John Constable was born in East Bergholt, a small village in Suffolk, on 11 June 1776. He was the fourth child and second son of Golding Constable – a prosperous mill owner, corn and coal merchant, and barge operator – and his wife, Ann.
East Bergholt is situated overlooking the fertile valley of the Stour River. Views of luxuriant meadow flats, woods, rivers, churches, villages and cottages often appear in Constable’s sketches and paintings, and even after he left home his affection for the childhood he had spent there became one of the driving forces of his art. Constable was not interested in running the family business (which his younger brother Abram took over), however, he did continue to paint the mills, barges and fields associated with the business. The emotional connection he felt for this part of England resulted in paintings of the countryside that capture a harmonious relationship between humanity and nature.
From the age of sixteen Constable had been interested in sketching outdoors. He became friends with John Dunthorne, a local amateur artist, and they worked together in the fields, painting one view for a certain time each day until the shadows changed. From an early age he was interested in the fleeting effects of nature and the challenges of capturing them on paper and canvas.
Constable painted several oil sketches of the view across the fields to the East Bergholt rectory, showing the fields where he walked with his fiancée, Maria Bicknell, on her many visits to her grandfather, Dr Rhudde, at the rectory. In a letter to Maria Constable he suggested that it was actually in the fields separating East Bergholt House from the rectory that they had reached an understanding. They had fallen in love in 1809 but were unable to marry for seven years. Maria’s grandfather was opposed to the relationship and they were only able to marry in 1816, after the death of Constable’s father gave them some financial independence through an inheritance of 400 pounds a year.
View towards the rectory, East Bergholt, is a lively impression of the rising sun glowing over and through the fields, painted from an upper-floor window at the back of the family home, in 1810. Note how Constable captures the intensity of his response through energetic brushstrokes and the use of bright reds and greens.
Questions
• Why do you think this view was so important to Constable?
• Can you think of a novel written at this time, examining the plight of unmarried women?