John Constable: The Complete Story
John Constable was the English painter who made the ordinary countryside worth a masterpiece. His Hay Wain, a cart crossing a shallow river by a cottage, is one of the most loved landscapes ever painted, and it shows a quiet corner of Suffolk he knew by heart.
He did not chase mountains or ruins or famous views. He painted the fields, mills and skies of home, again and again, and turned them into something monumental.
Born: East Bergholt, Suffolk, 1776
Known for: The Hay Wain, English landscapes, cloud studies
Died: London, 1837
Constable Country
Constable was a miller's son and grew up in the Stour valley on the Suffolk and Essex border. That small patch of land, now nicknamed Constable Country, gave him nearly every subject he ever wanted. He said its scenery made him a painter.
He worked slowly and locally while rivals painted grand foreign scenes. His ambition was to make a true, unposed English landscape feel as important as any history painting.
The Hay Wain and the six footers
To force critics to take landscape seriously, Constable painted a series of huge canvases, the size usually reserved for grand subjects. They are nicknamed the six footers. The Hay Wain, from 1821, is the most famous of them.
At first British buyers were lukewarm. It looked too rough, too real. Then it crossed the Channel.
More loved in France than at home
When The Hay Wain was shown in Paris in 1824 it caused a sensation and won a gold medal from the French king. Young French painters, including Delacroix, were struck by its fresh color and loose handling.
Constable helped point the way to the Barbizon school and, later, the Impressionists, even as his own country was slow to honor him. He was elected to the Royal Academy only at 52.
The man who painted the sky
Constable studied clouds like a scientist. He made dozens of rapid oil sketches of the sky alone, noting the date, time and weather on the back. He called the sky the chief organ of sentiment in a landscape.
Those sketches, done outdoors and fast, are some of the freshest things he ever made, and they feel astonishingly modern.
Quick answers about John Constable
What is John Constable famous for?
English landscapes, above all The Hay Wain. See what is landscape painting.
Where did he paint?
Mostly his native Stour valley in Suffolk, now called Constable Country.
Why did France matter to him?
French painters embraced his work years before the British did.
Why he still matters
Constable insisted that home, weather and a working river were worthy of great art, and in doing so he helped free landscape and feed Impressionism. His skies still set the standard. See the open air method he pushed in what is en plein air.
One last fact. He sold far more paintings in France than in Britain during his lifetime, yet refused to travel abroad, saying he would rather be a poor man at home than a rich one away.