This past week I joined my son for a day trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. I love going to the art museum. Art is a subject about which I know very little and I am always interested in learning more. To me, there is something elevating in seeing a beautiful work of art: I think it is seeing the creative God at work through the creative human.

There are certain paintings that I enjoy viewing. They always make me smile and feel good. I love the paintings of Constable- how he captures the outdoors especially the sky and the clouds. Even though this painting was done in 1816 in England, I have seen cloud formations like these over two hundred years later here in the Mid-Atlantic.

I have seen this painting many times, but I did not know that this was not his “original”. He had painted the scene of this home, commissioned by the homeowners, General and Mrs. Rebow. However, when it was almost completed,Mrs. Rebow wanted additions to the canvas. Constable added about three inches of canvas to both sides. He “covered the seams” on the left hand side, by painting a cow in the foreground and on the right side by adding the fishing boat.

What I love about this story- even a fine artist like Constable had to make adjustments. He had spent a good amount of time already sketching, drawing and painting the scene. Yet how true for us, whether in small ways or large, whether we are almost done or not, we have to adjust to changes through nature, society, others’ decisions, or our own shortcomings. Sometimes we have to adjust because of our own health, or misjudgments. Other times we change due to obligation or responsibilities. Sometimes it is totally out of our control and we just have to adjust.

The thing about Constable’s new painting, the changes he had to make, elevated the canvas from a very good painting to a masterpiece. By adding the additional scenes, he had to also make adjustments to the perspective. The “new” canvas shows an entire panoramic scene that we would have seen with our visible eye if we were standing next to him- the canvas includes the entire view. If the same scene had been taken by a camera, it would be somewhat distorted due to the limitations of the camera’s panoramic view. He fiddled with perspective so that we, the viewer wouldn’t have to.

What about you? Have you ever had to make adjustments to a project? Were was it in the process? At the beginning? Middle? End? Have you ever had to make an adjustment to an attitude or thought process? By doing so, did you make it easier for another?

I wonder if Constable minded having to make the adjustments? The following is from the National Gallery of Art’s book on British Paintings:

The commission, which was executed in August and September 1816, is described by Constable in a series of letters to his fiancée, Maria Bicknell. "I am going to paint two small landscapes for the General, views one in the park of the house & a beautifull wood and peice [sic] of water, and another scene in a wood with a beautifull little fishing house," he wrote on 21 August. "They wish me to take my own time about them—but he will pay me for them when I please, as he tells me he understands from old Driffeild that we may soon want a little ready money. "

The next letter, written on 30 August, explains why he had to extend the canvas by over three inches on either side: "I am going on very well with my pictures . . . the park is the most forward. The great difficulty has been to get so much in as they wanted to make them acquainted with the scene. On my left is a grotto with some elms, at the head of a peice [sic] of water—in the centre is the house over a beautifull wood and very far to the right is a deer house, which it was necessary to add, so that my view comprehended too many [distances]. But to day I have got over the difficulty, and begin to like it myself. I think however I shall make a larger picture from what I am now about. .. . I live in the park and Mrs. Rebow says I am very unsociable." He reported on 19 September: "I have compleated [sic] my view of the Park for General Rebow." Constable received a payment of one hundred guineas for this picture.”

Did he have an inkling at the time that this canvas would someday grace the walls of a museum? The painting and his story reminds me that if I have to make changes, there is always the possibility that the adjustments just might transform what I am doing, thinking or saying from something ordinary to something wonderful.