Tuesday, February 15, 2011

!00 painters an artist should had oughta know

38) The Hay Wain by John Constable 1776-1837
I have written so much about Constable already but I felt I should get him into my list. The son of a successful mill owner Constable, rose to be England's greatest landscape painter. He was not particularly successful in his own lifetime and sold more art in France than in England. Constable mostly painted a short stretch of the river Stour on whose banks he had played as a child.
Constables best known pieces were often huge. Although their measurements actually varied, they are known a the"six footers". His full size "sketches" for these are often shown today and appreciated for their velocity of handling.

39) The White Horse, John Constable
Along the same stretch of the Stour, a horse whose job it was to pull the barges upstream, rides back on the barge itself. Constable was important because he was among the first landscape painters to stress working from nature. Although for him this was largely in the from of drawings he also did painted studies from nature as well. Before this time landscape was painted in a more idealized fashion. Claude Lorain would be an example of that.
Constable influenced nearly every landscape painter who has followed him. The French were particularly influenced by his color and occasionally divisionist brushstroke. Delacroix was intensely interested in Constable.


40) The Plaza San Marco (watercolor) by Richard Parkes Bonington 1802-1828

I am tailoring this list somewhat towards landscape painting and the presence of Bonington here is a symptom of that. He is not as well known as some of the great masters I have included, but from a landscapists perspective he is important. Notice his dates.He lived only to age twenty five
The son of a lacemaker he was English but lived as a young man in France where he met Delacroix. He studied at the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts.
Bonington had a fabulous talent and painted a lot of watercolors. He was an influence on a lot of painters even into the twentieth century. One of my favorite painters Edward Seago studied Bonington extensively. Below is another example.

illustrations from artrenewal.com

8 comments:

bvpainter said...

What a fabulous painter Bonnington would have become. His watercolours are amazing. I believe even Turner was awed by his talent.

Silvio Silvestri said...

Hi Stape, I think I am learning from your great blogs. Scary thought!!Define Divionist Brushstroke please. Bonington seems to have influenced Gruppe cause that boat to the right with greyed distant background on left seems popular with Emille as well. Silvio

Philip Koch said...

I think Bonnington would have been a major figure in art history if he hadn't died so young. Sort of like Egon Shiele and Modigliani who both died at 28 I believe.

billspaintingmn said...

Those watercolors are magnificent! I heard that watercolors were considered as studies, to make finished oil paintings, and not as works of art in themselves. Is that true Stape?

Stapleton Kearns said...

Bernie;
He had about as much raw talent as anybody who ever held a brush.
...............Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Silvio;
Gee, I will get to that.
...............Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Philip:
Do you think Modigliani figures would have put on more weight had he lived into middle age?
...................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Bill;
I think these are finished works and not watercolor used as a sketch medium. He did also paint in oil though.
.................Stape