The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • Times News Services
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Sports
    • NFL
    • NBA/WNBA
    • MLB
    • NHL
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Motorsports
    • Soccer
    • NCAA
    • Olympics
    • Outdoors
    • Other
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Military History
    • Life
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Themes
  • Communities
  • Shopping
    • Stores
    • Coupons
    • Daily Double
    • Promotion
    • How It Works
  • Videos
    • Two Guys
    • Birnbaum on Washington
    • Liz Glover
    • Amanda Carpenter
    • Morning Briefing
    • Documentaries
    • Joe Giganti
    • Video Game Minute
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • Food

    Obama pardons 'Courage,' the Thanksgiving turkey

  • Politics

    Obama to announce war plan at West Point

  • Politics

    Obama will attend Copenhagen climate summit

  • Business

    Initial jobless claims lowest in about year

  • National

    PULLEN: GOP came unmoored in last decade – it hurt

  • National

    WILLIAMS: Finding gratitude in difficult times

  • Sports

    Leonsis in line to buy Wizards, Verizon

Friday, September 29, 2006

Constable's boring no more

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen
  • Videos

More Stories

  • Obama to announce war plan at West Point
  • Obama expects support for more troops
  • D.C. sports icon, Wizards owner Pollin dies
  • Leonsis in line to buy Wizards, Verizon

By

It's rare that a museum transforms a major painter's reputation with a single show, but the National Gallery of Art has done just that with "Constable's Great Landscapes: The Six-Foot Paintings."

Art aficionados know the English Romantic painter John Constable (1776-1837) for his academic, bucolic landscapes, but the exhibit shows him in a much different light.

By displaying his roughly brushed sketches for the first time alongside their corresponding paintings, this exhibit shows him as one of England's most revolutionary artists and should erase his image as an often boring, stodgy painter.

The story goes like this: Struggling to gain recognition with London's Royal Academy in the early 1800s, Constable, then a little-known painter, turned to creating monumental 6-foot-wide landscapes -- the "six-footers," as they were called.

To bridge the transition of bringing outdoor views into the studio, Constable made preparatory full-scale indoor oil sketches from his studies from nature.

He knew he had to create these preparatory sketches for the new demands of the "six-footers" -- and with them he took this giant leap forward. In fact, some of these sketches are so loosely and freely painted that they are described as "pre-Jackson Pollock" in the exhibit catalog.

Like many Englishmen of his time, Constable first worked indoors, where he produced darkish, even "bleak" landscape paintings -- as the show's catalog says he himself called them.

However, he was smart enough to choose a different artistic direction while visiting his father's lush, light-filled Suffolk farm.

It was there that he began painting outdoors, and his art took off.

One of these works is the exhibit's early "Wivenhoe Park, Essex" (1816) in which he introduced his signature scudding clouds, reflective ponds and horizontal formats.

12Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Commenting is disabled for this entry.
If you feel there is still something worth mentioning about this entry please contact the author or the site admin.

Ask a Question

You Report

Do you have another point of view, photos, audio, video or more information about a story?

Top Stories

Most Read

  1. EDITORIAL: Hiding evidence of global cooling
  2. Top Republican lawmakers not attending State Dinner
  3. Fenty trails Gray in D.C. poll
  4. Conservatives seek test for RNC funds
  5. Food snobs fork over $225 for taste of heritage turkey
More Top Stories »
  1. Religious leaders vow civil disobedience on anti-life issues
  2. Company that repaired Chairman Gray's house lacked license
  3. PRUDEN: Obama's due process doctrine
  4. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  5. Green energy stimulus growing few jobs

Most Shared

  1. EDITORIAL: Hiding evidence of global cooling
  2. The United Socialist States of America
  3. EDITORIAL: Obama's sacked inspector general
  4. Fenty trails Gray in D.C. poll
  5. EDITORIAL: Terrorists use Democratic talking points
More Top Stories »
  1. PRUDEN: Obama's due process doctrine
  2. Food snobs fork over $225 for taste of heritage turkey
  3. EDITORIAL: Kennedy vs. Catholicism
  4. 'Boutique' patients pay for better access to doctors
  5. Religious leaders vow civil disobedience on anti-life issues

Most Commented

  1. EDITORIAL: Hiding evidence of global cooling
  2. Top Republican lawmakers not attending State Dinner
  3. Conservatives seek test for RNC funds
  4. PRUDEN: Obama's due process doctrine
  5. EDITORIAL: Terrorists use Democratic talking points
More Top Stories »
  1. Schumer: Dems will pass health bill alone
  2. WH: Obama Afghan decision 'within days'
  3. A-listers, fundraisers attend White House state dinner
  4. The United Socialist States of America
  5. EDITORIAL: Obama's sacked inspector general

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin and Melanie Morgan

Blogs & Columns

  • Hot Button Blog

    RNC: Breast cancer recommendations may lead to 'rationing'

  • Belief Blog

    Evangelicals OK civil disobedience

  • Out of Context

    Foods that might kill libido

  • On the Fly

    United lifts some 'award' blocking

  • Technology

    Facebook wins round against phishing spammer

  • Redskins 360

    Playing time vs. Cowboys

  • SNOBlog

    Beyond 'Woody'

Videos

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.