Podcasts about british institution

For years, the Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed used his power to abuse and rape women who worked for him. He was never prosecuted. In her new book The Monster of Harrods: Al-Fayed and the secret, shameful history of a British institution, Alison Kervin reveals the staggering scale of his abuse and the huge number of people who enabled it.This episode contains details of rape and sexual abuse. If you need support, go to www.247sexualabusesupport.org.uk or call 0808 500 2222.This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestoryGuest: Alison Kervin, Author of The Monster of Harrod's: Al-Fayed and the secret, shameful history of a British Institution.Host: Manveen Rana.Producer: Edith Rousselot.Further reading: The monster of Harrods: ‘Mohamed Al Fayed raped me'Clips: BBC News, Sky News, 7News Australia. Photo: Getty Images.Get in touch: thestory@thetimes.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tara Brown and Anne Worthington discuss the harrowing story of women targeted and attacked by notorious business figure Mohamed Al-Fayed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week myself and Eamonn talk about the cartooning genius that was Giles. We also take a trip to The University of Kent and meet with Christine who took us through their extensive collection from the man, the cartoonist, the farmer, the sailor, the humourist that is a British Institution. You can discover the brilliance of this archive for yourself by visiting them online here. You can also see a website post on the visit with Eamonn here. And don't forget to head over to the Mega City Book Club podcast for more of the same! Many thanks for listening. 

William Gillette may not have lived at 221b Baker Street but everything else about him happens to look just like Sherlock Holmes. This episode we explore how an American Actor shaped a British Institution.  You can find the Full Video version of the show over on YouTube at  https://www.youtube.com/@RememberRememberPodcast Contact us at  - RememberRememberShow@gmail.com  Twitter - @RememberCast https://twitter.com/RememberCast Instagram - @rememberrememberpod https://www.instagram.com/rememberrememberpod/   Find everything about the show over on our Website - https://www.rememberrememberpodcast.com/   Artwork and logos were made by Mary Hanson @MermaidVexa      

Another show - another fanatastic guest. One of the biggest selling artists of all time. Third in the UK, after only The Beatles and Elvis Presley - Sit Cliff Richard OBE joins us this week. Cliff talks about his career, his longevity in the music business and of course his love of tennis. What a guest, yet again. Do subscribe, share and review!

There's Dogging, haircut misunderstandings and a faultless guide to spot a Paedophile. To get in touch with Rob and Liv, email hearditthroughthegreatvine@gmail.com and follow on Instagram @_thegreatvine

Join us for our first episode in a series of three where we speak with https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathyseabrook/ (Kathy Seabrook) of https://www.globalehs.com/ (Global Solutions Inc). about Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) impacts and Human Capital, to understand the evolving business environment that is supporting workplace health and safety. In this first episode we discuss: What is ESG and Human Capital, Why is ESG and Human Capital important, and to whom it important? Join in as we learn about human capital and how Workplace safety, health and wellbeing, Human Capital and ESG just might be keys to a successful business strategy! Forwards by Kathy A. Seabrook: My hope is we will have fun, teach and learn with each other about why people are the core of every successful business and that a #True North business focus, valuing people and their health, Safety, and Well-being is evolving to be a true measure of corporate performance. Through this series of three episodes we will look at ESG and human capital's connectivity to workplace health and safety. The Business world and investors are talking about it! Taking care of people, the environment and having the governance structures in place within the organization to do it. This includes policies, practices, processes, clear roles and responsibilities and procedures, all very familiar to business leaders and safety professionals, to ensure the environment is looked after, our communities and people as well. Our Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathyseabrook/ (Kathy Seabrook) CEO and founder of https://www.globalehs.com/ (Global Solutions Inc). Kathy Seabrook is a trusted advisor to business leaders across industry sector who are focused on their people, a company's human capital, leveraging the value of people and their safety, health and wellbeing, to influence decisions making in their companies, resulting in sustainable, resilient safety/health excellence and corporate performance. Kathy is a recognized global leader at the forefront of transforming the business value of people and their safety, health and wellbeing. She co-leads the Capitals Coalition ‘Valuing OSH in Human Capital' project group, is the former chair of the Center for Safety and Health Sustainability and published author on global environmental, safety and health management, human capital and ESG/sustainability. She serves on the Chairs Advisory Group for the technical committee developing the ISO 45001 family of standards, and is past president and fellow of the American Society of Safety Professionals, fellow of the British Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, member of the GRI 403:2018 Occupational Safety and Health standard project working group and an appointee to the National Academies of Science: Gulf Research Program Risk Committee. Kathy is a chemist by education and holds professional certifications in the US, UK and Europe. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathyseabrook/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathyseabrook/) Website: https://www.globalehs.com/ (https://www.globalehs.com/) Twitter: @GlobalEHS Resources: Larry Fink CEO Letter | BlackRock > https://www.blackrock.com/ca/investors/en/larry-fink-ceo-letter (https://www.blackrock.com/ca/investors/en/larry-fink-ceo-letter) Link to Kathy's blogs : https://www.globalehs.com/post/are-you-future-fit (https://www.globalehs.com/post/are-you-future-fit) https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/environmental-social-and-governance-esg-criteria.asp (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/environmental-social-and-governance-esg-criteria.asp) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/09/human-capital-is-the-key-to-a-successful-esg-strategy/ (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/09/human-capital-is-the-key-to-a-successful-esg-strategy/) https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/humancapital.asp (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/humancapital.asp)

