To mark the 250th anniversary of John Constable’s birth, there’s an exhibition of his early sketches and prints of the English landscape, some of which would later go on to be used for his famous paintings.
Some of them are instantly recognisable as typical Constable’s rural idealised paintings, such as one of Petworth Church and Windmill, or of Stonehenge minus the tourists, and his seascapes from Brighton.
Probably the most recognisable, especially if you visited the Tate Britain recently, is a print of Salisbury Cathedral, with a giant monochrome rainbow that now hangs rather moodily over the landscape rather than brightening it.
There’s also Hadleigh Castle, which Constable sketched several times before finally presenting a six-foot painting at the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition. Although the focus is on Constable, when paintings are turned into saleable prints, it’s more of a collaboration, and in this case, many of the works are arguably as much by the printer David Lucas as they are by John Constable.
For Londoners, there are also quite a few works on London, mostly taken from Hampstead looking towards the City. Admittedly, it’s hard to see the city beneath the layers of clouds and weather that Constable used and that Lucas translated into monochrome prints.
But a few watercolours are also included, many from the period when he moved permanently to Hampstead in 1827. One remarkable painting of a double rainbow is barely recognisable as such and, to modern eyes, looks rather more like a scene from WWII, when lights were used to spot enemy bombers.
As a collection, it’s a glimpse not just at Constable’s work but also at the essential collaboration with the printer who turned his paintings into prints.
The exhibition, John Constable: Views of nature, is at the British Museum until 4th October 2026 and is free to visit.
You can find it in room 90a, which is the prints gallery on the fourth floor at the rear of the museum.
Details here.
