Constable and Salisbury

• Published to accompany the exhibition Constable and Salisbury, The Soul of Landscape at the Museum of Salisbury and South Wiltshire, the first Constable exhibition to focus exclusively on paintings and drawings of Salisbury
• A beautifully illustrated book which includes studies of comparative paintings of Salisbury by painters such as Turner and Girtin
• ‘Excellent and comprehensive’, Burlington Magazine

Apart from the Stour valley on the borders of Suffolk and Essex, where he grew up, John Constable made more paintings and drawings in and around Salisbury than in any other part of England. He stayed in the city seven times, episodes that were among the most significant of his life. The repercussions are felt in every area of his art, from his first short visit in 1811, whose bi-centenary this publication marks, to one of his final exhibits at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, the watercolour Stonehenge. Paintings and drawings of Salisbury figure in every exhibition of Constable’s art, but they have never been considered in isolation. This publication features his varied responses to the architecture and landscape of the Close and the surrounding countryside – both relatively unchanged over the past two centuries – and shows Constable at the height of his powers.

Timothy Wilcox is a writer and curator with a particular interest in British landscape painting and watercolours. He is the author of Samuel Palmer and The Glory of Watercolour and a contributor to Constable’s Clouds and The Solitude of Mountains: Constable in the Lake District.