Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the Thames--Morning after a Stormy Night
John Constable
1829
Hadleigh Castle was the first painting Constable exhibited as a full member of the Royal Academy, and he was nervous about its reception. The painting marks a departure from the controlled finish of his earlier work. In its freer painterly handling, Constable realizes the full expressive potential of landscape, reimagining the genre as a mirror not only of nature but also of feeling. Emotional power surges through the composition. Constable reinforced this idea by including lines from The Seasons by the poet James Thomson in the exhibition catalogue. The poem speaks of a world crossed with “melancholy bounds” and composed of “rude ruins,” which resonated with the loss and devastation Constable felt without hiswife.
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven · Image: Yale Center for British Art, Public domain · Text: Yale Center for British Art, CC0