John Constable: quadros e onde vê-los

John Constable (11 de junho de 1776 – 31 de março de 1837) foi um pintor de paisagens inglês da tradição romântica. Nascido em Suffolk, ele é conhecido principalmente por revolucionar o gênero da pintura de paisagem com suas imagens de Dedham Vale, a área na fronteira entre Suffolk e o norte de Essex ao redor de sua casa – agora conhecida como "País de Constable" – na qual ele investiu com uma intensidade de afeto. "Devo pintar meus próprios lugares", escreveu ele ao amigo John Fisher em 1821, "pintar é apenas outra palavra para sentir".

As pinturas mais famosas de Constable incluem Parque Wivenhoe (1816), Vale de Dedham (1828) e A Carroça de Feno (1821). Embora suas pinturas estejam agora entre as mais populares e valiosas da arte britânica, ele nunca foi bem-sucedido financeiramente. Foi eleito para a Royal Academy of Arts aos 52 anos. Seu trabalho foi abraçado na França, onde vendeu mais do que em sua Inglaterra natal e inspirou a Escola de Barbizon.

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Cronologia

1776
Nascimento · 11 de junho de 1776
East Bergholt
Acontecimento
A miller’s son from East Bergholt
John was the second son of Golding and Ann Constable. His father, a wealthy corn merchant who owned Flatford Mill and the small ship Telegraph, which carried grain to London, expected John to succeed him, since the elder brother was in poor health.

1799
Carreira · London
Asks his father to let him paint
In 1799 Constable persuaded his father to let him pursue art and received a small allowance. He entered the Royal Academy Schools under the tutelage of Joseph Farington, attending life classes and anatomical dissections and copying old masters.
Acontecimento · until 1799 · East Bergholt
Youth at the mill: sketches that made him a painter
After a short time at a boarding school in Lavenham and then a day school in Dedham he worked in his father’s corn business, though his younger brother Abram eventually ran the mills. As a young man he made amateur sketching trips through Suffolk and Essex; those scenes, he said, “made me a painter”.
Encontro · until 1799
The collector Beaumont shows him Claude Lorrain
Constable was introduced to the collector George Beaumont, who showed him the pride of his collection, Claude Lorrain’s Landscape with Hagar and the Angel; the picture inspired the young painter.
Encontro · until 1799 · Middlesex County
John Thomas Smith: draw, but stay at the mill
While visiting relatives in Middlesex, Constable met the draughtsman and engraver John Thomas Smith, who gave him advice on painting but urged him to stay in the family business rather than take up art.

1802
Carreira
Turns down a drawing-master post
Constable declined the post of drawing master at Great Marlow Military College, which Benjamin West, then head of the Academy, said would end his career. In a letter to John Dunthorne he admitted he had spent two years seeking the truth at second hand and declared his resolve to become a professional landscape painter.
Exposição · 1802–1803 · London
First exhibitions at the Royal Academy
Constable first showed his work in 1802, and by 1803 he was exhibiting paintings at the Royal Academy.
1803
Viagem · April 1803 · Dil
A month aboard the Coutts
Constable spent almost a month aboard the East Indiaman Coutts as it called at south-east ports on its way from London to Deal, before leaving for China.

1811
Encontro
First visit to John Fisher in Salisbury
In 1811 Constable first stayed with his friend John Fisher and his family in Salisbury, whose cathedral and surrounding landscape inspired some of his greatest paintings.
1816
Família · East Bergholt
A marriage against the bride’s grandfather
Maria’s grandfather, Dr Rhudde, rector of East Bergholt, opposed the match: he thought the Constables his social inferiors and threatened to disinherit her. Constable’s parents approved but offered no support until he was financially secure; they died soon afterwards, and he inherited a fifth share of the family business.
Obra · Uayvenkhou
The “Wivenhoe Park” commission
Major-General Francis Slater Rebow commissioned Constable to paint his country house, Wivenhoe Park in Essex; Constable put the money towards his wedding to Maria Bicknell.
Viagem · October 1816 · Weymouth
A honeymoon by the sea
After the wedding at St Martin-in-the-Fields, conducted by Fisher, the couple stayed at Fisher’s vicarage and toured the south coast. The sea at Weymouth and Brighton pushed Constable towards brilliant colour and lively brushwork.

1820
Obra
“Dedham Lock and Mill”
Obra
“Stratford Mill”: the second six-footer
The second large picture of the series was shown in 1820, and The Examiner thought it looked more exactly like nature than any picture it had seen by an Englishman. Fisher bought it for 100 guineas for his solicitor friend John Pern Tinney, who offered Constable another 100 guineas for a companion piece; the artist did not take up the offer.
1821
Exposição · London
“The Hay Wain” at the Royal Academy
The picture, shown as “Landscape: Noon”, found no buyer, but it was seen by the painter Théodore Géricault and the writer Charles Nodier. According to Delacroix, Géricault went back to France quite stunned and invited Constable to Paris, while Nodier urged French artists to look to nature rather than to trips to Rome.
Acontecimento · Dedham
“I should paint my own places best”
In a letter to his friend John Fisher in 1821 Constable wrote that he should paint his own places best, and that painting is but another word for feeling. The Dedham Vale around his home came to be known as “Constable Country”.

1831
Obra
“Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows”
Carreira · London
Appointed Visitor of the Royal Academy
In 1831 Constable was appointed a Visitor at the Royal Academy, where he was popular with the students. He then began giving public lectures on the history of landscape painting, which drew distinguished audiences.
1835
Obra
The watercolour “Stonehenge”
The almost mystical Stonehenge, with its double rainbow, painted in 1835 and shown in 1836 with a caption of the artist’s own about a monument that carries you beyond all historical records, is often counted among the greatest watercolours ever made.
Acontecimento · London
A last lecture to the Academy’s students
In 1835 Constable gave his last lecture to the students of the Royal Academy, praising Raphael and calling the Academy the “cradle of British art”; it was cheered most heartily.
1836