John Constable Quotes - Page 2

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• I ought to respect myself for my friends' sake, and my children's. It is time, at fifty-six, to begin, at least, to know oneself, - and I do know what I am not, and your regard for me has at least awakened me to believe in the possibility that I may yet make some impression with my "light" - my "dews" - my "breezes" - my bloom and freshness, - no one of which qualities has yet been perfected on the canvas of any painter in the world.

  John Constable

  Children, Believe, Light

  Letter to C.R. Leslie (March 1833), from "The Letters of John Constable, R.A. to C. R. Leslie, R.A. 1826-1837", p. 104, 1931.

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• A gentleman's park is my aversion. It is not beauty because it is not nature.

  John Constable

  Gentleman, Aversion, Parks

  1822 In R B Beckett (ed) Constable's Correspondence, Suffolk Records Society (1962-70).

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• The first impression and a natural one is, that the fine arts have risen or declined in proportion as patronage has been given to them or withdrawn, but it will be found that there has often been more money lavished on them in their worst periods than in their best, and that the highest honours have frequently been bestowed on artists whose names are scarcely now known.

  John Constable

  Art, Names, First Impression

  John Constable (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of John Constable (Illustrated)”, p.599, Delphi Classics

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• No man who can do any one thing well will be able to any different thing equally well.

  John Constable

  Men, Different, Able

  From John Constable's letter to Rev. John Fisher, 1825.

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• There has never been a boy painter, nor can there be. The art requires a long apprenticeship, being mechanical, as well as intellectual.

  John Constable

  Art, Boys, Long

  John Constable (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of John Constable (Illustrated)”, p.564, Delphi Classics

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• But the sound of water escaping from mill-dams, &c., willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things. Shakespeare could make everything poetical; he tells us of poor Tom's haunts among "sheep cotes and mills." As long as I do paint, I shall never cease to paint such places. They have always been my delight.

  John Constable

  Sheep, Escaping, Water

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• The world is rid of Lord Byron, but the deadly slime of his touch still remains.

  John Constable

  World, Slime, Lord

  Letter to the Rev. John Fisher, May 1824.

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• I know very well what I am about and that my skies have not been neglected, though they often failed in execution - and often no doubt from over anxiety about them.

  John Constable

  Sky, Anxiety, Doubt

  John Constable, Basil Taylor (1975). “Constable: paintings, drawings and watercolours”

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• A sketch will not serve more than one state of mind & will not serve to drink at again & again — in a sketch there is nothing but the one state of mind — that which you were in at the time.

  John Constable

  Mind, Drink, States

  John Constable (1968). “Correspondence”

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• It is much to my advantage that several of my pictures should be seen together, as it displays to advantage their varieties of conception and also of execution, and what they gain by the mellowing hand of time which should never be forced or anticipated. Thus my pictures when first coming forth have a comparative harshness which at the time acts to my disadvantage.

  John Constable

  Hands, Together, Gains

  John Constable (1966). “Correspondence”

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• I never saw an ugly thing in my life.

  John Constable

  Ugly Things, Ugly, Shade

  Quoted in Charles Robert Leslie, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable (1843)

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• It is always my endeavour however in making a picture that it should be without a companion in the world. At least such should be a painters ambition.

  John Constable

  Ambition, World, Endeavour

  John Constable (1966). “John Constable's Correspondence”

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• I paint by all the daylight we have and that is little enough, less perhaps than you have by much... imagine to yourself how a purl must look through a burnt glass.

  John Constable

  Glasses, Looks, Daylight

  John Constable (1964). “Correspondence”

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• The climax of absurdity to which art may be carried when led away from nature by fashion, may be best seen in the works of Boucher.

  John Constable

  Fashion, Art, May

  John Constable (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of John Constable (Illustrated)”, p.590, Delphi Classics

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• Constable himself knew the value of such studies, for he rarely parted with them. He used to say of his studies and pictures that he had no objection to part with the corn, but not with the field that grew it.

  John Constable

  Corn, Fields, Study

  "A Century of Painters of the English School, vol. II". Book by Richard and Samuel Redgrave, 1866.

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• I am anxious that the world should be inclined to look to painters for information about painting.

  John Constable

  Looks, World, Information

  John Constable (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of John Constable (Illustrated)”, p.584, Delphi Classics

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• I am glad you encouraged me with the 'Stoke' [his painting 'Stoke-by-Nayland', circa 1835] What say you to a summer morning? July or August, at eight or nine o'clock, after a slight shower during the night, to enhance the dews in the shadowed part of the picture, under 'Hedge row elms and hillocks green.' Then the plough, cart, horse, gate, cows, donkey, &c. are all good paintable material for the foreground, and the size of the canvas sufficient to try one's strength, and keep one at full collar.

  John Constable

  Summer, Morning, Horse

  "Constable". Book by Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-Williams, Tate Gallery Publications, London, p. 380, Letter to William Purton (6 February 1836), 1993.

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• Only think that I am now writing in a room full of Claudes... almost of the summit of my earthly ambitions.

  John Constable

  Writing, Ambition, Thinking

  John Constable (1964). “Correspondence”

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• We must bear in recollection that the sentiment of the picture is that of solemnity, not gaiety & nothing garish, but the contrary - yet it must be bright, clear, alive fresh, and all the front seen.

  John Constable

  Bears, Alive, Solemnity

  John Constable (1966). “John Constable's Correspondence”

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• I have added some ploughmen to the landscape form the park pales which is a great help, but I must try and warm the picture a little more if I can... but I look to do a great deal better in future. I am determined to finish a small picture in the spot for every one I intend to make in future. But this I have always talked about but never yet done - I think however my mind is more settled and determined than ever on this point.

  John Constable

  Thinking, Mind, Trying

  Letter to John Dunthorne (14 February 1814), as quoted in "Constable", p. 151, 1993.

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• When we speak of the perfection of art, we must recollect what the materials are with which a painter contends with nature. For the light of the sun he has but patent yellow and white lead - for the darkest shade, umber or soot.

  John Constable

  Art, Light, Yellow

  John Constable (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of John Constable (Illustrated)”, p.587, Delphi Classics

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• I don't mind parting with the corn, but not with the field in which it was raised.

  John Constable

  Mind, Corn, Fields

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• I have likewise made many 'skies' and effects - for I wish it could be said of me as Fuselli says of Rembrandt, 'he followed nature in her calmest abodes and could pluck a flower on every hedge - yet he was born to cast a steadfast eye on the bolder phenomena of nature'... We have had noble clouds & effects of light & dark & color.

  John Constable

  Flower, Eye, Dark

  John Constable (1968). “John Constable's Correspondence”

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