'Maria Bicknell, Mrs John Constable', John Constable, 1816 | Tate Catalogue entry Display caption Maria Bicknell was a daughter of the Solicitor to the Admiralty. Her grandfather was the rector of East Bergholt, where Constable first met her in 1800. The two fell in love in 1809 but, partly because of the rector's opposition, did not marry until 1816. Constable painted Maria’s portrait in July 1816, about three months before their marriage. In August Constable wrote to Maria from Suffolk: ‘I would not be without your portrait for the world the sight of it soon calms my spirit under all trouble’. Twelve years later Maria died from tuberculosis, leaving seven young children to Constable’s care. Gallery label, May 2007 Catalogue entry N02655 Maria Bicknell, Mrs John Constable Dated July 1816 Oil on canvas, 11 15/16×9 7/8 (30.3×25.1). Inscribed by the artist ‘July.

10 1816’ at left above sitter's shoulder. Prov: Executors of Isabel Constable, sold Christie's 17 June 1892 (270, ‘Portrait of Mrs. Constable’), bt. Murry or Murray £2.2s.; ...; bequeathed by George Salting to the National Gallery 1910; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1951. Accession N02655. Exh: Grosvenor Gallery 1889(282); Agnew's 1910(71); Tate Gallery 1937(p.38, No.96); Tate Gallery 1976(143). Lit: Holmes 1910, pp.80–85; Shirley 1937, pp.lxxvii, 98; Davies 1946, pp.36–7; Chamot 1956, p.261; Beckett 1961, Paintings: Misc.

VII(10) No.24; Hoozee 1979, No.220. Maria Elizabeth Bicknell (1788–1828) was a daughter of Charles Bicknell, Solicitor to the Admiralty, and his second wife, Maria Elizabeth Rhudde. The latter's father, the Revd Dr Durand Rhudde, was rector of East Bergholt with Great Wenham, and also of Brantham, Suffolk, as well as a chaplain in ordinary to George III. According to Leslie (1843, p.12, 1951, p.25) it was on one of Maria Bicknell's visits to her grandfather at East Bergholt rectory, in 1800, that she and Constable first met. Not until 1809, however, did they begin to form a close attachment. Their marriage was delayed until 1816 largely because Maria's family, and especially Dr Rhudde, disapproved of their association.

No.13 was painted in London on 10 July that year, shortly after the couple had decided to marry as soon as possible despite Dr Rhudde's continued opposition. A date in September was fixed on and Constable went down to East Bergholt, taking the portrait with him. In a letter to Maria from there on 28 July, he wrote: ‘I am sitting before your portrait - which when I look off the paper - is so extremely like that I can hardly help going up to it - I never had an idea before of the real pleasure that a portrait could afford - “this sweet remembrancer of one so dear” has caused no smal sensation here in a party last Thursday evng of the Bowens - the Curates &c &c - but no observations have been made excepting as to likeness - which [?Robinson] says is extreme - I know not wether it has yet reached the Rectory - but this I know that I care not - it would be foolish uselessly to irritate this old man [i.e. Dr Rhudde]’ (JCC II, p.189).

On 1 August he was going to call on his friend and patron Mrs Godfrey, who was unwell: ‘she wants to see your portrait’, Constable told Maria, ‘& as she cannot come out <she> I have promised to take it to her - so that we shall have a walk in the fair together - which is an honor that perhaps you did not expect - I dont hear that its being [here] has yet reached the rectory - & if it has we cannot help it’ (JCC II, p.191: the annual fair, held in Church Street near the Constables' house, was in progress). Constable again mentioned the portrait when he wrote to Maria on 16 August: ‘I would not be without your portrait for the world the sight of it soon calms my spirit under all trouble and it is always the first thing I see in the morning and the last at night’ (JCC II, p.195). Constable and Maria Bicknell were finally married on 2 October 1816 at St Martin's-in-the-Fields, Constable's close friend John Fisher officiating.

