Dedham Vale
by CONSTABLE, John, Oil on canvas, 145 x 122 cm
Constable’s sceptical attitude to the Old Masters resulted not in rejection but in a selective reinterpretation, as in the upright view of his native landscape, Dedham Vale, painted in 1802 as a tribute to a painting by Claude, Hagar and the Angel, then owned by Constable’s early mentor Sir George Beaumont (and now in the National Gallery, London). Constable recast the scene in a fresh, sparkling palette of greens and golds and with a light touch with the brush.