John Constable

Constable painted this huge canvas shortly after the death of his wife. John Fisher, the archdeacon of Salisbury cathedral and Constable’s friend, invited him to visit and he began painting to help work through his grief. The future of the Anglican church was also in question at the time and Constable’s emotions on this and his recent bereavement are captured via symbols of hope (light, a rainbow) cutting through the gloomy sky."

• Artist John Constable
• Artwork Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows
• Image size 153.7 x 192 cm
• Material Oil on canvas
• Date of work 1831
• Credit Original: Oil on canvas 153.7 x 192 cm

John Constable (1776 – 1837) was a painter who, Along with Turner, is considered one of the greatest English landscape painters of the 19th century. Born in Suffolk, the son of a miller, Constable entered the RA schools in 1799 and first exhibited in 1802. He had an eye for the picturesque through studying J. T. Smith and Gainsborough, and is credited with revolutionising landscape painting. He has been characterised as having painted only the places he knew intimately and he continued to paint scenes of Suffolk even after he settled in London in 1816. Constable lectured on landscape painting at the Hampstead Literary and Scientific Society in 1830 and at the Royal Institution in 1836. A large number of his works form part of Tate’s collection.

• Product Code S23008