There's a marvelous exhibition of the Great Landscapes by John Constable at the Tate Britain Gallery, which runs until August 28th.  Many of the works on display were executed a mere sixteen miles from here in what has become known as Constable Country.   The exhibition is well worth seeing - the artist must have spent a small fortune on green paint.   My own personal favourite was actually not a landscape but a seascape showing the glorious sea and sky off the Brighton coast.  For those who go to the Lake District for their summer holidays this year - there's another exhibition of paintings and drawings by Constable at Wordsworth's Dove Cottage - showing the work that he did in that fabulous area of England during a visit he made to Cumberland, two hundred years ago, in the autumn of 1806.  The Times says of that visit - "When he got back to his native Dedham, he was trying out new techniques and compositions, different types of paper, and not sticking to the standard picturesque sites."  In other words his visit to the Lake District gave him a new lease of life, as holidays and breaks from our normal routine so often do.

When we think about Constable - we do indeed think of bosky landscapes - but he did, in fact, create three specifically religious paintings for local churches.  Of the three only one original remains in its original fane.  If you go to Nayland church there you will find, behind the high altar a wonderful image of Christ Blessing the elements at the Last Supper.  So often we think of Christ in the Upper Room on the first Maundy Thursday surrounded by the disciples - as in Leonardo's famous Last Supper at Milan or, as in my own personal favourite Last Supper by Domenico Ghirlandaio at the church of Ognissanti (All Saints') in Florence (I have often wondered why in this glorious painting cherries are spread on the tablecloth in addition to the bread and the wine - but then I just drink in the beauty of the painting with its charming background of birds and trees) but in the Nayland Last Supper Christ is alone blessing the bread and the wine and inviting all the faithful who view the image to join in and participate in sacramental union with him.

For the second religious painting you need to go to St. Michael and All Angels' church at Brantham near Ipswich - there you will find Christ Blessing the Little Children - "Suffer the little children to come unto me, forbid then not." - or rather there you will find a copy - for the actual painting is now in Emmanuel College Cambridge - the Patron of the living.  I was astonished at how similar the child in Christ's arms was to a young child named William whom I baptised in June at All Saints - how I do love to offer the sacrament of baptism thus bringing our little ones into the nearer presence of the Living Lord.

The third and final Constable religious painting is, of course, "The Resurrection" painted in 1822, originally for Manningtree church but then purchased for All Saints' Feering by my immediate predecessor.  The original is now in Dedham parish church (sold to a Trust so that our local church had the wherewithal to furnish the church with central heating) where it is seen by many thousands of visitors but a very fine copy still hangs in All Saints'.

Don't tell a soul but I actually prefer the copy to the original, which seems to have been rather over restored!  There's a great contrast between the darkness below and the light above into which the Risen Christ ascends - his hands still bearing the marks of the nails of the cross.
John Constable was, in fact, a good friend of his contemporary Vicar of Feering and often used to visit that beautiful old Strawberry Gothic vicarage (now part of Drummonds) behind Feering church.

So, if you get the opportunity do go along to the current Constable exhibitions in London or in Grasmere - a great treat awaits.