Part of their honeymoon was spent with the Fishers, also newly married, at their vicarage at Osmington on the Dorset coast. After he and Maria returned to London, Constable asked his brother Abram to send up various Paintings and other belongings which had been left behind at East Bergholt. They were eventually put on a waggon on 24 December and included, Abram wrote, ‘your good Lady's portrait ... I was obliged to get a new lid to the case, which I have screwed on, & I hope secured the valuable contents from injury, we all regretted parting with it, but for the end proposed, would make still greater sacrifices’ (JCC I, p.149). Published in: Maria Bicknell | National Trust Maria Bicknell Email Following a seven year secret courtship and twelve years of marriage, to John Constable (1816-1828), Maria was continually pregnant. She gave birth to seven children and had one miscarriage, all of which put an enormous strain on her health. She died of tuberculosis age 41 a few months after giving birth to her seventh child.

Maria Bicknell was born into a wealthy family - her father Charles was a London lawyer who fathered seven children by two wives. Charles Bicknell was solicitor to the Prince Regent and the admiralty. He hoped Maria would inherit a substantial sum of money from her grandfather, Rev. Dr Durrand Rhudde. Rev. Dr Durrand Rhudde was Maria’s wealthy grandfather who had once been one of 36 "Chaplains-in-Ordinary" an advisory body which reported to the Chaplain who had direct access to King George III, but went one to become rector of East Bergholt Church. He had inherited all his money from his sister who married a rich man, died childless and left everything to him and his daughter (Maria’s mother). Maria Elizabeth Bicknell was Maria’s mother and Charles Bicknell’s second wife, she gave birth to five children, (Maria being the eldest) and died in May 1815. Love Maria met John Constable while visiting her grandfather in East Bergholt, she was twelve and John Constable was in his early twenties.

When Maria was in her twenties, the pair met again, fell in love and wanted to marry but were thwarted by Maria’s grandfather, who threatened to disinherit Maria if she went ahead and married John. At the time (1809) John Constable was a struggling artist, living on only £100 a year (an allowance from his parents) plus a little money earned from selling portraits. This was not enough money to support himself, never mind a wife and children. The couple were forbidden to see each other because Maria's father, Charles Bicknell, obeyed Rev. Dr Rhudde's edict for fear his children would be disinerited. For seven years John and Maria were forced to meet in secret. The strain of the separation caused them both to become stressed and depressed and this adversely affected John’s ability to paint. Marriage In 1816 John Constable’s father died and his will provided equally and generously for all of his six children. The income generated from the family business was managed by brother Abram for the benefit of the whole family.

This income together with a share in the proceeds from the sale of Golding Constable’s land and family mansion, meant John suddenly had sufficient income to keep a wife and any children who came along. John and Maria married in London in 1816 in the Church of St Martin in the Fields in London. None of the Bicknell nor Constable families attended. Maria was immediately disinherited by her grandfather but her father softened and gave his daughter an allowance of £50 per year. On his death in 1819, Rev. Dr Rhudde left all his grandchildren, including Maria, £4,000 each. Motherhood Maria’s health was fragile – the Bicknell family were prone to life threatening illness - two of Maria’s brothers died of tuberculosis, aged 19 and 24, the disease that eventually killed Maria too. During 12 years of marriage (1816-1828), Maria was continually pregnant, giving birth to seven children (plus one miscarriage) which put an enormous strain on her health.

By 1824, Maria had given birth to four children, John-Charles, Maria-Louisa (Minna), Charles-Golding (Charley) and Isabel and Mrs Roberts had been appointed as full time nanny and governess. Although suffering from tuberculosis, Maria gave birth to three more children, Emily (born prematurely), Alfie (born prematurely) and Lionel-Bicknell before dying a few months later. The last three pregnancies and births left Maria in a ‘sad and weak condition’ (John Constable) and she had difficulty in feeding the babies. Maria’s last months After the birth of Lionel-Bicknell, Maria did not recover her strength. Constable was distraught and could concentrate on nothing but his wife’s illness. “Although Constable appeared in his usual spirits in her presence, yet before I left the house, he took me into another room, wrung my hand, and burst into tears, without speaking”. (letter written in 1828 by friend and biographer, Charles Leslie) “I am intensely distressed and can hardly attend to anything.” (letter written by John Constable in 1828 to a client dissatisfied with part of his work).

