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Constable In Love
  • Published: 1 April 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141912677
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 220

Constable In Love

Love, Landscape, Money And The Making Of A Great Painter



When John Constable fell in love with Maria Bicknell, granddaughter of a Suffolk country neighbour, he little knew how long it would take to make her his wife. The impediment to their marriage was simple: 'that necessary article cash'.

He was a painter without sufficient funds to support the daughter of a prominent London lawyer, and both he and her grandfather, the formidable (and sometimes comical) Rector of East Bergholt, disapproved of the match. It would be seven long, difficult years before they could marry, but in that time he would become one of the greatest painters of the nineteenth century.

Martin Gayford writes superbly about Constable's early years as a painter and Maria and John's correspondence provides the lively backdrop to the story; one of lovers' tiffs, London versus country life, encounters with Turner, Byron and Wordsworth, royal scandals and rivalries at the Royal Academy. All the time, John Constable battles to become a painter who can earn his living and win Maria's hand.
%%%When John Constable fell in love with Maria Bicknell, granddaughter of a Suffolk country neighbour, he little knew how long it would take to make her his wife. The impediment to their marriage was simple: 'that necessary article cash'.
He was a painter without sufficient funds to support the daughter of a prominent London lawyer, and both he and her grandfather, the formidable (and sometimes comical) Rector of East Bergholt, disapproved of the match. It would be seven long, difficult years before they could marry, but in that time he would become one of the greatest painters of the nineteenth century.
Martin Gayford writes superbly about Constable's early years as a painter and Maria and John's correspondence provides the lively backdrop to the story; one of lovers' tiffs, London versus country life, encounters with Turner, Byron and Wordsworth, royal scandals and rivalries at the Royal Academy. All the time, John Constable battles to become a painter who can earn his living and win Maria's hand.

  • Published: 1 April 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141912677
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 220

About the author

Martin Gayford

Martin Gayford studied philosophy at Cambridge and art history at the Courtauld Institute. He is the art critic of the Spectator, and contributes regularly to the Daily Telegraph, Modern Painters and Harpers & Queen. He is married, with two children, and lives in Cambridge. His latest book is The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles.

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