CONSTABLE, THE PICTURESQUE, AND ENGLISH ROMANTICISM
Less famous and dramatic than his British rival, Joseph Turner, John Constable preferred the humble English countryside of his native Stour Valley. In his humble rural paintings, Constable captured his “careless boyhood” on the eve of the Industrial Revolution and froze these scenes in a nostalgic time, creating a much-loved “Constable Country.” Compared to Turner who faced change, Constable turned away and retreated into the past of his boyhood. Even though his carefully delineated and detailed depictions of the Stour Valley, Constable often painted from memory as much as from observation. “Constable Country” is a elegy to a golden past that may have never been.