January (2nd) 1828 Maria’s seventh child, Lionel Bicknell was born March 1828 Maria’s father died leaving her £20,000 which put an end to the Constable’s money worries April 1828, Maria’s tubercular coughing became very much worse and Alfie (her sixth child) contracted whooping cough May 1828 – John sent Maria and the children (including Alfie) to Brighton for the air but after six weeks with no improvement to their health, the family returned to London November (23rd) 1828 Maria died at the age of 41 The final stages of consumption (known as tuberculosis today) were painful – vomiting, bleeding, fever and lassitude with Maria’s speech becoming no more than a whisper. After Maria’s death, Constable wrote to his brother Golding, "Hourly do I feel the loss of my departed Angel - God only knows how my children will be brought up...

the face of the World is totally changed to me." John Constable - Bio, Facts, Family | Famous Birthdays John Constable Significant Romantic artist best known for his landscape paintings depicting the Dedham Vale region of England. Before Fame He left school to take over his family's corn business. In 1799, however, he began pursuing a career in art. Maria Bicknell - John Constable John Constable: Click on the picture to see an enlarged version. Oil on canvas 10 July 1816 Tate Gallery, London Although he is known primarily as a landscape painter, Constable was quite accomplished as a portrait artist as well. This charming picture is of the woman with whom he fell passionately in love, Maria Bicknell. Her family, especially her Grandfather, the Rector of East Bergholt, were scandalized. How could an impoverished artist, even though he came from good family in the neighborhood, provide a sufficient livelihood for their girl. They prohibited the marriage and tried to do their best to break up the relationship. But Constable and Maria persisted in a courtship that eventually lasted seven years!

Only upon the death of his father did Constable become financially secure enough to marry, and they did so against her family's continued objections. This portrait was painteda few months before their marriage. They were extraordinarily happy in their long-delayed married life, but it was to be tragically short. Maria Constable died only 12 years later in 1828, and Constable never recovered the joyful outlook which permeates his earlier paintings. Portrait of Maria Bicknell - John Constable - YouTube Portrait of Maria Bicknell - John Constable Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jul 19, 2014 Experience John Constable's "Portrait of Maria Bicknell" together with beautiful classical music, in HD quality!

Painting title: Portrait of Maria Bicknell Painting date: 1816 Music: Suite espagnole Granada, Albeniz Performer: Bernd Krueger You can download the classical music piece for free, at Audio ID: PA2 Video ID: CH5489 From our research, this digital picture should be part of the Wikipedia Yorck Project public domain collection. If that is not the case, and we have made a mistake, please contact us at documentaries.pd@gmail.com. Also, if you have any suggestions regarding what paintings to publish next, or any other feedback, you can contact us at the same address! :) Category Maria Bicknell, Mrs John Constable by John Constable | my daily art display my daily art display Posted on November 7, 2011 by jonathan5485 Maria Bicknall by John Constable (1816) In My Daily Art Display blog yesterday I looked at the early life of John Constable, up to the point in his life when at twenty-three years of age he was still hell-bent to become an artist. Today I am going to conclude the story of his life and look at another of his paintings.

In 1799, Constable had finally convinced his father to let him pursue art and he enrols in the Royal Academy School as a probationer. Although he finds inspiration in paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Lorrain and Annibale Carracci, he becomes very homesick and yearns for the beautiful countryside of his Sussex home. He is also becoming very disheartened with the way the Royal Academy, at that time, disdainfully viewed landscape art. Landscape art was his passion but unfortunately for him, it was not held in high regard by the Academy, who only valued history painting and portraiture. Whilst he attended the Academy he met Turner but the two never forged a friendship. In 1802 Constable exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy. His landscape works were unfortunately not the traditional heavenly landscapes which depicted biblical or mythological stories, which were in vogue at the time, and so were not popular with the buying public. His depictions of the countryside were far more realistic than those of the very popular Gainsborough and Claude. If anything, his style was more akin to that of the Dutch landscape painters, such as Jacob van Ruysdael.

