Constable

ONE OF THE TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES'' BEST BOOKS FOR 2022
''Eye-opening and full of surprises . . . A treasure'' Sunday Times
''A biography as rich with colourful characters as any novel'' Telegraph

John Constable, the revolutionary nineteenth-century painter of the landscapes and skies of southern England, is Britain''s best-loved but perhaps least understood artist.

His paintings reflect visions of landscape that shocked and perplexed his contemporaries: attentive to detail, spontaneous in gesture, brave in their use of colour. What we learn from his landscapes is that Constable had sharp local knowledge of Suffolk, a clarity of expression of the skyscapes above Hampstead, an understanding of the human tides in London and Brighton, and a rare ability in his late paintings of Salisbury Cathedral to transform silent suppressed passion into paint.

Yet Constable was also an active and energetic cor