Orbiting with us on Wonderspace this week is Amy Clarke. Amy is the Co-founder and Chief Impact Officer at Tribe Impact Capital and is also on the boards of B Corp UK and Big Issue Invest. Amy is also an advisor for the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network Her story of hopefulness orbits around an amazing activist from Honduras and a most loved British Institution. Find out more at: tribeimpactcapital.com bcorporation.uk bigissueinvest.com futurefitbusiness.org globalethicalfinance.org opln.org View the shortened video episode here: https://youtu.be/rgOd81IibC8 -------------- More about Wonderspace: https://ourwonder.space Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBUt53ifgsf4Hu9tQTWjEmA/videos Facebook: http://facebook.com/ourwonderspace Instagram: http://instagram.com/ourwonderspace Twitter: https://twitter.com/ourwonderspace Online community: http://wonderspace.mn.co/ --------------- Music: https://theade.me

Join as we have an in-depth discussion with https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathyseabrook (Kathy A. Seabrook), https://www.linkedin.com/in/compernolle/ (Dr Theo Compernolle)  and Dr. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralf-franke/ (Ralf Franke) about learning teams, valuing our people, de-digitizing and using "block working" to become more productive, and investing in our organizations to improve workplace safety to become 1% safer each day! We also share more about One Percent Safer, the book AND details on our LIVE & DIRECT Conference coming April 28, 2021. Register here! https://register.safeopedia.com/one-percent-safer-live-and-direct-virtual-conference In Partnership with One Percent Safer.Our GuestsDr. med. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralf-franke/ (Ralf Franke), Head of Environmental Protection, Health Management and Safety, Siemens AG Since February 2009 Head of Corporate Human Resources Health Management and since August 2009 Head of HR EHS – Environmental Protection, Health Manage­ment and Safety. Dr. Ralf Franke was born August 24, 1964. He is married and has two daughters. He was a professional soldier and had officer training at the German Federal Armed Forces from 1983 to 1999. He studied Medicine at the University Mainz and had his training at the German Federal Armed Forces Hospital in Ulm. He did his doctorate in 1992, finished his specialist training for general medicine in 1996 and for occupational medicine in 2000. Since 2009 he has been a specialist for occupational safety. Dr. Franke has worked in executive positions in occupational health management and occupational safety with MTU Aero Engines GmbH and Daimler AG before joining Siemens AG in 2009. Prof https://www.linkedin.com/in/compernolle/ (Dr Theo Compernolle )MD. PhD, Neuropsychiatrist, Brussels Area He is an independent international consultant, executive (team)coach, trainer and key-note speaker. He teaches and coaches in Dutch, English and French, in the executive programs of business schools mainly in Belgium, France and the Netherlands and in a wide range of (multi)national organizations on three continents.. Formerly he was the Suez Chair in Leadership and Personal Development at the Solvay Business School (BE), Adjunct Professor at INSEAD and CEDEP (FR), Visiting Professor at the Vlerick School for Management (BE) and TIAS (NL) and Professor at the Free University of Amsterdam (NL). He is the author of three bestsellers/longsellers. ao. "STRESS: FRIEND AND FOE" (fourth total revision expected for the summer) and “'BRAINCHAINS. Discover your brain to unleash your performance in a hyperconnected multitasking world.” (Amazon.com) and its concise version “How to unchain your brain” (Amazon.com) His thinking about safety is based on his research and expertise in the area of stress (starting in the eighties) and the impact of multitasking on the functioning of our brain (starting with the introduction of the Blackberry). Information: www.compernolle.com contact office@compernolle.