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Quote by John Constable

“A gentleman's park is my aversion. It is not beauty because it is not nature.”

Quote by John Constable

Author

John Constable was an English landscape painter renowned for his detailed depictions of the English countryside. His works are characterized by their use of natural light and color, showcasing the tranquility and harmony of the English landscape. more

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“There's no reason to keep a piece of furniture in your house that is so sacred and rare that you can't put your feet up on it and a dog can't jump up on it. Likewise, a book that sits on a shelf like a piece of porcelain, only to be admired, never to be read again, is a dead book.”

Book Reason House Pieces Feet Dog Sacred No Reason Shelves Furniture Porcelain

Author:Elizabeth Gilbert

“I paint by all the daylight we have and that is little enough, less perhaps than you have by much... imagine to yourself how a purl must look through a burnt glass.”

Looks Littles Enough Imagine Paint Glasses Daylight

Book:Correspondence

Source: Correspondence

“But You know Landscape is my mistress - 'tis to her that I look for fame - and all that the warmth of the imagination renders dear to Man.”

Knows Men Looks Imagination Fame Dear Landscape Warmth Mistress

Author:John Constable

“I have added some ploughmen to the landscape form the park pales which is a great help, but I must try and warm the picture a little more if I can... but I look to do a great deal better in future. I am determined to finish a small picture in the spot for every one I intend to make in future. But this I have always talked about but never yet done - I think however my mind is more settled and determined than ever on this point.”

Ifs Thinking Trying Mind Looks Littles I Can Done Helping Form Deals Warm Determined Spots Landscape Parks Pale I Am Determined

Author:John Constable

“But the sound of water escaping from mill-dams, &c., willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things. Shakespeare could make everything poetical; he tells us of poor Tom's haunts among "sheep cotes and mills." As long as I do paint, I shall never cease to paint such places. They have always been my delight.”

Long Sound Water Poor Paint Delight Cease Posts Sheep Toms Rotten Escaping Mills Dams Sound Of Water

Author:John Constable

“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.”

Should Made Stills I Can Feelings Lying My Own White Painting Scene Horse Grateful Paint Painter Instance Touched Strongest Associates Pencils Careless I Am Grateful Boyhood White Horse

Author:John Constable

“It is always my endeavour however in making a picture that it should be without a companion in the world. At least such should be a painters ambition.”

World Should Ambition Painter Companion Endeavour

Book:John Constable's Correspondence

Source: John Constable's Correspondence

“I ought to respect myself for my friends' sake, and my children's. It is time, at fifty-six, to begin, at least, to know oneself, - and I do know what I am not, and your regard for me has at least awakened me to believe in the possibility that I may yet make some impression with my "light" - my "dews" - my "breezes" - my bloom and freshness, - no one of which qualities has yet been perfected on the canvas of any painter in the world.”

Knows World Believe May Children Light Quality Possibility Ought Six My Friends Regard Sake Oneself Impression Painter My Children Fifty Canvas Breeze Awakened Dew Freshness Knowing Oneself

Author:John Constable

“My canvas soothes me into forgetfulness of the scene of turmoil and folly - and worse - of the scene around me. Every gleam of sunshine is blighted to me in the art at least. Can it therefore be wondered at that I paint continual storms? "Tempest o'er tempest roll'd" - still the "darkness" is majestic.”

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Author:John Constable

“I am glad you encouraged me with the 'Stoke' [his painting 'Stoke-by-Nayland', circa 1835] What say you to a summer morning? July or August, at eight or nine o'clock, after a slight shower during the night, to enhance the dews in the shadowed part of the picture, under 'Hedge row elms and hillocks green.' Then the plough, cart, horse, gate, cows, donkey, &c. are all good paintable material for the foreground, and the size of the canvas sufficient to try one's strength, and keep one at full collar.”

Trying Night Morning Painting Materials Summer Horse Green Size Eight Glad Nine Clock Sufficient Gates Cows Canvas Showers July Dew August Collars Carts Donkey Foreground Stoke

Author:John Constable