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| "Flatford Mill on the Stour" by John Constable |
"'How much I wish I had been with you on your fishing excursion in the New Forest! ...The sound of water escaping from mill dams, etc., 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, and I should indeed have been delighted in seeing what you describe, and in your company, 'in the company of a man to whom nature does not spread her volume in vain.'
Still I should paint my own places best. Painting is with me but another word for feeling, and I associate 'my careless boyhood' with all that lies on the banks of the Stour. Those scenes made me a painter, and I am grateful; that is, I had often thought of pictures of them before I ever touched a pencil, and your picture is the strongest instance of it I can recollect, but I will say no more, for I am a great egotist in whatever relates to painting. Does not the cathedral look beautiful among the golden foliage? Its solitary grey must sparkle in it.'"
To be continued
(Excerpts from "Life and Letters of John Constable, R.A." by Charles Robert Leslie.)
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