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathyseabrook (Kathy A. Seabrook), CSP (US), CFIOSH (UK), EurOSHM, FASSP, CEO of https://www.globalehs.com/ (Global Solutions, Inc). Kathy is a futurist and influencer, working with companies across industry sector, who are focused on their people (a company’s human capital) and leveraging the value of workplace safety and health impacts on operational, commercial and safety/health excellence, creating value and sustainable, resilient corporate performance. She is an advisor to the Capitals Coalition, the former chair of the Center for Safety and Health Sustainability, published author on global environmental, safety and health management and sustainability, global leader in ISO 45001, past president and fellow of the American Society of Safety Professionals, fellow of the British Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, member of the GRI 403:2018 Occupational Safety and Health standard project...

The Unwrapped boys are back with an absolute Lad of a guest host. Captain Harlock, joins us from aboard the Starship Arcadia to discuss a British Institution, the roast dinner. Meat, veg, gravy, potatoes. It's all piled on the conversational plate followed by a very personal attemt to ascend the Sweeter or Savourier Scoreboard.

BBC Radio 4's daily Shipping Forecast has become somewhat of a British Institution since it was first issued via Telegraph in 1861. But what can the historical meteorological broadcast tell us about our own modern-day society? Regular reader Zeb Soanes attempts to decipher. Music: Spring 0 - Max Richter Forces of Attraction - Jóhann Jóhannsson

Crafty Christmas Puddings! A short(-ish) and sweet podcast today, with some as-yet-unfinished gift knitting, a bit about our Christmas traditions, a quick look back on the past year, and what's to come, and Happy New Year wishes for you all.What we're working onAllison is working on Rachel's Bonfire Night Cowl in SweetGeorgia Superwash Six in the gorgeous Mulberry colorway. She is also still working on a Chunky Cabled Hat from Purl Soho for her husband, after a minor knitting malfunction required some ripping. Rachel is working on the amazing Cattywumpus Hat by Elizabeth Green Musselman, as well as finishing up a long-neglected Hedgehog Hat by Elise Cohen. Over the course of the episode, she also realises that she owes her husband a Copenhagen Hat, so that's next on the needles.Family TraditionsRachel waxes rhapsodical about the British Institution that is the Christmas Pantomime, but reveals that this year, they are hitting the bright lights of Leicester Square. Allison and her boys are hitting the pub for Christmas dinner this year, and are just happy to be in the same city for Christmas. We also talk about the slipperly slope of opening "just one" present on the night before Christmas, and various scarring experiences from our pasts. Bath Road Trip Round UpIn which a great time was had by all as we visited A Yarn Story (recently featured in Knit Now Issue 42 and Inside Crochet Issue 61), Country Threads, the overwhelming Bath Christmas Market (including visits to Bijoux Beads and The Makery) and Wool.Year in ReviewMost of the year was spent in the run up to GLYC 2014, which raised over £800 for Refuge - thanks to all of you for your support! We put out a call for submissions for our upcoming book, and took a fabulous day trip to Bath. Stay tuned for another road trip (to a slightly closer location) in Spring 2015, the release of the book, and perhaps a few other London-based events scattered here and there. And the Great London Yarn Crawl is on again for 5th September 2015, with a big surprise upcoming - watch this space for details coming in early January!Wrap UpWe wish you all a very Merry Christmas (or other Winter Solstice holiday of your choosing), and hope to bring you much more yarny news and goodness in 2015. We'll be back in mid-January, so we will talk to you then!Music credits (all available on NoiseTrade):Falling Like Snow - Canaries in the Coal MineAll I Want - John BrazellWonderful Christmastime - Joel Rakes