Constable fervently believed that landscape art was to be a true study and reflection of nature and that idealized landscapes, which had been painted from the artist’s own imagination were, in some ways, dishonest. He left the Royal Academy in 1802 and was offered the position of drawing master at Great Marlow Military College, but he turned down the offer, which horrified the then master of the Royal Academy, Benjamin West, who told Constable in no uncertain terms that his refusal would probably mean the end of his artistic career. However Constable was not deterred and chose to stay on his chosen course – that of a landscape artist. Constable returned to East Bergholt. In 1800, when he was aged twenty-four and whilst he was at home in East Bergholt, he had become friendly with a young girl who was some twelve years younger than him. Her name was Maria Bicknell. Now almost ten years later in 1809, John is aged thirty-three and Maria is twenty-one years of age and their relationship changed. Slowly but surely, this one-time childhood friendship developed into a much more serious relationship and the two fell deeply in love.

Seven years later, in 1816, the couple decided to get engaged but this was strongly opposed by Maria’s parents and her grandfather, Dr. Rhudde who was the rector of East Bergholt. Both Maria’s father, Charles Bicknell, who held the prominent position as solicitor to the Admiralty, and her grandfather did not want her to be married to a penniless artist and they also believed that Constable and his family were socially inferior to them and not fit in-laws. To force home their disquiet about such a proposed liaison they told Maria that she would be disinherited if she married Constable. Constable’s parents Golding and Ann Constable, while somewhat sympathetic to the desires of their son, could also see no future in the proposed marriage as they would not in the position to financially support the couple and even Maria herself pointed out to Constable that if he was to succeed as an artist he did not want the distraction of a wife and the financial implications of such a match.

For the next seven years the couple were often parted and sometimes forbidden even to write to one another, but throughout their long, frustrating courtship they remained loyal to each other The situation changed in 1816 when both Golding and Ann Constable died and Constable inherits a fifth of the family business. Now with some money behind him and the fact that their daughter Maria is twenty-eight years old, her parents reluctantly agree to let her marry Constable. John and Maria marry in that October at St Martin-in-the Fields, London and the two of them tour the south coast of England on honeymoon. Constable struggled to sell his paintings and it was not until 1819 that Constable made his first big sale, which was for his painting entitled The White Horse. This sale spurred him on and it led to what are known as his “six footers”, a series of six large scale paintings, which included The Hay Wain and Stratford Lock. The Hay Wain was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821 and was seen by the great French Romantic artist Théodore Géricault who on his return to Paris spread the word about Constable and his painting.

Three years later, the painting is bought by the art dealer John Arrowsmith and it is exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1824 where it wins a gold medal. Four years on and it is 1828 and that January Maria gives birth to their seventh child. Sadly that same year she falls ill and after a prolonged illness dies that November of tuberculosis, at the young age of forty-one. Constable is devastated by his loss and in a letter to his elder brother Golding he wrote: “….hourly do I feel the loss of my departed Angel—God only knows how my children will be brought up…the face of the World is totally changed to me…” In his book, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, Charles Leslie wrote that after the death of his wife, Constable was always dressed in black and was “a prey to melancholy and anxious thoughts”. Constable had to, from then on, look after his seven children singlehandedly. The financial situation of his having to bring up all his children should not have been too burdensome as shortly before her death, Maria’s father had died, leaving her £20,000.

However Constable, instead of safeguarding this new wealth, speculated disastrously with this money. A large proportion of the money was invested in the engraving of his landscape works which he believed would easily pay for themselves but he was sadly mistaken and the money raised did not cover the expenditure. At the age of fifty-two he was elected to the Royal Academy and two years later in 1831 was appointed Visitor at the Royal Academy, a part time teaching post which proved to be very successful and extremely fulfilling. He regularly lectured on landscape art and once again regaled how works should depict real scenes and not idealized fantasies. It is interesting to note that although he was not always happy with the art education he received at the Royal Academy thirty years earlier, one of the constant themes of his lectures was the way he praised the establishment calling it the “cradle of British Art” and he stated that no great artist was ever self-taught. Constable died in 1837 a couple of months short of his sixty-first birthday and was buried besides his beloved Maria in the graveyard of St John-at-Hampstead in London.

Later the couple would be joined in the family tomb by two of their sons, John Charles Constable and Charles Golding Constable My Daily Art Display featured painting today is not one of his famous “six-footers” but a beautiful painting of his wife which he completed a few months before they married in 1816. On completing the portrait Constable wrote to his wife: “…I would not be without your portrait for the world the sight of it soon calms my spirit under all trouble…” Constable is primarily known for his beautiful landscape paintings but he was also an accomplished portraitist and before us we see his depiction of the woman he deeply loved. What greater love could an artist bestow on his wife than to paint her portrait? The marriage only lasted twelve years but one should remember that he had known and loved the young girl for sixteen years before they had been allowed to become man and wife. The painting hangs at the Tate Britain Gallery in London. .

