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John Constable

John Constable Quotes

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Famous John Constable Quotes

“Still I should paint my own places best; painting is with me but another word for feeling, and I associate "my careless boyhood" with all that lies on the banks of the Stour; those scenes made me a painter, and I am grateful; that is, I had often thought of pictures of them before ever I touched a pencil, and your picture ['The White Horse'] is one of the strongest instance I can recollect of it.”

ShouldMadeStillsI CanFeelingsLyingMy OwnWhitePaintingSceneHorseGratefulPaintPainterInstanceTouchedStrongestAssociatesPencilsCarelessI Am GratefulBoyhoodWhite Horse
Author:John Constable
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“It is much to my advantage that several of my pictures should be seen together, as it displays to advantage their varieties of conception and also of execution, and what they gain by the mellowing hand of time which should never be forced or anticipated. Thus my pictures when first coming forth have a comparative harshness which at the time acts to my disadvantage.”

ShouldFirstsHandsTogetherGainsAdvantageVarietyConceptionDisplayExecutionDisadvantagesHarshness
Book:Correspondence
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“I am anxious that the world should be inclined to look to painters for information about painting. I hope to show that ours is a regularly taught profession; that it is scientific as well as poetic; that imagination alone never did, and never can, produce works that are to stand by a comparison with realities.”

WorldShouldWellsLooksShowsRealityImaginationInformationProduceTaughtPaintingProfessionPainterComparisonPoeticAnxious
Book:Delphi Collected Works of John Constable (Illustrated)
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“He [the artist] ought to have 'these powerful organs of expression' - colour and chiaroscuro - entirely at his command, that he may use them in every possible form, as well as that he may do with the most perfect freedom; therefore, whether he wishes to make the subject of a joyous, solemn, or meditative character, by flinging over it the cheerful aspect which the sun bestows, by a proper disposition of shade, or by the appearances that beautify its arising or its setting, a true "General Effect" should never be lost sight of.”

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Author:John Constable
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“Painting is a science, and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature. Why, then, may not landscape painting be considered as a branch of natural philosophy, of which pictures are but the experiments?”

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Book:John Constable's Skies: A Fusion of Art and Science
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