John Constable (1776-1837)
John Constable was one of Europe's greatest landscape painters, although it took many years for his early talent to blossom fully. His great paintings depict ordinary life in the English countryside. Unlike many landscape painters, Constable never traveled abroad, but preferred to paint the familiar counties of Suffolk and Hampstead. He developed his own painting methods to portray scenery more realistically, capturing the effects of atmosphere, the movement of clouds, and his love for the countryside.

"The sound of water escaping from mill dams, willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts and brickwork, I love such things. These scenes made me a painter."

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