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  John Constable

(June 11, 1776 - March 31, 1837) was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River Stour in Suffolk, England. He became a great landscape painter.

Constable is known for his landscape paintings, though he only sold 20 paintings in

England during his lifetime and was not elected to the Royal Academy until he was 52, just 8 years before his death. At the time, his work was appreciated more in France, and his The Hay Wain painting showed in the Paris Salon in 1824 .

The Cornfield Painted 1826. The area of Dedham Vale in Suffolk is known as 'Constable Country'. Flatford Mill, the subject of one of his most famous paintings, was owned by his father, a brewer who was doing well in trade. Nearby Bridge Cottage is a National Trust property.

He fell in love with Maria Bicknell, a local girl whose solicitor father was personally acquainted with the king, and did not consider Constable good enough. After five years, he finally gave his consent to the marriage in 1816. After giving birth to seven children, Maria died of consumption (tuberculosis) in 1829, an event which devastated her husband.

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