John Constable Quotes
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Painting is a science, and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature.
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It is always my endeavour however in making a picture that it should be without a companion in the world. At least such should be a painters ambition.
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We see nothing truly till we understand it.
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I paint by all the daylight we have and that is little enough, less perhaps than you have by much... imagine to yourself how a purl must look through a burnt glass.
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Painting is but another word for feeling.
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He seems to paint with tinted steam, so evanescent, and so airy.
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How sweet and beautifull is every place & I visit my old Haunts with renewed delight... nothing can exceed the beautiful green of the meadows which are beginning to fill with butter Cups - & various flowers - the birds are singing from morning till night but most of all the Sky larks - How delightfull is the Country.
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The sky is the source of light in nature - and governs everything.
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This appearance of the Evening was... just after a very heavy rain - more rain in the night and very - ?light wind which continued all the - day following while making – this sketch observed the Moon easing – very beautifully... in the due East over the - heavy clouds from which the late showers – had fallen.
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Nature is the fountain's head, the source from whence all originality must spring.
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The mysterious monument of Stonehenge, standing remote on a bare and boundless heath, as much unconnected with the events of past ages as it is with the uses of the present, carries you back beyond all historical records into the obscurity of a totally unknown period.
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The world is wide. No two days are alike, nor even two hours, neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike since the creation of all the world; and the genuine productions of art, like those of nature, are all distinct from each other.
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My canvas soothes me into forgetfulness of the scene of turmoil and folly - and worse - of the scene around me. Every gleam of sunshine is blighted to me in the art at least. Can it therefore be wondered at that I paint continual storms? 'Tempest o'er tempest roll'd' - still the 'darkness' is majestic.
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I know very well what I am about, & that my skies have not been neglected, though they often failed in execution - and often, no doubt, from an over-anxiety about them - which will alone destroy that easy appearance which nature always has - in all her movements.
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The landscape painter must walk in the fields with a humble mind. No arrogant man was ever permitted to see Nature in all her beauty.
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Whatever may be thought of my art, it is my own; and I would rather possess a freehold, though but a cottage, than live in a palace belonging to another.
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A sketch will not serve more than one state of mind & will not serve to drink at again & again - in a sketch there is nothing but the one state of mind - that which you were in at the time.
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No man who can do any one thing well will be able to any different thing equally well.
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Because he attempted to tell in his painting 'The Jewish Cemetery' painted by Ruisdael, that which is outside the reach of art... .there are ruins to indicate old age, a stream to signify the course of life, and rocks and precipices to shadow forth its dangers. But how are we to discover all this?
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I know dock leaves pretty well, but I should not attempt to introduce them into a picture without having them before me.
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All my indispositions have their source in my mind. It is when I am restless and unhappy that I become susceptible of cold, damp, heats, and such nonsense.
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Sept. 6th, 1822, looking S.E. – 12 to 1 o'clock, fresh and bright, between showers – much the look of rain all the morning, but very fine and grand all the afternoon and evening.
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I am most anxious to get into my London painting-room, for I do not consider myself at work unless I am before a six-foot canvas. I have done a good deal of skying for I am determined to conquer all difficulties, and that among the rest.
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Landscape is my mistress - 'tis to her I look for fame.