Constable: The Making of a Master, V&A

John Constable, Romantic painter of The Hay Wain (1814) – consistently voted one of the UK’s favourite oil paintings – and known for his rigorous studies of clouds and landscapes, only saw real success in France during his lifetime and was belatedly appointed to the Royal Academy at the age of 52. These are just three of many surprising facts throughout this current London exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum of ‘Britain’s best-loved artist’. John Constable: The Making of a Master is essential to anyone looking for the best exhibitions in London this winter.

Nature

Constable transformed the genre of landscape painting, imbuing his detailed, naturalistic scenes of rural England (especially Dedham Vale in Suffolk) with a new intensity of sentiment and extensive art historical knowledge. His life spanned the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, notably the same years as the famous ‘Romantic’ poet and nature writer William Wordsworth. 

A student of the Old Masters 

Painting the English countryside was a popular leisure pursuit for gentlemen such as Constable, though, as the show reveals, he was anything but a dilettante. For the first time, Constable’s monumental works will be displayed alongside the ‘Old Master’ landscape painters whom he had assiduously studied and responded to. Contemporary art critics praised Constable’s modernisation of these 17th century Dutch and Flemish landscape artists such as Hobbema, Rubens, Ruisdael and Wouwerman. This clever use of the art criticism of the day reflects the erudite nature of the exhibition. 

Other inspired moments include reuniting preparatory sketches with their finished oil versions – such as The Hay Wain and The Leaping Horse (1825) (both of the River Stour) – revealing Constable’s process and the fineness of his poetic touch. Expect too some enlightening discussion of the fashionable method of painting en plein air – alongside lots of fluffy Constable clouds – and of his commercially savvy engraving enterprises. 

Constable the collector

An admirer of Sir George Beaumont’s Old Master collection, Constable himself collected over 5,000 prints such as the majestic and desolate etching The Three Trees (1643) by Rembrandt, which is also on show. Beloved by connoisseurs throughout the centuries, Rembrandt’s etchings in Constable’s collection are a sign of this artist’s extremely cultivated eye.

This V&A exhibition unearths the radical Romantic force beneath a well-known name and reveals the making of an exquisite mind. One is forced to concede that Constable really was a giant among European painters and Constable: The Making of a Master is definitely a giant contender for our favourite exhibition in London. 

Click here for our exclusive interview with the exhibition's curator, Mark Evans.