The Close, Salisbury

This study of the Cathedral Close at Salisbury was painted on 15 July 1829, less than a year after the death of his wife Maria in November 1828. Constable came to Salisbury seeking the comfort of friendship with Archdeacon John Fisher, his closest confidant for over two decades, and the Close's enclosed world — ancient buildings, walled gardens, the measured calm of ecclesiastical life — offered a composed alternative to the grief that was beginning to show in his turbulent late paintings. The medieval buildings surrounding the cathedral precincts interested him topographically as well as personally: their varied stonework, shadowed passages, and garden walls provided architectural subjects that complemented rather than competed with his landscape interests. John Varley and other topographical watercolourists had treated similar cathedral subjects in a more detached documentary style; Constable brought to Salisbury the same intense personal investment he gave to his Suffolk subjects. Fisher's own death in 1832 would remove the last great sustaining friendship of his life, and these 1829 visits to the Close belong to the final years of that friendship.

The Close is rendered with careful attention to the specific character of its architecture and trees. Warm summer light models the stone buildings while deep shadows under the lime trees provide tonal contrast and compositional structure.

This dated Salisbury study from July 1829 is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The painting records a visit to the cathedral Close during one of Constable's later trips to Salisbury. The small oil has been stabilized and cleaned. The summer light effects are well-preserved. The work documents both the physical setting and Constable's personal connection to Salisbury through his friendship with the Fisher family.