John Constable
|
aus: www.englishculture.about.com/aboutuk/ englishculture/library/weekly/aa061500a.htm |
John Constable was
born in East Bergholt, Suffolk in 1776.
His interest for art was awoken by pictures by Lorrain shown to him by the amateur-painter Beaumont. But before he started to study painting at the Royal Academy schools in 1799 he worked as a corn merchant in the family mill. In 1802 Constable exhibited for the first time at the Academy.
|
In the beginning of his career he copied the Old Master landscapes like Lorrain and Gainsborough, but by about 1810 he showed a distinctly personal style. He wanted "to get a pure unaffected representation " of the landscape, so he narrowly observed nature and noted down all natural occurrences. Many compositions are based on sketches he made in nature, he completed them in the studio later.
Constable showed a special affection for Suffolk (his native country), later he extended his range to Salisbury, Brighton and Hampstead.
He painted for sale but he wasn’t very successful at his lifetime, so he had to accept portrait-commissions.
In 1816 he married Maria Bicknell, who gave him a new confidence. This also becomes clear in his works; he painted a six-foot canvas, which was too large to remain unnoticed as his previous paintings were.
| In 1821 he painted
the Haywain, which made him famous in France, and started his
Cloud-sketches, which were annotated with details of time and wind
directions.
In 1828 his wife died and Constable expressed his feelings in his pictures: his paintings more often contained unsettled scenes. In 1829 he became full member of the Royal Academy.
|
aus: www.englishculture.about.com/aboutuk/englishculture/library/ weekly/aa061500a.htm |
|
aus: www.arthistory.about.com |
John Constable died in 1837 in Hampstead. Today he is known as the most influential British painter of his time besides William Turner, even if he wasn’t very famous in his lifetime. |
