John Constable
Because paintings such as The Haywain and The Cornfield have been so popular in recent decades, people imagine that has always been true.
Not so.
Constable believed in painting out of doors (and not from the imagination), by no means a common practice in his time. In fact, 'nature' had been seen as something wild, untamed and undesirable. This was one of the first innovations of Romantic artists. Nature was to be desired, learned from, even revered. Famously, Constable used to sketch and paint clouds - one of the most ephemeral aspects of the natural world. They were also a subject which required speed and sharp observation. These sketches in watercolours and oils have a freshness and liveliness about them. He seems to capture movement in the air and weather and to express the atmosphere of the landscape.
Consider this:
Seascape Study with Rain Cloud
1824
However engaging and exciting this kind of painting might seem to us, to Constable's contemporaries it looked unfinished. To be able to sell his work, Constable had to create a 'finish' which the market found acceptable. This was not true everywhere though. Constable is recorded as selling just twenty canvases in England. He sold more than that in just a few years in France. His Haywain for example was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1824 and was awarded the Prix d'Or.
Here is a landscape which Constable returned to many times.
Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath
1819
This might not be the view of the Heath familiar to residents of NW3 today, but it is a compelling re-creation of being outside on a dark, rainy day. And just as a change in the weather can lift or depress our spirits, so Constable's painting can have that effect on us, the viewers. It puts me in mind of lines from Wordsworth's Prelude: "I grew up, fostered alike by beauty and by fear".