John Constable portraits go on show in the UK


The 1806 pencil sketch will be part of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery dedicated to Constable's portraiture.

The early 19th century painter remains far better known for works such as The Hay Wain and Dedham Vale.

But he also excelled at painting people and earned his living, at least in his early years, doing commissions for the landed gentry and merchants.

Constable was an artistic radical who once remarked that "painting is but another word for feeling".

He rebelled against the teaching that artists should use imagination to embellish pictures, and instead tried to capture the essence of his subject matter, be that a landscape or a person.

Tate curator Anne Lyles said the 1806 self-portrait, done with the help of mirrors, was one of only two he did of himself that are known to have survived...

comments powered by Disqus