VISUAL ART & MUSEUMS

June 22–September 30, 2012

Constable: Oil Sketches from the Victoria and Albert Museum centers on two major works by John Constable in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the full-size oil sketches for The Hay Wain and The Leaping Horse. These paintings will be displayed with a group of the artist’s small oil sketches and supplemented by an exquisite series of his watercolors and drawings, demonstrating progress from his early works to the pencil sketches which defined “Constable Country” of Suffolk and Essex. This exhibition offers insight into Constable’s working process through a wide variety of objects drawn from the V&A’s unparalleled Constable collection, placing the artist in the context of his historical and ongoing influence, and showcasing the enduring power of England’s quintessential landscape painter.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Exhibition organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Image: John Constable. Brighton Beach, with Fishing Boat and Crew, 1824. Oil on paper, 24 1/2 x 30 in. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 782-1888. © Victoria and Albert Museum / V&A images