Pierre Wat's New Book Reassesses John Constable

A new book by Pierre Wat, published by Éditions Hazan, challenges prevailing misconceptions about John Constable. Wat argues that Constable has been misunderstood both in England, where he is seen as a father of the English landscape tradition, and in France, where he was overshadowed by Turner before being praised by Delacroix and then largely forgotten until a 2002 exhibition at the Grand Palais curated by Lucian Freud. The book positions Constable within an international Romanticism, building on Wat's earlier work "Naissance de l'art romantique" (Flammarion, 1998), which connected Constable with Friedrich, Runge, Carus, Reynolds, and Blake. Wat emphasizes Constable's interest in science, particularly his cloud studies, and describes his painting as a "peinture d'histoire naturelle" replacing history painting. The book features extensive iconography with full-page details highlighting the violent and energetic brushwork.