 2nd November, 1811. As it is an excellent specimen of the young lady’s epistolary style, I will quote it here. “My dear Sir, “You have grieved me exceedingly by the melancholy account you give of your health, and I shall feel much better satisfied when I know you are in Suffolk, where I do not doubt that good air, with the nursing and attention of your friends, will go a great way towards your recovery. I dare not suffer my- self to think on your last letter. I am very im- patient, as you may imagine, to hear from Papa, on the subject so fraught with interest to us both ; but was unwilling to delay writing to you, as you would be ignorant of the cause of such seeming inattention. I hope that you will not find that your kind partiality to me made you view what passed in Spring Gardens too favourably. You know my sentiments ; I shall be guided by my father in every respect. Should he acquiesce in my wishes, I shall be happier than I can express. If not, I shall have the consolation of reflecting that I am pleasing him, a charm that will in the end give the greatest satisfaction to my mind. I cannot 52 CONSTABLE write any more until the wished, but fearfully dreaded, letter arrives. With the most ardent wishes for your health, etc.” The ‘ 4 dreaded letter” reached Miss Bicknell two days later, as she subsequently told her lover. It proved both “ reasonable and kind,” and raised no objection to the match save on the score of “that necessary evil” — money. Again the very practical, level-headed young lady advised Constable to go down into Suffolk, as his health, she thought, could not fail to improve in his native air. But the letter con- cluded with a less palatable suggestion. If necessary, the correspondence had better cease. Constable would hear of no such yielding to adverse circumstances. He preferred to look upon their union as an event which “must happen.” He expressed this view in his next letter, and received a reply, almost chiding in tone, for his presumption in writing to her in such a strain. Miss Bicknell even urged Con- stable to forget that he had ever known her, and added, in unmistakable language, that under the circumstances it would be improper for him to send her any more letters. More- over, his father now urged him to defer any thought of marriage ; and to pay close atten- LOVE AND MARRIAGE 53 tion to his profession, especially to “such parts as pay best.” So widely different may be the temperament of the lover and the loved ; so utterly diverse the views of father and son as to what constitutes “success” in art. The letters to Miss Bicknell were continued, and were judiciously varied in character, con- taining other matters than those pertaining to the art of love. In 1812 Constable tells Miss Bicknell that he has sent four small pictures to Somerset House, including a “View of Salisbury ” and a “ Flatford Mill ” — which were ultimately accepted for exhibition ; and he promises to send her some account of the exhibition itself. What is more to our present point, he adds, “Let me beg of you to con- tinue to cheer my solitude with your endearing epistles ; they are next to seeing you, and hearing you speak.” Perhaps, however, his chief consolation at this time was his long walks with Stothard. The two artists would sometimes spend the entire day in the country, returning to town feeling little if at all fatigued. Stothard, indeed, was a born pedestrian, who never wore a greatcoat or rode in a hackney coach, and Constable was at least as enthusi- astic a searcher after the picturesque as that 54 CONSTABLE far different worthy — Dr. Syntax. Some further portrait painting also kept Constable busy. He painted Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury, uncle to a better-known nephew, John Fisher, the almost life-long friend of the artist ; and some other portraits which need not be enumerated. All these circumstances were duly related to Miss Bicknell, who showed no lack of interest in her lover’s doings. In one letter she asked what Constable was reading ; he replied that he had all Cowper on his table, that he read the Letters most frequently, and that he preferred him to almost any author, always feeling the better for a perusal of his works. A touching wistfulness pervaded a letter written at East Bergholt during June, 1812. 5C From the window where I am now writing I see all those sweet fields where we have passed so many happy hours together. I called at the Rectory on Saturday with my mother. The doctor (Dr. Rhudde) was unusually courteous, and shook hands with me on taking leave. Am I to argue from this that I am not entirely out of the pale of salvation ? ” The question received no direct reply, and matters still drifted on unsatisfactorily. In a letter to Miss Bicknell during the following September, Con- Water Colour D valuing. British Mu ; urn LOVE AND MARRIAGE 55 stable admitted that his landscape studies had been recently neglected, and added that he had not felt equal to such work. He mentioned that he was going to spend a few days at General Rebow’s, near Colchester, where he was to paint his host’s little girl, an only child. Leslie records that Constable’s friends now cherished the wish that love would make him a portrait painter. His mother, in particular, urged him not to neglect so favourable an opportunity of turning his love for art into a profitable channel. Even exemplary parents are sometimes unable to understand how an artist should care more for real excellence and lasting fame than for present and pecuniary profit. To subsequent letters to Miss Bicknell we owe our knowledge of some of the most interesting incidents in the artist’s life. During the summer of 1813 he was present at the dinner given by the directors of the British Institution, on the occasion of their great exhibition of the works of Reynolds ; at the exhibition itself he saw, among other celebri- ties, Mrs. Siddons and Lord Byron. On another occasion, he dined in the Council Room of the Royal Academy. 4 ‘ It was,” he wrote, “entirely a meeting of artists (none but 56 CONSTABLE the members and exhibitors could be ad- mitted), and the day passed off very well. I sat next to Turner, and opposite Mr. West and Lawrence. I was a good deal enter- tained with Turner. I always expected to find him what I did. He has a wonderful range of mind.” Time passed, and Constable’s love grew stronger. In 1814 he suggested a weekly correspondence with Miss Bicknell, but to this she would not agree ; she promised, however, to write as often as she could. Shortly after- wards, Constable visited the Rev. Mr. Driffield, at Feering, near Kelvedon — a parson who was formerly at East Bergholt, where he had christened John “one night, in great haste, about eleven o’clock.” The two friends set out for a ramble in Essex ; they saw Maldon, Rochford, South End (so written by everybody in Constable’s day), Hadleigh, Danbury, and other places. Like Stevenson on similar rambles, Constable carried with him a “little book,” in which he wrote and sketched hasty memoranda of places seen, and he records, with warmth of language, his admiration for the neighbourhood of Hadleigh Castle — of which more anon. Very naturally, he wrote to Miss Bicknell expressing the wish that he LOVE AND MARRIAGE 57 might have first visited these scenes in her company. He now returned to his landscape studies, more earnestly, and with better results than ever before, as will presently be seen. But all his thoughts were coloured by memories of one dearer to him than aught else. Again and again his letters show that Miss Bicknell was ever present with him in thought. “ I believe,” he once wrote at this time, “that we can do nothing worse than indulge in useless sensi- bility, but I can hardly tell you what I feel at the sight, from the window at which I am writing, of the fields in which we have so often walked. The calm autumnal setting sun is glowing on the gardens of the Rectory, and on those fields where some of the happiest hours of my life have been passed.” But indulgence in sentimentality, useless or otherwise, did not prevent this year from being one of the busiest of his life, especially as regards his artistic fertility. Despite his anxiety touching the future course of his love, he acknowledged that he had passed a “ most delightful season.” He had studied and painted uninterruptedly, and worked with “steadiness and confidence.” No picture dating from this immediate period is in the National Gallery ; but a “ Willy Lott's 58 CONSTABLE House,” painted in 1814, is now at South Kensington (No. 166). Two pencil sketches, also in the same room, are views of Golding Constable’s house at East Bergholt ; both were drawn in 1814; one is dated, “Night, Octo- ber 2nd”; the other, “Day, October 3rd.” They hardly exemplify the artist’s finest work with the pencil. His "work with the brush at last received substantial recognition, for during this year he sold two landscapes, one to Mr. Carpenter and the other to Mr. Allnutt of Clapham, a con- noisseur and patron of art. The latter held views of his own as regards the painting of skies, and not quite appreciating the merits of Constable’s cloudland he employed Linnell to paint it out, and substitute another. He lived to regret the step, and Constable was suffi- ciently good-natured to restore his own sky at Mr. Allnutt’s request. Furthermore, Con- stable was anxious to show peculiar gratitude to his first patron, so he painted another small landscape of the same subject, and presented it to Allnutt. This incident was related by Allnutt himself in 1843. Mrs. Constable and Mrs. Bicknell both died in 1815 ; in the following year Golding Con- stable died also. These events produced a sort LOVE AND MARRIAGE 59 of crisis in the artist’s life ; and he felt that the moment had come to settle his domestic con- cerns on some permanent basis. He now wrote to Miss Bicknell that “the sooner they were married the better,” and she, in part at least, had come to the same conclusion. John Fisher, in a letter too long to quote and too characteristic to paraphrase, wrote that he intended to be in London in a few days, and would hold himself in readiness to marry his friend. He also urged that the bride and bridegroom should spend a few days with Mrs. Fisher and himself, in their home at Osmington near Dorchester. Miss Bicknell finally gave her consent, though still with some fears lest they were going to do “ a very foolish thing.” She promised to do whatever her lover deemed best, and he deemed it best that they should marry without delay. The wedding was solemnised on 2nd October, 1816, at the Church of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields ; Fisher, who officiated according to promise, persuaded the pair to accept his invitation, and Mr. and Mrs. John Constable passed their honeymoon at Osmington. It must be added, here and now, that Mr. Bicknell soon became very friendly with his son-in-law, and that when, in 1819, Dr. Rhudde 60 CONSTABLE died, he bequeathed to his grand-daughter the sum of four thousand pounds — a portion only, perhaps, of that i ‘necessary evil” with which he had purposed to endow her, and which others had deemed so essential to her welfare and happiness. CHAPTER VI SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES Constable’s favourable scenery — Development of style — “ Boat-building near Flatford Mill” — “ Flatford Mill on the River Stour” — “The White Horse” — “Strat- ford Mill on the River Stour” — “The Hay Wain” — “The Leaping Horse” — “The Cornfield” — “The Glebe Farm.” “ T HAVE always succeeded best with my JL native scenes. They have always charmed me, and I hope they always will. I have now a path marked out very distinctly for myself, and I am desirous of pursuing it uninter- ruptedly.” So wrote Constable, before he had as yet painted any of those larger landscapes which were to make his name famous. When, in the prime of his powers, he set himself earnestly to tread that path of which he had spoken, it was towards his native Suffolk that he turned his thoughts and steps. There, as he knew so well, he could find that typical English scenery which his soul loved — the winding, willow-bordered stream ; the farm- 61 62 CONSTABLE house and cottage embowered among trees ; the wayside church, grey with age and vener- able for its associations ; the narrow lane, where sheep wander beneath the shadow of the elms ; the rolling upland, clad with ripen- ing corn, and chequered by the moving shadows of “such changeful skies as no one but himself had ever fully understood — had ever half as faithfully and subtly chronicled.” The last words are Mr. Frederick Wedmore’s. I cite them here by anticipation, for it was the painting of Suffolk landscapes which at length brought Constable to the successful and happy exercise of his consummated powers. I write “consummated” because it was during this period, and whilst painting the pictures to be named in this chapter, that the artist in part developed that style which was henceforth to be inseparable from his best work. The salient characteristics of that style — its individual note, its freshness, its truth and impressiveness, its wonderfully potent suggestion of the open air rather than of the studio — will be spoken of more in detail in a subsequent chapter. Here it suffices to insist upon its individuality. For good or bad, the artist made that style peculiarly his own, and although he strove to avoid what is usually called mannerism, his SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES 63 work thenceforth became so unconventional, and so strongly marked by the impress of his own genius, that he could with difficulty, “in a merry sport,” have attributed any one of his own pictures to another hand. I will point my meaning by a simple illustration. Let the reader go into the National Gallery, and look- ing once again upon “ Flatford Mill ” or “ The Hay Wain ” or “ The Cornfield,” let him ask to what other artist any one of those pictures could be attributed. Even if he limit his ques- tion to the work of Constable’s contemporaries, can he, in thought, associate those landscapes with the landscapes of Cox, or Cotman, or Girtin, or Turner, or even with those of Crome, who so often painted very similar scenes? The earliest of this series of Suffolk land- scapes now hangs at South Kensington. It is entitled “Boat-building near Flatford Mill”; it was painted in 1814. Constable’s restless state of mind at the time was certainly not reflected in his work ; on the contrary, restful- ness and repose marked his canvas to an un- usual degree. This year would have been noteworthy in his life had he painted nothing more than “ Boat-building.” This truly beauti- ful transcript from Nature was painted entirely in the open air ; as an exposition of atmo- 64 CONSTABLE spheric truth, and of essentially characteristic local details, it was certainly an advance on previous work, as it was also more ambitious and comprehensive in scope. So subtle is its reflection of atmosphere that — as has been pointed out by a previous writer — one can almost see the air shimmer near the ground. Even now, as the present writer can testify, it faithfully records the impressions imparted by the scenery near Flatford Mill ; it reflects, so to say, the events and appearances of a par- ticular hour with the minute fidelity of a far different artist — the younger Teniers. As readers will perhaps remember, this method of landscape painting- was strongly opposed by Deperthes, who argued, rather, that the artist should gather together in one picture a long series of impressions of time and place, and then compose on certain orthodox lines, after the manner of Claude and his school. But in art, as in much else, many and diverse are the methods that may lead to satisfactory results. Constable would have received scant justice from those early critics who deemed nature- sketching in the open air to be “a useless waste of time.” He had more affinity with Corot, who, however, does not appear to have been much influenced by him. “Boat- SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES 65 building near Flatford Mill ” was exhibited in 1815, but it found no purchaser, and was one of many pictures in the artist’s studio at the time of his death. If — as I suppose — it is identical with a picture formerly described as “View of Flatford with Barge Building,” it was sold for ^51. 