John Constable
The Rainbow : A Portrait of John Constable. By Andrew Shirley. (Michael Joseph. 15s.)
MR. SHIRLEY has already devoted much of his time to the study of John Constable. He is the author of a standard work on the mezzo- tints by David Lucas after Constable's paintings, and the compiler of an enlarged edition of C. R. Leslie's classic biography of the artist. With these qualifications he now comes forward as a biographer in his own right. In The Rainbow he has made use of his accumulated specialist knowledge to present his subject to a non-specialist public. He has sought to tell again the story of Constable's life and achievement in historical perspective and against a background of his times. • As one would judge from its title, his book is a personal as well as an art-historical study. A considerable amount of attention is paid to Constable's artistic development from a practice of "the Picturesque" (which word, in spite of Mr. Shirley's statement on p. 46, was considerably more than " two years old in print " in 1796) to the discovery of a new, romantic naturalism. The author shows at the same time how this development was related to the progress of Constable's life—how his marriage preceded a period of serene painting, and the early death of his wife produced a period of dejec- tion and emotional gloom. Those who have already read Leslie's Life will not find that a great deal of importance has been added to the purely biographical matter there set down. What they may find is that Mr. Shirley's garrulous and somewhat undisciplined style of writing has robbed the outline of some of its conciseness. Instead of making bare statements of fact, Mr. Shirley is rather too inclined to drift into the dangerous area of motives and states of mind. He writes, too, with an effusion of glowing adjectives which the reader may find irritating. It would be a mistake, however, if The Rainbow were to be dismissed as just a rehash of standard authorities, as " the film of the book," so to speak. It has, in fact, a variety of positive virtues, chief of which is that it sets off the figure of Constable in relation to his friends and rivals in a way that Leslie was unable to do. There is an interesting section, for example, concerning the origin and publication of David Lucas's mezzotints—a subject of importance in Constable's biography which Leslie hardly touched upon and with which Mr. Shirley is specially qualified to deal. There is also a considerable amount of useful information about several lesser-known paintings, and one or two full-dress discussions concerning those that are well known—notably in connection with "The Glebe Farm." It is a pity that a few minor inaccuracies of fact mar the otherwise admirable analysis of Constable's work: for example the " Church Porch," exhibited in ato, is now in the National Gallery, not the Victoria and Albert Museum ; and Constable's Diploma Picture is not, strictly speaking, a replica of "The Lock "—a point which would hardly be worth making if Mr. Shirley had not devoted several pages to a discussion of the various steps which led up to this picture.
Nevertheless, once these criticisms have been made, The Rainbow must be welcomed as a generally sound introduction to its subject. " Popular " works of this nature are among the most difficult to write, and the fact that Mr. Shirley has been able to portray John Constable so completely, without loss of readability, must be held to his credit. He does not supersede Leslie ; rather he provides a number of useful glosses on the text., for which both specialists and general readers should be grateful. The fourteen illustrations are skilfully chosen to show the range of Constable's art.
JONATHAN MAYNE.
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