Anne Gray (1) (1947–)

This catalogue was published to accompany the exhibition of Constable's work in Australia and New Zealand in 2006. Following the preface, foreword and introduction are six essays: Constable: Impressions of Land Sea and Sky; Constable: the Lessons of Landscape; John Constable: The Making of the Image; John Constable and the Royal Academy; John Constable and the National Gallery of British Art; and finally Collecting Constable and plein air painting in Australia.

Following the catalogue is a section: Constable and his times and a bibliography and index. There is also a 32 page section, strangely not listed on the contents page, headed Australia and Constable, which relates to an exhibition shown alongside the Constable exhibition showing the influence Constable had on Australian and New Zealand artists. This section includes 47 paintings from 13 artists shown in full colour.

The catalogue section of the book features 108 full-colour full-page plates of Constable's paintings, sketches and drawings. Each picture is accompanied by very accessible descriptive notes and occasionally further relevant images. In total there are around a further 150 images (including those in the section Australia and Constable), and as these appear in the various essays alongside the relevant text, there are occasionally repeats.

This is a splendid volume, well put together, and it has the advantage of showing many of Constable sketches in oils and occasionally pencil alongside some of his more finished works. Having seen the Constable exhibition at the Tate in the in the 1990s (if memory serves me correctly) many of the plates here remind me of how powerful some of his oil sketches are. While the plates in the catalogue section are invariably shown as large as the page will allow, the landscape format pictures by heir nature do not come off very well, occupying often less than half the page. This is nonetheless a superb collection containing a variety of Constable's landscapes, seascapes and quite remarkable cloudscapes.… (plus d'informations)