'Maria Bicknell', John Constable, c.1805–9 | Tate Maria Bicknell Support: 488 x 348 mm Collection Catalogue entry Summary Maria Elizabeth Bicknell (1788-1828) was a daughter of Charles Bicknell, Solicitor to the Admiralty, and his second wife, Maria Elizabeth Rhudde. Maria Rhudde's father, the Revd Dr Rhudde, was rector of East Bergholt with Great Wenham, and also of Brantham, Suffolk, as well as a chaplain in ordinary to George III. According to Constable's biographer C.R. Leslie, the artist first met his future wife in 1800 when she was staying with her grandfather Dr Rhudde at East Bergholt rectory (Leslie, ed. J. Mayne, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, London 1951, p.25). Judging by Maria's apparent age (surely no more than twenty-one), this drawing was made no later than 1809 and quite possibly a few years before that.

By 1809 a close attachment existed, at least on Constable's side; however, their marriage was delayed until 1816, largely because Maria's family, and especially Dr Rhudde, disapproved of their association. In February 1816 Constable wrote to Maria, How unfortunate that I should have [been the] cause of bringing all into [the] situation I did with the wretched Doctor - but let us for ever dismiss the grievous side of the subject ... I am happy in love - an affection exceeding a thousand times my deserts, which has continued so many years, and is yet undiminished ... Never will I marry in this world if I marry not you. Truly can I say that for the seven years since I avowed my love for you, I have never done any thing that I have considered could have made you any way uncomfortable ... (R.B. Beckett, ed., John Constable's Correspondence, II, Ipswich 1964, p.179) The couple were finally married on 2 October 1816 at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. The Constables eventually had seven children.

Maria, who suffered from poor health, died of tuberculosis in 1828. In a letter to his brother Golding of 19 December 1828, Constable wrote, 'I shall never feel again as I have felt, the face of the World is totally changed to me' (Leslie, ed. A. Shirley, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, R.A., London 1937, p.234). Also in the Tate Gallery is an oil portrait of Maria (Tate Gallery N02655 ) made shortly after the couple had decided to marry. The Tate also owns the oil portrait Maria Constable with Two of her Children (c.1820, Tate Gallery T03903 ). An unfinished oil painting of Maria with three of her children is still in the Constable family collection, as is a drawing thought to show her in the last years of her life. Further reading: Constable in Love | National Trust Constable in Love Email John Constable met his future wife Maria Bicknell when she was visiting her grandfather, Rev Dr Rhudde, the Rector of East Bergholt Church.

He did not approve of John Constable and Maria's family banned them from meeting. Seven years later the couple eventually married. The Course of True Love John Constable first met his future wife, Maria Bicknell while she was visiting her maternal grandfather, the wealthy and irascible Rev Dr Durrande Rhudde, rector in East Bergholt. The couple met again when Maria was in her early twenties and they fell deeply in love and assumed they would marry. However, Maria's grandfather had other ideas and managed to thwart their marriage plans. He'd argued with John's father, Golding Constable at some time in the past (we do not know what the issue was) and he felt he should have been consulted about (and have sanctioned) any courtship in the Bicknell family. He considered John Constable incapable of earning enough money to support a wife and he thoroughly disapproved of Constable’s friendship with John Dunthorne whom he considered to be a dangerous aetheist. Rev Dr Rhudde threatened to disinherit Maria if she married Constable. John had no regular income except the £100 a year he received from his father and so the couple were unable to marry.

