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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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The Reith Lectures

Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

The Reith Lectures: Nikolaus Pevsner - The Englishness of English Art: Constable and the Pursuit of Nature

20/11/1955

Constable and the Pursuit of Nature

Nikolaus Pevsner - The Englishness of English Art

BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, Nikolaus Pevsner - The Englishness of English Art, Constable and the Pursuit of Nature

Nikolaus Pevsner examines the flowering of English landscape painting in the 18th century.

Nikolaus Pevsner examines the sudden flowering of English landscape painting in the late 18th century, and argues that it was a direct result of the temperate English climate.

This year's Reith lecturer is Dr Nikolaus Pevsner, the German-born British scholar of history of art and architecture, and author of the county guide series, The Buildings of England (1951–74). In this series, Pevsner explores the qualities of art which he regards as particularly English, as illustrated in the works of several English artists, and what they say about the English national character.

In his sixth and penultimate Reith lecture, Dr Pevsner describes the attitude of the English Romantic painter John Constable (1776-1837) and some of his contemporaries to Italian art, and compares his Englishness with that of Blake and Hogarth.  He examines the sudden flowering of English landscape painting which began with Richard Wilson (1714–1782) and his Welsh landscapes, and argues that this concentration on landscape is a direct result of the temperate English climate. 

The Reith Lectures: Nikolaus Pevsner - The Englishness of English Art

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Historian Nikolaus Pevsner considers some of the defining characteristics of English art.

Art historian Dr Nikolaus Pevsner explores the qualities of art which he regards as particularly English, and what they say about the English national character.

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