Constable. Phaidon Colour Library

Phaidon Colour Library

by John Sunderland

No artist has rivalled John Constable (1776-1837) in his powers to express the beauties of the British countryside, especially the scenery of his native East Anglia. He sought above all to make 'pure and unaffected representarions of the scenes', and to this end he made detailed studies of the minutest phenomena of nature. He wrote: 'My limited and abstracted art is to be found under every hedge, and in eveyr lane...'. But this feeling for such qualities had to be reconciled with the traditional - and what were for him the essential - demands of of painting pictures for public exhibition. In this book many of his most famous pictures are reproduced, showing how Constable adjusted the fresh, spontaneous handling of paint in his sketches to mroe formal, academic requirements.

John Sunderland's enormously successful survey of the life and work of Constable was first published in 1971. Each full-page colour plate is accompanied by an explanatory text, and over fifty black-and-white illustrations offer comparisons with the paintings. This series acts as an introduction to key artists and movements in art history. Each title contains 48 full-page colour plates, accompanied by extensive notes, and numerous comparative illustrations in colour or black and white, a concise introduction, select bibliography and detailed source information for the images. Monographs on individual artists also feature a brief chronology.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

Published August 12, 1998

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

During a visit to the Huntington Library in Southern California, I happened to experience one of John Constable’s magnificent and monumental six-foot landscape paintings, “View on the Stour near Dedham.” Inspired, I found this Phaedon book, which contains 48 color plates and another 52 black and white figures, including several “six-footers,” though the Huntington’s is excluded. The text is informative, and while the plate sizes are roughly full page and the reproduction quality is good, I think Constable deserves a larger coffee table book that includes all his six footers.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and informative. I especially liked the paintings Constable did from Hampstead Heath when he lived there. Always good to see the views of the area before the urban sprawl.

[Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treat for the eyes is Constable