Bailey - John Constable: a Kingdom of his Own

About the Book

Born in 1776 in East Anglia near the river Stour, John Constable was destined for his fathers business of milling and grain-shipping. But he was obdurately opposed to this and persuaded his family he should become an artist instead. In the same determined spirit, he wooed Maria Bicknell in the teeth of opposition from her formidable grandfather, and persisted in painting landscapes at a time when history paintings and portraits were the fashion. Sometimes sharp and sarcastic, and often depressed, Constable in fact possessed a warm gift for intimate friendship. This is revealed in his letters to John Dunthorne, village handyman and housepainter, and to his best friend and patron, archdeacon John Fisher. Constables reputation is once again rising. This important and absorbing biography explores his life and work, and highlights the dramatic tension between the two.

About the Author

Anthony Bailey has won high praise for his books about artists: two idiosyncratic studies of Rembrandt, a much admired biography of Turner, and his masterpiece about Vermeer. He lives in Essex.

Fascinating thoroughly illuminating. Serena Davies, Daily Telegraph

Timely. John McEwen, Literary Review

The more one gets to know him, the more loveable Constable becomes curmudgeonly, cantankerous, melancholy and anxiety-ridden though he was. Martin Gayford, Sunday Telegraph

Like his subject, Anthony Bailey has the great qualities of unobtrusiveness and sensitivity, letting things emerge organically rather than forcing his own imprint upon them. Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

If, for you, the joy of reading is being absorbed into another world, this elegant and detailed life of painter John Constable, the first since 1843, will not disappoint. Anthonys style is deceptively cool, almost unobtrusive. Jeffrey Taylor, Sunday Express

ALSO BY ANTHONY BAILEY

Fiction

Making Progress

The Mother Tongue

Major Andr

Nonfiction

The Inside Passage

Through the Great City

The Thousand Dollar Yacht

The Light in Holland

In the Village

A Concise History of the Low Countries

Rembrandts House

Acts of Union

Along the Edge of the Forest

Spring Jaunts

The Outer Banks

A Walk through Wales

The Coast of Summer

Responses to Rembrandt

Standing in the Sun a Life of JMW Turner

A View of Delft: Vermeer Then and Now

Autobiography

America, Lost & Found

England, First & Last

Pictures in the text

Spring, mezzotint engraving by David Lucas after John Constable, 1830 (British Museum/Bridgeman Art Library)

East Bergholt House, oil on canvas, c.1810 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

Girl in a Bonnet (Maria Bicknell), undated oil on board, (Private Collection/Courtauld Institute of Art)

Mrs Ann Constable, oil on canvas, 1804 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

John Constable self-portrait, pencil, 1806 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

Life drawing, female nude, black-and-white chalk, 1811 (whereabouts unknown/photo Courtauld Institute of Art)

Golding Constable, oil on canvas, 1815 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

Maria Bicknell, oil on canvas, 1816 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

Weymouth Bay with Jordan Hill, oil on canvas, c.1816 (National Gallery of Art, London/Bridgeman Art Library)

Portrait of John Fisher, oil on canvas, c.1817 (Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge/Bridgeman Art Library)

Elm Trees in Old Hall Park, East Bergholt, pencil with slight washes, 1817 (Victoria & Albert Museum/Bridgeman Art Library)

Dedham Lock and Mill, oil on canvas, 1820 (Private Collection)

Abram Constable, oil on canvas, 1806 (Ipswich Borough Council Museums and Galleries/Bridgeman Art Library)

Ann and Mary Constable, oil on canvas, 1814 (Private Collection Agnews/Bridgeman Art Library)

Cloud Study and Verses from Bloomfield, pen and ink, 1833 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

View of Somerset House Terrace and St Pauls, from Waterloo Bridge, oil on panel, 1819 (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection/Bridgeman Art Library)

A Mouse, oil on paper, 1824 (Constable family collection/Mellon Centre for British Art, London)

Rainstorm Over the Sea, oil on paper laid on canvas, c.18248 (Royal Academy of Arts, London/Bridgeman Art Library)

A Barge on the Stour, pencil and grey and sepia wash, 1827 (Victoria & Albert Museum/V&A Images)

Maria Constable, pencil, c.1828 (Constable family collection)

A Mermaid, pen, ink, and pencil, 1829 (Constable family collection)

John Dunthorne the Younger, undated self-portait, oil (Ipswich Borough Council Museums and Galleries)

Watermeadows at Salisbury, oil on canvas, 182029 (Victoria & Albert Museum/Bridgeman Art Library)

A Sea Beach, mezzotint engraving by David Lucas after John Constable, 1830 (British Museum/Bridgeman Art Library)

John Constable, by Daniel Maclise, pencil, c.1831 (National Portrait Gallery, London)

A Dog Watching a Watervole at Dedham, pencil and watercolour, 1831 (Victoria & Albert Museum/V&A Images)

John Charles Constable, oil on canvas on board (Private Collection/Sothebys Picture Library)

Folkestone, pencil and watercolour, 1833 (British Museum)

Old Sarum, watercolour, 1834 (Victoria & Albert Museum/Bridgeman Art Library)

Memorial to Sir Joshua Reynolds at Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire, pencil and gray wash, 1823 (Victoria & Albert Museum/Bridgeman Art Library)

John Constable, a bronze cast of his death mask of 1837 by Samuel Joseph (National Portrait Gallery, London)

Colour pictures

The Hay Wain, detail, oil on canvas, 182021 (National Gallery of Art, London/Bridgeman Art Library)

Golding Constables Kitchen Garden, oil on canvas, 1815 (Ipswich Borough Council Museums and Galleries)

Road to the Spaniards, oil on paper laid on canvas, 1822 (John G. Johnson Collection/Philadelphia Museum of Art)

East Bergholt Fair, oil on canvas, 1811 (Victoria & Albert Museum/V&A Images)

Maria Constable and two of her children, detail, oil on panel, 1820 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

View of Dedham from Gun Hill, oil on paper laid on canvas, 1810 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

Hadleigh Castle, oil on canvas, full-size sketch, 1829 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

Fen Lane, oil on canvas, unfinished, 1816 (Tate Britain Tate 2006)

Study of Cumulus Clouds, oil on paper laid on canvas, 1 August 1822 (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection)

The Leaping Horse, oil on canvas, detail from full-size sketch, 1825 (Victoria & Albert Museum/Bridgeman Art Library)

Salisbury Cathedral from the south-west, oil on canvas, 1820 (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC/Bridgeman Art Library)

Brighton Beach with Colliers, oil on paper, 1824 (Victoria & Albert Museum/Bridgeman Art Library)

The Skylark, Dedham, oil on board, 1830 (Private Collection/Christies Images Ltd)

View of London from Hampstead, watercolour, 1833 (Victoria & Albert Museum/V&A Images)