Constable Portraits: the Painter and his Circle
National Portrait Gallery, London
RENOWNED for his fresh depictions of English landscape of startling originality, John Constable is less well known for his portraits, studies and drawings of his friends, family and members of his circle. Against familiar and iconic images such as The Hay Wain of 1821 – recently voted Britain’s second most revered painting – as the exhibition Constable Portraits reveals, they are less sophisticated, even occasionally naive, and are best approached for what they reveal about the artist’s life rather than examples of portraiture.
“Painting”, Constable once observed, “is but another word for feeling”. With its suggestion of emotional involvement, is not perhaps the most appropriate attitude for a jobbing portrait artist, but these were not usually carried out primarily as a commercial undertaking but more as a way of picturing the people he knew and to whom he felt close. But such an attitude did encourage Constable to devote much significance to the portraits, which, like his landscapes in oil are direct, freshly observed and honest, with no attempt to glamorise or idealise. Despite his close involvement in his work, through economic necessity he often accepted portrait commissions, travelling from London to Suffolk to make use of local connections.
A self-portrait sketch, carried out when the artist was 30, depicts a face, slightly puzzled, his mouth slightly open, looking intensely ahead, the darkly sketched-in background serving to highlight the smooth face. He wears his hair combed fashionably forward, suggesting both refinement and intelligence.
Although born into a prosperous merchant class, and expected to enter the family business, he persuaded his father to allow him to study art, enrolling at the Royal Academy. He fell in love with Maria Bicknell, a childhood friend, but their marriage was forbidden by her grandfather, the rector of the local church, who regarded the Constables as social inferiors and even threatened Maria with disinheritance. He also believed the life of an artist offered few prospects and little income.
They did marry, however, in 1816, and it was a happy and fulfilling relationship for them both. A portrait carried out of Maria in the year of their marriage shows a pretty young woman, her head turned demurely to one side, her white dress with its lacy collar serving as both a frame and to suggest innocence.
Constable, who was often away from home, wrote glowingly about the image, saying: “It is so extremely like her that I can hardly help going up to it.” Such comments bring a welcome social dimension to the images that are both enriching and human.
An equally delightful, adoring portrait of his wife with two of their children affirms his happy family life. It is softly, but dramatically lit. Maria looks straight out of the frame, a ray of light giving her almost an ethereal look. The two children sit on her knee in front of a table, absorbed in their own activity. It is an image of domestic and family content. Tragically, Maria Constable died after the birth of their seventh child, a loss that clouded Constable’s later years.
One of the final portraits is of his son, Charles, shortly before he went to sea at the age of 14. Although still stricken by his wife’s death, the artist noted that he made a ‘good portrait’, particularly important given the prospect of his son’s long absence at sea. While Constable will remain known for his landscapes, Constable Portraits sheds fresh light on the career of this revolutionary artist and the life he led.
Emmanuel Cooper
Constable Portraits continues until June 14