9s. at the Constable Sale, at the Gallery in Pall Mall, on the 15th and 16th May, 1838. It is one of several pictures owned by the nation through the Sheepshanks Gift. Constable, after his marriage, removed to a small house in Keppel Street, Russell Square. In this house were born his first two children, John and Maria. All that is known of his wedded life leads us to suppose it entirely happy — but, as the event proved, all too short. Picture after picture came from his easel, and although his work received but scant praise, he knew that he was now painting landscapes which were sure of recognition in the future. He did not hesitate to predict their ultimate value, nor to paint precisely what he wished, in such manner as his judgment approved. During the period covered by this chapter, he took a house at No. 2 Lower Terrace, Hamp- stead Heath ; but retained the use of his studio in Keppel Street until 1822, when he removed to 35 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, where F 66 CONSTABLE large and convenient rooms had been vacated at the death of Farington. The neighbourhood of Flatford Mill had been painted by Constable several times before, in 1817, he produced one of his earliest master- pieces, his “ Flatford Mill on the River Stour ” (No. 1273 in the National Gallery). Whilst not his greatest picture, it is perhaps as uni- versally known as any of his paintings ; it was chosen to represent his art when, late in life, he lectured at Worcester. There are latent ex- cellencies in this picture which are not easily defined, however surely we may perceive them. Of the copies and engravings seen by the writer — and he has seen many — hardly any do adequate justice to the perspective of the original. In most, there is an apparent fore- shortening which is wholly misleading, and persons who have neither seen the painting nor visited the locality would not suppose that some three hundred yards is represented from background to foreground — from the mill itself to the horse with a boy on its back. Perhaps this was one of the pictures which Ruskin had in his mind when, in the first volume of Modern Painters , he admitted that Constable was ‘‘frequently successful in cool colour.” For there is plenty of cool colour in “ Flat- flatford mill on THE RIVER STOUR National Gallery SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES 67 ford Mill ” — cool blues and greens and greys — and the artist had not yet developed that “ spottiness ” which was afterwards to annoy the critics so greatly. Mr. Arthur Chamber- lain has so happily summarised this picture’s beauties that I will borrow a few words from his pen : i ‘All the details in this picture have been very faithfully and accurately painted. The slow movement of the clumsy barges, as they come floating down from the distant lock and the red-roofed mill-buildings, is admirably suggested. The group of large trees in the right foreground throws the towing path into shadow, while between the trunks glimpses are obtained of a meadow dotted with hay- cocks, with the recently cut grass a vivid green under the sunlight.” And yet, with all its merits, we know little of the history of this picture since its exhibition in 1817 — which, however, need not mar our enjoyment of its beauties. It was bequeathed to the National Gallery in 1888, as the gift of three of the artist’s family. Having meanwhile painted other pictures which cannot be specified here, and having for some time had the assistance of John Dun- thorne the younger in his studio, Constable again turned to the Stour valley for a subject ; 68 CONSTABLE and in 1819 he exhibited “A View on the Stour ” — since known as 4 ‘The White Horse. ” Here, again, was a distinct advance in more than one direction. The canvas was the largest he had yet painted, being 51 in. by 73 in. ; it received more notice than his pre- vious exhibits ; and it brought him one hun- dred guineas. The artist subsequently gave the like sum to get his picture back into his own possession. In 1826 it gained a gold medal when exhibited at Lille ; in the Constable Sale — already referred to — it was bought for ^157. 10s. ; in 1855 ^ changed hands at ^630; in 1894 it was sold for ^6510 ; and is now in the possession of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. Lord Windsor considers 4 4 The White Horse ” the first of Constable’s really * 4 magnificent pictures ” ; there is no doubt that it enhanced his reputation, and in the November following its exhibition, Constable was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. Success in love and in art had reached him very closely together. He was destined, however, to place his fame on a surer basis than this. Indeed, if cash value were the surest test of merit, his next large picture was his greatest work. An hour’s stroll from Flatford, would bring Constable to SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES 69 Stratford Mill — not the large, brick structure of the present day, but a water-mill of that old, picturesque type he loved so well. He chose a spot where the willow-shaded Stour loitered past the old mill ; he depicted a barge in “ elegant perspective,” floating on the placid waters of the stream ; he included a glimpse of the mill itself on the left-hand side of his canvas, and a group of children in the fore- ground. The children he depicted fishing, for which reason David Lucas (presently to be written of at length) entitled his engraving from the original “The Young Waltonians. ” Almost identical in size with “The White Horse,” “Stratford Mill” was exhibited in 1820, and brought one hundred guineas to the artist. It established a record price for a “ Constable ” when, in 1895, ^ changed owners, at the Huth Sale, for ^8925. The price, of course, has often enough been ex- ceeded where eager connoisseurs and dealers have contended for a masterpiece ; but it would be interesting to inquire how often an equal sum has been paid for an English landscape. One is further led to wonder what is the present market value of Constable’s next great Suffolk landscape — “The Hay Wain” (No. 1207 in the National Gallery). ;o CONSTABLE On ioth April, 1821, Constable sent to the Academy a large picture, entitled ‘‘Landscape, Noon, ,, since known as “ The Hay Wain.” In that year the Exhibition contained some very clever pictures, but there were few landscapes of distinction, and so impressive a scene as that depicted on Constable’s canvas must have attracted much notice. It shows a typical English landscape, flanked by trees and brooded over by a stormy sky — such a sky as the artist loved to paint, with masses of cumuli moving across the blue. He had studied such skies until he could paint them with extraordinary fidelity. Leslie mentions that Constable exe- cuted many studies of clouds as memoranda, which were supplemented by written notes touching wind, weather, etc. ; one such, a characteristic oil study now at South Kensing- ton, is reproduced here. The farmhouse shown on the left of “The Hay Wain” still stands, its chimney-stacks and gables hardly altered since Constable’s day. The writer has stood on the spot where the sketch for this picture must have been executed, and can vouch for it that, with reasonable allowance for the growth of trees during some ninety years, “The Hay Wain ” is still an entirely truthful picture of the scene. The farmhouse is none other than Xational Gallery SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES 71 i 1 Willy Lott’s Cottage,” which figures in so many of Constable’s pictures — indeed, he sketched and painted it from every available standpoint, and it is identical with that de- picted in “The Valley Farm.” Moreover, it immediately adjoins Flatford Mill, and the lover of landscape art who there loiters beside the Stour will regard it as the scene which inspired some of the greatest pictures by a master of English landscape. The true name of the house was “ Gibeon’s Farm,” as may be seen by a headstone in the churchyard at East Bergholt, where William Lott lies buried. It is difficult, when writing of such pictures as “The Hay Wain,” to avoid a repetition of praise. Few critics will deny that it is one of Constable’s greatest achievements, quite worthy of its present conspicuous position in our National Gallery. Its influence on the subsequent trend of landscape art has been great. It was exhibited at the Louvre in 1824, with two other pictures from the same hand, and whilst it found small favour with critics of the older schools, it came as a revela- tion to many young artists, “opening out” — as Lord Windsor puts it — “ a vista of undreamt- of possibilities.” French artists have acknow- ledged, with increasing unanimity, how greatly 72 CONSTABLE Constable’s influence permeated the Barbizon school. If this be true — and it can hardly be disputed — that influence may be said to have commenced on the day when “ The Hay Wain ” was first seen at the Louvre, and to have reached its zenith when it touched so great a master as Daubigny. “The Hay Wain,” to- gether with Constable’s other exhibits at the Louvre, was awarded a gold medal ; it was shortly afterwards sold by Arrowsmith for ^400. In 1866 it was bought by Cox for ^*1365 ; and twenty years later was presented to the National Gallery by Mr. Henry Vaughan. Constable’s careful studies of cloudland were largely executed from observations at Hampstead, and so earnestly was he impressed by this branch of his art that henceforth all his larger pictures illustrated his own maxim, “ The landscape painter who does not make his skies a very material part of his composition, neglects to avail himself of one of his greatest aids.” This is strongly exemplified in his “Dedham Lock,” also called “The Leaping Horse,” now at Burlington House. Heavy cumuli almost seem to move across the picture. This graphic study was laboured with great care, and its merits were openly acknowledged at the Academy, where it was purchased on the STUDY OF CLOUDS Oil Sketch. South Kensington Burlington House SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES 73 first day of the Exhibition for £ 157 . 10s. It was concerning this picture that the artist uttered the famous claim that its light could not be put out, because it was “ the light of Nature.” The horse, leaping one of the barriers on the tow-path beside the Stour, is admirably drawn ; and the whole picture has energy and movement seldom equalled. Thus far Constable’s finest work had depicted river-side scenes, and that river had in most cases been the Stour, which parts Essex from Suffolk. But presently — having meanwhile wandered into other counties, and sketched and painted faithful studies of their scenery, some of which will be mentioned in the following chapter — he left the immediate neighbourhood of the Stour, and painted, during 1826, a picture which, if we may judge from the de- mand for cheap reproductions, is perhaps his most popular work. “ The Cornfield ” (No. 130 in the National Gallery) does not, as has been asserted, represent a scene in Essex, but a scene in Suffolk, about one mile from the river- side. The lane in the foreground is now much altered, and the spot is not easily identified the trees on the left were felled many years ago. The church tower, seen among trees in the background of the picture, was placed 74 CONSTABLE there purely by artistic licence ; it was long supposed to be that of Dedham, but, as was pointed out by one of the artist’s sons in 1869, Dedham Church stands farther to the right, and beyond the field of the picture. The sky is as carefully thought out and laboured as the sky in “ The Hay Wain ” ; and the artist him- self claimed that the trees were “more than usually studied.” At Somerset House, prior to the Exhibition, Chantrey found fault with the shadows beneath the tails of the sheep, and himself essayed a finishing touch ; but the public did not conceal their admiration. 4 4 The voice in my favour,” wrote Constable, “is universal ; it is my i best picture.’” The sub- ject was well chosen ; it appealed at once, as it does to-day, to English taste and sentiment, and probably no critic would now seriously undertake to decry “ The Cornfield.” It elicited unfriendly criticism when exhibited at Marl- borough House ; but Burger admired it greatly, and expressed deep regret because it was not at the Louvre. Fortunately, as we now believe, “ The Cornfield ” remained in England ; it was purchased for ^3 15 by “an association of gentlemen ” soon after the artist’s death, and presented to the National Gallery. Constable turned once again to the neigh- THE COKN FIELD Xational Gallery SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES 75 bourhood of Stratford Mill when he painted “The Glebe Farm’’ (No. 1274 in the National Gallery). For Langham, 1 now so greatly altered, is close to Stratford St. Mary, and the church on the right of the picture is Lang- ham Church — where Fisher, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, was sometime rector. From the summit of the church tower Constable sketched some of his many views of Dedham Vale. “The Glebe Farm” was painted almost con- temporaneously with “The Cornfield,” and there have been lovers of English landscape who found it difficult to decide the respective merits of the two pictures. Constable himself was very ambitious of success for “The Glebe Farm”; he deemed it correct in colour and tone, as it is certainly one of his best efforts in pure brush-work. Regarded merely as a land- scape, apart from any considerations of local truth, it is a charming picture, and its charms are of a subtle and elusive kind that cannot be reproduced. Despite an elaborately composed sky, the whole picture suggests that perfect repose which landscape artists have ever striven to impart to their work. A boldly executed sketch of the same subject, almost identical in 1 Langham, the scene of “The Glebe Farm/' is on the Essex side of the Stour. 76 CONSTABLE composition, hangs immediately beneath the finished picture ; the arrangement of light and shade differs in the two renderings : the sky, too, differs in configuration, and the sketch and picture together should be carefully com- pared by students, who might learn much from such a comparison. There is also a “Glebe Farm ” in the Louvre ; another was sold in 1876, and an engraving of the subject was executed by Lucas for the “ English Land- scape ” series of mezzotints. A large etching similarly entitled, by David Law, is a desirable possession ; but no engraving, by whatever process, can adequately interpret and reflect the spirit of such a painting. The engraving may be perfectly touched, and an exquisite work of art ; I am merely insisting that one medium can be no substitute for another. It may even express much of the same truth which the artist has endeavoured to impart with the brush, but it must do so in a way peculiar to engraved art. The truth of this must inevitably be felt by the student who, familiar with such a series of landscapes as those mentioned in this chapter, shall turn from the originals to a collection of engravings from those pictures. He will then, perhaps, under- stand why Mr. Frederick Wedmore insists National Gallery SOME SUFFOLK LANDSCAPES 77 that the engraver must be “ inspired ” by the picture which provides his basis ; and that, as a result, he will produce something which “ shall be translation partly, but partly creation too. ” CHAPTER VII WANDERINGS AND CHARACTERISTICS Tour with Fisher — Sketches — At Salisbury — Salisbury Pic- tures — The Wretched Read — “Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden” — Gillingham — Cole-Orton Hall — The Reynolds Cenotaph — Brighton — A reminis- cence of Redhill — London diversions — Woodmanstone — Brighton again — Hampstead activities — Illness of Mrs. Constable — An abiding sorrow — A legacy — Royal Academician. HE series of Suffolk landscapes men- tioned in the previous chapter constituted, on the whole, Constable’s greatest achieve- ment, and for that reason it has been treated by the writer as a thing apart — something worthy of consideration by and for itself, irre- spective of the artist’s many other contem- poraneous pictures. During the years in which those landscapes were painted, his life was full of activity and production, and we must now trace the story of his career more closely. Of all his journeyings it is impossible to write, for they were many. Similarly, he was a prolific WANDERINGS 79 artist, and it is here only possible to mention such works as characterise his peculiar methods and results at any specific time. Such a picture was his “ Harwich : Sea and Lighthouse,” dated 1820, and now in the National Gallery of British Art, a picture noticeable as a fine study of sea and sky — comparable, as a composition, with his “ Weymouth Bay,” and “Coast Scene with Shipping,” both at South Kensington, but less tempestuous than either. In 1821, Constable rambled in Berkshire with Fisher, afterwards extending his tour farther afield. He made many sketches, some- times hasty memoranda, sometimes carefully executed drawings in pencil or water-colour, such as those in which he recorded impressions of Reading, Newbury, Abingdon, and Oxford. A water-colour sketch, dated 6th June, entitled “Cottage near Reading,” is preserved with others at the British Museum ; it is a charac- teristic example of rapid, bold brush-work, very broad and effective, not without more carefully rendered detail in parts, as in the pinnacled church tower in the background. Fortunately he sometimes dated his sketches, by which we know that three days later he drew, in pencil, a view of University College, Oxford, now also at the British Museum. In August of the 8o CONSTABLE same year he made a pencil sketch, now at South Kensington — the “Cart and Team.” The autumn of 1821 found the artist busily sketching in Salisbury and its neighbourhood — a district which he had previously visited and was to visit again. One of his earliest Salisbury pictures was the “Stream bordered with Willows,” better known as “Water Meadows near Salisbury.” Concerning this picture a curious anecdote is preserved. Once, when Constable was on the Council of the Royal Academy, the “Stream bordered with Willows ” was by a mistake placed among some fresh arrivals, and in due course passed before the judges. After some discussion it was condemned ; as such, it was about to be marked with a cross when the artist’s name was noticed — “John Constable.” The apolo- gies which followed were probably sincere enough — but the picture had been openly con- demned, and the artist would no longer allow it to remain at the Academy. A letter, written by Constable during the autumn of this year, contains such important allusions to his work that it cannot be ignored. “ I have not been idle,” he wrote, “and have made more particular and general study than I have ever done in one summer. But I am Pencil Sketch. South Kensington SALISBURY CATHEDRAL FROM THE BISHOP’S GARDEN South Kensington WANDERINGS 83 ance, selfishness, and vanity. In 1822 he wrote to Fisher, “ Is it not possible to dissuade him from coming’ to London, where he will be sure to get rid of what little local reputation he may have ? But perhaps he prefers starving in a crowd, and if he has determined to adven- ture, let him by all means preserve his flowing- locks, they will do him more service than even the talents of Claude Lorraine, if he possessed them.” It would seem that Constable’s good nature had at first coloured his views touching- Read’s abilities, for ere we hear the last of the Salisbury artist we learn that Constable con- sidered him “ ignorant of every rudiment of Art.” Perhaps, too, there was excuse for Constable’s apparent lack of sympathy. Dur- ing this time he was far from well, and was especially troubled by the ill-health of his son John. Moreover, he had now two sons and two daughters, and shadows of the res angusta domi were to lie across his threshold for a little while yet. The year 1823 saw the exhibition of his “ Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden,” a picture worthy to take rank beside the Suffolk landscapes. To paint a cathedral it is almost necessary to be architect as well as artist ; some suspicion of the truth of this was 84 CONSTABLE probably in Constable’s mind when he acknow- ledged that while he had done his best with window and buttress, he had made his escape in the “ evanescence