Comparison Of Mill And Thomas Constable

Constable had reportedly signed his name on the painting to make it appear as if it was writing that had been carved into the land just in front of the child sitting on the horse. X-rays of the painting have shown that Constable had painted out a horse that was on the towpath and substituted the missing presence of a figure with the two boys in the foreground. The viewer is given a glimpse into the childhood that Constable experienced. One could believe that one of the children depicted in the landscape portrait is indeed meant to symbolise Constable himself. This opinion would link to the fact that Constable engraved his name into the painting as if it were scratched into the ground. It could have possibly been depicted that way to make reference to the fact that Constable himself, if he had depicted himself as one of the young figures, inscribed his own name into the earth. It could also concrete the fact that the mill depicted in the landscape portrait was owned by his family and that a part of Constable will always remain there, now forever lasting through the painting.
Using both Friedrich’s Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog and Constable’s Flatford Mill as examples could challenge the viewer’s opinion. Both are portraits, and both do not contain the classic aspect of what the viewer could consider to be portraiture; they do not depict a subjects face. They in fact focus more on the landscape and the vagueness of a figure/s. Both portraits are romantic in style and were painted only two years apart. Constable’s portrait does depict various figures, but all are situated further back so they appear to be almost faceless, as well as all looking either away or down from the viewer. Friedrich’s wanderer is faceless and the viewer is only able to see his dark, confident figure from the