John Constable: Back and Forth

Self-portrait in pencil
by John Constable

"In the year 1795 John Constable's father consented to his visiting London, for the purpose of ascertaining what might be his chance of success as a painter. His time was now divided between London and Bergholt, and the following passage from a letter of this time shows what were some of his occupations for the next two years.

'As the evenings are now long, I find great pleasure in reading the books I brought home with me, particularly 'Leonardo da Vinci' and 'Count Algarotti.' I should feel obliged to you if you would enclose Gessner's 'Essay on Landscape.' I devote all my evenings to the study of anatomy.'

'I have lately copied Tempesta's large battle, and painted two small pictures in oil - a Chymist and an Alchymist, for which I am chiefly indebted to our immortal bard. You remember Romeo's account of an apothecary's shop.'

However, his mother also wrote of the parents' plan for their son:

'We are anticipating the satisfaction of seeing John at home in the course of a week or ten days, to which I look forward with the hope that he will attend to business, by which he will please his father and ensure his own respectability and comfort.'

How long Constable was engaged in his father's work I know not, but in the year 1799 he had resumed the pencil, not again to lay it aside, as I find him thus writing:

'London, February 4th, 1799 - I am this morning admitted a student at the Royal Academy; the figure which I drew for admittance was the 'Torso.'...I shall begin painting as soon as I have the loan of a sweet little picture by Jaob Ruysdael to copy... I shall not have much to show you on my return, as I find my time will be more taken up in seeing than in painting. I hope by the time the leaves are on the trees I shall be better qualified to attack them than I was last summer.'

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Life and Letters of John Constable, R.A." by Charles Robert Leslie.)