John Constable

John Constable married childhood-friend Maria Elizabeth Bicknell in 1816 and together they had seven children; John Charles, Maria Louisa, Charles Golding, Isobel, Emma, Alfred and Lionel. Maria Elizabeth passed away in 1828 due to tuberculosis.

John Constable passed away on March 31, 1837 due to heart-failure and was buried at St. John-at-Hampstead next to his wife.

John Constable was born on June 11, 1776 in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England as the second son to Golding and Ann (Watts) Constable.

Golding Constable was the owner of two mills—Flatford (Bergholt) and Dedham (Essex) —and was a wealthy corn merchant.

John received his schooling from a boarding school in Lavenham and a day school in Dedham. He spent many childhood evenings creating numerous sketches of the Suffolk countryside or 'Skying' (sketching different cloud formations for days).

As his elder brother was intellectually disabled, John knew he had to take over the family's business. But after seeing 'Hagar and the Angel' (Claude Lorrain's painting) at Sir George Beaumont's house and meeting professional artist John Smith, he was inspired to pursue art.

John Constable enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools (London) in 1799 after his father acquiesced and gave him a small allowance to study art.

At the Royal Academy he began studying and copying the works of the old masters, (paintings of a painter who worked in Europe before 1800) such as Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Lorrain, Annibale Carracci, etc, while also attending life classes and anatomical dissections.

The Great Marlow Military College offered him the post of drawing master in 1802 but John Constable refused as he wanted to continue sketching landscapes. The same year he unveiled his first painting exhibition at the Royal Academy.

He married Maria Elizabeth Bicknell at an English Anglican church in London in 1816 and the couple travelled to Weymouth and Brighton for their honeymoon. There, the seas inspired John to develop new techniques of brilliant colours and vivacious brushworks.

For the next few years he spent his winters in London and summers in East Bergholt, where he’d sketch. For financial stability he even began portraiture, including the occasional religious portraits.

Undoubtedly, John Constable’s oil-painting titled ‘The Hay Wain’ is his greatest work and one of the most popular English paintings. The canvas-painting depicts a rural scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex, near the Flatford Mill with the central feature being three horses pulling a hay wain (large farm cart) across the river. Although it is revered today as one of the greatest British paintings, it couldn’t procure a buyer at its exhibition in 1821.