Page:Constable by C. J. Holmes.djvu/31

 interest compared with the sketches at Kensington made during his Derbyshire tour in 1801, which show what a real advance Constable had made in the five years. Though still timid and deficient in contrast, the Derbyshire views are full of air and space, and have caught something of the loneliness of mountain scenery that Girtin knew so well. In spite of Benjamin West's kindly criticism on a rejected picture of Flatford, "Remember, young man, light and shade never stand still," Constable's work for some time remained rather heavy, as one can see from the sketch dated 1802 called Landscape Evening, which shows a decided leaning towards the tone and colour of Wilson. The upright sketch of Dedham Vale bearing the same date is more successful, and anticipates the fresh natural colour of his mature style. His drawings in water-colour and pencil are more evenly skilful—the sketches of Windsor, and Eton from the Castle terrace, for instance—though they are usually slight, and indicate rather varied influences. The sketches in imitation of Gainsborough probably belong to this period, while his marine studies of 1803 are evidently influenced by the Dutch sea painters.

In 1804 he painted an altar-piece for the church of Brantham in Suffolk, where it may still be seen, though it is not worth while going there to see it. It is little more than a feeble imitation of West's religious works, and shows that at the age of twenty-eight Constable was quite unable to paint a figure subject decently. Yet, if the little picture in the National Gallery, On Barnes Common, belongs to this period, as its Dutch technique would suggest, the artist was already showing in what direction his talent really lay. Constable is still a student, and a student of the old masters, but he has learned something about traditional methods of work. He knows how to model a grey cloudy sky in the manner of Ruysdael, and how to harmonize the cool green of foliage and grass with sober conventional brown, though a natural fondness for fresher tints flashes out now and then in the gay colour of some foreground figure, or where a gleam of sunlight strikes the white wall and red roof of a cottage.

The Barnes Common may serve to mark the close of Constable's period of definite studentship. The beginnings of that studentship had been unpromising enough. His timid imitations of Ruysdael's etching, his stippled copies of Claude, his clumsy experiments in the manner of Wilson and Gainsborough, gave 11