Arundel Mill and Castle
Artist: John Constable (British, 1776-1837)
Date: 1837
Dimensions:
Painting: 28 1/2 × 39 1/2 in. (72.4 × 100.3 cm)
Frame: 42 × 52 3/4 × 5 3/4 in. (106.7 × 134 × 14.6 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1926.53
Label Text:Children fish and cattle wander through the English countryside in Arundel Mill and Castle, John Constable’s last painting. Constable captured the ever-changing effects of light and weather in his paintings like few before him: clouds move across the sky, causing the light to shift; a breeze blows through the trees; and sunlight sparkles on moving water. His works had a strong influence on the Barbizon group of landscape painters and on the Impressionists a generation later.
During two trips to southern England in 1834 and 1835, Constable made sketches of Arundel Mill and the castle on the hill beyond it. Entranced by the Sussex landscape, he observed, “The Castle is the chief ornament of this place—but all here sinks into insignificance in comparison with the woods and hills…and the trees are beyond everything beautiful.” He achieved the energy and spontaneity of his painting style—what he called its “broken ruggedness”—with rapid dabs of highlights and thick strokes of paint that he then reworked in places with a palette knife.
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In Collection(s)