Constable's techniques

Last Summer, with Constable: The Great Landscapes exhibition a year away, Tate Painting Conservation brought several of the ‘six footer’ canvases in to the studio at Tate Britain for examination. These included Chain Pier (Tate), Sketch for Hadleigh Castle (Tate), Sketch for the Leaping Horse (V&A) and Sketch for View on the Stour (Private). Owing to the significance of Constable to British Art History and the popularity of his work, many of these paintings are permanently on display. Consequently the opportunity for in-depth study and close comparison between related works is rare.

The paintings were released from gallery walls and studied by conservators using microscopic, ultra violet, infra red and X-ray examination techniques. Constable’s choice of materials and aspects of his technical style: typical brushwork, thickness of impasto, density of modelling etc. were investigated and recorded. These findings have added to our existing knowledge of Constable’s working practise as well as helped curators understand the artist’s creative development during the later stages of his career.

For more details on the findings from the technical examination of Sketch for Hadleigh Castle see Natasha Duff's article in Tate Papers, Spring 2006:
Constable's Sketch for Hadleigh Castle: A Technical Examination