Tag Archives: John Constable

Artist: John Constable  (1776–1837)

Title: The White Horse

Date: 1819

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 51 3/4 × 74 1/8 in. (131.4 × 188.3 cm)

Collection: The Frick Collection 

What I love about this painting:

John Constable gives us the perfect summer day, one not too warm to work, and not so cool one would have to wear a heavy coat. He paints a sky that I would find familiar, very similar to the Pacific Northwest in early June. Clouds drift above, gathering, but drop no rain. The white horse being ferried across the river will be working in comfort today as it tows the barges up and down the river, ensuring the goods and fresh produce reach the people of Sussex and Essex.

What the Artist had to say about the craft of painting landscapes:

“It will be difficult to name a class of landscape in which the sky is not the key note, the standard of scale, and the chief organ of sentiment… The sky is the source of light in nature and governs everything.”

John Constable, writing to his friend and patron, John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury

About this Painting, via Wikipedia:

The White Horse is an oil-on-canvas landscape painting by the English artist John Constable. It was completed in 1819 and is now in the Frick Collection in New York City.

The painting marked a vital turning point in the artist’s career. It was the first in a series of six so called ‘Six-Footers’, depicting scenes on the River Stour, which includes his celebrated work The Hay Wain. The subject of the painting is a tow-horse being ferried across the river in Flatford, just below the Lock, at a point where the towpath switches banks.

The painting is based on sketches that Constable produced in his native Suffolk, but the full composition was finished between 1818 – 1819 during his time in London. The painting was completed and exhibited at the Royal Exhibition in 1819, where it was well received. Constable was voted an Associate of the Royal Academy on the strength of it. The painting was purchased for 100 guineas by Constable’s friend John Fisher, the Bishop of Salisbury, who would later commission his painting Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Grounds. This purchase finally provided Constable with financial security and it’s arguable that without it, he may have given up painting altogether.

The White Horse was one of Constable’s favourite paintings. He commented in a letter to Fisher in 1826:

There are generally in the life of an artist perhaps one, two or three pictures, on which hang more than usual interest – this is mine.

In 1830, when Fisher was heavily indebted, he bought the painting back, also for 100 guineas. He would keep it for the rest of his life. After his death in 1837, the painting passed through the hands of various English collectors, before being brought to the United States by financier J. P. Morgan. [1]

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

John Constable was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River Stour in Suffolk, to Golding and Ann (Watts) Constable. His father was a wealthy corn (grain) merchant, owner of Flatford Mill in East Bergholt and, later, Dedham Mill in Essex. Golding Constable owned a small ship, The Telegraph, which he moored at Mistley on the Stour estuary, and used to transport corn (grain) to London. He was a cousin of the London tea merchant Abram Newman. Although Constable was his parents’ second son, his older brother was intellectually disabled and John was expected to succeed his father in the business. After a brief period at a boarding school in Lavenham, he was enrolled in a day school in Dedham, Essex. Constable worked in the corn (grain) business after leaving school, but his younger brother Abram eventually took over the running of the mills. [2]

Constable’s story is continued at John Constable – Wikipedia.

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: The White Horse by John Constable 1819, PD|100. File:The White Horse by John Constable – Google Art Project.jpg – Wikimedia Commons (accessed July 10, 2024).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “The White Horse (Constable),” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_White_Horse_(Constable)&oldid=1222277388 (accessed July 10, 2024).

[2] Wikipedia contributors, “John Constable,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Constable&oldid=1232567526 (accessed July 10, 2024).