THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSTABLE'S ART
Before discussing Constable's pictures in detail, a few words are necessary as to the collections in which his work is accessible to students. London is so lucky in this respect that it is hardly possible to form a complete idea of his achievement in any other place. The comparative lack of appreciation with which Constable met during the greater part of his career has been less unfortunate for posterity than it was for the artist himself. At his death he left his family a large number of pictures and studies representing every stage of his artistic activity, and many of these, by the generous bequest of his daughter, Miss Isabel Constable, passed into our public collections some ten years ago. Several of his most important pictures had already become the property of the nation, by the gift or bequest of their former owners, so that, altogether, quite a large proportion of Constable's work can be seen and studied in the London galleries. As a matter of practical convenience, it is to such pictures that reference will usually be made. Not only do they illustrate the various phases of Constable's art far more completely than private collections, but they have the advantage of being always accessible, so that any questions relating to them can be settled on the spot.
Of these public collections, that in South Kensington Museum is the most complete and interesting, though the paintings and studies are huddled together without any regard either for sequence or decorative effect. In addition to Salisbury Cathedral, The Cottage in a Cornfield, Boat-building, and other important finished pictures, the Kensington Museum possesses the two magnificent six-foot sketches for The Leaping Horse and The Haywain, and several hundred studies in oil, water-colour, and pencil, many of great beauty and interest. The Diploma Gallery
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