Bow Fell, Cumberland

Bow Fell, Cumberland, painted in 1807 during his visit to the Lake District, documents Constable's encounter with mountain scenery and his determined rejection of it as the appropriate subject for his art. He had been invited to join a tour of the Lakes during the height of the picturesque tourism boom, when the region described by Wordsworth and painted by Turner and de Loutherbourg was the canonical destination for lovers of natural grandeur. Constable's honest response — that mountain solitude oppressed his spirits, that he found the enclosed valleys suffocating rather than sublime, that he was homesick for the wide Suffolk skies — is one of the most revealing self-assessments in his biography. The Bow Fell study demonstrates that he could handle dramatic terrain competently, with a forceful rendering of the fell's rocky surface and the cloud shadow moving across it, but it also shows what is missing: the sense of intimate personal connection that animates every Suffolk field and Hampstead Heath study. The visit confirmed rather than diverted his commitment to the lowland English landscape that would define his career.

The mountain landscape demonstrates Constable's ability to capture the grandeur of upland scenery, though the painting lacks the intimate familiarity that characterizes his Suffolk works. The careful rendering of rock formations and the atmospheric mountain light show his adaptability as a landscape painter.