Maria’s father, Charles Bicknell, followed Rev Rhudde’s lead and banned the couple from meeting - although some of the younger Bicknell/Rhudde relatives thoroughly approved of the relationship. The rift with the rector of East Bergholt made for local difficulties for the Constable family. Ann Constable was always thinking of ways John might repair the relationship with the rector, including the gift of a painting of East Bergholt Church painted by her son. The rector responded to the gift by sending John a £5 note in payment - not wanting to accept the painting from him as a gift. Maria became John Constable’s muse and inspiration and they continued their courtship in secret for seven years. The strain of separation and secrecy caused John to become stressed and depressed and he gained a reputation for being moody, hostile and sarcastic in his professional dealings which did not help sell his pictures! The death of John's father, Golding Constable in 1816 revealed the unusual arrangements he had made to ensure all his children received financial support after his death. For John, his father’s death led to an income of £200 a year and he also benefited from the sale of his father’s properties.

A legal agreement Golding had drawn up with his youngest son Abram meant that Abram would manage the family business for the benefit of his brothers and sisters. Marriage With an income of £200+ a year John and Maria could afford to marry which, against the wishes of her father and grandfather, they did in London in 1816. Maria was immediately disinherited by her grandfather but her father, Charles Bicknell softened and gave the couple an allowance of £50 per year. On his death in 1819, Rev Dr Rhudde relented and left all his grandchildren, including Maria, £4,000 each. During twelve years of marriage Maria had one miscarriage and seven live births. By 1824, she had given birth to four children, John, Minna, Charley and Isabel and although suffering from tuberculosis, she gave birth to three more, Emily, Alfie and Lionel before she died in November 1828 at the age of 41, ten months after the birth of her youngest son.

Children John Constable was an indulgent, devoted father and showed his affection openly in his letters and in 1843 CR Leslie reports in his Memoirs of the Life of John Constable: “His children were as likely to be seen in his arms as those of his mother or nursemaid” “His fondness for children exceeded …. that of any man I ever knew” "Children should be respected” (letters of John Constable) “They were happy days with me when I had infants” (letters of John Constable) John was regarded by some as a permissive father. When one of his sons dashed into his studio with a broom and tore through one of the canvasses, Constable’s rebuke was “Oh! My dear pet! See what we have done! Dear, dear! What shall we think to mend it? I can’t think – can you?” There were seven Constable children: 1. John Charles 1817- 1841 died aged 24 2. Maria-Louisa (Minna) 1819-1885 died aged 66 3.

Charles-Golding (Charley) 1821-1879 died aged 58 4. Isabel 1822-1888 died aged 66 5. Emily 1825-1839 died aged 14 6. Alfred (Alfie) 1826-1853 died aged 27 7. Lionel (Toby) 1828-1888 died aged 59 John Constable loved his children deeply and constantly worried about their health and education. Maria’s early death left John a lone parent to seven young children ranging from the ages of nought to eleven. Maria-Louisa “Minna”, the eldest daughter (aged nine) stepped into her mother’s shoes and along with nanny Mrs Roberts helped hold the family together. The two youngest boys (Alfie and Lionel) were too young to have any memory of their mother. The eldest (John-Charles) was sickly throughout his childhood and died of scarlet fever at the age of twenty four.

Emily who was born prematurely, died of scarlet fever aged fourteen, Alfred died in a boating accident at the age of twenty seven, Lionel suffered a stroke (which he survived) at the age of twenty five and Charles-Golding (Charley), who was the only child to marry and have children, nearly broke his father’s heart by going to sea at the age of fourteen. Discover more at Flatford Constable, Wivenhoe Park (article) | Khan Academy Constable, Wivenhoe Park Email When we think about a portrait, we think about a person. A man or woman, boy or girl. Maybe on occasion a favored pet, but always a living being. The portrait serves as a record of his or her appearance, characteristics, and interests. Does a portrait have to be of a person, though? People often ascribe human characteristics to inanimate objects. A car that is having trouble starting might be “stubborn,” or a powerful storm might be “angry.” What if the attributes shown in a landscape were supposed to be ascribed to the person who owned that land?

John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) With Wivenhoe Park, Essex, landscape painter John Constable depicted an English country estate in order to make a broader statement about its owner and his relationship with nature in the early nineteenth century. Wivenhoe Park Major-General Francis Slater Reboe owned Wivenhoe Park, a quiet countryside estate located approximately seventy miles northeast of London. Rebow was friends with corn merchant Golding Constable, whose son John insisted on pursuing the career of an artist rather than take up his father’s business. The wealthy officer was one of John Constable's first patrons.

