This exciting book presents unique insight into John Constable’s working process through the Victoria and Albert Museum’s unparalleled collection. It places the artist in the context of his historical and ongoing influence and charts Constable’s progress—from his early works to the oils that helped to define our idea of the English countryside. It presents afresh two of the V&A’s star works: the vibrant full-size oil sketches for The Hay Wain and The Leaping Horse, which are being shown for the first time since their revelatory cleaning. Both reveal their original colors and tonalities for the first time in living memory, and will be shown with a spectacular selection of the artist’s small oil sketches, supplemented by an exquisite series of his watercolors and drawings.Mark Evans is Senior Curator of Paintings at the V&A. He has written extensively on painting from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century and is the author of numerous books, including The Painted World (V&A 2005).Exhibition schedule: Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, March 12–July 3, 2011