CONSTABLE, JOHN

born June 11, 1776, East Bergholt, Suffolk, Eng. died March 31, 1837, London painter who, with J.M.W. Turner, dominated English landscape painting in the 19th century. He is famous for his precise and loving paintings of the English countryside (e.g., The Hay-Wain, 1821), which he sketched constantly from nature. After about 1828, he experimented with a freer and more colourful manner of painting (e.g., in Hadleigh Castle, 1829). He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1829. Additional reading C.R. Leslie (ed.), Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, Composed Chiefly of His Letters, rev. ed. (1951), is written with affectionate understanding of its subject and with narrative power. R.B. Beckett, John Constable's Correspondence, 6 vol. (196268), contains a transcription of all the known letters to and from Constable. These, with a companion volume, John Constable's Discourses (1970), are invaluable to the student. G. Reynolds, Constable: The Natural Painter (1965), is a summary of the artist's life and work.