John Constable
1776-1837

John Constable, perhaps the greatest and most original of all British landscape artists, is renowned especially for his views of Flatford and the Stour Valley in Suffolk, Salisbury Cathedral and Hampstead Heath. He was brought up in the country, and out of his deep love for the English landscape grew a determination to record its beauty: to capture its moistness, light and atmosphere, as well as its shapes and colours. Constable lived in East Bergholt and in the centre of the village you can see the site of his birthplace and home and his early studio.

Constable painted many of his works in the Stour valley and around Flatford Mill. Below are links to full page copies of these paintings.

Today Constable is acknowledged throughout the world as a great English Landscape artist, but during his own lifetime, landscape painting was unfashionable, and the artist was forced to struggle for recognition. He was 39 before he sold his first landscape. And although his magnificent paintings were acclaimed in France, the Royal Academy in London refused him full membership until 1829- just eight years before his death.

One of his most famous paintings is the Haywain. This was painted at Flatford near to his father's mill.

Prints are reproduced with kind permission of the Constable Trust.