Shadows over Constable

Late Constable

Anne Lyles and Matthew Hargraves (Royal Academy of Arts, £21.95)

THE term late period suggests a time in a mature artist’s career when, with their reputation established, they are finally freed to distil their artistic genius to its essence. With painters, this generally means they stop fussing over detail: their brushwork becomes bolder and messier as they cut to the chase.

How late is late? The curators of Tate Britain’s 2014 ‘Late Turner’ exhibition reckoned that the artist entered his late period aged 60, but the authors of the catalogue of the Royal Academy’s current ‘Late Constable’ exhibition date the start of the painter’s late flowering to 1825, the year he painted his last River Stour ‘six-footer’, , aged 49. Unlike Turner, who lived