Wed 9th Sept 2020, 8pm
Sarah Cove
Evesham Arts Theatre
From Chocolate Box to Jackson Pollock: The Materials and Techniques of Constable’s Great Landscapes of the 1820’s to 1830’s
Constable’s famous ‘six-footers’ include some of his most well-loved paintings: The White Horse (1819), The Haywain(1821), The Leaping Horse (1825) and Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (1831). Their compositions were derived from small pencil and oil studies and for each Constable painted a full-size sketch. Based on extensive technical research for a detailed catalogue essay for the Constable: The Great Landscapes exhibition, at Tate Britain in 2006, this lecture discusses Constable’s diverse painting methods and brings to life his dynamic personality and artistic temperament, revealing a ‘Jackson Pollock of the 1830s’. It is illustrated with Sarah’s own highly detailed, colour slides taken during studio examinations of the paintings in preparation for the Tate exhibition.
Sarah Cove is an accredited paintings conservator-restorer, technical art historian and lecturer with more than 35 years’ experience working on paintings for the heritage and private sectors. She is based in London and Falmouth and is a specialist in British portraits, 19th- 20th century British landscapes and oil sketches on paper and board. In 1986 she founded the Constable Research Project and she is now the leading authority on Constable’s materials and techniques. She has appeared in several TV programmes for the BBC notably Constable in Love with Andrew Graham-Dixon and twice on Fake or Fortune? where she was instrumental in the discovery of 3 ‘lost’ Constables.. She has been a lecturer for The Arts Society since 2003.