Stardate 12th August 2012 In which Mike Royce prefers future sports to the Olympics, names and shames the Cinema chain that really doesn’t give a toss, then plunges the show into a politically incorrect nightmare. Kris Heys reveres the ‘Snickers Maximus’, explains that everything is better with a monkey, then tears down a British Institution. The identity of the REAL Ronald McDonald is debated, the future of Judge Dredd is discussed, and the contenders apply for ‘The Starburst Space Olympics’... All recordings are issued under official license from Manchester Radio Online.

Welcome to Episode 22 of Operation Retroshock! We have 2 Hours of Classic Doctor Who for you all! And its the First of not One, not Two, not Three but FOUR Doctor Who Specials coming your way over the next number of weeks! In Episode 22 Allan and Chris look back at 3 of the "Classic" Doctors from the shows Original run. The Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee. Famous for stories such as "The Sea Devils" and "The Time Warrior." He is also a firm favourite with Chris. Then there is The Fourth and arguably the most popular Doctor, Tom Baker. The guys look at "Robot," "Genesis of The Daleks" and "The Invasion of Time" to name but a few. Then finally it is the turn of Allan's favourite, The Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison! There is many a story to be mentioned here like "Mawdryn Undead," "Terminus" and "Enlightenment." More commonly known as "The Black Guardian Trilogy." But also not to be forgotten is his memorable finale in "The Caves of Androzani." So sit back....relax, put on your Scarf, Cricket Gear or Fancy Cape and let Operation Retroshock guide you through The British Institution known as Doctor Who! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Be a part of the show by contacting us in a number of ways: Join our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/OperationRetroshock and Twitter: @Retroshock316 these places are where you can discuss anything that happens on the show and request things for the future! So check it out! Skype: Vinto316 - Leave us a voicemail to do with your thoughts on what has been covered or just something to be played on the show. Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button here on Podbean or Itunes

During his honeymoon in 1816 Constable painted a number of oil sketches of the Dorset coast, including two sketches of Bowleaze Cove in Weymouth Bay. He later worked up this exhibition picture based on one of those outdoor sketches (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London). He showed the curve of the bay, with a cliff in the foreground and hills beyond, and depicted a dense mass of cloud over the sea nearing the coast. Passages of sunlight in the sky light up the hills and the bay. Some time between 1819 and 1830 Constable extended his original painting by adding strips of canvas at the top and left to give a greater expanse of sea and sky. It was this version of the oil painting that Lucas used as a basis for the mezzotint, Weymouth Bay, Dorsetshire . In his biography of Constable, Andrew Shirley remarked: He recorded a dramatic moment at Weymouth … broken storm-clouds pass over an unquiet sea, where the earth’s safe helmet of grass ends abruptly at the bright cliffs. Years later, in a mezzotint, he transformed the scene into a parable of his life; he discarded from the first picture the certainty that light will return, and left instead a storm that dulled the pleasant green of the land, obliterated the cliffs, and denied the possibility of hope (Shirley 1949, p. 103). George III visited Weymouth in 1789, when it was recorded that on viewing the bay for the first time the king exclaimed: ‘I never enjoyed a sight so pleasing.’ The king’s regular visits to Weymouth established the town as a flourishing health and pleasure resort. This painting has been the subject of controversy. In 1907 P.M. Turner questioned its authenticity (P.M. Turner, ‘The representation of the British School in the Louvre I’, Burlington Magazine, X, March 1907, p. 341), as did Robert Hoozee. However Reynolds, in his 1984 catalogue raisonné, made a good case for this painting being the work that Constable exhibited at the British Institution in 1819 as Osmington Shore, near Weymouth.