of the chiaroscuro.” This, of course, was perfectly justifiable, for a stretch of meadow lies between the Cathedral and the foreground, and to render minutely each archi- tectural detail would have been to belie Nature’s perspective. This picture, now at South Ken- sington, is very effective in arrangement and composition. To frame the distant cathedral in foreground foliage was a bold scheme only to be justified by its complete success. “ Call- cott,” wrote the artist, “ admires my Cathedral, and says I have managed it well.” Others admired it, too ; it was seen by Turner and praised by Fuseli, and Constable seems to have been satisfied with its reception. He exhibited two other pictures at the Royal Academy the same year, “ A Study of Trees” and “A Cottage.” His ‘ ‘ Yarmouth Jetty ” was at the British Gallery. During the autumn Constable paid a pro- longed visit at Gillingham in Dorsetshire. The place appealed to him strongly, and had it not been for the attractions of home life at Hamp- stead he would probably have sketched in the neighbourhood as extensively as he had done National Gallery of British A rt, Millbank THE ENTRANCE INTO GILLINGHAM, DORSET Pencil Sketch. South Kensington WANDERINGS 85 elsewhere. As it is, he left the impress of his genius on his “ Bridge at Gillingham,” in which he made careful studies of both foreground and background foliage, and on the pencil sketch entitled “ The Entrance into Gillingham, Dorset ” — a clever, effective record, noticeable among his other pencil sketches at South Kensington. The old water-mill at Gillingham did not escape the artist’s eye, ever searching for such objects ; he sketched it more than once, and an oil painting of its neighbourhood is, or was recently, in the possession of Messrs. Agnew ; another is at Kensington. His mill scene at Gillingham exemplifies his words to Fisher, in a letter from which I have already quoted : “The sound of water escaping from mill-dams, etc. , willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork — I love such things.” From Gillingham, Constable journeyed almost directly to Cole-Orton Hall, the residence of his earliest patron, Sir George Beaumont. His visit, as we learn from his letters to Mrs. Constable, was wholly delightful. He thought it a “lovely place indeed”; he only wanted the presence of his wife — “ my dearest love ” — to render his happiness complete. Here he met Southey, who freely aired his opinions touching Church and State, and artist and 86 CONSTABLE author seem to have fraternised agreeably. But the Hall and its surroundings provided his chief pleasures. “Such grounds; such trees ; such distances ; and all seems arranged to be seen from the windows of the house. ,, Moreover, he was surrounded by old friends — the Claudes and Poussins and Wilsons of his host — and he passed many hours copying favourites and contemplating their beauties. Here, too, he was much struck by the cenotaph erected by Beaumont to the memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds ; he sketched it in oils, and, as will be seen, he returned to the subject when nearing his end. Singularly enough, the autumnal splendour in which his surroundings were vested toward the end of his six weeks’ visit, elicited little admiration ; he longed to return to town and to his easel, “and not witness the rotting, melancholy dissolution of the trees which two months ago were so beautiful.” The remark need not, however, surprise us, when we remember how almost every one of his great landscapes displays the fresher glories of an English summer ; how his answer touching the position of his “brown tree,” was that he never painted one ; and how — to repeat the inevitable anecdote — he placed a brown fiddle on the green grass in response WATER MILL AT GILLINGHAM, DORSET South Kensington National Gallery WANDERINGS 87 to Beaumont’s remark that an old Cremona best represented the prevailing tone in a land- scape. Constable was at Brighton in 1824, and several times subsequently, as the climate was beneficial to his family. He made many sketches in the neighbourhood ; his “ Brighton Beach with Colliers,” dated 19th July, 1824, is now at South Kensington, and is one of the most powerful of his sketches in oil. More familiar, however, is the oil sketch, in his stormiest manner, entitled “The Gleaners” (No. 1817 in the National Gallery). It was painted on 20th August, and, as a composition, is somewhat similar to his “Spring” — well known from the engraving by Lucas. But the scenery around Brighton never appealed to him like that of Suffolk. “The neighbour- hood,” he once wrote, “consists of London cow-fields, and hideous masses of unfledged earth called the country,” and perhaps none of his oil sketches are more outre than his “ Mill near Brighton,” in which, apparently, he hesitated as to the character to be im- parted to its surroundings. Of great calmness by contrast, his “ Brighton Beach ” (not “ with Colliers ”) is in no sense topographical, but is an expanse of sea and sky more nearly allied 88 CONSTABLE to his “ Harwich, ” dotted with sailing-craft, and with a few figures in the foreshore. It might have been painted almost anywhere round our coast. One of Constable’s journeys to Brighton was marked by a characteristic incident, which illustrated his unresting care for his art. Whilst riding on the coach, he was much struck, one showery afternoon, with a scene near Redhill, and presently alighted and executed that wonderfully impressive sketch, “ Summer Afternoon after a Shower ” (No. 1815 in the National Gallery). Jackson, his contem- porary Royal Academician, greatly admired this sketch, and offered to paint a large picture in exchange for it ; but Constable kept it him- self, and it was eventually bequeathed to the nation by Henry Vaughan in 1900. As we shall see, it served as a basis for an engraving by David Lucas ; but it is precisely one of those subtle statements in oil which can never be reproduced by any other process. As a photograph, it forms one of several illustra- tions to Lord Windsor’s Constable , but the reader who turns from that photograph to the original — or, lacking access to the original, turns to the brief description in the National Gallery Catalogue — will see at once how in- Water Colour Drawing. British Mi WANDERINGS 89 adequate even good photographs may be. The description speaks of meadows of grass in seed, of a woman and some children passing through the long grass, of a cottage in a wooded plain, and of a horseman looking over a hedge. The small, rapid oil sketch renders these details faithfully enough ; in the photo- graph they are almost obliterated. Leaving Mrs. Constable and the young folk at Brighton, Constable returned to London in June, 1824. He now kept a diary for his wife's perusal, and some interesting extracts are quoted by Leslie. From these we learn that he was relieved from tedium, and from the effects of hard work, by the visits of his friends. Fisher calls and dines ; Leslie himself drops in for tea and talk ; Collins the artist comes to pore upon his friend’s landscapes. “Johnny Dunthorne ” is with him, and is taken to the British Institution, Constable thinking the young man would like to see “so many fine ladies.” Then Sir George Beaumont calls, and tells him of a lady who for twenty years has investigated the “Venetian secret of colour- ing,” and is anxious to bring the subject before the Governors of the British Institution. We read on, and presently learn that Mr. Appleton, a tubmaker of Tottenham Court Road, would 90 CONSTABLE like to buy a damaged picture at a cheap price, as he is 4 ‘fitting up a room up one pair of stairs.” Then a softer note is touched : on 18th July Constable dines with Leslie, and afterwards, walking in St. John’s Wood, he visits the tomb of his uncle, David Pike Watts. The artist’s life passes vividly before us in these scattered records. In January, 1825, whilst “The Leaping Horse ” glowed unfinished on his easel, Con- stable visited Woodmanstone, a little village near Croydon. Here, by appointment, he painted a group of three children with a donkey — the grandchildren of a Mr. Lambert, whose ancestors lived in the neighbourhood in the year 1300. Writing to Fisher, the artist mentioned that he had put Woodmanstone Church in the background of the picture, which he thought a “pretty” one, and he enclosed a little pen sketch in the text. To about the same period is attributed his Indian ink sketch, “ A Country Road with Cottages and Figures ” (241 — 1888 at South Kensington) ; very prob- ably it is a reminiscence of the visit to Wood- manstone. He was glad to get back to Char- lotte Street, and to more ambitious work. Much tentative effort had already been ex- pended on studies for his “Waterloo Bridge.” COUNTRY ROAD WITH COTTAGE AND FIGURES WANDERINGS 91 He was now at work on the “real canvas,’’ and mentioned in a letter how he once walked with Stothard to Islington, and was rewarded by an excellent suggestion for that picture’s improvement. Behind all, we get glimpses, in several letters, of the happy course of his domestic life. Writing to Fisher from Char- lotte Street, on 13th April, he told him — inter alia — that he was expecting to take tea with his wife and his third daughter, then a few weeks old. Constable was again at Brighton in the autumn of 1825. Wife and children had pre- ceded him, and he found them already the better for change of air. But he was too busy with important pictures to remain there long ; he was soon at work again on the “Waterloo Bridge,” and on another large view of Salis- bury Cathedral. Indeed, he spent so much time before his easel that we have few details of his life during the following year. He visited Suffolk, partly to make sketches and partly because of his brother Abram’s illness ; moreover, as we have seen, to this immediate - period we owe both “ The Cornfield ” and “ The Glebe Farm,” partly, no doubt, painted amid the scenes which inspired them. In 1827 he took what he described as “ a comfortable little 9 2 CONSTABLE house in Well Walk, Hampstead, ” retaining* only part of that in Charlotte Street for the purposes of studio, gallery, etc. He was charmed by his new surroundings. His draw- ing-room, as he said, commanded “a view unsurpassed in Europe, ” from Westminster Abbey to Gravesend, and he soon loved the valley of the Thames as he loved no other neighbourhood, save the valley of the Stour. At this time he painted the “ Hampstead Heath ” (Sheepshanks Gift), now at South Kensington, and the Louvre “ Weymouth Bay”; “ A Waterfall at Gillingham, Dorset- shire,” and other pictures ; his “Marine Parade and Chain Pier at Brighton ” was a splendid foil to his own “ Glebe Farm ” when both were exhibited at the Royal Academy. The year 1828 brought both life and death into the house, and as it passed Constable may be said to have entered the evening of his days, although he was yet to live some years and do much work. On 2nd January was born his last child, Lionel Bicknell, whose name is associated with the bequest of several pictures to the nation. In the spring, Abram Constable again fell ill at Flatford, and the artist went into Suffolk to visit him. He advised Abram to send away all his doctors, remarking that WANDERINGS 93 they had left him only his purse — and that empty. He was in deeper trouble through the weakness of his wife, who lay ill at Putney, and soon removed her to Brighton, trusting that the air of the Sussex coast would restore her strength. But pulmonary consumption had set in, and she was failing fast. Constable, however, continued to hope for the best. He wrote to Dunthorne, then at East Bergholt, that he had thought her gaining ground, though ‘ 6 sadly thin and weak. ” Late in the summer he brought her back to Hampstead. Leslie, who visited them, records that Con- stable maintained his usual spirits in his wife’s presence, but that afterwards, in another room, he took Leslie’s hand and burst into tears. Day by day “the shadow feared by man” drew closer, and on 23rd November, 1828, Mrs. Constable died. She had been married just twelve years, and had borne her husband seven children. Her death was to the artist an abiding sorrow, and he never wholly recovered from the blow. By some irony of fate, as Constable may well have thought, his material prospects were brightening while his wife lay dying. Mr. Bicknell, dying earlier in the same year, be- queathed ^20,000 to his daughter ; the sum 94 CONSTABLE was sufficient to place the family fortunes on a secure basis, and Constable had acknowledged that he could now “stand before a six-foot canvas with a mind at ease.” He had stood before his large, upright “Dedham Vale” to some purpose; he deemed it “perhaps the best ” of his many Dedham pictures, and it was greatly admired at the Exhibition. His crowning triumph followed quickly on the heels of his crowning sorrow. On ioth February, 1829, Constable was elected an Academician, and received the congratulations of Turner among many others. But the one to whom he would most joyfully have carried the good news was with him no longer, and he felt that the honour had come too late. He remembered, as he well might, some words from Johnson’s letter to Chesterfield, and adopted them for his own. “ It has been delayed,” he wrote, “until I am solitary, and cannot impart it.” CHAPTER VIII CONSTABLE AND LUCAS A great project — Homeliness of subjects — Preliminary difficulties — Mr. Constable s English Landscape — Changes of plan — The final choice — Some characteristic plates — Contemporary work and recreation — A second series — Conjecture and appreciation — Discouragements — Limited popularity — An explanation. S OON after his wife’s death, Constable commenced to plan an engraved record of the scope and character of his w r ork. He was, as Mr. Frederick Wedmore pointed out in an article in the Nineteenth Century (December, 1903), the third great landscape artist who de- liberately set himself to perpetuate, in black and white, a “ voluminous record of his achieve- ment.” It is hardly necessary to mention that the other artists alluded to were Claude and Turner. Claude, in his Liber Veritatis , ex- pressed, first by his own hand and ultimately by the engraving hand of Earlom, those truths which he deemed it the business of landscape art to record. As Baldinucci tells us, the 95 9 6 CONSTABLE artist had so often been asked to identify his own pictures, to separate them, so to say, from innumerable spurious duplicates, that he at length executed a copy of his pictures ere he parted with them, and this growing collection he fitly named his Libro d' Invenzioni. Turner, a century and a half later, conceived a series of engraved plates which should illustrate “ every mood that had stirred him, and every branch of Art into which his activity had strayed ” — and they were very many. The aim and purpose of Constable, when he con- ceived and planned his English Landscape , is best explained in his own words. In his published Introduction, dated May, 1S32, he wrote: “The subjects of all the plates are from real scenes, and the effects of light and shadow are merely transcripts of what happened at the time they were taken. The object in view in their production has been to display the phenomena of the Chiar’oscuro of Nature, to mark some of its endless beauties and varieties, to point out its vast influence upon Landscape, and to show its use and power as a medium of expression. The Author, if he could venture to do so, would willingly enter- tain a hope that the present little Work might contribute in some degree to promote the love CONSTABLE AND LUCAS 97 and consequent study of the scenery of our own Country : abounding as it does in grandeur and every description of Pastoral Beauty, and endeared to us by associations of the most powerful kind. ,, It was a great project, and it led to a great achievement. Constable held firmly, more firmly, perhaps, than any landscape artist had done before, that it was sufficient to paint natural scenery in a natural manner, and that, more often than not, a suitable subject could be found near at hand. And, on the whole, the twenty-two plates which he published during his lifetime may be said to illustrate those truths, for those truths connote nothing that does not equally apply to the engraver’s art. Moreover, as w~e pore upon these mezzotints, at the British Museum or among the treasures of our own portfolio, we perceive how ade- quately they “mark the influence of light and shadow upon landscape ” — which Constable had himself declared to be their primary artistic aim. For the purposes of this record, in black and white, of his artistic belief and exposition, Constable employed the hand of one engraver, David Lucas. Whether or no we agree with Mr. Holmes that the English Lcmdscape was H 98 CONSTABLE “the most magnificent series of landscape mezzotints ever produced,’’ we may say, at least, that their combined strength and delicacy, and their sympathetic interpretation of the pictures that served as the basis of each plate, show that Lucas was pre-eminently qualified for such a task. That task, as we may well believe, was impeded by many trivial annoy- ances and a few serious difficulties. There was much discussion between painter and engraver; there w r as much sending of letters to and fro ; there were many changes of plan. But both artists were men of perseverance, and despite the early signs that the enterprise would prove a financial failure, it was pursued until, in the compass of twenty-two plates, the aim of the work was successfully exemplified. Commenced in 1829, the English Laiidscape series — Mr. Constable' s English Landscape , as one prospectus styles it — was published in five parts, the last appearing in 1833, in which year the work was published as a whole. The price of the set was five guineas ; a few copies on India paper were issued at twice that sum. The story of its preparation, as told in letter and anecdote, is somewhat disjointed, and we cannot watch its evolution so closely as we mie*ht wish. The work, as we now have it. CONSTABLE AND LUCAS 99 commenced with the engraving of a vignette entitled “ Hampstead Heath, ” although that plate was not the first published, and although — as we note in passing — an abortive start had been made with a slight “ Dedham Mill,” too slight, as the result proved, to serve as a basis for such ambitious work. The actual start prepared the way for fresh difficulties. On 15th September, 1829, Con- stable wrote to Lucas that an entire change had again occurred in his plans. He had dined, he said, with Leslie, and had decided on a “ long landscape ”; the time was to be even- ing ; there was to be “a flight of rooks.” This was to serve as a companion plate to the “ Spring,” and he adds that “ Whitehall Stairs,” is to displace the “ Castle.” “ Prithee come and see me at six this evening, and take the things away, lest I change again.” A glance at the titles of the plates shows that Constable did 4 ‘change again”; in fact, the changes were so many that Lucas, immersed in domestic troubles, had his hands very full during these four years. Early in 1830, Con- stable reported progress in a letter. He was anxious to see Lucas, and to have a further talk about the plates. “ First, I want to know how forward the ‘ Evening ’ is, and the re- ioo CONSTABLE touched ‘Stoke/ I have not the wish to become the possessor of the large plate of the ‘Castle,’ but I am anxious that it should be fine, and will take all pains with it. It cannot fail to be so, if I may judge from what I have seen. I have taken much pains with the last proof of ‘ Summerland,’ but I fear I shall be obliged to reject it. It has never recovered its first trip up, and the sky, with the new ground, is and ever will be rotten. I like your first plate far, very far, the best, but I allow very much for your distractions since, with those devils, the printers, and other matters not in unison with that patient toil which ought always to govern the habits of us both. Do not neglect ‘ The Wood ’ (Helmingham Park), as I am almost in want of the picture. Bring me another large ‘Castle,’ or two or three, for it is mighty fine, though it looks as if all the chimney sweepers in Christendom had been at work on it, and thrown their sootbags up in the air.” The “Castle” referred to is the larger print of the “ Hadleigh Castle: Mouth of the Thames.” One of these “ large Castles,” now in the Print Room at the British Museum, bears Constable’s autograph be- neath : “ J. Fenwick Fisher, with J. Con- stable’s best regards. 