John Constable's Skies: A Fusion of Art and Science
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
John Constable's Skies: A Fusion of Art and Science Details
John Constable is arguably the most accomplished painter of English skies and weather of all time. For Constable, the sky was the keynote, the standard of scale and the chief organ of sentiment in a landscape painting. But how far did he understand the workings of the forces of nature which created his favourite cumulus clouds, portrayed in so many of his skies over the landscapes of Hampstead Heath, Salisbury and Suffolk? And were the skies he painted scientifically accurate? In this lucid and accessible study, John Thornes provides a meteorological framework for reading the skies of landscape art, compares Constable's skies to those produced by other artists from the middle ages to the nineteenth century, analyses Constable's own meteorological understanding, and examines the development of his painted skies. In so doing he provides fresh evidence to identify the year of painting of some of Constable's previously undated cloud studies.
Reviews
John Constable's art provides detailed infomation about the skies in and around Suffolk and the other counties he explored in his early years as a landscape painter in early 18th Century England. His sketches and notes record the weather,time of day, place and other data to describe each scene he would later paint in his studio in London or at home near Debham. This book is a wonderful collection of his best sketches, paintings, and works of other contemporaries of Constable to round out a very readable account of his observations. Although a bit pricey, a great book none the same.