This impressive painting is beautifully painted with jewel-like precision and shows Constable’s ability to capture the immediate sensations of light and atmosphere; it is one of Constable’s most natural depictions of the landscape around his home, reflecting his interest in portraying rural harmony. It is notable in the way the figures are more conspicuous and more particularised than in his other early landscapes. Although based on a number of sketchbook drawings, the work was probably painted in large part in front of the motif. The field depicted here is the same one seen in the right foreground of the The Stour Valley and Dedham Village 5 September 1814 . Constable depicted a traditional farming community harvesting wheat, with harvesters, gleaners, a boy with a dog and a distant ploughman. The woman and two girls in the foreground are poor, gleaning the ears of wheat missed by the reapers. The boy with the dog is guarding the workers’ food and drink, draped in discarded clothes to provide shade from the sun. Constable presented life before the changes that occurred in rural society with the enclosure of the common fields in 1816 – before the poor had been largely barred from taking part in their age-old practice of gleaning. Constable exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy in 1816 and at the British Institution the following year, when he included with the catalogue entry lines from Robert Bloomfield’s The Farmer’s Boy (1800): Nature herself invites the reapers forth; No rake takes here what heaven to all bestows: Children of want, for you the bounty flows! His inclusion of this text suggests that Constable too believed that the rural poor, in this instance the gleaners, were deserving of nature’s bounty. As Michael Rosenthal has noted, the Napoleonic wars saw an increase in rustic subjects at the main London exhibitions. Around the time Constable painted this scene a number of other British artists were painting similar subjects, such as Peter de Wint’s A cornfield c.1815 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) and George Robert Lewis’s Harvest field with reapers, Haywood, Herefordshire 1815 (Tate, London). Such farming scenes portrayed the happy Britain, which invasion – or revolution – would have destroyed (Rosenthal 1983, p. 200).

Constable knew this scene well: the Stour Valley from just outside the grounds of Old Hall in East Bergholt, with the churches of Langham and Stratford St Mary villages in the distance. He depicted the ploughmen at work in a manner typical of Suffolk, using a swing plough, which was light and required only a single ploughman and two horses working side by side (rather than a team of four), considered to be an efficient, modern mode of ploughing, contributing to the productivity of the area (Rosenthal 1983, pp. 18–19). And he depicted a ‘summerland’, a field that was ploughed and harrowed in the spring, left fallow over the summer months as part of a two-year crop rotation system, ready for manuring in autumn and sowing in winter (ibid., p. 12). The contemporary farmer or countryman would have appreciated this image of agricultural life of Suffolk (Rosenthal, p. 21). Constable exhibited this first version of the subject at the Royal Academy in 1814 and at the British Institution in 1815, from where it was purchased by John Allnutt, a Clapham wine merchant and collector. As a result of this sale Constable was encouraged to pursue his career as a painter. Beckett has suggested that ‘in Constable’s memory such scenes were gilded with the light of eternal summer and the picture stood for a symbol’ (R.B. Beckett, ‘A Summerland by John Constable’, Art Quarterly, XXVII, summer 1964, p. 176). Constable certainly stressed the poetic aspect of the landscape, linking it to an established literary and pictorial tradition. In the 1814 Royal Academy catalogue, the entry for this work had an accompanying quotation from Robert Bloomfield’s The Farmer’s Boy – a long, 1500-line, four-part poem in heroic couplets composed between 1796–98 and published in 1800. This poem pointed to the solitary nature of the ploughman’s work: But, unassisted through each toilsome day, With smiling brow the Ploughman cleaves his way. In making this reference to poetry Constable implied that the image was not just of a particular place, but also expressed a more general mood and atmosphere, the ‘feel of nature’. Bloomfield was a ‘peasant poet’ of Suffolk, whose work appealed to Constable. He stressed the virtues of honest, hard farming life. Albert Boime has suggested that Bloomfield’s vision of farming life ‘appealed to the gentry, who identified themselves with his nostalgia for a bucolic past and his moralising posture on rural labour’ (A. Boime, Art in an Age of Bonapartism 1800–1815, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990, p. 174). Commentators have questioned whether Constable was sympathetic to the ‘toilsome’ labour of the workers in the field, or whether he had a more conservative view and simply saw them as part of the scene. Certainly, he portrayed this scene from a high vantage point so that the ploughmen seem to merge into the natural elements, small figures within the landscape (Rosenthal 1983, pp. 71–82). In a letter to John Dunthorne senior of 22 February 1814, Constable wrote aboutthis painting: I have added some ploughmen to the landscape from the park pales which is a great help, but I must try and warm the picture a little more if I can. But it will be difficult as ’tis now all of a piece – it is bleak and looks as if there would be a shower of sleet, and that you know is too much the case with my things(Beckett I, p. 101). Constable based this view over the Stour Valley on drawings in his 1813 sketchbook. He also referred to his sketches of ploughmen in this sketchbook. With the inclusion of the figures of the ploughmen he not only added a point of interest but made the scene an agricultural landscape, celebrating country life. This version of A ploughing scene in Suffolk was used as the basis for the mezzotint A summerland engraved by David Lucas .Constable made a second painting of the subject, A ploughing scene in Suffolk (A summerland) c.1824.

