Constable and the Sea
He moved to
Brighton with his family because he was worried about his wife’s health and
sadly they left when she became sicker and died soon after in London. While in
Brighton Constable concentrated on small landscape sketches some of which he
later developed into large scale works. The exhibition included his painting of
the chain pier on loan from the Tate.
The show was
arranged to reflect his three main walks around the area, West to Shoreham,
North to Devil’s Dyke and East to the Chain Pier. They didn’t quite flow in
geographic order but did give you the impression of doing the walk along with
him. They were small, delicate pictures. I particularly liked the ones of
fishing boats on the shore.
I loved the small
domestic works as well such as a tiny sketch of a mouse with a piece of cheese
and another of moorhens. As his wife became sicker he stayed in with her but
still kept drawing and painting and there were lovely picture of the foliage he
brought in to paint.
There was a nice
feature on the artist who now lives and works in the first house Constable
lived in in Brighton and good use of archive material. He was quite critical of
Brighton and in one letter said it had a “cheerful disregard for modesty”, so
nothing changes then!
Closes on 8 October
2017
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