Christopher Benfey reviews three books about John Constable: John Constable: A Portrait by James Hamilton, Constable’s White Horse by William Kentridge and Aimee Ng, and Late Constable by Anne Lyles, Matthew Hargraves, and others.

Benfrey reviews each book while considering the question “What do John Constable’s seductive paintings—those cunningly constructed scenes of English rural life set among majestic trees and canopied by clouds—mean to us today?”