The 200-acre estate at Wivenhoe was the pride of Major-General Rebow’s father-in-law, Colonel Isaac Martin Rebow (interestingly, the Major-General took his wife’s last name after marriage), who purchased the land in the 1730s and commissioned the construction of Wivenhoe House in 1759, and then massive alterations in the 1770s to the surrounding parkland, designed by the landscape architect Richard Woods. Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with Saint John on Patmos, 1640, oil on canvas, 100.3 x 136.4 cm (The Art Institute of Chicago) Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with Saint John on Patmos, 1640, oil on canvas, 100.3 x 136.4 cm (The Art Institute of Chicago) Wivenhoe Park’s grounds were redesigned along the lines of the picturesque, an aesthetic concept which combined elements of the philosophy of the awe-inspiring Sublime and the serene Beautiful—categories of landscape painting in the eighteenth century. An example of the picturesque is Nicolas Poussin’s Landscape with St.

John (above), which combines rocky hills and architectural ruins with lush greenery and a peaceful summer’s day. Arch and bridge (detail), John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) Arch and bridge (detail), John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) In order to evoke a sense of the picturesque the architect Woods introduced an arch and bridge specifically designed to look old, multiple curving roads lined with trees, and two new lakes for fishing and boating. Rebow’s estate was a prime example of the picturesque in England, and a source of pride for the entire family.

Country home (detail), John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) Country home (detail), John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) The gorgeous estate of Wivenhoe Park is evident in Constable's painting. Filled with rolling hills populated by people and livestock, lit by soft sunlight streaming through low-hanging clouds, and highlighted by a large lake in the foreground and a country home peeking from behind a stand of trees in the background, the landscape of Wivenhoe Park entices viewers with a vision of rural beauty, simplicity, and harmony. Constable’s connection to nature Today John Constable is regarded as one of the two great British landscape artists of the nineteenth century, alongside his contemporary J.M.W. Turner. During his lifetime, however, Constable was afforded little respect. He almost exclusively painted landscapes—avoiding the far more popular genres of history painting and portraiture.

Most of his artistic output is comprised of images of the rural countryside of England’s Suffolk and Essex counties, where Wivenhoe Park was located. Whereas most artists would sketch scenes in nature before returning to the studio to paint, beginning in 1814 Constable began to bring his canvases outside and paint directly from nature, adding a sense of veracity and immediacy to his paintings and inspiring future artists like those that would form the Barbizon School (French artists who painted landscapes in a forest near Paris, beginning in the 1830s) as well as the later Impressionists (beginning in the 1860s). John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) Constable was deeply invested in the physical experience of nature. His paintings possess a strong sense of the particular, and demonstrate a keen artist’s eye turned to the environment.

The artist famously studied weather reports and spent countless hours sketching clouds, which he rendered with precise meteorological detail in Wivenhoe Park, Essex. Similarly, the play of light and shadow across the right foreground, and the glimmers of light reflected off the pond in the middle of the composition, enhance the sense of a real, observed landscape. Constable believed that an artist could encourage positive and negative emotions in the viewer through the depiction of nature—particularly through the play of light and dark on the landscape and skyscape.

Light and shadow, John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex,1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) Light and shadow on the water, John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) The present past The emotions Constable intended to stir up in his viewers were, much like in his later View on the Stour near Dedham (below), those of a nostalgia for the past, and a desire to recapture the English connection to nature that was disappearing during the early decades of the Industrial Revolution (among other things, the shift from producing many objects by hand to mass-produced, factory-made objects using machinery and steam power).

John Constable, View on the Stour near Dedham, 1822, oil on canvas, 51 x 74 inches (The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA) John Constable, View on the Stour near Dedham, 1822, oil on canvas, 51 x 74 inches (The Huntington Library) Wivenhoe Park, Essex depicts an idyllic England that still physically existed in some locations, but was barely holding on, ideologically speaking. Much like Turner's The Fighting Temeraire , Wivenhoe Park, Essex celebrates its subject while mourning the end of the era in which it was created. In this sense, the painting functions as a portrait: of eighteenth-century England; of the English countryside; and of the estate’s owner, Major-General Rebow, and the values he attempted to uphold. Considering the fact that much of the picturesque estate of Wivenhoe Park was designed by an architect, the foregrounded presence of the manmade lake also speaks to Rebow’s dominion over the lands he owned.