35 Charlotte Street, CONSTABLE AND LUCAS ioi J uly 23rd, 1832. ” Above the print is pencilled, “ The Nore, Mouth of the Thames.” The English Landscape in its complete form, as published in 1833, h as > f° r frontispiece, the “ House and Grounds of the late Golding Constable, Esq., East Bergholt, Suffolk”; the last print, the smallest of the series, is the vignette of Hampstead Heath. Twelve are views of Suffolk scenes, the remaining* ten are of Yarmouth, Brighton, Old Sarum, Dedham, Weymouth Bay, Hadleigh Castle, Redhill, and Hampstead (three views). Leslie mentions that “ Evening,” “ A Summerland ” and “Autumnal Sunset” (Sunset — Peasants Re- turning Homeward) all represent the same fields, from points of view not very different from each other — fields near East Bergholt, with Stoke and Langham in the distance. Nearly all the Suffolk scenes lie within the compass of a few miles. As a matter of fact, Constable might easily have confined the entire series to Suffolk subjects, but he prob- ably thought such a restriction would expose him to public cavil, and so went farther afield. The series certainly fulfilled its promise. It is “characteristic of English Scenery,” and of English scenery at its best. As we turn these fine mezzotints — lingering over them, for they 102 CONSTABLE are too rare and suggestive to be regarded lightly — we can but nctice their diversity in unity : each subject contributes to the artist’s scheme, yet each is surely an impressive state- ment of landscape truth, by and for itself. Here is “ Summer Morning ” — before us stretches the Vale of Dedham, with Dedham’s stately tower in the middle distance ; the waters of the Stour wind through the valley like a thread, till they are lost in the wider estuary before Harwich Harbour. Here, the curve of Weymouth Bay, with two persons braving a tempestuous afternoon ; the angry, black sky touched here and there by the white wings of wind-driven gulls. Here is the l< Hampstead ” vignette — simple, masterly, perfect. On the brow of a hill sits the figure of Collins the painter, who was sketching there whilst Con- stable worked ; the ground falls away softly on either side, and in the far distance, on the left, the dome of St. Paul’s rises into a clearer sky than that brooding over the nearer hillside. Here, in the “ Sea Beach, Brighton,” a heavy surf rages against the old breakwater ; a few fishermen potter here and there among their boats; the clouds are buffeted and torn. Here, too, is “ Old Sarum ” in the solemnity of even- ing, recalling Constable’s advice to Lucas CONSTABLE AND LUCAS 103 whilst the plate was in hand — “ Keep the ‘ Old Sarum ’ clear, bright, and sharp, but don’t lose solemnity. ,, Here — we purposely name it last — is that clear vision of “Spring,” with its wide outlook, its pomp of clouds, its cheerful breeziness, its windmill, its ploughmen and team, which so surely arrests the eye when first seen. In 1830, whilst engrossed by the cares of supervision, Constable exhibited his “Dell in Helmingham Park,” and one of his many paintings of u Hampstead Heath.” His “ Waterloo Bridge” was still on the easel, and further studies of Salisbury Cathedral claimed their share of attention. On the whole, he had seldom been more busy, and perhaps never so full of cares. Indeed, he was too preoccupied to spare time for such frequent jaunts into the country as he had previously taken. He passed an evening with Turner, and saw much of Leslie and Etty — and, of course, of the indis- pensable Lucas. But the proofs of the English Landscape — and we know that they were many — must have claimed much of his time ; he was satisfied with nothing short of perfection, so far as perfection was a possible attainment ; and some of the steps taken to achieve it may still be noted in pencilled marginalia and diver- 104 CONSTABLE gent impressions. Nor was the final selection of subjects accomplished without much in- decision. Mr. Wedmore has alluded to certain plates which by accident alone were not in- cluded with the twenty-two. He mentions by name the smaller “ Salisbury ” and the “ Wind- mill near Brighton”; but there can be little doubt that several of the plates issued after Constable’s death had been well advanced before the publication of the first series, and that both Leslie and Lucas had deemed them worthy of inclusion in the English Landscape . And this brings us to the further series of mezzotints from Constable’s landscapes, pub- lished by Lucas soon after the artist’s death — for we shall not mention the mezzotints again. It consisted of fourteen plates, entitled collec- tively, u Mr. David Lucas’s New Series of Engravings, illustrative of English Landscape, from the Pictures of John Constable, r.a. Price : Plain large Paper, bound, £ 6 . 6s. os. ; India Large Paper, bound ^io. ios. od. Pub- lished by the Engraver, 27, Westbourne Street, Eaton Square, London.” Lucas engraved many other pictures from Constable’s work, some of which were never published, but the series mentioned were presumably those which had benefited most by the touch of Constable’s CONSTABLE AND LUCAS 105 revising* hand. Like the first publication, it commenced with a Bergholt subject — “ Porch of the Church at East Bergholt, Suffolk,” it ended with an engraving of one of the last subjects to which the artist had put his hand, the “Arundel Mill and Castle.” After due allowance for the smaller number of plates, we may pronounce the second series, in range and impressiveness, hardly inferior to the first. The “ On the Orwell ” had been rejected, after due deliberation, by Constable himself, as has been mentioned earlier in this book ; not because he was dissatisfied with Lucas’s work, but because, in the light of the entire series, he deemed the subject uncongenial. The “ Flat- ford Mill” and “Cottage in a Cornfield,” are very faithful transcripts from their originals, as is also the “Gillingham Mill, Dorsetshire.” Looking at the entire range of Lucas mezzo- tints from Constable, published and unpub- lished, we can readily see that, with better health and increased length of days, the original plan might have been extended almost indefinitely — perhaps until, in point of numbers at least, the English Lajidscape should have rivalled or outstripped the Liber Studiorum . As it is, Mr. Holmes has been bold enough to record his opinion that the Liber Studiorum , 106 CONSTABLE despite its “ amazing delicacy, variety, and accomplishment, ” moves us less profoundly than the English Landscape . Mr. Wedmore, who would probably not go quite so far, has nevertheless pointed out that in as much as Constable’s art is “marvellously independent of colour,” the blacks, whites, and intermediate notes of the engraver constituted an adequate medium for its expression — more adequate than was possible in the case of Turner. Moreover, whilst fully sensible of the admirable breadth of the Liber Studiorum , Mr. Wedmore does not consider that work superior, in this respect, to the English Landscape . The reader who has access to the forty plates by Lucas, including the two series of English Landscape , published in volume form by H. G. Bohn in 1855, may decide how far his views accord with those of Mr. Holmes and Mr. Wedmore. The reasons for Constable’s curtailment of the English Landscape are writ large in the pages of Leslie, although we sometimes need to read between the lines. On 12th March, 1831, the artist wrote, “I have thought much on my book, and all my reflections on the sub- ject go to oppress me ; its duration ; its ex- pense; its hopelessness of remuneration ; added to which I now discover that the printsellers CONSTABLE AND LUCAS 107 are watching it as their lawful prey, and they alone can help me. I can only dispose of it by giving it away. My plan is to confine the number of plates to those now on hand : I see we have about twenty. . . It harasses my days, and disturbs my rest at nights. The expense is too enormous for a work that has nothing but your beautiful feeling and execu- tion to recommend it. The painter himself is totally unpopular, and ever will be on this side the grave ; the subjects nothing but the art , and the buyers wholly ignorant of that.” On the whole, we cannot wonder that Constable, whose finest pictures so frequently found no purchaser, was not encouraged to extend the English Landscape beyond the modest limits which he ultimately assigned to it. Nor was he deceived into any extravagant estimate of its success from the artistic standpoint. He knew that its success could be only approxi- mate, for the aspects of Nature which it was planned to depict are subtle and elusive — they had hitherto, as he himself affirmed, trans- cended the painter’s art, and the engraver was not likely to succeed where the painter had failed. When, during the summer of 1831, he took his children into Suffolk, he was filled, more than ever before, with admiration for the 108 CONSTABLE perfect beauty of the open country ; he felt how inadequate even the highest art must be when it attempts to express such perfection, and confessed that the best pictures are “sad trumpery •” by comparison. The ideal that he had set before him had been high, so high that his greatest landscapes had fallen short of it ; and he despaired of attaining that ideal by the hand of the engraver, or of winning popular appreciation thereby had it been possible to attain it through that medium. “Popular appreciation ” has not yet been won by the Lucas mezzotints, if only because, like similar engravings from other hands, they are not easily accessible. Early impressions — impressions taken before the plates suffered any appreciable deterioration — are rare, and are in the hands of a few fortunate possessors, and only those who have seen such early examples of Lucas’s handiwork have any idea of its technical excellence and artistic beauty. The blackness of some of the prints suggests that the engraver’s hand was heavy ; we know, in point of fact, that it was light as gossamer. It was so light, indeed, that the first, the freshest bloom, was in part dispersed in the process of pulling repeated proofs for the fastidious eye of Constable ; it was entirely CONSTABLE AND LUCAS 109 lost by the time a very moderate number of prints had been issued in the published state. Recently, the writer was requested to buy a set of the English Landscape , including some of Lucas’s supplementary subjects, and the set offered to him provided a striking object-lesson in this matter of deterioration. The small “ Salisbury,” for instance, was so impoverished that he compared it with a far earlier print in the possession of Messrs. Leggatt. The com- parison was not devoid of profit. It suggested, at least, a reason for the comparative neglect shown towards such prints. The perfect im- pressions are, and can be, known to the few only ; the more numerous, and far less perfect, are those which alone meet the eye of the many, and it is not surprising that they evoke but scanty admiration. CHAPTER IX LAST PICTURES AND DEATH Illness — Pictures — In the studio — Love of family — Hamp- stead pictures — “The Opening of Waterloo Bridge ” — A Turner anecdote — Berkshire drawings — A lecture at Hampstead — Death of Archdeacon Fisher and John Dunthorne, jun. — Constable’s Country — Visit to Arundel and Petworth — Work in 1834 — Rambles in Sussex — Wicked Hammond’s House — Burning of the Houses of Parliament — “Salisbury from the Meadows ” — “ The Valley Farm ” — The Worcester Lectures — “ The Cenotaph ” — “ Arundel Mill and Castle” — Last hours — Death and funeral — The grave of Constable — Characteristics. C ONSTABLE’S health was failing sadly during the preparation of the English Landscape . Infirmities seemed to creep over him ; he was distressed in mind and body, and his work suffered proportionately — not, assuredly, in quality, but as regards the time spent over each canvas. His days were mostly passed at Hampstead or in Charlotte Street ; he regarded the former as his house, the latter as his office. Rheumatism, in more than one 1 10 LAST PICTURES AND DEATH in form, was his chief enemy, and for three weeks, in the early part of 1832, he was unable to hold a pen. He was also worried concerning politics. He viewed the progress of the Reform Bill with alarm ; he seems to have been drawn occa- sionally into heated discussions concerning its merits and demerits, and was fearful of its far- reaching effects as he foresaw them. So far as we know, he had seldom, in earlier days, allowed politics to cast disturbing shadows across his easel; but Reform was in the air; he could not ignore it, and he had no confidence in the judgment of the masses. Indeed, Leslie tells us that at this period Constable “magni- fied every anticipation of evil,” and it seems as though the pictures he was yet to paint, and the rambles yet in store for him, were the prime factors in restoring him to that measure of health and happiness which politics had done so much to mar. Meanwhile, Leslie had written from Pet- worth, describing, with an artist's fervour, some of the pictures of his host, Lord Egre- mont ; and when Constable was again able to write, his first letter expressed thanks to Leslie for having made him a sketch from Gains- borough. Soon afterwards he again wrote to 1 12 CONSTABLE his old friend, telling him that the large “ Waterloo ” was “ beautifully strained on a new frame,” and that he was utilising every inch of canvas. Sir Francis Lawley (then Mr. Lawley) had called, and had admired Con- stable’s pictures ; moreover, he purchased a set of the English Landscape on India paper, and Constable was greatly pleased. Then, early in April, we hear of the painter dining with Call- cott, when Leslie’s “Sterne” was discussed, both artists regretting its absence from the Exhibition. Constable further busied himself with the selection and final touching of pictures for the Exhibition. He decided to send in — in addition to the “Waterloo” — a small canvas entitled “Sir Richard Steele’s Cottage, Hamp- stead”; “A Romantic House, Hampstead”; “ Moonlight,” and several drawings. His children were growing up around him, and claimed much of his leisure. They were very affectionate. He wrote at this time ; “ How heavenly it is to wake, as I now do, after a good night, and see all these dear infants by my bed, all up early to know how Papa passed the night. ... I saw my little girls on Sunday — all well, so the world is light as a feather to me.” A few days later he wrote, “ All my little girls are here (in Char- LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 113 lotte Street). . . . On Wednesday the levee, which they are to view from a window in St. James’ Street. If they see only the soldiers, they are worth the seeing’”; and he added a line from Goldsmith which, however, he altered to “little things are great to little minds” In the following June his eldest daughter lay ill of scarlet fever, and the world was no longer “light as a feather,” but dark indeed, and he had few calm moments until she mended. Constable had set his heart on the success of his “Opening of Waterloo Bridge.” Smaller studies of the same subject had preceded the large canvas ; a sketch and a small painting are now at South Kensington. But he had undertaken a subject too far removed from the general trend of his art, and the result was comparative failure. Constable had used the palette-knife freely when laying in the colour, and what the picture thereby gained in bright- ness and mid-day splendour it lost in detail. For several years he had altered, and retouched, and repainted ; and certainly this brilliant work — “ one of the glories of Sir Charles Tennant’s collection,” as Lord Windsor has said — caused the artist more trouble than any other picture. “ He was always very nervous about its success,” writes Mr. G. M. Brock-Arnold, 1 14 CONSTABLE “and the absence from it of all rural associa- tions made it somewhat distasteful to him, but the expanse of sky and water invariably tempted him to go on with it.” The brilliancy of its colouring was unquestionable — so much so that Leslie records how, soon after Con- stable’s death, a picture dealer, on the advice of “ several noblemen,” covered the whole canvas with a wash of blacking, secured by mastic varnish ! But all