Drawings: John Constable

In this FULL VERSION, you will find over 90 drawings by the great John Constable. Enjoy the high quality images of his drawings, share them with your friends via email, and learn about the artist life

John Constable (1776 –1837) was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection.

The first stage of Constables work was usually done outdoors, in a sketchbook. These sketchbooks were his storehouse of images, and he often made a sketch for its own sake, with no finished painting in mind. He also painted many full-scale preliminary oil sketches of his landscapes which were revolutionary at the time. His sketches demonstrated that landscape painting could be taken in a totally new direction.

Constable also completed numerous observational studies of landscapes and clouds, determined to become more scientific in his recording of atmospheric conditions. He believed that the sky was "the key note, the standard of scale, and the chief organ of sentiment" in a landscape painting.

Constables art inspired not only contemporaries like Géricault and Delacroix, but the Barbizon School, and the French impressionists of the late nineteenth century.