Romantic Circles

Significance

John Constable is one of the most esteemed Romantic painters of Great Britain, though his success came later in his career, after experiencing much criticism. It took awhile for Constable’s work, at first often criticized as unsophisticated by the Royal Academy, to gain the precedence it now has today (R. Gadney, John Constable 144). Constable was revolutionary in his landscapes' techniques and influenced French Romanticism. He wanted his paintings to capture the temporality and sentimentality of nature from his own actual observances. Constable believed that "No two days are alike, nor even two hours; neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike since the creation of the world," (G. Reynolds, “Constable at the Tate”). His work, including Hadleigh Castle, is an epitome of the Romantic appeal of emotion and nature. Constable’s use of intense color and attention to the effects of weather and atmosphere contribute to the vibrancy and sentimental affection associated with his work (M. Pidgley, “Constable”). Constable’s landscape Hadleigh Castle, for example, was strongly influenced by his own personal devastation and despair. Finished after the loss of his beloved wife Maria, the imagery of Hadleigh Castle gives insight into the emotional turmoil he was experiencing at the time. In this melancholy scene, the sky is depicted just after a tumultuous storm, with ruins in the foreground. After the death of his wife, Constable surely felt himself a ruin recently subjected to a turbulent storm (F. Constable, Biography, 116). Furthermore, Hadleigh Castle demonstrates the customary depiction of ruins in order to evoke loss and awe rather than their imagined original state. Constable’s departure from the conventions of his predecessors at first produced much criticism, but ultimately, it was his novel use of color and atmosphere and his ability to infuse his landscapes with emotion and sensitivity that distinguished him as a predominant Romantic painter.