Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at the collaboration of the painter John Constable with the engraved of his prints, David Lucas. I had done a useful talk on this show which meant I knew a lot more about the works and relationship that was brought out in the display. The first room looked at how they worked together with a selection of Constable's small sketches and proofs of the engravings Lucas made of them. Many included notes from Constable of changes he wanted making. There was also an explanation of the mezzotint technique that was used. The second room focused on the print series they produced "English Landscapes" and showed a complete set of the prints along with a couple of the bound volumes. They also showed two of Lucas's larger prints of Constables more famous work. It was sad to read that despite this beautiful work that Lucas died in poverty in the workhouse. Closed 14 June 2026

Excellent exhibition at Tate Britain marking 250 years since the birth of both Turner and Constable. I might need to do this show again to get the most from it. It cleverly pitches the two artists at various stages in their lives, noting the parallels and where and how they differed. I think I came out favouring Constable, but a second visit might be different. The show was relatively sparsely hung with a good mix of paintings, watercolours and oil sketches and sketch books. It introduced them with portraits from the date of their acceptance into the Royal Academy alongside their diploma works. At times each artist got their own room to reflect their travels but on the whole they were shown together. There were some noticeable omissions but I guess, in this important year for both artists, galleries are unwilling to loan or have lent elsewhere. The show was probably better for it as it showed greater depth. Closes 16 April 2026 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evenin...

Interesting exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on “The Hay Wain” by Constable. I like these small shows focusing on a single painting and putting it into context. This time it sets the famous Constable against other paintings of rural life at the time as well as discussing the politics of the countryside. The show began with a selection of earlier and contemporary work including a beautiful Stubbs of reapers. It also included satirical cartoons of the time to represent the politics issues of the era. The main section looked at Constable himself with commentaries on his early work, how he created the actual picture and his later work. It included sketches made outdoors of the scene, the initial small compositional painting and the paint sketch to scale. It was fascinating to see the compositional choices he made at the different stages. It was a lovely touch to include some small carved figures believed to be by Constable and the gold medal awarded to the painting in 1...

Fascinating exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looking at how Constable was influenced by the Old Masters especially Claude, Rubens, Von Ruisdael and Titian. The early rooms looked is early access to Old Master works via Sir George Beaumont and there was a nice section where his work was hung next to the work which had influenced it. Later on there was a section on Constable’s habit of copying Old Masters and again his work and the original were hung together. There was also a lot on how Constable liked to work from nature and was interested in getting the detail right so there were lovely drawings and watercolour sketches including a beautiful picture of poppies and cloud studies. I liked the section on technique and was fascinated to see he sometimes painted a scene outdoors on glass which he held up to a scene so he had the proportions exactly right when he got to the studio. Another room looked at the evolution of a picture and had drawings for sections ...

A sweet exhibition of the portraits of John Constable at the National Portrait Gallery . The labels pointed out that Constable had been a direct contemporary of Jane Austen and I had a real sense at looking at an Austinian society. One picture “The Ladies of the Mason family” could have been the Bennett girls! Alongside the portraits were small landscapes of views from houses in which he had lived. They reminded me slightly of works by Spencer plus Francis Bacon of gardens and views form houses in Hampstead. Particularly poignant was the fact that Constable had been married at ST Martin in the Fields, which is of course one of the first things you see as you leave the gallery. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Independent Evening Standard