***FORTHCOMING***

Paperback – 145 x 115 mm – 192 pages

Sixty illustrations in colour

ISBN 9781843682875

John Constable (1776–1837) is England’s best-loved landscape painter greatest painter – and the familiarity of many of his images is enough to disguise what a revolutionary artist he was. His passionate concentration on the truth of the natural world influenced not just other landscape painters but the whole course of romanticism, as much in France as in Britain. And the spontaneity and energy of his vision and technique remain as fresh today as ever.

It was a long and arduous journey for this sensitive and not very sociable man, a journey whose fascinating twists and turns we can trace today through his many vivid letters. Writing to his small group of friends and patrons, Constable was able to share his developing ideas and practice, and to read his letters today is to gain an unparalleled insight into a pioneering creative mind. In this edition, Constable’s letters have for the first time been selected and arranged in a chronological order to create a coherent narrative of his life and career. The editor is the leading expert on Constable, Anne Lyles, and she has also written an extensive introduction to Constable’s biography and writings.

Anne Lyles worked at the Tate for over twenty-five years, specialising in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century landscape painting, in particular the work of John Constable, J. M. W. Turner and the British watercolour school. She has written extensively on these subjects and organised exhibitions throughout the UK and abroad. She is a trustee of the Constable Trust.