John Constable

(British, 1776–1837)

Place ActiveLondon, England, Europe

BiographyConstable left his native Suffolk in 1799 to study at the Royal Academy, of which he became an associate in 1819 and a full member only in 1829. His landscapes, which depict chiefly the Suffolk countryside, had a deep influence on his contemporaries, particularly the French. His elaborately finished exhibition pieces were based on numerous sketches painted outdoors directly from nature. The naturalism and simplicity of Constable’s approach to the English landscape have been compared to the poetry of his early Romantic contemporaries, such as Wordsworth.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.