This beautiful book showcases the enduring power of Constable's landscapes. It places the artist in the context of his historical and ongoing influences 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 Haywain and The Leaping Horse, which will be shown for the first time since their revelatory cleaning. Both reveal their original colours 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 watercolours and drawings.