John Constable: Pleasantly Situated

"The White Horse," a sketch, by John Constable

"White Horse" by John Constable at the Frick

"'East Bergholt is pleasantly situated in the most cultivated part of Suffolk, on a spot which overlooks the fertile valley of the river Stour. The beauty of the surrounding scenery, it gentle declivities, its luxuriant meadows sprinkled with flocks and herds, its well-cultivated uplands, its woods and rivers, with numerous scattered villages and churches, farms and picturesque cottages, all impart to this particular spot an amenity and elegance hardly anywhere else to be found.' This is John Constable's description of the 'scenes of his boyhood,' which he was fond of saying 'made him a painter.' From among them most of the subjects of his pencil were selected. 

His ancestors were from Yorkshire, where the name is frequent. His great-grandfather, Hugh Constable, carried it into Suffolk, and settled as a farmer as a farmer at Bures. Golding Constable, the artist's father, inherited considerable property from a rich uncle, including the water-mill at Flatford. He afterwards purchased a water-mill at Dedham, and two windmills in the neighbourhood of East Bergholt, where he built the house to which he removed in the year 1774 with his wife Ann Watts.

The children of this marriage were three sons and three daughters. John Constable, the second son, was born on the 11th of June, 1776, and baptized on the same day, not being expected to live. He became, however, a strong and healthy child, and when seven years old, was placed at a boarding school about fifteen miles from Bergholt. He was afterwards removed to a school at Lavenham, and then to the grammar school of the Rev. Dr. Grimwood, at Dedham, where he met with an indulgent master, with who he became a favourite. 

Dr. Grimwood had penetration enough to discover that he was a boy of genius, although he was not remarkable for proficiency in his studies, the only thing he excelled in being penmanship. He was at this time sixteen or seventeen years of age, and had become devotedly fond of painting. During his French lessons a long pause would frequently occur, which his master would be the first to break, saying, 'Go on, I am not asleep. Oh! now I see you are in your painting room!'"

To be continued

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