its wonderful colour failed to atone at the Exhibition for its short- comings on the score of draughtsmanship. De Wint, indeed, admired it so greatly that he coveted the palette-knife used upon it ; but most of his brother artists disliked it. “ Very unfinished, Sir,” was the remark of Stothard. The brilliance of colour displayed by this picture led to an amusing and very charac- teristic incident. At Somerset House, while everybody was preparing for the Exhibition, it was placed beside a sea-piece by Turner — a singularly beautiful, grey picture, devoid of any positive colour. One day, whilst Constable was adding further colour to the flags and other decorations of the City barges, Turner came into the room repeatedly. Standing behind Constable, he looked from one painting to the other. Presently he fetched his palette, THEAL, BERKSHIRE IVater ColoJir Drawing. British Museum LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 115 and placed, on his own grey sea, a round spot of red lead rather larger than a shilling. The red lead was so brilliant, so conspicuous on the surrounding grey, that even Constable’s colours paled by comparison. When Turner had left the room, Leslie entered it. Constable remarked, “ He has been here and fired a gun.” Near by, on the opposite wall, hung the “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ” of George Jones. Said Abraham Cooper, “A coal has bounced across the room from Jones's picture and set fire to Turner’s sea.” “ The great man,” adds Leslie, i ‘did not come into the room again for a day and a half ; and then, in the last moments that were allowed for painting, he glazed the scarlet seal he had put upon his picture, and shaped it into a buoy.” During 1832, and the early part of 1833, Constable was busy with several Berkshire studies. His “Theal, Berkshire,” a water- colour drawing now in the British Museum, bears the date “25th August, 1832,” written in the corner by his own hand. A larger water-colour, “ Englefield House, Berkshire” (No. 345 at South Kensington), was perhaps a tentative study, a preliminary to his fine oil painting entitled “ Englefield House, Berkshire — Morning,” in the possession of ii 6 CONSTABLE Mrs. R. Benyon. Painted at the request of Mr. Benyon de Beauvoir, who then owned that house, the picture was considered very success- ful ; Lady Morley praised it warmly, and it even found favour at the Royal Academy. He expended much careful labour upon it, having for a while put aside the “Cenotaph,” com- menced shortly before. He expected the Ex- hibition to be excellent, and wrote to a friend that the number of pictures sent in exceeded all precedent ; Wilkie and Leslie, he said, were strong, as were also Phillips, Landseer, and others, but, he added, “Constable is weak this year.” Besides his Berkshire picture, how- ever, he exhibited “ A Cottage in a Cornfield ” ; “Landscape, Sunset”; “A Heath”; “Showery, Noon,” and three water-colour drawings. The “View at Hampstead,” now in the National Gallery (No. 1275), was painted during this period. During the summer of 1833 Constable lectured at Hampstead. His subject was, “ An Outline of the History of Landscape Painting.” He seems to have been well qualified for such work. He spoke well from brief notes, illustrat- ing his remarks by copies of works to which he alluded. An abstract of this, and of subse- quent lectures, was found by Leslie after Con- Rational Gallery LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 1 17 stable’s death ; and from the fragments ap- pended to Leslie’s Memoirs it is evident that the lectures must have greatly interested any intelligent listener. At Hampstead, after dwell- ing upon early landscape as a purely decorative art, as it was practised at Herculaneum and Pompeii, he spoke of the early Renaissance men, and of the connecting links between them and the masters of Italian painting. The Poussins, Claude, Rembrandt, Hobbema, Ruys- dael, and others in turn, claimed his attention, and he then showed how low landscape art eventually fell ere, in our own country, it was lifted into higher planes of truth and dignity by Wilson and Gainsborough, as by others of his own immediate predecessors, concerning whose work and influence something has been said in the first chapter of this book. Books on art have multiplied of late, but in Con- stable’s day they were not numerous, and it is to be regretted that his lectures were not written out and published. A full statement of his views on landscape art would be of great value, as we may gather from stray remarks on such topics in his correspondence. This period was marked by the severing of old friendships and the formation of new ones. Early in September, 1832, Archdeacon Fisher, 1 1 8 CONSTABLE to whom Constable had addressed so many interesting letters, was seriously ill ; he died at Boulogne before the end of the month. The blow was felt keenly, and was followed by another. John Dunthorne had for some time been weakening from heart disease, and Constable’s many allusions to the progress of his friend’s illness showed the depth of his sympathy. Death came rapidly at the last, and on 6th November Constable told Lucas that he was going into Suffolk “to attend the last scene of poor John Dunthorne.” The father — Constable’s daily companion in the East Bergholt days — had just visited his old friend in London and, as Constable told Lucas, had gone back into Suffolk entirely broken- hearted. After the funeral, an incident occurred which showed that the artist was perhaps more famous than he had supposed. As Constable was returning to London, two gentlemen travelled with him in the coach. All three were strangers. The artist pointed out the beauties of the Vale of Dedham, whereupon one of his companions remarked, “This is Constable’s country.” Constable, very fortunately, formed a friend- ship at this time which quickly ripened into intimacy. He became acquainted with Mr. U’ater Colour Sketch. South Kensingi Water Colour Sketch. South Kensington LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 119 George Constable, of Arundel, a namesake only, and the two men exchanged some very pleasant letters. George Constable had ex- cellent taste as a lover of art, and was able to appreciate the artist’s work at its true value. Constable sent him some proofs of his English Landscape , and presently received an invitation to visit his friend at Arundel. Accordingly, he journeyed thither in July, 1834, and was charmed with the surroundings of his host. The Castle, he wrote, was considered the chief ornament of the place, but he thought it in- significant in comparison with the woods and hills. He visited Petworth, where the vast house, so full of artistic treasures, impressed him profoundly. On his return, he wrote to thank George Constable for his hospitality, and described his visit as “the most happy and intellectually delightful he ever paid.” Rheumatism attacked him again this year, and interfered with his work. He persevered, however, despite every hindrance, and prepared some clever and impressive water-colour draw- ings for the Exhibition. He exhibited “The Mound of the City of Old Sarum”; “Stoke Poges Church, the Scene of Gray’s Elegy”; “ An Interior of a Church,” and a large pencil- drawing, entitled “A Study of Trees made in 120 CONSTABLE the Grounds of Charles Holford, Esq., at Hampstead.” This latter must not be con- founded with the “ Trees near Hampstead Church,” the subject of an illustration here — a far different work in oils, a light, graceful composition, very beautifully painted. The “ Old Sarum ” and “ Stoke Poges Church ” are at South Kensington; a “Design for Gray’s Elegy,” evidently suggested by the “ Stoke Poges Church,” forms the subject of a small water-colour sketch at the British Museum. By this time also he had, as he himself ex- pressed it, “ done wonders with his great ‘Salisbury from the Meadows’”; he told his friend William Purton, of Hampstead, that he hoped to make it his best picture. But with Constable, to paint a “best picture” was to wish to paint a better ; he had expressed the same hopes for previous work, merely meaning that he wished his painting to be perfected by practice. In the summer he was again at Petworth, where he met Phillips the Academician, Leslie, and other fellow-guests of Lord Egremont. He wrote to George Constable, expressing his love for the riverside, “Claude nor Ruysdael could not do a thousandth part of what Nature here presents.” He visited Cowdray Castle Water Colour Drawing. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD Pencil Drawing. British Museum. National Caller of British Art. Millbank LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 12 1 and made several sketches, which may be seen at the British Museum ; but Leslie records that his friend was most delighted with the banks of the Arun, and the picturesque mills, farm- houses, etc., which are found in the west of Sussex. 44 I recollect spending a morning with him, he drawing the outside, while I was sketching the interior, of a lonely farmhouse, which was the more picturesque from its being in a neglected state, and which a woman we found near it told me was called ‘ wicked Hammond’s house,’ a man of that name, strongly suspected of great crimes, having formerly been its occupant.” On this occasion Constable passed a fortnight at Petworth, making many further sketches in pencil and water-colour, notably one of Fittleworth Mill. It was during this visit that Leslie noticed Constable’s fondness for collecting materials of rich colour, such as feathers, bark, moss, lichens, sand, etc., which the artist would preserve for future use. He records, too, that Constable rose early, and frequently walked out and sketched before breakfast. The return to London was followed by far different experiences. On 16th October, Con- stable watched, from a hackney coach, the burning of the Houses of Parliament. Soon 122 CONSTABLE afterwards, he passed an evening with Leslie. He described the catastrophe, drawing, as he did so, Westminster Hall as it appeared during the fire, “blotting the light and shade with ink, which he rubbed with his finger when he wished it to be the lightest. ,, He then, on another half-sheet, added the towers of the Abbey and that of St. Margaret’s Church, and Leslie assures us that this rough work formed “a very grand sketch of the whole scene.” The “Salisbury from the Meadows” — or, more probably, a large sketch of it — was exhibited in Birmingham that year ; and the picture itself, under the title “ Salis- bury Cathedral from the Meadows : Summer Afternoon — A Retiring Storm,” was a feature at the Royal Academy’s Exhibition. It found, however, no purchaser ; but formed the sub- ject of a magnificent engraving by . Lucas, with which Constable was so pleased that he asked the engraver to send him several impressions in the unfinished state. Constable’s next large landscape takes us back to the heart of his own country, in the immediate neighbourhood of Flatford Mill. It has been already stated (Chapter VI) that the artist painted the house known as “ Willy Lott’s Cottage ” from many different stand- TREES NEAR HAMPSTEAD CHURCH South Kensington- LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 123 points, and he now returned to the same spot for the subject of that singularly beautiful painting, “A View of Willy Lott’s House,” better known as “The Valley Farm ” (No. 327 in the National Gallery). His preliminary studies for this picture were numerous, and in several sketches the writer has recognised the gables of Gibeon’s Farm, although some of them bear different names. Mr. Thomas J. Barrett, of Hampstead, has a fine “palette- knife sketch” of this subject, entitled “The Water Mill ” ; and a powerful “ Sketch for the Valley Farm ” was formerly among the treasures of Mr. James Orrock. We can identify the same scene, from a different point of view, in the “Landscape with Water,” an oil sketch at South Kensington, and another sketch for “The Valley Farm” hangs in the same room. Further, in June, 1904, a small “Valley Farm” was sold by Messrs. Christie. All these were executed prior to the large picture. This, exhibited by Constable in 1835, was purchased by Mr. Robert Vernon, and was warmly admired. The artist, however, had it back to retouch. Writing to Boner, he said he had “ worked exceedingly upon it, mellowing and finishing it to the utmost of my power.” To George Constable he wrote that he had kept 124 CONSTABLE his brightness without spottiness, and had ‘ ‘preserved God Almighty’s daylight.” The contention was perfectly just. “The Valley Farm” is perhaps, on the whole, the most truly characteristic example of Constable’s later manner. Gibeon’s Farm occupies the centre of the canvas, over- shadowed by high trees on the right, beneath which a man is pushing off a boat into mid- stream. Three cows, obscured in deep shade, are crossing the stream ; another boat is round- ing the left-hand corner ; in the background — just where the spaniel is painted in “The Hay Wain ” — are three figures ; over all there broods such an English sky as Constable loved to represent. In this picture the masses are very effectively arranged, and the play of light among the trees, upon the parted waters, and upon the house itself is depicted with con- summate skill. The picture is probably more faithful to local truth than some of the sketches mentioned. Owing to the growth of willows near the farm, it is now difficult to view it from a standpoint identical with that in the picture ; but there is no reason to suppose it less topo- graphically accurate than “The Hay Wain.” The bridge, for instance, upon which, in the Orrock oil sketch, the cows are placed, dis- THE VALLEY FARM National Gallery LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 125 appears in the picture — very much to the picture’s advantage ; nor could the writer, when recently at Flatford, find any traces of its existence. It is certain that every detail of the gabled farmhouse is painted with unusual fidelity, as may be seen, even after so long an interval, by any who visit the spot. Constable relied little on the “evanescence of the chiar- oscuro” when painting “The Valley Farm.” In the autumn of 1835 artist found change of scene and occupation in his visit to Worcester, where he lectured on 6th, 7th, and 8th October. He went thither at the invita- tion of Mr. Leader Williams. Here again, his Lectures were delivered extempore, and were never fully written by himself ; but they were summarised in the Worcester Guardian on 31st October. The summary did not please Constable, who found that the reporter had seriously misrepresented the drift of his argu- ment, and for that reason it is not safe to rely too closely upon it. This is the more to be regretted, as it is the only substantial account of the Lectures. As at Hampstead, they were illustrated by the exhibition of a few pictures, and among those chosen for the purpose were three typical paintings of the artist’s homeland — the large, upright “Lock,” “The Glebe 126 CONSTABLE Farm,” and 44 Flatford Mill.” Prior to the Lectures, in June, 1834, an exhibition of pictures had been held at the Worcester Athenaeum, and had been followed in the local Press by some articles signed by one 4 4 Lorenzo. ” To these articles the artist referred contemptu- ously in a letter to George Constable, shortly before delivering his Lectures, and in this letter he expressed his since famous dictum regarding 44 ideal art, which in landscape is sheer non- sense.” A reminiscence of his visit to Wor- cester is provided by the pencil sketch entitled 44 Worcester as seen from the North,” dated 1 2th October, 1835. This sketch — quite typical, although not one of his best — is now at South Kensington. A more powerful contemporary sketch — executed three months before — is his 44 Littlehampton,” a water-colour, now in the Print Room at the British Museum. 