The White Horse

1816

A marriage against the bride’s grandfather

Maria’s grandfather, Dr Rhudde, rector of East Bergholt, opposed the match: he thought the Constables his social inferiors and threatened to disinherit her. Constable’s parents approved but offered no support until he was financially secure; they died soon afterwards, and he inherited a fifth share of the family business.

October 1816

A honeymoon by the sea

After the wedding at St Martin-in-the-Fields, conducted by Fisher, the couple stayed at Fisher’s vicarage and toured the south coast. The sea at Weymouth and Brighton pushed Constable towards brilliant colour and lively brushwork.

2 October 1816

Married: Maria Bicknell

1821

“The Hay Wain” at the Royal Academy

The picture, shown as “Landscape: Noon”, found no buyer, but it was seen by the painter Théodore Géricault and the writer Charles Nodier. According to Delacroix, Géricault went back to France quite stunned and invited Constable to Paris, while Nodier urged French artists to look to nature rather than to trips to Rome.

1821

“I should paint my own places best”

In a letter to his friend John Fisher in 1821 Constable wrote that he should paint his own places best, and that painting is but another word for feeling. The Dedham Vale around his home came to be known as “Constable Country”.

1821

Son born: Charles Golding Constable