John Constable: Drawings, Oil Sketches and Paintings from a Private Collection

An exhibition of approximately one hundred works by John Constable (1776–1837) was devoted to his primary interest, landscape. The assembled group, spanning the artist's entire career, came from a private collection; virtually none of the works had been previously shown in this country. From thumbnail pencil notations and fluid oil sketches executed in the open air through finished canvases, the exhibition traced Constable's search to transcend the conventional formulas and techniques of landscape painting and draughtsmanship in order to give direct expression to his perceptions of the natural world.