The fifth in a series of six talks about painter John Constable examines the paradox of a traditional landscape artist who also redefined the language of painting in a way that foretold the revolutions of modern art.

Constable was a paradox: a traditionalist who could paint images of a cathedral inspired by his friendship with the Bishop of Salisbury and yet who also redefined the language of painting in a way that foretold the revolutions of modern art. This paradox stands at the heart of a series of remarkable lectures that Constable gave, to great acclaim, in the final years of his life during the 1830s, which are the first attempt to write a history of landscape painting. Throughout his life Constable was driven by the mission to elevate landscape painting as the highest form of painting, one that answers our own sense of art as a mirror of our changing relationship with the natural world.