44 The Valley Farm ” was again exhibited in 1836, this time at the British Gallery, when it appeared as we see it now, after Constable had placed his finishing touches upon the canvas. At the Academy Exhibition the same year he had only two pictures, 44 The Cenotaph” (No. 1272 in the National Gallery), and a water- colour drawing, 44 Stonehenge, Wilts” (No. 1629 at South Kensington). His former sketch WORCESTER AS SEEN FROM THE NORTH THE CENOTAPH National Gallery LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 127 of “The Cenotaph’’ has been already men- tioned ; the finished picture, as regards m- pressiveness , is one of the greatest paintings he ever produced. This was the last Exhibition held at Somerset House, before the Academy’s removal to new quarters, and for this reason Constable had put aside his unfinished “ Arundel Mill and Castle,” preferring to paint and exhibit “The Cenotaph,” in order that the name of Sir Joshua Reynolds, together with that of Sir George Beaumont, might once again appear in the Catalogue. His own opinion of his picture was modest enough : it was “tolerably good.” For once, he had taken Autumn as his season, and the afternoon as his time of day. The painting, heavily wrought in the impasto, and a strong example of that “ glittering ” manner which offended so many critics, had nevertheless its technical merits, and its bough - drawing alone, more obvious than usual because the trees are parity denuded of leaves, should be noticed by students. “ The scene,” as has been well said, “is most impressive in its solitude, and dis- plays a depth of feeling on the part of the artist which he did not often surpass.” It is singular that Constable, always so partial to the great light of noon and the full foliage of 128 CONSTABLE summer, should, in the evening of his days, have painted a picture so pervaded by autumnal solemnity. His days, as the event proved, were in the yellow leaf indeed. He had been pained, a few months before the exhibition of “The Ceno- taph,” at parting with his second son, Charles, who had gone to sea in an East Indiaman, and his activity seems to have been less strenuous than hitherto. The “Arundel Mill and Castle ” was resumed, but there are few traces of other work during the six months ending with March, 1837. In one of his last letters to Lucas, he expressed the opinion that tone is “the most seductive and inviting quality a picture or print can possess,” and there is no doubt that he was anxious to impart it to his last large canvas — destined never to be finished. He had chosen a noble subject, and proceeded with it so far that Lucas subsequently executed an engraving from it for his second series of mezzotints. But, in the opinion of many critics, his genius had reached its meridian splendour when it gave us his finest Suffolk landscapes, and there are no indications that “ Arundel Mill and Castle,” would have equalled, much less surpassed, such a masterpiece as his “Stratford Mill on the River Stour.” LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 129 On Thursday, 30th March, 1837, Constable and Leslie met at the Royal Academy. That evening*, as the weather proved inviting, the two artists walked homewards together, and Constable, always sympathetic towards children, gave a shilling to a little girl who had hurt her knee in the street, and spoke to her kindly. Next day, he busied himself with his picture, and in the evening went out for a short time, “on a charitable errand.” Returning home, he ate a hearty supper, and, as usual, read awhile after retiring for the night. Presently, he fell asleep, and his candle was removed by a servant. “A little later he awoke in great pain. . . . The pain increasing, he desired that Mr. Michele, his near neighbour, should be sent for, who very soon attended. In the meantime Constable had fainted, his son sup- posing he had fallen asleep ; Mr. Michele instantly ordered some brandy to be brought ; the bedroom of the patient was at the top of the house, the servant had to run downstairs for it, and before it could be procured, life was extinct.” The words are those of Leslie, his faithful friend and biographer. A post-mortem, by Professor Partridge, led to the belief that Constable died from acute indigestion, for there were few traces of disease. IC 130 CONSTABLE The Rev. T. J. Judkin, a friend of the artist, read the burial service ; Constable’s two sur- viving brothers followed him to the grave, and he was buried beside his wife in Hampstead Churchyard, where an altar tomb bears the following inscription : — SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN CONSTABLE, ESQ., R. A. Many years a resident in this parish : He was born at East Berg-holt in Suffolk June 11—1776, And died in London, March 31st, 1837. In addition to the artist and his wife, there lie in the same vault : — Charles Golding Constable, their second son : died 1879. Maria Louisa Constable, their eldest daughter : died 1885. Lionel Bicknell Constable, their youngest son : died 1887. The tomb also bears the name of John Charles Constable, their eldest son, who, dying in 1841, was interred in the Chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge. Of Constable’s general character, as hus- LAST PICTURES AND DEATH 13 1 band, father, and friend, sufficient has been said to show what manner of man he was. His appearance may be gathered from the three portraits in this volume ; he was kindly in disposition, and sympathised with others in their sorrows and ambitions, but was some- what cynical in conversation. Intellectually, he was a man of many contrasts. Poetry, especially in his early years, he deeply ap- preciated, and could quote with-feeling ; but he was not an extensive reader, although a per- severing one in matters relating to art. As the writer has already mentioned, the quality of his letters leads us to regret that we have no substantial narrative of his wanderings from his own pen. But he left behind him what we value increasingly as the years drift by. He left a series a of landscape paintings which are rivalled by those of few English artists ; per- haps we may say they are only excelled by those from the hand of one greater — J. M. W. Turner. Had it been for the writer to add to Constable’s epitaph, he would have placed above the artist’s tomb the words inscribed over a great English author : “ His body is buried in peace, but his name liveth for evermore.’* CHAPTER X APPRECIATIONS Basis of criticism — Limitations of comparison — Some ques- tions — Constable a great topographical artist — Methods and results — Unconventionality — Avoidance of imitation, especially of Turner — Ruskin on Constable’s defective draughtsmanship — Sketches, experimental and prepara- tory — Gradual change of style — Subject and treatment — Methods conducive of “ inevitableness ” — Realist and Impressionist. HEN, in 1873, Mr. Hamerton asked, “Was Constable a great artist ?” he propounded one of those questions by which critic and connoisseur are eternally confronted. Very rightly, he proceeded to answer it — with a measure of success which will be variously estimated, according to the reader’s theories and prejudices. In art, as in literature, criti- cism is inevitably concerned with comparisons. We do not merely ask whether this landscape or that poem is a work of true genius, we ask also whether it is inferior, equal, or superior to another picture or poem which it suggests, at 132 APPRECIATIONS 133 the moment, through some more or less subtle association of ideas. This is equally true even when we limit our momentary interests to the works of one man. To ask, “ Is i The Valley Farm ’ a great painting? ” is to ask a question which, ere it be answered either by ourselves or others, will almost inevitably lead us to ask further whether it bears such hall-marks of genius as this or that picture by the same hand. On the lower slopes of the artistic Parnassus the question of relative excellence is, of course, of easy solution. The amateur who has not mastered the mere technicalities of his art may be promptly set aside ; it is the men with both genius and knowledge who test the measure of our discrimination. And the greater their knowledge, the more indisputable their genius, the less easy is it to decide the order of their precedence. These, no doubt, are obvious truisms ; but, if we may judge from current criticism, they are often forgotten or ignored. Comparison, however, in order that it may help our judgment, must be exercised within strict limitations. Nothing so readily leads astray as the comparing of wholly diverse works of art. The writer could name a living critic who deems Velasquez the greatest artist 134 CONSTABLE of all time ; the critics who claim a like pre- eminence for Rembrandt are not far to seek. In truth, a similar claim might be urged, and urged plausibly, on behalf of several other artists ; but the subject is more interesting than profitable, for, often enough, there is no legitimate basis of comparison. The name of the world's greatest artist may be revealed hereafter; it is “a stroke of temerity” to write that name to-day. In literature, as Mr. Swinburne assures us, the race is for “the first seat beneath Shakespeare’s ” ; in art, the competitors have not decided towards whom to run. When we ask, “Was Constable a great artist ? ” we ask a question which sets men considering whether he was greater than some other painter before or since. No attempt is here made to answer so far-reaching a ques- tion. In the first place, we judge him solely as a landscape painter ; in the second place, we remember that he was an Englishman, that he painted English subjects, and that with Englishmen he must mainly be compared. This is not to ignore that he was influenced by Dutch artists, or that he exercised an in- fluence upon the artists of France. We are merely restricting the field of comparison, in APPRECIATIONS 135 order that we may the more readily determine how far Constable succeeded in the tasks he undertook. Did he become a great ‘ ‘natural painter ”? Did his own works justify his dictum that, in landscape, “ideal” art is “ sheer nonsense ” ? He once wrote, “Light, dews, breezes, bloom, and freshness have never been perfected on the canvas of any painter in the world.” Did his own landscapes exemplify that perfect rendering which he had sought for vainly in the works of others ? We may answer the three questions in the affirmative. No earlier English landscape painter had drawn his inspiration so immedi- ately from Nature ; none of them had so boldly portrayed her charms as sufficient in them- selves, without any attempt to heighten or idealise them ; none had quite so successfully rendered those atmospheric, and therefore evanescent effects peculiar to certain times of day — the rustle of the morning breeze in the tree-tops, the path of the slanting wind through the willows ; the quivering heat of high noon in midsummer ; the gleam of the sunbeams through the cloud-rack ; the clear-shining after rain which Constable loved so well. As we know from his own testimony, he often, although not always, painted a particular scene 136 CONSTABLE as he had envisaged it at a particular time — so far, of course, as sketched or written data, assisted by a retentive memory, enabled him to do so. In a word, his art, for good or ill, was largely, perhaps almost wholly topo- graphical. In a word, again, that art was concerned with the records of various aspects of Nature, rather than with any attempt to show what we might make of Nature were her powers and properties at our disposal. Constable did not attempt to make pictures ; he found them. All Nature’s pictures are evanescent ; his task was to copy here a full length and there a vignette while opportunity served. This is not to say that he made no attempt at synthetic exposition — that a hastily recorded cloud-figure was not laid by for future use, or that the posture of a horse on the tow- path was not memorised for a more convenient season. Our point is, rather, that his pictures were entirely the outcome of observation, the artist believing that he could invent nothing which Nature had not already invented to better purpose. And his observation was so shrewd, so untiring, so ably assisted by tech- nical skill, that Constable was enabled to per- petuate the ensemble of any chosen spot more vividly, perhaps, than it had ever been per- APPRECIATIONS 137 petuated by an English artist before. Hence the late William Sharp drew a distinction between synthetic vision of actuality, as we have it in Constable, and synthetic vision of imagination, as we have it, for instance, in Turner. In Constable’s pictures, he wrote, “we do, indeed, hear the wind among the grasses and hedgerows, can both see and hear the breeze ruffling back the sunlit leaves of oak and elm, can hear the splash of the waggoner’s horses as they cross the ford, can everywhere be aware of the strong, vigorous breath of Nature, of life.” Anybody tolerably acquainted with Constable’s greater landscapes — shall we say “The Leaping Horse,” “The Hay Wain,” “The Valley Farm,” and the several Salisbury Cathedrals? — can perceive how truly he spoke when he said that landscapes are beautiful only in proportion as light and shadow render them so. And when he tells us that he was deter- mined his pictures should have chiaroscuro, if they had nothing else, we feel not only that he understood the full scope of such a resolve, but that he realised it, and gave it expression, more surely than it had been realised or ex- pressed before in our own country. Perhaps his prime characteristic, as an artist, was his unconventionality. When once his 38 CONSTABLE opinions were formed and his hand had ac- quired its cunning, he imitated no man’s methods, he adopted no man’s ideals. Few artists have copied pictures more diligently ; few have displayed, in their works, such slight traces of influence from without. Be- fore his own easel he tried to forget that he had ever seen a picture by another hand. There are few indications, even in his earlier landscapes, of his profound admiration for the great masters of serene, cloudless, not to say featureless skies — for Claude, for Wilson, for Cuyp — and, lacking his own confessions, we should never have guessed that their landscape art had moved him so deeply. He imitated both predecessors and contemporaries in his choice of subjects — merely as other artists have done before or since. Sometimes we conjecture how others would have treated the same themes ; we imagine a “Glebe Farm ” by Gainsborough, a “ Cornfield ” by Crome, a “Dedham Vale” by Turner; but this is not because their treatment by Constable is sug- gestive of the hand of Gainsborough, or Crome, or Turner. His self-reliance, indeed, was strongly displayed in his avoidance of anything like rivalry with Turner, whose mere manner , in its broader aspects, he was skilful enough to li'ater Colour Drawing. British Museuv APPRECIATIONS 139 have copied successfully had he been a weaker man. His large “ Waterloo Bridge ” must surely have suggested comparisons with his great contemporary, whose works, as exhibited side by side with his own, he knew so well ; but he kept his course to the end, and the end was success. We reflect upon this with satis- faction, for Constable, by early precept and practice, ran some danger of becoming a mere copyist — an imitator of Claude or Hobbema, of Wilson or Girtin. Drawing goes before painting, and as we turn to consider the artist’s methods we can hardly ignore Ruskin’s denunciations of Con- stable’s draughtsmanship. In an oft-quoted passage ( Modern Painters , Vol. I, Part II, Chap. VII) Ruskin makes a sweeping, a far- reaching assertion : “I have never seen any work of his in which there were any signs of his being able to draw, and hence even the most necessary details are painted by him inefficiently.” It is natural to ask what pictures by Constable had been seen by Ruskin. The criticism was published soon after Constable’s death, when many of his chief works were in private hands, and we may justly infer that the critic, as a matter of fact, was not so intimate with the artist’s work as to 140 CONSTABLE be justified in uttering* such unqualified con- demnation. That Constable’s drawing is some- times defective is not denied by any competent judge ; but this is not to say that he was unable to draw. In truth, Ruskin here in- dulged in the vice of over-statement ; he generalised from scanty data, always — in life, in literature, in art — a dangerous process. Moreover, we have abundant proof that Con- stable, when concerned with drawing, qua drawing, rather than, as in his greater land- scapes, with atmosphere and chiaroscuro, could execute masterly work. His many studies of trees alone exemplify his technical skill, and, as it happens, it was precisely his bough-drawing, as the critic had scrutinised it here and there, to which Ruskin calls our attention with such insistence. He particularly condemns a tree in the “Lock on the Stour,” as engraved by Lucas ; there are a score of tree-studies at South Kensington alone which might equally serve as examples worthy of praise. Constable was endowed with a capacity for taking infinite pains. His more important landscapes, when they finally left his easel, were often the outcome, the perfected express- ion, of a long series of tentative efforts. He APPRECIATIONS 141 executed many sketches and studies of those subjects which appealed to him most strongly. He painted the same subject again and again — and his initial studies were not always mere sketches, but sometimes became finished pic- tures, which he would afterwards copy, with varying degrees of fidelity, on a larger scale. At other times, with a free and masterly hand, he would rapidly execute a larger sketch, such as those of the “ Hay Wain,” and “ Leaping Horse,” of approximately the same size as the finished picture that was to be. In some of these, especially during the latter half of his career, he used the palette-knife freely — so freely that, as has been said, he would seem to have almost discarded brushwork except for glazing. An excellent example of his sketches, in more orthodox brushwork, is that for “The Glebe Farm,” which is almost identi- cal with the finished picture, saving its light and sky. The style of Constable, like that of almost all great artists, underwent a slow but con- tinuous change. To name only well-known pictures, that change may be traced from about the year 1814 to 1836 — from “Boat Building near Flatford Mill” to “The Cenotaph.” A careful comparison of his large landscapes 142 CONSTABLE painted during those years would show every gradation between even, uniform, compara- tively thin brushwork to broad, strong, opulent manipulation, in which the palette-knife has been frequently, perhaps too frequently utilised, and the solidity of the impasto is sometimes too obvious. In “Dedham Mill, Essex,” the technique differs strikingly from that of “The Cenotaph,” or “The Valley Farm,” as may be seen by anybody who stands close to these pictures. Indeed, many of Constable’s early oil paintings are almost as thinly wrought as water-colour sketches, whereas in “The Ceno- taph ” the tree-branches look wonderfully like actual twigs laid upon the canvas. Similarly, a comparison between the thin, limpid waters of the Stour in his large “ Flatford Mill,” and the water of his later inland pictures, would show as wide a dissimilarity. Similarly, again, his works exhibit infinite diversity in their atmosphere, from the tender clarity and grace of some early landscapes to the almost “solid fury” of “Weymouth Bay,” in the oil sketch at South Kensington. It is not merely untrue that Constable always painted greatcoat weather, or laid on his pigments too heavily ; the change from his calmer to his more stormy manner may be traced, broadly speaking, in APPRECIATIONS 143 successive pictures, taken in the order of their production. Constable, during the whole of his career, ignored the abstract principles of the orthodox Academician. He painted what he chose, treating his subject not according to rules laid down by any school, but in the way he deemed most fitting. Many earlier landscape artists, notably Claude, and Cuyp, and Wilson, usually worked with the sun behind them, “ out of the picture, low down on the horizon, suffusing the whole landscape with a golden haze.” The works of these three artists were warmly appreciated by Constable ; but he ignored their example, his sun being usually in the high heavens, obscured by drifting clouds. Similarly, the subject had hitherto been deemed of prime importance, its treatment a secondary ’con- sideration ; but Constable, believing that local truths are more beautiful than any scheme of rigid conventionality, painted, for instance, the “Cottage in a Cornfield” rather than the columned temple on the hill-top. As William