Constable In Love: Love, Landscape, Money and the Making of a Great Painter

(Paperback)

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Love not landscape was the making of Constable . . . John Constable and Maria Bicknell might have been in love but their marriage was a most unlikely prospect. Constable was a penniless painter who would not sacrifice his art for anything, while Maria's family frowned on such a penurious union. For seven long years the couple were forced to correspond and meet clandestinely. But it was during this period of longing that Constable developed as a painter. And by the time they'd overcome all obstacles to their marriage, he was on the verge of being recognised as a genius. Martin Gayford brings alive the time of Jane Austen in telling the tremendous story of Constable's formative years, as well as this love affair's tragic conclusion which haunted the artist's final paintings.

Reviews

Brilliant, wholly fascinating. I can't recommend this delightful book too highly -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *
Delightful...a small drama of love, frustration and despair played itself out with massive repercussions for the history of painting * Financial Times *
A stunning account of Constable's coming of age as both a man and an artist * Guardian *
Gayford's nuanced narrative throws much-needed fresh light, as well as real understanding, on both Constable's painting and his love life * Sunday Telegraph *
A scrupulously observed tragical-comical tale * Evening Standard *
Engaging, cunning, agreeable and alert to the vagaries of human behaviour * Literary Review *

Author Bio

Martin Gayford studied philosophy at Cambridge and art history at the Courtauld Institute. He is the art critic of the Spectator, and contributes regularly to the Daily Telegraph, Modern Painters and Harpers & Queen. He is married, with two children, and lives in Cambridge. His latest book is The Yellow House- Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles.