WIVENHOE PARK, ESSEX
John Constable, was born June 11, 1776 in Suffolk, England. He stands beside Gainsborough and Turner as one of Britain's greatest painters. A remarkable portraitist and maker of “conversation pieces”, his real dedication was to nature, which he believed offered compositions far more beautiful than any he could arrange in a studio. His rapid, accurate, and exquisite oil sketches made in the open air and his manner of handling paint have been said to anticipate the Impressionists.
During his lifetime, Constable was in the peculiar position of being widely appreciated in France and all but ignored at home. When shown at the Louvre and in Lille, his paintings were awarded gold medals. Dealers came from France not only to buy but to commission paintings. Yet in England, Constable struggled for years before gaining full membership in the Royal Academy; it was not until he was fifty-three years old that he won the mark of official recognition that was so crucial for success, both critical and financial.
Constable painted Wivenhoe Park for the owners, the Rebows, members of the British squirearchy. Constable painted portraits of the general and his family; they then wanted a record of their country seat. The English estate shows meadows with clumps of trees, a rippling lake with swans and fishermen netting their catch, the glimpse in the distance of a rose-colored house, neither too large nor too small. All seem to suggest an ideal rural existence.
The original was painted in 1816 and hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. I painted this reproduction in 1988.
Oil on Canvas, 1988