Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/155

This page needs to be proofread.
LEFT
119
RIGHT

CONSTABLE 119 CONSTANTINE such act of Congress shall, as to the agreements, combinations and contracts hereinbefore referred to, be construed as if this act were therein contained." CONSTABLE, ARCHIBALD, a Scotch publisher; born in 1774. He was the original publisher of the "Edinburgh Review," the poems of Sir Walter Scott, the "Waverley Novels," the "Supplement to the Encyclopjedia Britannica," and other valuable works. In 1825 he pro- jected the well-known series of works, "Constable's Miscellany." In 1826, how- ever, the firm was compelled to stop pay- ment with liabilities exceeding $1,250,- 000. Sir Walter Scott, who was heavily involved, practically sacrificed his life in the endeavor to meet his creditors, and Constable himself died in 1827. CONSTABLE, JOHN, an English landscape painter; bom in East Berg- holt, Suffolk, June 11, 1776; son of a miller. He studied at the Royal Acad- emy; began with portraits and history, but fi.nally fixed upon landscape as his vocation. The National Gallery has his best pictures, "The Cornfield," "The Valley Farm," and "The Hay-wain." In 1824 some of his pictures were ex- hibited at the Paris Salon, and excited great interest among the French artists. To these pictures of Constable a more powerful influence upon modern French landscape art has been ascribed than the facts will warrant. Paul Huet, The- odore Rousseau, and Diaz were all work- ing before Constable's pictures went to France; but they were working in ob- scurity. Georges Michel, one of the greatest of these men (born 1763, died 1843), was entirely independent of Con- stable; but he was hardly known to his own time. What Constable's pictures did was to make a conspicuous rallying- point for the new school. Mr. Henry Marquand presented two fine Constables to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Constable died in Lon- don, March 30, 1837. CONSTABLE OF BOURBON. See Bourbon, Charles, Duke of. CONSTANCE (Ger. Constanz, or Konstanz, ancient Constantia) , city and lake-port of Germany, in the grand- duchy of Baden, occupying the only ter- ritory belonging to Germany on the S. side of the Lake of Constance. The chief edifices are a cathedral, the Kaufhaus, in which the famous Council of Con- stance sat from 1414 to 1418 (and which deposed three anti-popes, and condemned Huss and Jerome of Prague) ; an ancient palace; a grand ducal resi- dence. One of its suburbs is connected with it by a long covered bridge across the Rhine. The city has manufactories of cotton goods, carpets, chemicals, and sacking. Constance is said to have been founded in 378 A. D. by Constantius Chlorus as a bulwark against the Ale- manni. In the Middle Ages, when it reached the height of its prosperity, it was frequently called Kostnitz. It was annexed to the Austrian dominions in 1549, and to Baden in 1805. Pop. about 30,000. CONSTANCE, LAKE OF (ancient Lacus Briganthius; German Bodensee), a lake of central Europe, in which Swit- zerland, Baden, Wiirttemberg, Bavaria, and Austria meet; forming a reservoir in the course of the Rhine; length N. W. to S. E. 42 miles, greatest breadth about 8 miles; area 207 square miles. At its N. W. extremity the lake divides into two branches or arms, ea.ch about 14 miles long; the N... called tJberlingersee after the town of Uberlingen, on the N. bank; the S. the Zellersee, or Unter- see, in which is the fertile island of Reichenau, 3 miles long. The lakej which is of a dark-green hue, is subject to sudden risings, the causes of which are unknown. It freezes in severe winters only. The traffic on it is con- siderable. CONSTANT, JEAN JOSEPH BENJA- MIN, a French portraitpainter; bom in Paris, June 10, 1845. He studied in the Ecole des Beaux Arts and under Cab- anel. He has exhibited with gi'owing distinction, at successive salons, from that of 1860, with his "Hamlet," his "Samson" in 1872, his "Scenes from Algiers" in 1873-1874, his great histor- ical painting of "Mohammed II. in 1453" in the Exposition of 1878, and in 1885 a large Oriental subject, as melodram- atic as possible, with splendid rendeiung of the human figure and strong effects of color. His noble picture of "Jus- tinian" is in the Metropolitan Art Mu- seum, New York. He was decorated with the cross of the Legrion of Honor in 1878. He died May 26, 1902. CONSTANTINE, the ancient Cirta. a fortified city and bishopric, in Algeria ; capital of the department of Constan- tine (of which the other chief towns are Philippeville and Bona on the coast, Setif and El Wad in the interior) ; on a detached rocky height, surrounded on three sides by ravines, crossed in one place by a Roman bridge, elsewhere by four natural bridges. At the bottom of the ravines flows the Wad Rummel. The city has Roman remains, and a citadel on the site of the ancient Numid- ian fortress, rising 300 feet above the