Constable and the Sea

Delightful exhibition at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery looking at the four years when John Constable lived and worked in the city.

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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