Imagine looking at life and seeing only beauty...

A creator of beautiful, landscapes, artist John Constable (1776-1837) was born on this day in Suffolk, England and let the scenery near his rural home inspire his creative imagination.

"Those scenes made me a painter," Constable said. "The sound of water escaping from mill-dams... willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things."

Constable studied art at London's Royal Academy. Some of his best known works include The White Horse (1819), The Cornfield (1826), and the Salisbury Cathedral (1825, 1829). He sketched and painted the Gothic landmark with different skies, what he considered a new way of capturing art.

"The sky is the source of light in Nature and it governs everything," he said.

A lover of clouds and light, he spent hours studying the landscape before painting, what he called "the natural history of the skies." Nature was his muse. This passion for light inspired the Impressionist painters who followed him.

Reflecting the gentle philosophy of poet William Wordsworth in his art, Constable said, "Light – dews – breezes – bloom – and freshness; not one of which... has yet been perfected on the canvas of any painter in the world."

In later years he taught art theory and believed that landscape painting was both scientific and poetic. "Painting is with me but another word for feeling."

More Art & Artists Quotations

There is beauty in every thing you see.