John Constable was born on June 11, 1776, the second son of Ann and Golding Constable, prosperous mill-owners at Flatford on the river Stour, close to the Suffolk/Essex border. Rather than follow his predestined career managing the family’s locks and mills, John Constable sought artistic training as a painter on his own, outside of traditional means, and eventually gained admission to the Royal Academy schools. Such efforts began as early as 1792 when Constable carved a windmill into one of his father’s mill timbers, thereby marking his initial efforts in craft. That year and the following, he copied a series of twenty-two heads from Lavater’s
Physiognomyand drew his first original landscape composition. Beyond such autodidactic study, his early exposure to art and rudimentary…
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Citation: Decker, Juilee. "John Constable". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 July 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=992, accessed 23 November 2024.]
