John McEwen
Stormy Genius
John Constable: A Kingdom of His Own
By Anthony Bailey
Chatto & Windus 366pp £17.99
Anthony Bailey has written several well-received biographies of artists, including one of Turner. Now he completes a notable double, punctuating his text with comparisons between Constable (1776–1837) and Turner (1775–1851), who were guarded acquaintances for forty years – from the critic Robert Hunt’s 1819 opinion that Constable ‘has none of the poetry of Nature like Mr Turner, but he has more of the portraiture’ to Lucian Freud’s in 2002:
For me, Constable is so much more moving than Turner because you feel for him, it’s truth-telling about the land rather than using the land for compositions which suited his inventiveness.
Turner biographies abound, but this is the first of Constable since his friend the painter Charles Leslie’s, first published in 1843. Despite the growth of Constable scholarship Leslie’s biography has remained unchallenged, but it is too kind and decorous – even ‘cow dung’ was cut to spare the blushes of
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm