Constable exhibition at the V&A

Well, I made it to the Constable exhibition on Friday 14th November. I have to say I was surprised to see a large number of works by painters and engravers other than Constable, but they were there to illustrate his influences. As such, they gave a valuable insight into how Constable derived ideas for his paintings. One particular irony was the inclusion of a Turner!

It was quite interesting to see Constable's large "six-footer" oil sketches. These were so obviously used to plan the finished article and, in fact, the finished paintings did not always follow the sketches.

I was interested to see how this exhibition compared to the "Late Turner" exhibition at the Tate. It was a quite different experience to the Turner show, with much more emphasis placed on the artist's development and influences. With the Turner show, we were given a view of the artist in his later years.

The two artists' self-portraits in their teenage years were quite disarming in their similarity. There is a clear description of the fashions of the day and the approach taken in the portraits.

All photography was banned (quite rightly in my opinion), so I can't show you any records of my visit. However, here are a few images taken from the internet to whet your appetite.