File:Life and letters of John Constable, R. A (1896) (14756437756).jpg

Identifier: lifelettersofjoh00lesl (find matches)
Title: Life and letters of John Constable, R. A
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Leslie, Charles Robert, 1794-1859
Subjects: Contable, John, 1776-1837 Artists
Publisher: London : Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
se very namesare now nearly forgotten, were the favourites of the day. Constables art was never more perfect, perhaps never soperfect, as at this period of his life. I remember being greatlystruck by a small picture, a view from Hampstead Heath, whichI first saw at Ruysdael House, as Mr. Fisher called his residencein Keppel Street. I have before noticed that what are commonlycalled warm colours are not necessary to produce the impressionof warmth in landscape; and this picture affords to me thestrongest possible proof of the truth of this.* The sky is of theblue of an English summer day, with large, but not threatening,clouds of a silvery whiteness. The distance is of a deep blue, * It is, perhaps, unnecessary to remark that we associate the idea of warmth withred, orange, and yellow, because they are the colours of fire ; and that, in a summerlandscape, they can only have place in very small proportions, excepting at the risingand the setting of the sun, the coolest hours of the day.
Text Appearing After Image:
r^iiki. A COTTAGE IN A CORNFIELD. I i8i8.) AN ENGLISH SUMMER DAY. 89 and the near trees and grass of the freshest green ; for Constablecould never consent to parch up the verdure of nature to obtainwarmth. These tints are balanced by a very little warm colouron a road and gravel pit in the foreground, a single house in themiddle distance, and the scarlet jacket of a labourer. Yet I knowno picture in which the mid-day heat of midsummer is so admirablyexpressed; and were not the eye refreshed by the shade thrownover a great part of the foreground by some young trees thatborder the road, and the cool blue of water near it, one wouldwish, in looking at it, for a parasol, as Fuseli wished for anumbrella when standing before one of Constables showers. I amwriting of this picture, which appears to have been wholly paintedin the open air, after an acquaintance with it of five-and-twentyyears, and, on referring to it again and again, I feel my firstimpressions, whether right or wrong, entirely

Note About Images