John Constable: Artistic Influencers

"Hagar and the Angel" by Claude Lorrain

"Conwy Castle, North Wales" by Thomas Girtin

"John Constable's mother procured for her son an introduction to Sir George Beaumont, who frequently visited his mother, the Dowager Lady Beaumont, then residing at Dedham. It was at her house that the young artist first saw a picture by Claude Lorrain, the 'Hagar' [now entitled 'Hagar and the Angel'], which Sir George often carried with him when he travelled. Constable looked back on the first sight of this exquisite work as an important epoch in his life. 

But the taste of a young artist is always the most affected by contemporary art. Sir George Beaumont also possessed about thirty drawings in watercolours by Thomas Girtin, which he advised Constable to study as examples of great breadth and truth; and their influence on him may be traced more or less through the whole course of his practice.

The first impressions of an artist, whether for good or evil, are never wholly effaced; and, as Constable had till now no opportunity of seeing any pictures that he could rely on as guides to the study of nature, it was fortunate for him that he began with Claude and Girtin."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Life and Letters of John Constable, R.A." by Charles Robert Leslie.)