Musée No:397.021
Regular price £25.00Salisbury Cathedral
Artist: John Constable
Date: 1820
One of England’s best loved landscape painters John Constable RA (1776 –1837) was born in Suffolk. He is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, now known as "Constable Country”. In 1799, Constable persuaded his father to let him pursue a career in art, he was inspired by paintings of, amongst others, Thomas Gainsborough and Peter Paul Rubens. His work was greatly influenced both in composition and use of light by that of the Old Masters he studied such as Claude Lorrain.
Some of his greatest paintings were inspired by the cathedral and surrounding countryside of Salisbury which he first visited in 1811. To help sustain himself financially he took up portraiture which although very fine, he found to be dull. He married his true love Maria in 1816 despite the fact that her Grandfather disapproved as Constable was not of sufficient social standing nor financially viable, he disinherited her. They were vindicated 3 years later when Constable sold The White Horse for 100 guineas (nearly £9000 in 2020). It was the start of his success. He made many open-air sketches, both in watercolour and in oil, using these as a basis for his large exhibition paintings, which were worked up in the studio. His pictures are extremely popular today, The Haywain being the most famous.