Arti­cle John Constable and the Dutch Landscape Tradition

Focus on the Peck Feature

Sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry Dutch land­scapes, with their empha­sis on vivid nat­u­ral­ism, have cap­ti­vat­ed the imag­i­na­tions of British artists for cen­turies. This Focus on the Peck Col­lec­tion instal­la­tion high­lights the work of two artists sep­a­rat­ed by some 200 years: Dutch artist Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) and Eng­lish artist John Con­sta­ble (1776-1837). When shown togeth­er, numer­ous par­al­lels emerge between their work, includ­ing their work­ing method, their choice of sub­ject mat­ter, and their use of light and dark to cre­ate dra­mat­ic atmos­pher­ic effects, reveal­ing a dynam­ic con­ver­sa­tion across the centuries.

Sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry Dutch land­scapes, with their empha­sis on vivid nat­u­ral­ism, have cap­ti­vat­ed the imag­i­na­tions of British artists for cen­turies. Paint­ings, prints, and draw­ings of the Nether­lan­dish coun­try­side, in which scenes of riverbeds, farm­hous­es, and rural work­ers take pride of place, pro­vid­ed sig­nif­i­cant inspi­ra­tion across the Chan­nel even into the nine­teenth century. 

This Focus on the Peck Col­lec­tion instal­la­tion high­lights the work of two artists sep­a­rat­ed by some 200 years: Dutch artist Jan van Goyen and Eng­lish artist John Con­sta­ble. Both con­sid­ered among the most influ­en­tial land­scape painters of their times, each roamed their respec­tive coun­try­sides in search of local scenery, doc­u­ment­ing the ever-shift­ing atmos­phere and the peo­ple with­in it. One draw­ing by Van Goyen from the Peck Col­lec­tion is jux­ta­posed here with two works by Con­sta­ble — a sketch and a print made after one of Con­sta­bles com­po­si­tions. When shown togeth­er numer­ous par­al­lels emerge, reveal­ing a dynam­ic con­ver­sa­tion across the cen­turies. For instance, notice their work­ing method, their choice of sub­ject mat­ter, and their use of light and dark to cre­ate dra­mat­ic atmos­pher­ic effects.

This instal­la­tion marks the first in our ongo­ing series show­cas­ing draw­ings from the Peck Col­lec­tion to occur after the trag­ic loss in April of patron and friend to the Ack­land, Dr. Shel­don Peck, who togeth­er with his wife Leena, donat­ed their mag­nif­i­cent col­lec­tion of Dutch and Flem­ish draw­ings to the Muse­um in 2017. We hope that this dis­play, as well as count­less oth­ers in the future, will honor his lega­cy and con­tin­ue to inspire our visitors. 

Jan van Goyen

A river scene with a shroud of heavy clouds extending across the sky as boats sail to and from the jetty located beside the tavern. Chimney smoke rises above the buildings.

Jan van Goyen, Dutch, 1596 – 1656, River Scene with Boats near a Jetty by a Tav­ern, 1653, black chalk and gray wash, The Peck Col­lec­tion, 2017.1.39

See River Scene with Boats near a Jetty by a Tav­ern in more detail here. 

Jan van Goyen spe­cial­ized in land­scape views and pro­duced more than 1,000 draw­ings over the course of his career, reflect­ing the immense pride shared among Dutch cit­i­zens for their land and cul­ture. Many fin­ished works, like this one, were based on sketch­es from life and were offered for sale on the open mar­ket. In this river scene, a shroud of heavy clouds extends across the sky as boats sail to and from the jetty locat­ed beside the tav­ern. Chim­ney smoke sug­gests increas­ing­ly windy con­di­tions, but the water remains calm for now as fig­ures go about their daily busi­ness. Using char­coal to cur­so­ri­ly lay out the scene, Van Goyen added lib­er­al amounts of wash in vary­ing tones of gray to pro­duce dra­mat­ic con­trasts of light and dark, con­vey­ing form, space, tex­ture, and in this instance, a some­what omi­nous atmosphere.

John Con­sta­ble

A pencil sketch of a farmhouse and trees.

John Con­sta­ble, British, 1776 – 1837, A Thatched Farm­house, 1834, pen­cil, Gift of Julie and Lawrence B. Salan­der, in honor of Richard B. Ger­sten, Class of 1970, 2003.34.4

See A Thatched Farm­house in more detail here. 

John Con­sta­ble admired sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry Dutch art. As a young artist he sketched copies of Dutch land­scape paint­ings that were on dis­play in Lon­don, tak­ing spe­cial note of the low hori­zon lines and exten­sive skies. As a col­lec­tor he owned numer­ous Nether­lan­dish land­scape prints, and in his writ­ings, he cel­e­brat­ed the abil­i­ty of Dutch land­scapists to ele­vate ordi­nary scenes with a sense of grandeur. Like Jan van Goyen’s draw­ing to the left, Con­sta­ble chose a hum­ble view as his sub­ject, in this instance a rural farm­house locat­ed above a mod­est val­ley ren­dered with fresh­ness and vital­i­ty. Like his Dutch pre­de­ces­sors, Con­sta­ble sketched his views from nature, often using the draw­ings as the basis for fin­ished works. 

A tonal print of John Constable's painting, A Summerland, from Various Subjects of Landscape, Characteristic of English Scenery. The landscape scene features what appears to be British moors; rays of light streak through the clouds to the land below. A farmer tills the land with a horse-pulled tiller.

David Lucas, British, 1802 – 1881, after John Con­sta­ble, British, 1776 – 1837, A Sum­mer­land, from Var­i­ous Sub­jects of Land­scape, Char­ac­ter­is­tic of Eng­lish Scenery, 1829-1830, mez­zotint, Gift of the Ack­land Asso­ciates, 85.13.4.1.

See A Sum­mer­land, from Var­i­ous Sub­jects of Land­scape, Char­ac­ter­is­tic of Eng­lish Scenery in more detail here. 

Much like Jan van Goyen before him, John Con­sta­ble shared a sense of nation­al pride for the British coun­try­side and was par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in the pow­er­ful effects of light and atmos­phere found in the rural land­scape. This work, engraved by artist David Lucas, belongs to a series of twen­ty-two prints after Constable’s draw­ings and oil sketch­es. Called Var­i­ous Sub­jects of Land­scape, Char­ac­ter­is­tic of Eng­lish Scenery the group was part­ly a man­i­festo of the artist’s ideas about land­scape. In the intro­duc­tion, Con­sta­ble described his aim ​“to dis­play the Phaenom­e­na of the Chiar’oscuro of Nature (nature’s light and shad­ow), to mark some of its end­less beau­ties and vari­eties, to point out its vast influ­ence upon Land­scape, and to show its use and power as a medi­um for expres­sion,” all of which is bril­liant­ly accom­plished here.

July 23 — Octo­ber, 17, 2021