Sharp pointed out, Constable did not choose a theme and then paint in “fitting adjuncts,” believing, rather, that Nature herself provides such adjuncts with a plentiful hand. Atmo- sphere — metaphorical as well as physical — was 144 CONSTABLE essential : hence he wrote that painting was to him another name for feeling ; hence, too, the atmosphere of rural life, which Ruskin has associated with subjects of a “low order,” was to Constable a potent and direct appeal, and he was never happier or more successful than when depicting the rustic labourer at his common task. He differed from many artists in his conduct at the easel. He did not elaborate any one part of his picture to approximate completion and then turn to another ; but roughly out- lined the whole subject, laying in the masses broadly, and then adding a detail here and a detail there, so that his colour scheme and his effects of light and shade developed under his hand gradually, and he thereby avoided a nig- gling excess of finish — a rendering of any one feature “ so good that it was good for nothing.” Hence, many of his finest landscapes seem wonderfully like “snapshots from Nature,” a statement of certain transient truths, transient because peculiar to some one place at a par- ticular time. An excellent example of this is afforded by the picture entitled “A Lock,” which he painted in 1826 and presented to the Royal Academy on his election in 1829. It is impossible to imagine this fine painting as the Burlington House APPRECIATIONS 145 outcome of theory and composition ; we feel convinced, rather, that the artist made rapid memoranda, with mind and brush, of every essential detail — the drifting clouds, the distant glimpse of Dedham, the willow shaken by the breeze, the man at the lock, the lock itself, the dog in the foreground, the contour of the river. The student will notice, as he stands before the “Lock” at the Diploma Gallery, letting the eye rove from point to point, that a certain inevitableness characterises the whole, so much so that we can with difficulty imagine the scene other than as depicted by Constable. And he will do well to remember that in art, as in literature, this inevitableness is the hall-mark of supreme excellence. Constable was both Realist and Impress- ionist. The former claim needs no argumenta- tion ; his splendid genius was almost wholly devoted to the portrayal of the realities of landscape phenomena, as he observed them in the southern half of England. But the claim that he was a great Impressionist — that he was, indeed, the “ Father of Modern Im- pressionism ” — will not be so readily conceded by those who hold extreme views as to the characteristics of Impressionist painting. The term, like many others, is frequently misunder- L 146 CONSTABLE stood ; and great is the number of those who appreciate the work of its exponents only when marked by every manifestation of extravagance, both in colour and composition. A little con- sideration, however, will show that Constable was a far greater Impressionist than many others whose names are usually associated with the term. As a matter of fact, the greatest Impressionist is he who can copy Nature most faithfully ; and instead of there being any fundamental distinction between Realism and Impressionism, the latter is the legitimate outcome of the former. Sir James Linton, while pointing out that all great land- scape painters are of necessity Impressionists, adds that Constable’s first desire was “ to give a true and full impression of Nature both in colour and chiaroscuro.” Constable’s efforts to realise that desire were successful beyond those of almost every earlier or contemporary painter of landscape, and he became a great Impressionist because he was also a “ stern Realist.” NOTE Constable was a more prolific artist than is commonly supposed. The writer, when ramb- ling in the Stour Valley, from Sudbury to Harwich, was assured by several of his hosts that many small oil paintings, unquestionably by Constable, but largely unknown to dealers and experts, are scattered throughout East Anglia. In 1899, Messrs. Leggatt possessed 177 pictures and drawings, acquired from the Constable family. No list of these is at hand, but very few can be identical with any of those mentioned below. “ Hampstead Heath ” — to name but one subject — was painted by Con- stable so often that it is difficult to trace all his pictures bearing that title. There can hardly be less than twenty of considerable size ; there are many smaller, and many others are un- named. In the following list, no attempt is made to classify the large number of drawings and sketches in oils, water-colour, Indian ink, i47 148 CONSTABLE pencil, etc. These, mostly at South Kensing- ton, are named, for the most part, according to their present arrangement and position. As many bear no date, and some — at the British Museum — are unnamed, any attempt at chrono- logical classification would probably prove mis- leading. LIST OF WORKS BY JOHN CONSTABLE, R.A. NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON No. 130. The Cornfield. 327. The Valley Farm. 1065. A Cornfield with Figures. Sketch. 1066. On Barnes Common. 1207. The Hay Wain. 1246. A House at Hampstead. 1272. The Cenotaph. 1273. Flatford Mill on the River Stour. 1274. The Glebe Farm. 1275. View at Hampstead. 1813. View on Hampstead Heath. 1814. Salisbury Cathedral. 1815. Summer Afternoon after a Shower. Sketch. 1816. The Mill Stream. Study for the Hay Wain. 1817. The Gleaners. Sketch. 1818. View at Epsom. Sketch. 1819. Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk. Sketch. 1820. Dedham. Rough Sketch. 1821. A Country Lane. Sketch. 1822. Dedham Vale. 1823. The Glebe Farm. Sketch. 1824. Sketch for a Landscape. The above are all oils. 149 CONSTABLE 150 NATIONAL GALLERY OF BRITISH ART, MILLBANK No. 1235. View of the House in which the Artist was Born. Sketch. ,, 1236. The Salt Box, Hampstead Heath. ,, 1237. View on Hampstead Heath. ,, 1244. The Bridge at Gillingham. ,, 1245. Church Porch, Bergholt, Suffolk. ,, 1276. Harwich : Sea and Lighthouse. The above are all oils. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON No. 901. Portrait of Constable, drawn by himself, in lead pencil, tinted. DIPLOMA GALLERY (ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS), BURLINGTON HOUSE Dedham Lock, or The Leaping Horse. A Lock. Tree-tops and Sky. i> tt A Landscape. tt ft if Landscape with Figures. Coast Scene. ff ft Flatford Mill. Riverside Scene. Waterloo Bridge. Study of Trees and House. Landscape with Rainbow. The above are all oils. LIST OF WORKS 151 BRITISH MUSEUM (PRINT ROOM) Drawings and Sketches Many of these are unnamed Water-colour Drawings and Sketches : — Stoke-by-Nayland. Littlehampton. July 8th, 1835. Folkestone Harbour. 1833 (?)• Design for Gray’s Elegy (two). Theal, Berkshire. Aug. 25th, 1832. Ruins of Cowdray (two). Tillington Church. Sept. 17th, 1834. Cottage near Reading. Cottage in Suffolk. Pond and Cottages. A Village on a River. At Hampstead. A Seaport with a storm passing. Woman with Sunshade. Trees and Sky. Landscape. Bridge over a River. Nov. 23rd, 1829. London from Hampstead Heath. Four drawings. Landscape. July 31st, 1832. Landscape with Windmill. Tree-tops and Stormy Sky. Hampstead Heath. Hampstead. June 26th, 1823. A Landscape. Cottage, Bridge and Stream. Stonehenge. Cottages. 152 CONSTABLE A House. Bignor Park. July, 1834. Petworth. July 14th, 1834. Folkestone. October, 1833. Folkestone Harbour. Chalk and Indian Ink : — Sketch for the Leaping Horse. tt tt tt ft Indian Ink : — Cart and Horses. Pen and Ink : — A Figure. tt Woman Reading. Girl Writing. Hampstead (after Swanevelt). Pencil Sketches : — Bentley, Suffolk. Two sketches. University College, Oxford. Woman and Child. Women and Child. A Landscape. ,, April 20th, 1823. North Stoke, Arundel. July 12th, 1824. Figures. ft Woman Reading. Woman and Child. Study of an Ash Tree. Study of Trees. Landscape. Harwich. October 29th, 1825. i53 LIST OF WORKS A River Scene. Soldier and Woman. A Group. Sophia (?). Figures. Feb. 5th, 1836. A Woman. Head of a Woman. Child Sleeping. Etchings : — Approach to a Bridge. Ruins. There are also two oils : — View at Hampstead Heath. The Grove, Hampstead. VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, SOUTH KENSINGTON Oil Paintings and Sketches : — East Bergholt Church and Golding Constable’s House. Boat-building near Flatford Mill. Dedham Vale. Weymouth Bay. Dedham Mill, Essex. ,, ,, (unfinished). The Close, Salisbury. 1825. Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden. View near Salisbury. 1829. View in the Close, Salisbury. Sketch. 1829. Salisbury Cathedral. Sketch. 1820. Old Sarum. Hampstead Heath. n n Trees near Hampstead Church. Two Paintings. 1 54 CONSTABLE The Cottage in the Cornfield. Water Mill at Gillingham, Dorsetshire. The State Opening of Waterloo Bridge. Small. The State Opening of Waterloo Bridge. Sketch. The Cenotaph, Cole-Orton, Sketch. On the Orwell. Sketch. Dell at Helmingham Park. Study for the Hay Wain. Study for the Leaping Horse. Brighton Beach. Water Meadows, near Salisbury. View at Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk. On the Stour, near Dedham. View at East Bergholt (?). View on the Stour (?). Sketch for the Valley Farm. Hayfield in Suffolk. July 4th, 1812. View at Dedham (?). A Sluice on the Stour. A Mill, near Brighton. Two Sketches. A Rustic Building. Landscape, with Water. A Valley Scene, with Trees. Study of the Stem of an Elm Tree. A Study of Trees and Sky. Study of Tree-stems. Brighton Beach with Colliers. Landscape with Figures. “The Grove,” Hampstead. Heath Scene, Hampstead. Sketch in a Wood. Coast Scene, with Shipping in the distance. A Study of Trees : Evening. A Village Fair. 18 11. 155 LIST OF WORKS Spring-. Study of Sky and Trees. Landscape with Figures. Dedham Mill and Church, Essex. Landscape Study. The Glebe Farm. Coast Scene, with Fishing Boats. On the Skirts of a Wood. Landscape and Cart. i8ji. Near East Bergholt, Suffolk. View at Hampstead Heath. Autumnal Sunset. Study of Clouds. A Water Mill. A Landscape. Houses and Trees. A Cottage and Sandbank. Landscape with a double Rainbow. 1812. Head of a Girl. Study of Flowers. >> Garden and Paddock. Windmill and Houses. Landscape with Cottage. Stacking Hay. A Sandbank. View in Dedham Vale, Suffolk. The following are small sketches, usually several in each frame : — Landscape Study. Study of Sky and Trees. Five Sketches. 1821. The Beach at Brighton. 1824. View at Hampstead. An Upland Park Scene. 1812. 1 56 CONSTABLE Study near the Coast. Study at Hampstead, Evening-. 1823. Study of Poppies. Study of Foliage. Cart and Horses. ,, ,, with Carter and Dog. A Study of Trees, Noon. ) ^ » ,, Evening. J 3 ‘ Study of Clouds. 1822. Study of Plant Form. Near Hampstead. 1821. View at Hampstead. Two Sketches. A Bouquet of Flowers. A Donkey Browsing. On the Skirts of a Wood. Study of Ploughs. 1814. A Study of Clouds. On the Beach at Brighton. 1824. The Beach at Brighton. 1824. A Windmill near Brighton. A Sunset Study at Hampstead. 1820. Water-colour Drawings and Sketches : — H.M.S. Victory in the Battle of Trafalgar, etc. Englefield House, Berkshire. 1832. Old Sarum. Stonehenge, Wiltshire. Two Sketches. Exterior of East Bergholt Church. Four Sketches. A Doorway of East Bergholt Church. June 9th, 1806. Cottage at East Bergholt. Nov. 30th, 1832. Cottages at East Bergholt. July 31st, 1832. East Bergholt Church. June, 1806. View on the Orwell at Ipswich. Oct. 5th, 1803. View on the Stour. 157 LIST OF WORKS A Shed, Cottages, and a Windmill. View at Borrowdale, Cumberland. Nine Sketches. Stoke Poges Church, Bucks. >> Fittleworth Mill, Sussex. Mountain Scene in Cumberland. Old Houses at Harnham Bridge, Salisbury. Houses and a Church Tower. Windsor Castle from the River. 1802. Two Sketches. Saddleback and part of Skiddaw. 1806. Landscape Sketch. Barn and Trees. 1832. View near Salisbury. 1829. View at Salisbury. 1829. Hove Church, Brighton. Archdeacon Fisher and his Dogs. 1829. Chichester Cathedral and Houses. 1834. A Flat Country, with Distant Hills. A French Partridge. Landscape, with Stream and Bridge. Cottages on a Bank, etc. Study of a Chasuble at Salisbury. Petworth House and Park. Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. Study of Clouds. 1830. Landscape, with River, etc. Study of Cows at Hampstead. Ruins of Cowdray House. 1834. Windmill and other Buildings. Sketch of a Church. Oak in Deadham (? Dedham) Meadows. 1827. A Sandbank, with Trees. Study for the picture of Jacques and the Wounded Stag. 158 CONSTABLE Brighton Beach, with Fishing Smacks. ,, ,, with Fishing Boat and Men. Houses on Putney Heath. Mr. Digby Neave’s Villa at Epsom. 1831. Landscape Sketch (Epsom?). View at Keswick. 1806. Landscape, with Buildings in the distance. Coast Scene, with a Capstan. ,, ,, with a Block-house. A Dog watching a Water-rat. Cottages on high ground. A Rustic Cottage, with Trees. Bignor House, Petworth. 1834. A Cottage, or Farmhouse, near a Cornfield. Landscape, with Setting Sun. Sketch of Cows and Trees. 1803. A Wooden Bridge over the Stour. Landscape with Church Tower in the distance. Study of Trees. 1805. The Sketch of a Wood, with Cattle. A Rustic Girl, seated. Study of Trees and Sky, with a White Horse. Landscape, with Trees. 1832. Eton College and Chapel. Salisbury Cathedral, with Cottages in the fore- ground. Portland Island. 1816. A Rocky Scene in Cumberland. 1806. View in Cumberland, Helvellyn in the background. 1806. Mountain View (lakes). 1806. View on the Coast : Vessels Ashore. 1828. Distant View of Salisbury (?). A Windmill. 159 LIST OF WORKS View at Hampstead. 1 833. A Rustic Cottage, with figures. View at Houghton. 1834. A Farmhouse and Church. 1834. Sketch of a Barn. Study of Sky Effect. 1833. Landscape Study. Sketch of Trees and a Mansion. Sketch of Folkestone. 1835. A Cottage embosomed in foliage. A Brook, with a High Bank. A Tree Study, j l arge. About 1833. The Porch and Chancel End of a Church. View of Derwentwater. 1806. Sketch of Hilly Country, Stormy Sky. Well Walk, Hampstead. 1834. Off the North Foreland. 1803. A Windmill and Cottage. 1834. Old Houses at Salisbury. 1829. Pencil Drawings and Sketches : — Worcester, as seen from the North. Oct. 12th, 1835- Cart and Team. Aug. 21st, 1821. The Entrance into Gillingham, Dorset. House at East Bergholt in which artist was born. Night. Oct. 2nd, 1814. House at East Bergholt in which artist was born. Day. Oct. 3rd, 1814. A Willow in Flatford Meadows. Oct. 13th, 1837. Two Sketches. Exterior of East Bergholt Church. Trees at East Bergholt. Large. ,, „ ,, Oct. 17th, 1817. 160 CONSTABLE East Berg-holt Church. Four Sketches. View at East Bergholt. Wheatsheaves at East Bergholt. Oct. 15th, 1815. St. Mary’s Church, Colchester. Overbury Hall, Suffolk (?). Aug. 20th, 1815. The Forefront of a Barge at Flatford. On the Shore near Harwich. Aug. 22nd, 1815. Shipping at Harwich. Sept. 1st, 1815. Shipping near Ipswich. Aug. 15th, 1815. A View in Wyvenhoe Park, Essex. Aug. 29th, 1817. Two Sketches. Ship-building at Ipswich. Aug. 27th, 1817. Study of Trees at Hampstead. Sketch near a River. Sketch of Salisbury Cathedral. 1811. East Window of Netley Abbey. 1816. View near Salisbury. A Cottage in a Field. Salisbury Cathedral. 1820. Sketch of Netley Abbey. Stratford — Water Lane. 1827. Knowle Hall, Warwickshire. 1820. River Scene, with Shipping and Houses. Landscape, with Elm Trees. Sherborne Church, Dorset. 1833. An Oak Tree in a Hayfield. Study of Elm Trees. Trees in Leicestershire. 1823. Study of a Root of a Tree. 1831. A Worcestershire Plough. 1835. View in the Grove at Cole-Orton Hall. 1823. Rustic Figures. Cart and Team. Another Sketch. Sketch of a Frigate. LIST OF WORKS 161 Shipping- in the Medway (?). Two Sketches. West End of Chichester Cathedral. 1835. Interior — Netley Abbey. A Group of Trees on Broken Ground. Chancel End of a Church. Abing-don from the River. 1821. Stonehenge. 1820. Preston Church, near Weymouth. 1816. Sketch of a Plough at Epsom. 1821. Osmington Bay. 1816. Trees and Wattles at Hampstead. 1820. Sketch after Cuyp. View in Wimbledon Park. 1815. The Chain Pier, Brighton. Waterloo Bridge, as seen from the West. Trees at Hampstead. 1833. West End of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. Arundel Castle. 1834. A Cottage in a Field. West Door of Salisbury Cathedral. 1820. Monument to Sir Joshua Reynolds at Cole-Orton. 1823. A Windmill. 1802. A Watermill at Newbury. 1821. View of Reading from the River. The Abbey Gate, Reading. 1821. A Ruin near Abingdon. 1821. A Cart at Gillingham. 1820. Farm Buildings and a Bridge. 1820. Sketch of a Partly Ruined Church. 1828. View in the New Forest. 1820. A Rustic Walking, and Team Harrowing. A Lane, with a Distant View. 1817. M 1 62 CONSTABLE A Bridge at Hendon. 1820. Old Buildings at Arundel. 1835. Fir Trees at Hampstead. 1820. Ash Trees. View at Salisbury. 1820. View near Salisbury. 1812. Richmond Bridge. 1818. A Road leading into Salisbury. 1820. View in the Grounds of Cole-Orton Hall. Churchyard at Findon. 1818. Ecclesiastical Ruins. Salisbury Cathedral. 1823. On the Canal near Newbury. 1821. Two Sketches. Bridge at Abingdon. 1821. Blenheim Palace and Park. Study of Trees. Crayon. Study from Nude Male Figure. Black and White Chalk. Pen and Ink Sketches : — Cottage, Cople, Suffolk. ,, Burnt Ruins, Cople. ,, East Bergholt. ,, Holton, with Church in background. On the Orwell, near Ipswich. Indian Ink Sketches : — View on the Stour. About 1820. „ ,, (?). About 1830. ,, ,, with Dedham Church in the distance. View of Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk. Fishing Smacks at Anchor. 1822. On the Thames — or Medway (?). 1803. Sketch of a Frigate. 1803. LIST OF WORKS 163 Men of War in the Medway. 1803. n >> Shipping- in the Thames or Medway. 1803. View at Langdale. 1806. View at Langdale (?). 1806. Studies of Fishing Gear. River with Fishing. 1803. A River Study. A Windmill, near Brighton (?). Rough Sketch of Buildings and Trees. View in Derbyshire. Four Sketches. Mountain Torrent in Borrowdale. Two Sketches. A Rustic Cottage. Ruins by Moonlight. Coast Scene, with Shipping. Coast Study. Four Sketches. Coast Scene, with Vessels on Beach. Landscape, with Bridge and Buildings. About 1801. Entrance to a Derbyshire Village. Edensor. 1801. In Chatsworth Park. 1801. The West End of Winchester Cathedral. Views of Derbyshire. Four Sketches. View at Newbury, Berks. 