Constable first achieved success (and recognition by the Royal Academy) with his large canvases depicting the Stour Valley, which he exhibited between 1819 and 1825. Working on a scale usually reserved for History painting, Constable redefined the notion of a ‘finished’ picture by giving his large paintings something of the spontaneous freedom and expressive handling of a rapidly painted sketch. During the 1820s Constable was repeatedly occupied with the motif of the Lock – it could be regarded as his favourite subject. In 1824 he exhibited the fifth in his series of six large Stour Valley paintings at the Royal Academy, ‘A boat passing a lock’, which he subsequently called The lock (Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on loan to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid). It differed from the previous four large canvases in having a vertical format. Constable made at least two other upright versions of the subject in 1824 (Philadelphia Museum and Art Gallery, and private collection). Then, in this painting, he converted the vertical composition into a horizontal one, extending the scene to the right and varying the action. Here a boat with a sail on its way up the River Stour waits at Flatford Lock. The boat is tied to a post while the lock keeper opens the gates to allow it to enter the lock chamber, to be lifted to the higher water level before continuing its journey up river. Constable created an open composition, with Flatford Bridge and a further lock gate and a barge in the background on the right. He depicted a heavy rainstorm on the left, and included a dog in the foreground at the right. The composition was based on two drawings with a horizontal format, Flatford Lock 1823 and Flatford Lock c.1826 . Constable took the rainstorm from an oil sketch of 1819, Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead (Victoria and Albert Museum, London), which herepeated with variations on several occasions, including Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath, with a boy sitting on a bank c.1825–28 . Sarah Cove, who has undertaken a detailed technical examination of this picture, ‘discovered via X-ray that the arms of the lock keeper were originally raised, as in every previous version of the lock keeper’ (Sarah Cove to Anne Lyles, 12 September 2005, NGA file 04/0501–04). The painting was commissioned in 1826 by the Bond Street picture dealer, print and book publisher, James Carpenter. While working on the commission Constable wrote to Carpenter: ‘I have been at the picture ever since I saw you & it is now all over wet – I was at work on it at 7 o clock this morning – and I should have been at it still’. He added: ‘I wish your picture was as good as Claude Lorraine’ (Beckett IV, p. 138). Two years after painting this work Constable borrowed it back from Carpenter and re-worked it. He then exhibited this painting at the British Institution in 1829 under the title ‘Landscape and Lock’. When he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1829 Constable was expected to present a work to the Academy. Such was the value he placed on this painting that he took it back from Carpenter and presented it to the Academy, depositing 100 guineas with a banker until he compensated Carpenter with a work of the same size.

