John Constable (1776-1837)

Not many English painters were among the really great artists of the world, but John Constable was one of them.

Constable was born at East Bergholt in Suffolk, where his father owned water mills and windmills. His father did not think that art was a real profession, so Constable, when he was a boy, worked almost secretly. His love of painting was very strong, and a friend persuaded his father to send him to London to study. But he never forgot the valley of the River Stour, the great trees on its banks, the square towers of village churches, the mills with their water wheels, and the wooden bridges across the river. “These scenes made me a painter,” he used to say afterwards.

Constable painted nature as it really is. The trees in his pictures are real trees; he really looked at the skies when he painted them, and very few painters have ever shown them better in all their moods.

For his landscapes, he painted the simple fields, trees, and waters of the English countryside. The people in his pictures are farm workers and other country people.

When people look at a Constable painting, they can almost feel the light wind blowing the trees and the warmth of the sun.