112 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 



scene of his brush, the Church tower of Dedham, for instance, being introduced 

 in impossible situations. As the barge went on, Mr. Benham read a brief paper 

 on Constable : — 



JOHN CONSTABLE AS A "NATURALIST." 

 Bv Charles E. Benham. 



" Full details of Constable's life have over and over again been published, and 

 some outline of his career has already been given to the members of this Club. I 

 will therefore endeavour to impart some novelty to the subject, after I have 

 briefly recalled a few biographical details, by pointing out how essentially were 

 his alms identical with those of the true naturalist. As a landscape painter his 

 life's motto and the moral of his works may be said to be ' fidelity to nature ' — a 

 principle which the naturalist must approve. It was his determined devotion to 

 nature, unadorned by conventional ideas, which caused his paintings to be so 

 warmly appreciated after his death and so coldly unappreciated during the greater 

 portion of his life. 



"John Constable was born at East Bergholt, June, 1776. His father, 

 Golding Constable, inherited considerable wealth, including Flatford Mill, Ded- 

 ham Mill, and two windmills at East Bergholt. John was the second son in 

 order of time, but, of course, the first in order of distinction. He was a puny 

 infant and not e.xpected to live, but it seemed as if the great Reaper caught a 

 glimpse of his promising gleams of genius and drew back his sickle, for to the 

 astonishment of his parents he not only survived his infancy, but developed into 

 a stalwart and healthy youth. At seven years old he was sent to a school at 

 Lavenham — not a very satisfactory school, for the master spent his time in love- 

 making, and the usher spent most of his in flogging the boys, which evoked rather 

 revolutionary feelings in the breast of Constable. From Lavenham he was 

 removed to Dedham Grammar School. Here, though he distinguished himself 

 but little except in penmanship, the master had a clear perception that his pupil 

 was a genius. It was at this time that he first acquired the love of art, and he was 

 much assisted and encouraged by a neighbour, the artist John Dunthorne, whose 

 memory is none the less distinguished from the fact that he was actually Con- 

 stable's first tutor in sketching and painting. Constable's parents were a little 

 proud and a little ashamed of their son's tendencies towards the fine arts. In their 

 narrow-minded simplicity they looked upon artists as people of questionable 

 morals and doubtful respectability, as compared with those who adopted the more 

 orthodox and highly lucrative profession of grinding corn. And yet his mother, 

 with natural maternal pride, obtained through the Dowager Lady Beaumont, who 

 lived at Dedham, an introduction to Sir G. Beaumont, who in that day was the 

 leviathan of art critics — the authoritative autocrat on style and propriety in art. 

 He was a pedantic old fellow, no doubt, but he had good sense enough to see 

 great merit in Constable's efforts, and good nature enough to help him with advice 

 and with studies for his guidance. This valuable patronage even induced his 

 father, somewhat half-hearcedly, :o let the young man try his fortunes as an art 

 student in London. There Constable made some valued friends and was getting 

 on well, but circumstances necessitated his return to the uncongenial work of the 

 mill at Flatford, to the great delight of his parents, who augured from the circum- 

 stance that there was, after all, a prospect of his ensuring respectability and com- 

 fort. A very few years later, however, his father was wise enough to realise that 

 where the young man's heart was there his treasure was more likely to be also. 



