hildren. It is possibly one of three pictures on which Constable
obtained the gold medal of the Paris Salon in 1822--the one which in
the Salon catalogue is entitled "A Canal." The other two were "The
Hay-Wain" (shown on the next page) and "Hampstead Heath," both now in
the National Gallery.]

This was henceforth the aim of his life; and from constant study
out of doors he learned that natural objects exist to our sight not
isolated, but in relation one to another; that the whole is more
important than a part; and that the bark of a tree, a minutely defined
plant, or a conscientiously geologically studied rock, may mar the
effect of a whole picture, while the scene to be represented has a
character of its own more subtle, more evanescent, but also infinitely
more true than any single element of which it is composed. More than
that, through living on such intimate terms with Mother Nature, he
learned to value the smiles of her sunshine, and to cunningly adjust
her cloud-veils when she frowned. His object was no longer that of the
earlier painters, who--and along with others even faithful Crome--had
aimed to paint a "view" for its topographical value, suppressing
or altering, like mediocre portrait painters, any feature which was
thought to be displeasing. Constable painted the moods of nature; the
simplest subjects seen under ever-varying effects of light were his
choice; and though his pictures bear the names of various places, and
divers existing features of these places are portrayed, it is always
the beauty of the scene, or that of the moment of the day or night,
which affects the spectator.

[Illustration: THE HAY-WAIN. FROM A PAINTING BY JOHN CONSTABLE, NOW IN
THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON.

This picture was first exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1821. It
is also one of three exhibited by Constable in the Paris Salon the
following year. It is one of Constable's best known pictures. The
thoroughly English character of the scene, painted with truth and
simplicity, makes it, after a lapse of seventy-five years, as modern
as though it were painted yesterday.]

By a public which was used to the conventional tones of the older
painters, and which understood or was interested in Turner's daring
variations on the theme of classical landscape, these fresh, simple
pictures which to-day look so natural to us were regarded with
distrust. Not even the shepherd, much less the warrior or the demigod,
inhabited these quiet sc