As if every particle was alive: The charged canvas of Constable’s Hadleigh Castle
John Constable painted Hadleigh Castle in the months that followed the death of his wife, Maria, in late 1828. Whereas interpretations of this bleak masterpiece frequently stress its melancholic introspection, this article suggests that it can also be understood as fundamentally engaged with scienti...
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| Médium: | Journal article |
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Paul Mellon Centre
2018
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| _version_ | 1826304083363889152 |
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| author | Taylor, D |
| author_facet | Taylor, D |
| author_sort | Taylor, D |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | John Constable painted Hadleigh Castle in the months that followed the death of his wife, Maria, in late 1828. Whereas interpretations of this bleak masterpiece frequently stress its melancholic introspection, this article suggests that it can also be understood as fundamentally engaged with scientific ideas. Across the canvas, light and vapour interweave, drawing together globe and sky into a single system of interchanging states that corresponds with understandings of the world arising in contemporary geology and meteorology. This dynamism linking every aspect of the landscape is reinforced by Constable’s innovative paint handling, which can profitably be considered in relation to conceptions of electrical charge and polarity then stimulating British intellectual life. Viewed in the light of early nineteenth-century science, Hadleigh Castle emerges from the depths of Constable’s mourning as a profound pictorial engagement with newly-conceived qualities of nature, through which the artist traced the invisible but universal conditions of life. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:12:25Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:effa39f1-97bf-404a-bcdb-43e410a46cd5 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:12:25Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Paul Mellon Centre |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:effa39f1-97bf-404a-bcdb-43e410a46cd52022-03-27T11:44:14ZAs if every particle was alive: The charged canvas of Constable’s Hadleigh CastleJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:effa39f1-97bf-404a-bcdb-43e410a46cd5Symplectic Elements at OxfordPaul Mellon Centre2018Taylor, DJohn Constable painted Hadleigh Castle in the months that followed the death of his wife, Maria, in late 1828. Whereas interpretations of this bleak masterpiece frequently stress its melancholic introspection, this article suggests that it can also be understood as fundamentally engaged with scientific ideas. Across the canvas, light and vapour interweave, drawing together globe and sky into a single system of interchanging states that corresponds with understandings of the world arising in contemporary geology and meteorology. This dynamism linking every aspect of the landscape is reinforced by Constable’s innovative paint handling, which can profitably be considered in relation to conceptions of electrical charge and polarity then stimulating British intellectual life. Viewed in the light of early nineteenth-century science, Hadleigh Castle emerges from the depths of Constable’s mourning as a profound pictorial engagement with newly-conceived qualities of nature, through which the artist traced the invisible but universal conditions of life. |
| spellingShingle | Taylor, D As if every particle was alive: The charged canvas of Constable’s Hadleigh Castle |
| title | As if every particle was alive: The charged canvas of Constable’s Hadleigh Castle |
| title_full | As if every particle was alive: The charged canvas of Constable’s Hadleigh Castle |
| title_fullStr | As if every particle was alive: The charged canvas of Constable’s Hadleigh Castle |
| title_full_unstemmed | As if every particle was alive: The charged canvas of Constable’s Hadleigh Castle |
| title_short | As if every particle was alive: The charged canvas of Constable’s Hadleigh Castle |
| title_sort | as if every particle was alive the charged canvas of constable s hadleigh castle |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT taylord asifeveryparticlewasalivethechargedcanvasofconstableshadleighcastle |