In 1813 John Constable had moved into his house in Charlotte Street in London. He was in the process of redecorating his painting room. Note that he says "painting room" rather than studio. Constable writes in a letter to to describe how he wants the room to be painted. And what colour did he choose? White, the all purpose choice of today's artist? Or something else? Constable chose a purple brown colour.Constable was working in his own home. This was a normal practice at the time. He did not have a separate dedicated workshop such as many artists now have. One can only guess at how he would react to the idea of a white cell such as many artists accept/demand. I think that he would have found this depressing and emotionally chilly--and of a colour which does not suit his work.
...my front room where I paint shall be done with a sort of purple brown from the floor to the ceiling-not spareing even the doors or doorposts for white is disagreable to a painters Eyes-near pictures-
(Letter to Maria Bicknell, 30 June, 1813 .Capitals, spelling etc are JC's own)
So Constable chose to work in a relatively low toned room. He specifically mentions that the woodwork-the door surrounds for example, are painted the same colour as the walls. They are not picked out in white or some contrasting colour.
He does not give his reasoning for this choice of colour.He surely thought that this colour scheme would not be too gloomy. Can we reconstruct/guess what these reasons might be? He may have thought that it would complement the silvery colour schemes found often in his own work.And at the least it would not be distracting. The paintings would surely appear more luminous against this relatively low key background.White skirting boards and woodwork would have caught the eye.He surely wanted the flickering effects of his painterly touch to have no competition.
Constable's text quoted in : Constable the Art of Nature, The Tate Gallery, 1971. The organisers were L Parris and C Shields
...my front room where I paint shall be done with a sort of purple brown from the floor to the ceiling-not spareing even the doors or doorposts for white is disagreable to a painters Eyes-near pictures-
(Letter to Maria Bicknell, 30 June, 1813 .Capitals, spelling etc are JC's own)
So Constable chose to work in a relatively low toned room. He specifically mentions that the woodwork-the door surrounds for example, are painted the same colour as the walls. They are not picked out in white or some contrasting colour.
He does not give his reasoning for this choice of colour.He surely thought that this colour scheme would not be too gloomy. Can we reconstruct/guess what these reasons might be? He may have thought that it would complement the silvery colour schemes found often in his own work.And at the least it would not be distracting. The paintings would surely appear more luminous against this relatively low key background.White skirting boards and woodwork would have caught the eye.He surely wanted the flickering effects of his painterly touch to have no competition.
Constable's text quoted in : Constable the Art of Nature, The Tate Gallery, 1971. The organisers were L Parris and C Shields
