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John Constable - British Landscape Artist

John Constable (1776-1837) was an English Romantic painter who was best known for his landscape paintings, which vividly showed the sky and clouds as never before. His use of sketches and note taking to plan and record his work was also novel for the time. Our SegPlayPC collection contains 20 of Constable's most recognized pieces including "Dedham Vale", "The Hay Wain", "Weymouth Bay", "The Leaping Horse", "Stonehenge", View of Dedham", "Malvern Hall", "The Leaping Horse", "The Cornfield", "Boat-building near Flatford Mill", and "Chain Pier, Brighton".

John Constable (11 June 1776 - 31 March 1837) might be recognized today as one of the greatest English landscape painters but he was never financially successful in his lifetime and remained unrecognized by the British Art establishment until he was 52 years old. In France, however, he directly influenced the artists of the Romantic School, the Barbizon School, and later the Impressionists.

Constable was born in East Bergholt, Suffolk. His father was a wealthy corn merchant who owned several mills and even his own small ship. John was the second son in the family, but his elder brother was mentally handicapped so John was expected to take over the family business after leaving school. His heart however was not in it. During his school years he would take sketching trips in the local countryside which awakened his artistic spirit and, in his own words, "made me a painter, and I am grateful."

In 1799 Constable persuaded his father to let him study art at the Royal Academy Schools where he copied Old Masters and attended life drawing classes. He was inspired by artists like Gainsborough and Rubens. Turner was a fellow student, but the two artists were never friends and while Turner went on to achieve success, Constable sold just 20 paintings in his lifetime.

He married his childhood sweetheart, Maria Bicknell, in 1816 after a seven-year courtship. Maria’s family had opposed the marriage because Constable was penniless, despite the fact that he had been exhibiting at the Royal Academy since 1803 and painted portraits in order to make some money. It was only when Constable’s parents died and he inherited a share of the family business that the couple were able to marry.

John and Maria were a happy couple and had seven children, and this happiness is reflected in Constable’s art. His brushwork became stronger, his color more brilliant. He captured sunlight in daubs of pure yellows and whites, and rendered stormy skies with a rapid brush. He painted the places he loved, particularly sceneries of his native Suffolk and Hampstead where he lived after marrying Maria. He made oil sketches outside, but always produced the finished pictures in his studio.

In 1819 the sale of his first large-scale painting, The White Horse, led Constable to produce other large-scale works, which he called "six-footers", and in 1824 The Hay Wain, won a gold medal at the Paris Salon. In 1829 the Royal Academy reluctantly made Constable a member by a majority of only one vote.

His work though was greatly appreciated in France, especially by Delacroix. But Constable refused to move there, stating that "I would rather be a poor man in England than a rich man abroad."

In 1828 Maria died of tuberculosis shortly after giving birth to their seventh child. She was forty-one years old. Constable fell into depression for the rest of his life and, even though he had seven children to care for, suffered from anxiety and always dressed in black. As he wrote to his brother "the face of the World is totally changed to me" and he never recovered.

Constable died in 1837 and was buried in Hampstead next to his wife. He did not have any artistic successors in England even though there were many imitators, including his son, Lionel. But the real legacy of the man who had once said "painting is but another word for feeling" was the influence he would have on French artists through to the Impressionists.

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