John
Constable
born 1776 died 1837
Although he showed an
early talent for art and began painting his native
Suffolk scenery before he left school, his great
originality matured slowly. He committed himself to a
career as an artist only in 1799, when he joined the
Royal Academy Schools and it was not until 1829 that he
was grudgingly made a full Academician, elected by a
majority of only one vote. In 1816 he became financially
secure on the death of his father and married Maria
Bicknell after a seven-year courtship and in the fact of
strong opposition from her family. During the 1820s he
began to win recognition: The Hay Wain
(National Gallery, London, 1821) won a gold medal at the
Paris Salon of 1824 and Constable was admired by
Delacroix and Bonington among others. His wife died in
1828, however, and the remaining years of his life were
clouded by despondency.
Constable worked extensively in the open air, drawing
and sketching in oils, but his finished pictures were
produced in the studio. For his most ambitious
works--`six-footers' as he called them--he followed the
unusual technical procedure of making a full-size oil
sketch, and in the 20th century there has been a
tendency to praise these even more highly than the
finished works because of their freedom and freshness of
brushwork. |