Rubens and the Romantic

     In considering the landscapes painted by Peter Pauls Rubens (1577-1640), one sees a remarkable tendency toward what would later become stapes of Romantic painting some two centuries later. Thus, contrasting Rubens with a Romantic landscape painter like John Constable (1776-1837) provides a wealth of insights both into particular aspects about each painter, but also into broader formal and stylistic similarities. On face value, the two painters seem rather different. Rubens travelled fairly widely for the time, was highly regarded and successful during his life, and is most renowned for his historic and sacred paintings. It was not until the final five years of his life that he produced a series of landscapes, and they were made largely for his own enjoyment. Constable, on the other hand, made landscape painting his life’s work, never left his native England, and, although he was a traditionalist in many senses, was quite innovative in his style and brushwork. While Constable sought to portray his landscapes exactly as he saw them, Rubens tended more towards imagined scenes rooted in reality.

    Both painters exhibited a good deal of freedom from social customs surrounding painting at the time, and have a clear love for the landscapes they did. With Rubens, he ignored the hierarchy of the day, which placed history painting at the forefront, and painted instead these landscapes for his own collection on his newly acquired private estate; these are the paintings of one who had enjoyed a good deal of success and now had some leisure time. For Constable, his vibrant use of green, his refusal to mythologize his scenes, and the way he ignored incorporating elements of industrialism into his paintings all put him somewhat at odds with the Royal Academy and with other English Romantics like JMW Turner. All of this is to say that in comparing and contrasting the landscapes of Rubens and Constable, one finds that they are remarkably similar in content, style, and form, and both exhibit the Romantic approach of desiring to portray “nature itself” with all her drama and emotion in tow.

The Rainbow Landscape

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

Date:  c. 1636

Dimensions: 135.6 x 235 cm

Medium: Oil on wood panels

The Wallace Collection

    The Rainbow Landscape is an idealized landscape captured from a bird's eye perspective, and features the hustle and bustle of everyday life for peasants in the seventeenth century. It is also quite large, which compares well with the sizes of Constable's paintings we will look at later. Hay and hay making especially is featured prominently, but the obvious most notable feature of the landscape is the rainbow dominating the sky. Rubens dramatically uses value to contrast the tension in which the rainbow is formed; a storm has just passed and now the sun is coming out, and nature has turned from power and terror to contentment and beauty.

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds

John Constable (1776–1837)

Date: ca. 1825

Dimensions: (88.9 x 112.4 cm)

Medium: Oil on canvas

The Frick Collection

    Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds is one of several attempts Constable took at trying to paint Salisbury Cathedral, and the painting in the Frick Collection is the final replica he made. Looking closely at the leaves in the trees, one is immediately struck by how the leaves are unblended and indistinguishable, and at how evident the brush remains. In doing this, Constable was attempting to capture the way we see nature not in precise detail, but in broader, more gestural terms. Constable also makes strong use of chiaroscuro in the almost shining windows and buttresses of the cathedral, which is contrasted by the shade of the foreground.

A Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

Date: c. 1638

Dimensions: 49.4 x 83.5 cm

Medium: Oil on oak

The National Gallery, UK

      A Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock is another landscape by Rubens and prominently displays the idea of rural bliss in this pastoral scene. In doing so, Rubens was simultaneously elevating his native countryside to the status normally only reserved for the lands of classical antiquity. While the use of light is far less dramatic in this landscape, the more gestural brushstrokes and lack of blending provides a very similar feel to the work of Constable.

The Cornfield

John Constable

Date: 1826

Dimensions: 143 x 122 cm

Medium: Oil on canvas

The National Gallery, UK

    The Cornfield by Constable is another one of his love letters to trees. The piece is named after the cornfield that the pathway leads to, but in reality it only takes up a small quarter of the middle of the painting. Equally as important is the young shepherd boy and his dog, and the trees surrounding the path. Again, nature is invoked as a comforter and protector; here the boy can find water and rest and the sheep are provided shade from the heat of the summer sun.

A Forest at Dawn with a Deer Hunt

Peter Paul Rubens

Date: ca. 1635

Dimensions: 61.5 x 90.2 cm

Medium: Oil on wood 

Metropolitan Museum of Art

    A Forest at Dawn with a Deer Hunt by Rubens is another fine example of the use of chiaroscuro to create drama that is so evident in many of Constable's and Rubens's works. This drama of the deer hunt is heightened by the streak of light that illuminates the chase, and the bright ray poking through the dead tree stump also gives a longing, piercing quality to the landscape. The whole painting is deeply washed with the golden-brownish tones of the morning light, and the trees again feature dynamic brushstrokes to capture the leaves.

The Hay Wain

John Constable

Date: 1821

Dimensions: 130.2 x 185.4 cm

Medium: Oil on canvas

The National Gallery, UK

    The Hay Wain by John Constable is as smitten with green as Rubens is with the golden brown of A Forest at Dawn. Where the two differ, though, is in Constable's commitment to depicting real scenes and in his deep appreciation for clouds. One can still go and visit the scene from The Hay Wain today (though the house on the left is private property), and will still find much the same. Constable also makes use of a technique called scumble to create those brilliant greens in the field, which in turn allows for a more dynamic, vibrant painting.