Taula de continguts:
"Blacks' Britannica" (1978 Banned film on immigration and racism) (Maig 2024)
John Constable, (nascut l'11 de juny de 1776 a East Bergholt, Suffolk, Anglaterra - va morir el 31 de març de 1837 a Londres), un personatge important de la pintura del paisatge anglès a principis del segle XIX. És conegut per les seves pintures del camp anglès, particularment per les que representen la seva vall natal del River Stour, una zona que va ser coneguda com "país constable".
Començaments
Fill d’un ric comerciant i comerciant que posseïa una casa important i una petita finca, el conestable va ser criat en un petit poble de Suffolk. Els voltants de la seva infància i la seva comprensió de la seva economia rural figuraran més endavant en la seva obra. Com escrivia el 1821, “hauria de pintar els meus propis llocs millor
Associa el meu "nen descuidat" a tot el que es troba a la vora del Stour."
Constable tenia l’objectiu d’entrar en els negocis del seu pare, però, després de conèixer el famós conegut Sir George Beaumont el 1795, i després un cercle d’antiguaris i coneixedors a Edmonton el 1796, es va inspirar a perseguir l’art. El febrer de 1799 es va donar a conèixer a l’influent acadèmic Joseph Farington, i al març va ingressar a les prestigioses escoles de la Royal Academy, amb l’acarnissable aprovació del seu pare. En aquell moment, les acadèmies d’art van destacar la pintura d’història com la temàtica més adequada per als seus estudiants, però, des del principi, Constable va mostrar un interès particular pel paisatge.
El 1802, Constable va refusar l'estabilitat d'un lloc com a mestre de dibuix en una acadèmia militar de manera que es podia dedicar a la pintura del paisatge i a estudiar la natura directament al camp anglès. Aquest mateix any exposà per primera vegada la seva obra a la Royal Academy. Malgrat algunes primeres exploracions en l’oli, a la primera part d’aquesta dècada va preferir utilitzar aquarel·la i suports gràfics en els seus estudis sobre la natura. Va realitzar bons estudis en aquests mitjans durant un viatge al famós pintoresc districte del llac a la tardor de 1806, però les seves exposicions d’aquests treballs tant al 1807 com al 1808 no van tenir èxit a l’hora de cridar l’atenció pública.
Maduresa anticipada
Although based in London during this period, Constable would frequently make extended visits to his native East Bergholt to sketch. (On one such stay in 1809, he fell in love with Maria Bicknell, who was visiting her grandfather, the rector there.) Constable had been regularly sketching in oil since 1808, and by 1810 he had achieved extraordinary deftness with the medium (he would often be associated with his oil sketches in the future). His art became far more focused about this time: his sketches were either discrete studies, or, befitting academic practice, they were made in preparation for preconceived easel paintings. The most significant large easel painting of the period was Dedham Vale: Morning (1811), which married closely observed naturalistic effect to a scene composed according to the academic criteria established by 17th-century French painter Claude Lorrain.
In September 1811 Constable stayed in Salisbury with an old family friend, the Bishop of Salisbury, and grew close to the bishop’s nephew, John Fisher. Their correspondence is a hugely informative source on Constable’s art: he explains his aims and aspirations, reacts candidly and sometimes aggressively to contemporary criticism, and reveals himself to be driven, ambitious, and prey to gnawing self-doubt.
During this period, Bicknell’s family was pressuring her to end her relationship with the struggling artist, and her courtship with him had to become effectively clandestine. Constable found relief from this distraction by working in East Bergholt and, by 1814, with Boatbuilding and The Stour Valley and Dedham Village, he was painting easel pictures in the open. In his works from this period, such as Flatford Mill (1816), Constable displayed remarkable precision of touch and accuracy in description, comparable to contemporary landscapes by George Robert Lewis and John Linnell. His iconography was traditional and celebrated the continuum and stability of English country life. Constable achieved a bittersweet stability of his own when, upon his father’s death in 1816, he received an inheritance that allowed him the financial independence to marry Maria.
