COVE

Title: Edge of a Wood

Artist: John Constable (1776 - 1837)

Date: 1816

On Display at The Art Gallery of Ontario

This painting is called Edge of a Wood and was painted by John Constable in 1816. John Constable was known to be a landscape painter and his painting usually consisted of Suffolk countryside, where he had grown up. This painting features an individual (gender not specified) and two donkeys in the foreground that are positioned on the left side of the Constable’s painting. But the three individuals in this painting are overshadowed by the woods during fall, which is seen as the most prominent aspect of the painting. I believe that this painting is closely related to the ideas of picturesque. The painting doesn’t try to smooth over the roughness and ruggedness that is part of the landscape. Constable also decides to add humans and animals to the landscape to add roughness/ruggedness to it. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by William Wordsworth has aspects of picturesque, which include adding the roughness and ruggedness of his personal feelings about the art into his poem. Rousseau's Reveries of the Solitary Walker also has aspects of the picturesque, which include the pursuit of the object. All three works show what it takes to move from being considered beautiful to being considered picturesque. 

Keywords: Romanticism, Picturesque, Nature, Landscape