1821. Bridge at Gillingham, Dorset. A Country Road, with Cottage and Figures. Coast Scene, with Smacks and Figures. Coast Scene, with Houses and Figures. An Etching after Ruysdael (?). CORPORATION OF LONDON ART GALLERY, GUILDHALL No. 649. Fording the River, Showery Weather, Salisbury. ,, 650. Near East Bergholt, Suffolk. ,, 651. A Landscape. 164 CONSTABLE OLDHAM ART GALLERY Lugger and Hog Boat, Brighton. Water-colour. 1824. Brighton Beach. Water-colour. 1824. Near Folkestone. A Sky Study. A Landscape. Pen and Ink — tinted. Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk. Charcoal. In Helmingham Park, Suffolk. Charcoal. Old Sarum. Pencil Sketch. Sept. 14th, 1811. Salisbury. Pencil Sketch. MAPPIN ART GALLERY, SHEFFIELD No. 91. The Cornfield, or Country Lane. ,, 92. A Landscape. ,, 146. Salisbury Cathedral. Both large. WALKER ART GALLERY, LIVERPOOL A Rainy Landscape. A Summer Storm. Kenilworth Castle. A Dull Day. An English River. NATIONAL GALLERY OF IRELAND Landscape (?near Salisbury). Dedham Vale. Water-colour Sketch. Flatford, Dedham Vale. Pencil Sketch. Landscape. Pencil Sketch. THE LOUVRE, PARIS The Cottage. The Rainbow. Weymouth Bay. The Glebe Farm. Hampstead Heath. 165 LIST OF WORKS PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan — AScene on the River Stour (“ The White Horse”). Sir Samuel Montagu, Bart. — Stratford Mill on the River Stour. Mrs. Ashton — Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows. Holloway College — A View on the Stour. Mr/ o Charles Morrison — The Lock. Sir Charles Tennant, Bart, (the late) — The Opening of Waterloo Bridge. The Lock (small). Yarmouth Jetty. Sir Audley Neeld, Bart. — Dedham Vale. Mr. -George Salting — Salisbury Cathedral from the Avon. Malvern Hall. Oil Sketch. Mr. Thomas J. Barrett — Hampstead Heath. The Summerland. Sir Richard Steele’s House at Hampstead. The Watermill (“ Palette-knife” Sketch). Dedham. Hadleigh Castle. Hampstead Field. Trustees of the late Mr. J. M. Keiller — A Dell in Helmingham Park. 1 66 CONSTABLE Mr. Alex. F. Hollingworth — A Windmill. From the Gillott Collection. Hampstead Heath. Two Water-colour Drawings. Mr. Lionel Phillips — Mountain Scene. Messrs. Lawrie & Co. — Dedham Vale. Mr. J. Horrocks Miller — A View on the Stour, r near Dedham, Flatford. Very large. Mr. Holbrook Gaskell — Arundel Mill and Castle. Mr. James Orrock, r.i. — Yarmouth Jetty. A Landscape. Landscape, with Water. ,, with Cows. View near Dedham. Willy Lott’s House. A Mill. Moonlight. A River Scene. A Pony, etc. Houses at Hampstead. A Mill by Moonlight. Salisbury Cathedral. Landscape. A Riverside View. LIST OF WORKS 167 Heath Scene. A Lock on the Stour. Large. A Woody Landscape. A Windmill on a Hill. Landscape. Hampstead Heath. A Cottage. Several very small Landscapes. The above are all oils, and many are unnamed. Mr. W. H. Lever — East Bergholt Church, south-east view. Pre- sented by the artist to the Rev. Dr. Rhudde, Rector of East Bergholt, in 1811. Exhibited at the Royal [Academy Winter Exhibition, 1906. East Bergholt Mill, with Rainbow. Exhibited at Burlington House, 1893, and at the New Gallery, 1897. East Bergholt, Suffolk. View near Bentley, Suffolk. Hampstead Heath, with pond, and figures on a road in the foreground. Exhibited at Burlington House, 1906. Hampstead Heath : a white house and sandy knoll to right of picture : a man in red jacket watering a horse in middle distance. A Woody Landscape. A Village on a River. On Panel. A Woodland Stream. On Panel. A Landscape, with Cottage among Trees. On Panel. A Woody River Scene. Sketch on Panel. Nelr e Goring} A vei T sma11 P air ' The first six of the above are large. 1 68 CONSTABLE Miscellaneous Oil Paintings and Sketches : — (In various public and private collections.) The undermentioned, even where similar in title, are different from pictures already specified. They are placed together here because, whilst books are being written, pictures are changing hands, and it is not possible to name the present owners, public or private, in every case. Altar-piece at Brantham. ,, ,, Nayland. Brighton Beach. Brighton, Sea and Sky. Jan. ist, 1826. Hampstead Heath. A View near Salisbury. The Harvest Field. The Gamekeeper’s Cottage. A Winter Scene. Willy Lott’s Cottage. A View on the Stour, near Dedham. At East Bergholt, Suffolk. A Shower, East Bergholt. Golding Constable’s House, East Bergholt. Dedham Mill, Essex. On the Stour, near Stratford. Study of a Horse. A Fresh Breeze off Yarmouth. On the Derwent, near Bakewell. Near Bakewelb Derbyshire. View in Helmingham Park. Landscape. Malvern Hall (?). View in the Lake District. Hadleigh Castle. 169 LIST OF WORKS A Bridge over the Mole. Near Keswick, Cumberland. At Keswick. Farm Buildings and Trees. Malvern Hall, Warwickshire. Hampstead Heath. Large. A Deserted Mill. Dedham Lock. Large. A Waterfall at Gillingham, Dorsetshire. Flatford Mill. Miscellaneous Water-colour Sketches : — Feering Church, Kelvedon. A Hilly Landscape. Kendal Castle. Whitbarrow Wear. Helvellyn in Cumberland. Fine Evening under the Cliffs. Distant View of Woodford Church. Miscellaneous Pencil Drawings : — St. Mary’s Church, Colchester. Colchester Castle. Stourhead. Houses at Twyford. Worcester Cathedral from the River. Old Sarum. Landscape, with Cottages. Trees by a River Bank. Salisbury Cathedral. Landscape, with Cow. Bentley (?), Church and Trees. A Windmill. 170 Portraits : — CONSTABLE Constable’s portraits are mostly in private collections. He is known to have painted the following, among others : — David Pike Watts. Bishop Fisher. Archdeacon Fisher. General Rebow. Mrs. Rebow. General Rebow’s Daughter. Rev. G. Bridgeman. Charles Lloyd. James Lloyd. Sophia Lloyd and Child. Golding Constable. Abram Constable. Ann and Mary Constable, “ Minna ” Constable. Sir Thos. and Lady Lennard. Grandchildren of Mr. Lambert, of Woodman- stone. Portrait of the Artist. Some of the prices paid for paintings by Constable have been mentioned as occasion arose, but a few further details may be here appended. The following pictures, formerly in the possession of Mr. James Orrock, R.I., were dispersed at public sale, in June, 1904, by Messrs. Christie : — East Bergholt Mill . . 1000 Guineas. Quaker Smith’s Cornfield 520 ,, Hampstead Heath . . 400 ,, Hilly Landscape . . 400 ,, LIST OF WORKS The Glebe Farm . 260 Guineas. >> 190 View near Bentley . . 200 >> East Berg-holt 100 n Valley Farm (small) 75 > > River Scene . 60 > 1 Rochester 55 iy Helming-ham Dell . 45 n A Woody Landscape 250 jf Other recent Sales : — Harnham Bridg-e, 2700 Guineas. The Mill Stream, Flatford, £152. The West End Fields, £ 598 . Denny Sale. Helming-ham Dell, 250 Guineas. Christie. Cottage at Lang-ham, 280 Guineas. Gabbitas Sale. BIBLIOGRAPHY Art Journal . 1855, 1895, 1903. Blackwood' s Magazine . Vol. lviii. Brock-Arnold, G. M. John Constable , R.A. 1880. Burger, W. Histoire des Peintres . Ecole Anglaise. 1863. Chamberlain, Arthur B. John Constable . 1903. Chesneau, Ernest. La Peinture Anglaise . 1882. Constable s Sketches, with note by Sir J. B. Linton. Newnes’ Art Library. Edinburgh Review. Vol. lxxxvii. English Illustrated Magazine . Vol. x. Etherington, Lucy N. Translation of Chesneau's La Peinture Anglaise . Third Edition. 1887. Feuillet de Conches, F. L' Artiste. Ecole Anglaise de Peinture. 1884. Hamerton, P. G. The Portfolio. 1873 and- 1890. Holmes, C. J. Constable. The Artist’s Library. 1901. Holmes, C. J. Constable and his Influence on Land- scape Painting. 1902. Henderson, Sturge. Constable. The Library of Art. 1905. 172 BIBLIOGRAPHY 173 Leslie, C. R. , R.a. Memoirs of the Life of John Con - stable, R.A . First Edition, 1843 ; Second Edition, 1845; Third Edition, 1896. Leisure Hour. Vol. xxx. Magazine of Art. Vol. vi. , Vol. xiv. Monkhouse, Cosmo. Constable , John. Diet. Nat. Biography. Muther, R. History of Modern Painting Nineteenth Century , December, 1903. Constable’s “ Landscape,” by Fred. Wedmore. Perrier, Henri. Gazette des Beaux Arts. “ De Hugo van der Goes k John Constable.” Vol. vii. 1873. Pichot, Amed^e. Lettres surT Angleterre. 1826. Redgrave, Richard and Samuel. Century of Painters of the English School. First Edition, 1866 ; Second Edition, 1890. Redgrave, Samuel. Dictionary of Artists of the English School. 1 874. Revue Universelle des Arts. Vol. iv. Ruskin, John. Modern Painters. Several references. Sharp, William. Progress of Art in the Century. The Nineteenth Century Series. Chap. ii. “ Constable and his Contemporaries.” Tompkins, Herbert W. In Constable s Country. 1906. Wedmore, Frederick. Constable — Lucas . With a descriptive catalogue of the prints they did between them. 1904. Wedmore, Frederick. L y Art. Vol. ii. 1878. 174 CONSTABLE Wedmore, Frederick. Studies in English Art . Second Series. Windsor, Lord. John Constable , R.A . Makers of British Art. 1903. See also other articles in Encyclopaedias, Magazines, etc. INDEX Abingdon, 12 “ Alchymist, An,” 23 Algarotti, 22 Allnutt, Mr., 58 Ambler, Augustus, 16 Anatomical Theatre, 32 “Annunciation, The,” 18 Appleton, Mr., 89 Arrowsmith, Mr., 72 Arun, River, 121 Arundel, 119 Arundel Mill and Castle, 105, 127, 128 “Autumnal Sunset,” 121 Bake well, 31 Baldinucci, 95 Barrett, Mr. T. J., 123 Beaumont, Sir G., 18, 85, 89, 127 Benyon de Beauvoir, Mr . ,116 — , Mrs. R., 1 16 Bergholt, East, 15, 17, 42, 49, 54, 7i, 93 Bicknell, Charles, 49, 59, 93 — , Mrs. C., 58 — , Maria, 49-60 “ Boat-building,” 63, 64, 65, 141 Bohn, H. G., 106 Bolton Abbey, 14 Borrowdale, 41 Brantham, 39 “Bridge at Gillingham, The,” 85 Brighton, 87 “Brighton Beach,” 87 “Brighton Beach with Col- liers,” 87-89, 91, 93 British Gallery, 84 British Institution, 55, 89 British Museum, 3, 10, 21, 79, 97, 100, 120, 121, 148 Brock-Arnold, G. M., 113 Bures St. Mary, 15 Burger, W., 74 Burlington House, 72, 145 Byron, Lord, 55 Callcott, Sir A. W., 84, 112 Carpenter, Mr., 58 “ Cart and Team,” 80 “Cenotaph, The,” 116, 126, 128, 141, 142 Chamberlain, Mr. A., 20, 43, 67 Chatsworth, 31 “Christ Blessing Little Children,” 39 “Church Porch, Bergholt,” 46 “Chymist, A,” 23 Claude, 6, 18, 64, 95, 120, 138, 139, 143 175 CONSTABLE 176 “ Coast Scene with Ship- ping,” 79 Collins, W. , 89, 102 Constable, Abram, 19, 43, 9 1 , 92 — , Ann, 15, 18, 58 — ,? jun., 43 — , Charles, 24, 29, 128, 130 — , George, 118, 120, 123, 126 — , Golding, 15, 17, 19, 24, 43? 50, 58 — , Isabel, 46 Constable, John, R.A. : — — , birth, 15 — , baptism, 15 — at Lavenham School, 16 — at Dedham School, 16 — , his studies, 16 — friendship with Dun- thorne, 17 — friendship with Sir George Beaumont, 18 — at his father’s mills, 19 — first visit to London, 20 — and J. T. Smith, 21, 22 — learns etching, 21 — returns to East Bergholt, 22 — draws his own portrait, 23 — described, 23 — studies at Royal Academy, 25 — copies pictures, 25 — visits Ipswich, 25 — at Cecil Street, Strand, 2 5 — in Helmingham Park, 29 Constable, J ohn, R. a. ( contd ) — rambles in Derbyshire, 31 — moves to Rathbone Place, 3 1 — studies anatomy, 31 — exhibits first picture, 32 — voyage in the Courts, 35 — paints an altar-piece, 39 — visits English lakes, 40 — paints portraits, 42, 90 — further friendships, 48 — love of music, 48 — meets Maria Bicknell, 49 — correspondence withMaria Bicknell, 51-60 — walks with Stothard, 53 — reads Cowper, 54 — visits Colchester, 55 — rambles in Essex, 56 — sells two pictures, 58 — marries Miss Bicknell, 59 — moves to Keppel Street, 65 — at Hampstead, 65 — moves to Charlotte Street, 66 — and Dunthorne, jun., 67 — exhibits at Lille, 68 — elected a.r.a., 68 — exhibits at the Louvre, 71 - — rambles in Berkshire, 79> — rambles in Oxfordshire, 79 — visits Salisbury, 80 — on Council of Royal Academy, 80 — visits Gillingham, 85 — at Cole-Orton Hall, 85 INDEX 1 77 Constable, John, R. a. ( contd . ) — visits Brighton, 87, 88, 9 1 ) 93 — keeps a diary, 89 — at Woodmanstone, 90 — visits Abram Constable, 91, 92 — moves to Well Walk, 92 — , death of wife, 93 — elected “ R.A.,” 94 — plans English Landscape , 95 — publishes English Land- scape , 101 — with children in Suffolk, 107 — attacked by rheumatism, in, 119 — political fears, 1 1 1 — lectures at Hampstead, 116 — at Dunthorne’s funeral, 118 — visits Arundel, 119 — ,, Petworth, 119, 120 — lectures at Worcester, 125 — last meeting with Leslie, 129 — sudden death, 129 — , his epitaph, 130 — characteristics, 13 1 — appreciations, 132 et seq. Constable, John (jun.), 65, 83* 130 — , Mrs. John, 59, 85, 89, 9 i. 93 — , Lionel, 92, 130 — , Maria, 65, 130 — , Mary, 43 Constable Sale, 65, 68 Cooper, A., 1 1 5 “ Cornfield, The,” 9, 63, 73, 74. 91. 138 Corot, J. B. C.. 64 “ Cottage, A,” 84 “Cottage in a Cornfield,” 105, 1 16, 143 “ Cottage near Reading,” 79 “Country Road, A,” 90 Cowdray Castle, 120 Cowper, 54 Cox, David, 13, 14, 63 Cozens, J. R., 1 1 Crome, John, 10, 63, 138 Cuyp, 138, 143 Daubigny, 72 Dedham, 16, 18, 74 “ Dedham Lock,” 72, 90, x 37> Hi “Dedham Mill,” 99, 142 “ Dedham Vale,” 44, 94, 138 “ Dell in Helmingham Park,” 103 Deperthes, 64 “ Design for Gray’s 1 Elegy, ’ ” 120 Dickes, F, W., 9 Dorigny, 18 Driffield, Rev. Mr., 56 Dryslwyn Castle, 13 Dunthorne, John, 14, 17, 29, 3 1 . 34. 36, 118 , jun., 67, 89, 93, 1 18 Dysart, Earl, 48 Earlom, 95 N CONSTABLE 178 Egremont, Lord, III, 120 “ Englefield House,” 115 “ English Landscape,” 19, 27, 97-109, 112, 1 19 “Entrance intoGillingham,” 85 Etty, W., 103 Etruscan Art, 5 Farington, J., 21 Feering, 56 Fisher, Archdeacon, 59, 79, 82, 89-91, 100, 1 17 — , Bishop, 34, 54, 75 Fittleworth Mill, 12 1 Flatford, 16, 92 Flatford Mill, 16, 33, 53, 64, 105, 122 “ Flatford Mill on the River Stour,” 63, 66, 126, 142 Fuseli, 84 Gainsborough, T., 8, 9, 11, 20, 25, hi, 1 17, 138 Gardner, D., 23 Gibeon’s Farm, 71, 123 Gillingham, 84, 85 “Gillingham Mill,” 105 Girtin, T., 11, 12, 18, 21, 63, 139 “Gleaners, The,” 87 “ Glebe Farm, The,” 75, 76, 91, 92, 126, 138, 141 Goldsmith, 113 Greek Art, 4, 5 Grimwood, Dr., 16 “ Grove Scene, Carling- ford,” 9 Haddon Hall, 31 “ Hadleigh Castle,” 56, 99 Hamerton, P. G., 132 “Hammonds House,” 121 Hampstead, 65, 92, 93, no, 1 17 “ Hampstead Heath,” 92, 99, 102, 103, 147 “Harvest Field, The,” 29 Harwich, 147 “Harwich: Sea and Light- house,” 79 “Hay Wain, The,” 63, 69- 71, 124, 137, 141 Hazlitt, W. , 2, 6 “Heath, A,” 116 Herculaneum, 1 1 7 “H. M.S. Victory,” etc., 42 Hobbema, M., 10, 117, 139 Holmes, C. J., 18, 30, 39, 47, 97, 105 “ House and Grounds of the late Golding Constable,” 101 Huth Sale, 69 “ Interior of a Church, An,” 119 Jackson, J., R.A., 48, 88 Jesus College, Cambridge, 130 Johnson, Dr., 94 Judkin, Rev. T. J., 130 “ Lake Nemi,” 9 Lambert, Mr., 90 “Landscape, Sunset,” 116 INDEX 179 “ Landscape with Water,” 123 Landseer, Sir E., 116 Langham, 75 Lavenham, 16 Law, David, 7 6 Lawley, Sir F., 1 12 Lawrence, Sir T., 56 Leggatt, Messrs., 109, 147 Leslie, C. R., 16, 22, 29, 36, 38, 50, 70, 89, 93, 99, 101, 103, 104, 106, III, 114-16, 120-22, 129 Liber Studioruviy 105, 106 Liber Veritatis , 95 Libro d' Invenzioni, 96 Linnell, J., 33, 58 Linton, Sir J. D., 8, 146 Littlehampton, 126 Lloyd, Charles, 42 — , James, 42 — , Sophia, 42 “ Lock, A,” 125, 144 “ Lock on the Stour,” 140 Lott, William, 71 Louvre, The, 71, 76, 92 Lucas, David, 19, 26, 69, 76, 87, 88, 97-109, 122, 128, 140 Magazine of Fine Arts , 8 “ Marine Parade, Brighton,” 92 Marlborough House, 74 Michele, Mr., 129 “ Mill near Brighton,” 87 “ Moonlight,” 1 12 Morgan, J. P., 68 Morley, Lady, 116 “ Mousehold Heath,” 10 Munro, Dr., 11 Murray, C. F., 26 National Gallery, 3, 10, 40, 44, 63, 66, 69-75, 87, 88, I l6, 123, 126 Nayland, 40 “ Noli me tangere,” 6 “Old Sarum,” 102, 119 “ On Barnes Common,” 40 “ On the Orwell,” 26, 105 “On the Skirts of the Forest,” 10 Orrock, Mr. J., R.I., 123 Osmington, 59 Palgrave, Prof., 6 “Park Scene with Trees,” 39 Partridge, Prof., 129 Pausanias, 4 Petworth, III, 119, 120 Phillips, R.A., 1 16, 120 Pin Mill, 26 Polygnotos, 4 “Porch of the Church at East Bergholt,” 105 Poussin, Gasper, 6, 37, 117 Purton, William, 120 Quilter, Mr. W. C., 43 Raphael, 18 Read, of Salisbury, 82 Rebow, General, 55 Redhill, 88 Rembrandt, 117, 134 i8o CONSTABLE Reynolds, Sir J., i, 4, 22, 86, 127 Rhudde, Dr. D., 49, 54, 60 Rochester, 35 “ Romantic House, A,” 112 Royal Academy, 2, 25, 30, 32, 36, 40, 53, 55, 68, 70, 72, 74, 8o, 94, 1 1 2, 114, 1 16, 1 19, 122, 126, 129, I44, I45 “ Ruin of Kirkstall Abbey,” 11 Ruskin, John, 5, 8, 9, 11, 66, 139, 140, 144 Ruysdael, 117 Salisbury, 80 “ Salisbury Cathedral,” 104 “Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden,” 83 “Salisbury from the Mea- dows,” 120, 122 Salvator Rosa, 5 “Sea Beach, Brighton,” 102 “ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,” 115 Sharp, W., 137, 143 Sheepshanks Gift, 65, 92 Shotley Gate, 26 “ Showery Noon,” 116 Siddons, Mrs., 55 “ Sir Richard Steele’s Cot- tage,” 1 12 “ Sketch in a Wood,” 38 Smith, J. T., 21 Southey, R., 85 “Spring,” 19, 87, 99, 103 Stevenson, R. L., 56 “ Stoke Poges Church,” 119 “Stonehenge,” 126 Stothard, T., 48, 53, 91, 1 14 Stour, River, 15, 20, 67, 71, 73 Stratford Mill, 12, 69, 128 Stratford St. Mary, 75 “Stream bordered with Wil- lows,” 80 “Study of Trees, A,” 84, 120 Sudbury, 147 “Summer Afternoon,” etc., 88 “ Summerland, A,” 101 “Summer Morning,” 102 Swinburne, A. C., 134 “Tate” Gallery, 45, 46, 79 Tennant, Sir C., 1 1 3 “Theal, Berkshire,” 1 1 5 Theobald, H. S., 10 Tintoret, 5 Titian, 5, 6 Totnes, 12 “Treatise on Painting,” 22 Turner, Dawson, 10 — , J. M. W., 11-13, 21, 56, 63, 84, 94-6, 103, 1 14, US. i 3 i j 137, 138 Tuscan Art, 5 University College, Oxford, 79 “Valley Farm, The,” 71, 123, 133) ! 37 , 142 Varley, John, 13, 14, 21 Vaughan, H., 72, 88 Velasquez, 133 “Venus Reposing,” 6 INDEX 181 Vernon, R., 123 Victoria and Albert Museum, 3. 23, 30, 38, 41, 47, 58, 70, 79, 80, 84, 85, 87, 90, 92, 1 13, 1 15, 120, 123, 126, I4O, 142, I48 “ View at Epsom,” 44 “ View at Hampstead,” 116 “ View of the House in which the Artist was Born,” 45 “View of Salisbury,” 53 “Waterfall at Gillingham, A,” 92 “ Waterloo Bridge,” 90, 103, 112-15, 139 Watts, David P., 40, 90 Wedmore, Mr. F., 62, 76, 95, 104, 106 West, Benjamin, 33, 56 Westminster Hall, 122 “Weymouth Bay,” 79, 92, 142 “Whitehall Stairs,” 97 “White Horse, The,” 68 Wilkie, Sir D., 48, 116 “Willy Lott’s House,” 58, 71, 122 Wilson, Richard, 7-9, 1 1, 117, 138, 139, M 3 “ Windmill near Brighton,” 104 Windsor, Lord, 41, 68, 71, 88, 1 13 Wint, Peter de, 13, 14, 114 Woodmanstone, 90 “Woody Road with Peas- ant, A,” 30 Worcester, 66, 125 “ Worcester from the North, ” 126 Worcester Guardian , 125 Wright, Mr., 7 “ Yarmouth Jetty,” 84 Zuccarelli, 6 PLYMOUTH W. 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