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A Winter Landscape with Figures on a Path, A Footbridge and Windmills Beyond - John Constable - Hand Painted Oil Painting suits both traditional and modern interiors. As a portrait oil painting, it works as a standalone focal point or as part of an entryway gallery wall, and unlike a print it is genuinely hand painted in oils.
After Jacob Van Ruisdael
In the fall of 1832, John Constable painted this remarkable copy of a winter landscape by Jacob van Ruisdael then in the collection of Sir Robert Peel but today in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (fig. 1). Known for his scrupulous copies of Old Master Paintings, Constable was instructed by Peel to add an element into his copy, so as to distinguish it from the original. Constable thus added a small dog in the lower left corner of his painting, an element he also introduced into his copy of a David Teniers landscape that he completed in 1823 for William Dodsworth, the verger of Salisbury Cathedral.
Constable commenced on this work a few days after the death of his friend, John Fisher. On September 4th, Constable wrote to C.R. Leslie: "I cannot tell you how singularly this death has affected me...I shall pass this week at Hampstead to copy the winter piece [by Ruysdael] - for which indeed my mind seems in a fit state." This, together with the artist's lengthy inscription on the stretcher which references the passing of another life-long friend, John Dunthorne, less than two months later (fig. 2), helps to further illustrate how the specific subject of this wintry composition and the meticulous practice of copying served in some ways to soothe his heartache after the loss of two of his dearest friends.
A champion of landscape painting throughout his career, Constable found inspiration in the landscapes of artists that preceded him, including those of Titian, Claude, Poussin, Rubens, and Jacob van Ruisdael, the latter with whom he found a great affinity, particularly in Ruisdael's ability to "envelop the most ordinary scenes in grandeur ". Constable looked at these artists' works, sometimes even copying them, as books from which much could be understood after a close and attentive reading. The present composition serves as a prime example that it is more than just a pure landscape, as described by Constable in his own words in an 1836 lecture at the British Institution on Dutch and Flemish landscape painting when he used his copy as an illustration:
[Ruysdael’s] Picture represents an approaching thaw. The ground is covered in snow and the trees are still white; but there are two windmills near the center; the one has the sails furled, and is turned in the position from which the wind blew when the mill left off work; the other has the canvas on the pulls and is turned another way, which indicates a change in the wind. The clouds are opening in that direction, which appears by the glow in the sky to be the south...and this change will produce thaw before the morning. The concurrence of these circumstances shows Ruysdael understood what he was painting.
It is of no surprise that Ruisdael's Winter Landscape, dated by Slive to the late 1660s, attracted Constable's attention, as it long received high praise from the seventeenth century onwards. Waagen, who would have seen the work in the collection of Peel around 1837-1839, remarked "The feeling of winter is here expressed with more truth than I have ever seen," while Valentiner in 1913 believed it to be "the finest winter landscape by the artist, unsurpassed by any painting of similar motive in Dutch art" .
Every hand painted oil painting in this figurative series is finished on artist-grade canvas and checked against the original before it leaves the studio.
We use a 100% hand-painted process: stretched artist-grade canvas, layered oil pigment, and a final protective varnish. There are no inkjet prints or mechanical reproductions in this collection — just a painted figurative artwork made to order.
Build an entryway gallery wall around this portrait oil painting, or let it stand alone as a single statement. The hand painted canvas finish keeps the figurative composition looking intentional in both classic and contemporary rooms.
Whether the search term is portrait oil painting, entryway wall decor, or romantic oil painting wall decor, this hand painted canvas delivers the same thing: a real painted surface, made to your chosen dimensions.
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| 20 X 24 in | $87.98 |
| 24 X 36 in | $134.48 |
| 30 X 40 in | $185.98 |
| 36 X 48 in | $238.48 |
| 48 X 72 in | $481.48 |
The sizes shown are the reproduction canvas sizes we paint to order. The dimensions given in a work's description refer to the original artwork and will differ from the sizes offered here. Not sure? Read the size guide or e-mail us.
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Every canvas is painted by hand in oils on artist-grade stretched canvas, with an extra blank border left for framing. How to care for your painting.
Measurements are on the size guide, or e-mail [email protected] and we reply within one business day.
