Editing John Constable (section)

== Later life ==

Constable’s pleasure at his own success was dampened after his wife started displaying symptoms of [[tuberculosis]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Charles|2015|p= 128}}</ref> Her growing illness meant that Constable took lodgings for his family in [[Brighton]] from 1824 until 1828,<ref name="vam.ac.uk"/> in the hope the sea air could restore her health.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reynolds|1983|p= 18}}</ref> During this period Constable split his time between Charlotte Street in London and Brighton. This change saw Constable move away from large scale Stour scenes in favour of coastal scenes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Thornes|1999|p= 128}}</ref> He continued painting six-foot canvases, although he was initially unsure of the suitability of Brighton as a subject for painting.<ref name="Tate: Chain Pier, Brighton">[https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-chain-pier-brighton-n05957 Tate: Chain Pier, Brighton]</ref> In a letter to Fisher in 1824 he wrote

{{blockquote|The magnificence of the sea, and its (to use your own beautiful expression) everlasting voice, is drowned in the din & lost in the tumult of stage coaches - gigs - “flys” &c. -and the beach is only Piccadilly (that part of it where we dined) by the sea-side.<ref name="Tate: Chain Pier, Brighton">[https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-chain-pier-brighton-n05957 Tate: Chain Pier, Brighton]</ref>}}

In his lifetime, Constable sold only 20 paintings in England, but in France he sold more than 20 in just a few years. Despite this, he refused all invitations to travel internationally to promote his work, writing to Francis Darby: "I would rather be a poor man [in England] than a rich man abroad."<ref name="Walker1979" />
In 1825, perhaps due partly to the worry of his wife's ill-health, the uncongeniality of living in Brighton ("Piccadilly by the seaside"<ref name="Thornes 1999 p= 128">{{Harvnb|Thornes|1999|p= 128}}</ref>), and the pressure of numerous outstanding commissions, he quarreled with Arrowsmith and lost his French outlet.

[[File:John Constable - Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the Thames--Morning after a Stormy Night - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Hadleigh Castle (painting)|Hadleigh Castle]]'' (1829). [[Yale Center for British Art]].]]
''Chain Pier, Brighton'' was his only ambitious six-foot painting of a Brighton subject, it was exhibited in 1827.<ref name="Reynolds 1983 20">{{Harvnb|Reynolds|1983|p= 20}}</ref> The Constables persevered in Brighton for five years to aid Maria’s health, but to no avail.<ref name="Reynolds 1983 20"/> After the birth of their seventh child in January 1828, they returned to Hampstead where Maria died on 23 November at the age of 41.<ref name="Reynolds 1983 21">{{Harvnb|Reynolds|1983|p= 21}}</ref> Intensely saddened, 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".<ref>{{Harvnb|Parkinson|1998|p= 33}}</ref>

Thereafter, he dressed in black and was, according to Leslie, "a prey to melancholy and anxious thoughts". He cared for his seven children alone for the rest of his life. The children were John Charles, Maria Louisa, [[Charles Golding Constable|Charles Golding]], Isobel, Emma, Alfred, and Lionel. Only Charles Golding Constable produced offspring.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bomford.net/IrishBomfords/Chapters/Chapter33/chapter33.htm#33.5.1%C2%A0_The_Constable_Family_|title=Chapter 33|website=www.bomford.net|access-date=25 May 2019}}</ref> Several of Constable's children also painted, notably his son Lionel. While Lionel eventually gave up painting for photography, several of his works are within the collection of the [[Clark Art Institute]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Extensive Landscape with Clouds |url=https://www.clarkart.edu/artpiece/detail/extensive-landscape-with-clouds |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=www.clarkart.edu}}</ref>

Shortly before Maria died, her father had also died, leaving her £20,000. Constable speculated disastrously with the money, paying for the engraving of several [[mezzotint]]s of some of his landscapes in preparation for a publication. He was hesitant and indecisive, nearly fell out with his engraver, and when the folios were published, could not interest enough subscribers. Constable collaborated closely with mezzotinter [[David Lucas (engraver)|David Lucas]] on 40 prints after his landscapes, one of which went through 13 proof stages, corrected by Constable in pencil and paint. Constable said, "Lucas showed me to the public without my faults", but the venture was not a financial success.<ref>{{Harvnb|Mayor|1980|loc=nos 455–460}}</ref>

[[File:Constable Salisbury meadows.jpg|thumb|''[[Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows]]'' (1831). [[Tate Britain]].]]
This period saw his art move from the serenity of its earlier phase, to a more broken and accented style.<ref name="Reynolds 1983 21"/> The turmoil and distress of his mind is clearly seen in his later six-foot masterpieces ''[[Hadleigh Castle (painting)|Hadleigh Castle]]'' (1829)<ref name="Reynolds 1983 21"/> and ''[[Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows]]'' (1831), which are amongst his most expressive pieces.

He was elected to the [[Royal Academy]] in February 1829, at the age of 52. In 1831 he was appointed Visitor at the Royal Academy, where he seems to have been popular with the students.

He began to deliver public lectures on the history of landscape painting, which were attended by distinguished audiences. In a series of lectures at the [[Royal Institution]], Constable proposed a three-fold thesis: firstly, landscape painting is scientific as well as poetic; secondly, the imagination cannot alone produce art to bear comparison with reality; and thirdly, no great painter was ever self-taught.

{{Multiple image
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| image1            = The grave of John Constable, High Hampstead, London.JPG
| caption1          = Constable's tomb at the church of St John-at-Hampstead, London
| image2            = The inscription on John Contable's tomb.JPG
| caption2          = The inscription on Constable's tomb
| align             = left
}}

He also spoke against the new [[Gothic Revival architecture|Gothic Revival]] movement, which he considered mere "imitation".

In 1835, his last lecture to students of the Royal Academy, in which he praised Raphael and called the Academy the "cradle of British art", was "cheered most heartily".<ref>{{Harvnb|Parkinson|1998|p= 50}}</ref> He died on the night of 31 March 1837, apparently from heart failure, and was buried with Maria in the graveyard of [[St John-at-Hampstead|St John-at-Hampstead Church]] in [[Hampstead]] in London. (His children John Charles Constable and [[Charles Golding Constable]] are also buried in this family tomb.){{clear}}