Salisbury Katedral set fra biskoppens jorde

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Ground

1823 · Oil painting · 87.6 × 111.8 cm

Om maleriet

Salisbury Katedral set fra biskoppens have blev malet i 1823 af den engelske landskabsmaler John Constable (1776-1837). Dette maleri af en af Englands mest kendte middelalderkirker er et af hans mest berømte værker. Det blev bestilt af en af hans nærmeste venner, biskoppen af Salisbury, John Fisher.

Constable besøgte Salisbury i 1820 og udførte en række olieskitser som forarbejder til værket, som han har malet i flere udgaver. Til denne udgave valgte han et udsigtspunkt i biskoppens have. Biskoppen udpeger nederst til venstre den solbeskinnede katedral for sin kone, mens en af deres døtre, Dorothea, går hen ad stien mod sine forældre.

Læs videre

Da Constable besøgte udstillingen af maleriet i 1823 ved Royal Academy, bemærkede han: "Min katedral ser godt ud... Det har været det vanskeligste landskabsmotiv, jeg nogensinde har haft på mit staffeli. Jeg er ikke veget uden om arbejdet med vinduer, stræbepiller osv. – men jeg har som sædvanlig fundet en løsning ved hjælp af uklarheden i chiaroscuro". (Beckett, p. 115)

En tidligere udgave viste katedralen under en overskyet himmel. Biskop John Fisher gjorde imidlertid indsigelse mod den mørke sky over katedralen og bad om en "mere skyfri himmel", da han bestilte endnu en udgave.

Maleriet har alle det britiske landskabsmaleris kendetegn: skyerne, træerne, en eng, kvæg, der drikker ved søens bred og middelalderkirkens storslåede arkitektur – alt ud fra en menneskelig målestok. Malerier som dette har påvirket synet på det landlige England, så det nu er vanskeligt at forestille sig en tid, da landskabet og livet på landet ikke blev værdsat.

Object Type

Landscape painting in oils steadily became more popular during the 19th century. John Constable and his contemporary J.M.W. Turner take credit for establishing landscape as a significant subject. Until then, history paintings had been considered more important, but increasingly naturalistic paintings of picturesque views of the British landscape appealed to a wider section of the art-buying public.

People

Læs videre

Dr John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury, commissioned this painting in 1820. He and his family were some of Constable's closest friends and the artist taught one of his daughters. There has been some confusion over the identities of the figures in the painting but they are now thought to be the Bishop and his wife at the gate, and the figure a little further down the path, one of their daughters, probably Dolly. Constable had made a series of sketches before starting work on the canvas, and after it had been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1823, he was asked to make a smaller version and a full-scale replica.

Subjects Depicted

The painting embodies the full range of qualities of a quintessentially British landscape painting - the clouds, trees, a water meadow, cattle drinking at the edge of the pasture and the glorious architecture of a medieval cathedral - but all on a human scale. Paintings like this one have so conditioned our view of rural Britain that it is now difficult to imagine a time when the countryside and country life were not held in such high regard.