Full moon

Yesterday morning at 5:30 am the queenly full moon ruled the western sky attended by clouds in waiting. This watercolor reminds me of another figure from English romanticism, William Blake. Blake was a triple talent, poet, painter and printmaker. He was one of those people who labored creatively in obscurity and was considered an eccentric at best by his contemporaries.  At worst, Blake was thought a madman.


Blake lived a bit earlier than John Constable and I can't imagine they would have had much to say to one another despite mutual interest in art. Blake's religious intensity and interest in classical art and writing would have contrasted strongly with Constable's grounded naturalism based in the landscape around the River Stour.


However, they both rejected the prevalent English painting style taught at the Royal Academy: the neoclassic and generic beauty proscribed by Sir Joshua Reynolds. That was a snare that they both escaped.