John Constable was a representative of the romantic direction of painting of the late 18th early 19th centuries. John Constable’s paintings depict nature, everyday scenes, weather phenomena. Among the famous examples of his work are the landscapes of Suffolk and the surrounding area the painter’s native places. John Constable was not financially successful at home. To the wild landscapes and ruins popular at the time, he preferred the views of mills, peaceful fields, and peasant carts. Coldly received by English critics, it was highly praised by French painters.

Biography of John Constable

Fate did not foresee his path to art. The poor health of the eldest son forced his father to assign responsibility for the business to the youngest John. He was educated in a good school, having finished his studies, worked at his father’s mill until his uncle took over the family business. The first youthful sketches were born while traveling around the neighborhood. At the turn of the century, John Constable began asking his father to let him go to the capital to enter the Academy of Arts.

There was no objection, the elder Constable even provided his son with money so that he could arrange life in London. John Constable admitted that at the beginning of his creative career he quite often imitated other masters. To find his path, he visited the southeastern ports, visited the Lake District, made many sketches. He wanted to portray not ruins, but simple rural views. Moving against the fashion of his day, he earned little. For the sake of money, the artist tried to paint portraits, but they did not bring him wealth and fame.

In 1811, John Constable began courting Maria Bicknell, but Maria’s harsh grandfather, a local pastor, opposed the marriage due to the artist’s poverty. Only a few years later, when John’s parents died, leaving him a third of his entire fortune, the pastor relented. In 1816, the lovers got married. For a long time it was not possible for John Constable to make money with his creativity. He remained the creator of rural scenes. But it was they who brought success: in 1821 his “Hay Cart” interested the French painter Theodore Gericault. He invited the landscape painter to France.

The famous French artist Eugene Delacroix appreciated its color rendering and rewrote the background of “Massacre on Chios”. But despite his success, John Constable refused to travel to sell his work. He preferred poverty at home to wealth in a foreign land.

John Constable’s happy marriage lasted until 1828.

The wife died after the birth of her seventh child. The artist was left inconsolable, he never married again, and spent the rest of his life in mourning. This did not stop him from spending twenty thousand pounds from his wife’s inheritance on the production of prints. It was not possible to earn money on this.

At the age of fifty-five, in 1831, John Constable became inspector of the Academy of Arts. Six years later, on March 31, 1837, he died. The painter was buried in the same grave with his beloved wife.

John Constable made significant contributions to the development of English landscape painting. The area that the master most often depicted in his works is named in his honor “Constable Country”.