This was Constable’s last major painting of the Stour Valley, his definitive treatment of a favourite subject, which summed up his personal affection for the place and his lifelong devotion to the example of Claude Lorrain. A relaxing holiday in Suffolk in the autumn of 1827 with his two eldest children had refreshed his associations with the area and may have motivated him to begin painting this work. On 11 June 1828 he wrote to John Fisher that he had ‘Painted a large upright landscape (perhaps my best)’ (Beckett IV, p. 236). Constable depicted the Dedham Vale framed by trees, looking eastwards from Gun Hill, down along the course of the River Stour towards the sea, with the tower of Dedham Church and the village in the middle distance, and Harwich beyond. For this composition he returned to his early painting, Dedham Vale 1802 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London), intensifying the detail of the 1802 study by including the bridge across the river with the Talbooth on the right bank. He added the old stump sprouting new growth in the left foreground as a compositional invention to direct attention to the distant landscape, and as a symbol of regeneration. Constable’s inclusion of the figure of a gypsy mother nursing her child beside a fire has been criticised as a concession to the taste for the Picturesque. Charles Rhyne, however, noted that according to an ordnance survey map a well was located in this area, and that this would have made it a natural camping site for gypsies (C. Rhyne, ‘Constable’s first two six-foot landscapes’, Studies in the History of Art, vol. 24, Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1990, p. 129). Reynolds also noted that gypsies were frequently to be seen in East Anglia and that the inclusion of this detail does not infringe Constable’s rule that only actual or probable figures should appear in his landscape paintings. By including the gypsy mother and child in this painting Constable enlivened the image, with the gypsy’s red cloak providing a contrast to the green of the vegetation. Moreover, Suffolk had been affected by the agricultural depression and social unrest during the 1820s, and the gypsy may reflect the instability of rural life at this time, and Constable’s sympathy with the cause of ordinary people. In his use of a vertical format and in his composition Constable hinted at Claude’s Landscape with Hagar and the Angel 1646, a work he had admired since he first made a copy of it at Sir George Beaumont’s London house around 1800 (Beckett II, p. 24). He saw the way this scene fitted a Claudian pattern and used Claude’s method of suggesting depth through overlapping scenery. In thus paying homage to Claude, Constable also indicated that his own work was worthy of comparison with Claude’s. Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-Williams have suggested that Beaumont’s gift of Landscape with Hagar and the Angel to the newly opened National Gallery, London, in 1826, and Beaumont’s death in 1827, may have inspired Constable to paint this work as a personal tribute to him and to their shared love of Claude Lorrain (Tate 1976, p. 152). Constable looked at landscape through the art of the past to create his own unique vision. He painted the natural detail of the location in a quite original fashion, using paint brush, palette knife and his fingers to give variety to the application of paint. He used translucent colour to give luminosity to the shadows. He created a sense of the feel of the place – the white-topped clouds suggesting summer sunshine, the flickering leaves indicating wind in the trees, and the light glistening on the ground hinting at rain that has just past. As Timothy Wilcox has observed, ‘the work that had begun in deference to Claude now appears designed to rival him, or even to surpass him’ (Liverpool and Edinburgh 2000, p. 108). The painting was well received at the Royal Academy when Constable exhibited it there in 1828 (as ‘Landscape’). The reviewer for the The Sun provided a narrative reading, observing that ‘A shower has just passed over’, and suggesting that ‘The gleaming water in the distance is inimitable’ (The Sun, 5 May 1828, cit. Ivy 1991, p. 127). Constable subsequently exhibited the painting at the British Institution in 1834 (as ‘The Stour Valley’) when one critic commented: We must consider this picture as one of the best which we remember to have seen from Mr. Constable’s pencil. It is a work of great power both of colour and light and shade, and is executed with considerable freedom and dexterity of execution (The Morning Post, 10 March 1834, cit. Ivy 1991, pp.186–87). More recently Michael Rosenthal has described this work as ‘one of Constable’s greatest paintings’ (Rosenthal 1983, p. 188).