The Vale of Dedham 1827–28 was Constable’s last major painting of the Stour Valley. He often created his unique vision of the landscape by looking at landscapes from the past. Landscape with Hagar and the Angel, painted by Claude Lorrain in 1646, was a favourite work that Constable had admired since he first saw it at George Beaumont’s London house around 1800. The Claudian composition of framing trees and overlapping landscape sections, leading the eye into the distance, are evident in this painting.
Constable depicted Dedham Vale framed by trees, looking eastwards from Gun Hill, down along the course of the River Stour towards the sea, with the tower of Dedham Church and the village in the middle distance, and Harwich and the coast beyond. It was a subject that had interested Constable for many years. The trees on the right are balanced in the left foreground by an old stump sprouting new growth – a compositional invention to direct attention to the distant landscape, and a symbol of regeneration. In the foreground is the figure of a gypsy mother, wearing a red jacket, nursing her child beside a fire. Constable often painted a small red detail in the foreground as a compositional device, to attract the eye and contrast with the green of vegetation.
His unusual and original painting method, in which he used palette knives and fingers, as well as many different brushes, gives variety to the painted surface. This energetic process created a sense of immediacy, as if wind and light were moving through the image. The white-topped clouds convey the feel of summer sunshine, the flickering leaves suggest wind in the trees and the glistening light on the ground describes the effect of the shower of rain that has just passed.
The year 1828 was an emotional one for Constable: his seventh child was born, his wife’s health deteriorated and, despite one last visit to Brighton in May, she died of pulmonary tuberculosis in November. In one of his many letters Constable wrote: ‘Hourly do I feel the loss of my departed Angel … Nothing can supply the loss of such a devoted, sensible, industrious, religious mother, who was all affection … I shall never feel again as I have felt, the face of the world is totally changed to me’.
Discussion
• The term ‘picturesque’ has been used to describe the appearance of Constable’s paintings. Discuss in relation to this painting.