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Constable was one of the greatest landscape painters and one of the very few English artists who have had an important influence on European painting. He was born at East Berholt, in Sufflock, and was the son of a well – to – do miller. His father disapproved of painting as a profession and Constable as a boy worked almost secretly. Since he was tired of arguing, he agreed to work in his father’s mill for a year. But his love of painting was so great that a friend persuaded his father to send him to London to study. In 1799. he entered the Royal Academy School in London and began to work as a painter. Henceforward he lived in London. At first he tried to make his living by painting portraits, but he had little success in this. Later he turned to painting landscapes.
Constable despised the conventions of landscape painting of his day. His disliked the fashion of painting in golden brown colours in imitation of the old masters. He saw the lovely greens in nature and painted them as he saw them. He put into his landscapes the cattle, horses and people who would be working there, and the dew, the moisture, the bloom and freshness of the countryside. “His landscapes made me call for my umbrella,” said another artist.
In 1824. several of his important pictures, including “The Hay Wain”, were exhibited at the Louvre and they had an immediate and lasting effect on French painting. In England Constable never received the recognition he deserved. Most of his paintings and studies were in his possession, unsold, when he died, through 50 years later they were recognized as great national treasures.