Mary Rebow (detail), John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) Mary Rebow (detail), John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) There is one member of the Rebow family included in the composition: Mary Rebow, the 11-year-old daughter of Major-General Rebow, who can be seen on the left side of the canvas driving the donkey cart. Her red scarf, one of the girl’s favorite accessories, is a brief flash of color in a composition otherwise dominated by greens, blues, and browns. Constable, then in his 40th year, seems to have doted on the little girl, perhaps hoping to have a child like her one day with the woman he was then courting, longtime friend Maria Bicknell.

Constable’s biographer wrote that Constable’s “fondness for children exceeded, indeed, that of any man I ever knew.”[1] In a letter to Maria dated August 21, 1816, Constable describes his visit to Wivenhoe Park and notes that Major-General Rebow had in fact commissioned two paintings, one of the estate and one of a small building on the estate grounds, both of which were to include references to Mary Rebow: “...the heroine of all these scenes.”[2] The commissions were essentially early marriage gifts to Constable, as the Rebows were well aware that he was saving money to pay for his wedding to Maria, whose grandfather had threatened to disinherit her if she insisted on marrying the financially unstable artist. The two were married on October 2, 1816, less than a month after Constable completed Wivenhoe Park, Essex. With impending fatherhood on his mind, Constable was aware of the stakes for Major-General Rebow and his daughter.

Rebow wanted to secure his legacy and ensure future security for his daughter, yet in this transitional period of history he had no idea what young Mary Rebow’s future would look like, only that her life could not resemble his. Asking Constable to include her in his painting was one way for the Major-General to ensure that Mary was always present in the bucolic landscape she grew up in, regardless of what might come of that landscape in the future. Furthermore, with the inclusion of such small details like the young girl’s scarf, the canvas rewards those viewers who actually knew the family and the estate, and could recognize those references, creating a deeper meaning for the Rebow family and their intimates.

Seam where the artist added additional canvas, visible in white shirt (detail), John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) Seam where the artist added additional canvas, visible in white shirt (detail), John Constable, Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816, oil on canvas, 56.1 x 101.2 cm (National Gallery of Art) Wivenhoe Park, Essex is a record of a particular location at a particular moment in time, but also a nostalgic image of the English past, a past that never quite existed. Humans tend to remember the past as far more positive or negative than it may have actually been and Wivenhoe Park, Essex is no exception. The artist rearranged the landscape to create a more harmonious image. For example, the lake and house would not have been visible in the same view in real life. Additionally, at some point during his painting process Constable extended the canvas on both sides to include additional details, such as a hunting lodge on the far right.

The seams created where the new pieces of canvas were stitched onto the existing fabric are visible running through the figure of the young boy wearing a white shirt in the boat on the right side of the painting, and on the left through the neck of the black cow in the left foreground. Prelude to six-footers Less than two years after completing Wivenhoe Park, Essex, Constable embarked on the process of painting a series of monumental landscape paintings of the Stour River Valley, known as his “six-footers,” a name which referred to the width of the canvases. At 40 years of age when he married Maria Bicknell in 1816, Constable was still seeking the honor of election to the Royal Academy—the surest indicator of professional success for an artist working in England. Wivenhoe Park, Essex serves as a precursor to those massive canvases, allowing the artist to practice organizing a series of complex landscape details, vignettes of daily life, and a visceral depiction of elements, like sun and wind, into one coherent composition. The "six-footers" vaulted Constable to greater popular acclaim, and eventually he was elected to the Royal Academy in 1829.

Wivenhoe Park, Essex remained in possesion of the Rebow family until 1906, and Wivenhoe Park itself until 1902. Perhaps ironicly, considering Major-General Rebow’s apprehension of the forthcoming industrial age and the nostalgia radiating from Constable’s canvas, Wivenhoe Park is now owned by the University of Essex, and the stately Wivenhoe House featured in the center of the painting is now a four-star luxury hotel, used to train university students studying for a career in hospitality. Essay by Dr. Abram Fox 1. Charles Robert Leslie, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, esq., RA (Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1845), p. 77. 2. Ibid. p. 73.

Question: Maria Bicknell married which English artist in 1816?
Answer: John Constable