John Constable, Study of cirrus clouds, about 1821-22 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Constable: The Making of a Master

This major exhibition will reassess John Constable’s influences, techniques and legacy to offer a new interpretation of Britain’s best-loved artist. Discover how great works of art are created as Constable’s most famous masterpieces are united with his revolutionary oil sketches: expressive evocations of land, sea and sky that allowed him to transfer the freshness of the outdoors into his exhibition paintings.

Constable, Study with Rain Cloud, 1824 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

For the first time, Constable will be presented alongside the old masters of classical landscape whose formal values he studiously assimilated. By combining the authority of their compositional ideas with a breathtakingly naturalistic vision that was entirely his own, Constable would ultimately transform the genre of landscape painting, and in the process shape the enduring popular image of the English countryside.

20 September 2014 – 11 January 2015

more. www.vam.ac.uk