Beyond ‘face-painting’

Constable Portraits: The Painter & His Circle
National Portrait Gallery until 14 June
Sponsored by British Land

The portrait was the dominant form in British painting up to the end of the 18th century, principally because this was what patrons wanted. Landscape painting was really the invention of Richard Wilson (1713–82), who inaugurated this particular branch of nature-worship. Constable, with his great gift for naturalness and observation, developed it further than any artist, except Turner. And it is as a landscape painter that we think of Constable, though he also painted about 100 portraits. These have tended to be overshadowed by his nature studies, and the current show at the NPG is the first to concentrate on his portraits. It is something of a revelation.

Both Constable and his first biographer C.R. Leslie were rather dismissive of his portraits. Leslie, who was a successful portraitist — and thus a servant of fashion — had reason not to take seriously the unforced and spontaneous charm of his friend’s work, and it’s evident where Constable’s own interests lay. As he said, ‘Landscape is my mistress — ’tis to her I look for fame.’ And we the viewers are influenced, no doubt, by our memories of Gainsborough (1727–88), who famously painted portraits for a living, but longed to paint the woods and meadows of Suffolk where he was brought up. He grew to hate ‘face-painting’. So when, in a succeeding generation, Constable (1776–1837) appeared as a committed landscape painter, we assume that he, too, would have rebelled at being caught in the treadmill of portraiture. His attitude, however, seems to have been more ambivalent.

Constable clearly enjoyed painting pretty girls, as the portrait of Jane Anne Mason, which opens the show, testifies.