Constable painted the sky first

Why Constable

The sky is the subject, so hang these lower than instinct tells you

In most Constable compositions the horizon sits in the bottom third, and that changes where the painting wants to sit on your wall.

Constable worked outdoors in oils long before that was normal, and he wrote about the sky as "the chief organ of sentiment" in a landscape. It shows in the paint. Look at any of these hand-painted copies from a metre away and the clouds are built from loaded, broken strokes with flecks of pure white dragged across them — the detail he was accused of overdoing. That texture is the reason a painted Constable reads so differently from a flat reproduction.

Because the land occupies so little of the canvas, hanging at standard gallery height pushes all the interest above eye level. Drop the centre to around 140cm and the horizon lands where you actually look. Give the top edge generous clear wall rather than tucking it under a cornice. Go large where you can — 120cm wide and up for the valley and river scenes. And keep the light warm; cool white LEDs turn Constable's greens and umbers grey and muddy.

How your painting is made

1. Choose the size and finishSeven standard sizes from 60 × 50cm to 200 × 135cm. Stretched ready to hang, rolled, or one of our frames. The size guide on every painting shows it to scale.
2. Painted to order, by handA university-trained artist paints your piece in oils on canvas, working from the original. Two to three weeks at the easel, then drying time.
3. Stretched, framed, checkedGallery-wrapped or framed in our workshop, then photographed and checked before it leaves.
4. Delivered free, Australia-wideMade to order in 21 to 28 days, then tracked to your door. Thirty-day money-back guarantee if it isn't what you hoped.