Late Constable review, Royal Academy: Dark energy meets technical mastery

The late work of the artist most associated with a Brexiteers' view of 'traditional' England can be turbulent, passionate and decisive, says Mark Hudson, but not so much as to completely rewrite his legacy

John Constable’s ‘The Leaping Horse’ features in new Royal Academy show Late Constable (Royal Academy of Arts, London)

What’s this? John Constable, the master of “conservative” British understatement represented by a turbulent black sky, with five vigorous, bordering-on-violent brushstrokes, that look positively abstract expressionist, indicating a tumultuous downpour from the heavens? For most of the past century – ie the period of the existence of “modern art” – Constable was the artist who provided mainstream Britain with reassuring images of our green and pleasant land (with the emphasis on “pleasant”) in placid evocations of the Suffolk countryside such as The Hay Wain and The Cornfield. The fact that he was safely dead – in 1837 – no doubt enhanced his popularity.

His slightly older rival Turner, meanwhile, was seen as the cosmopolitan radical, whose proto-impressionist pyrotechnics paved the way for Monet, Cezanne and even, it was argued, Rothko. Over the past decade, however, there’s been the beginnings of a reversal of that view. Shows such as the V&A’s Constable: The Making of a Master in 2015 proposed a more modern, scientifically oriented Constable, whose coolly analytical approach to nature, evident in his meticulous studies of cloud patterns, makes Turner’s visionary land and seascapes appear overly romantic and theatrical.

So will this exhibition of Constable’s late work be the one to definitively swing the battle of these 19th century giants in his favour? My gut feeling on entering was: absolutely not.