1776
John Constable was born in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England, on 11 June. He was the fourth child of Golding Constable (a prosperous mill owner, corn and coal merchant, and barge operator) and his wife, Ann (née Watts).

1792
After leaving grammar school at Dedham, Constable spent some time working in his father’s milling business. At the same time, he privately pursued his ambition to be a painter. He worked in the fields, painting one view for a certain time each day until the shadows changed.

1799
Constable moved to London in February. With a small allowance from his father, he decided to become a professional artist and began his studies at the Royal Academy Schools.

1802
After viewing the works on display in the Royal Academy, Constable noted that ‘Nature is the … source from whence all originally must spring.’ He expressed his intention to return to East Bergholt to make ‘laborious studies from nature’ and to get a ‘pure and unaffected representation of the scenes’.

1816
Constable’s father died on 14 May. Constable received an inheritance of £400 per annum, which gave him a degree of financial independence. It enabled him to marry Maria Bicknell at St Martin-in-the- Fields, London, on 2 October.

1819
Constable exhibited the first of his ‘six-foot’ paintings, A scene on the River Stour (The white horse), at the Royal Academy. He received good notices and sold the painting. This was the first of several large paintings of scenes around the Stour Valley that Constable exhibited at the Academy between 1819 and 1825.

For several months during summer, Constable rented a cottage at Hampstead, near London, and began to paint images of Hampstead Heath. He continued do this most summers until settling in Hampstead more permanently in 1827.

On 1 November, Constable was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts.

1824
In April, Constable sold The hay wain, 1821, and A view on the Stour near Dedham, 1822, to a Parisian dealer. In August, the dealer exhibited these paintings at the Paris Salon, where Constable was awarded a gold medal. French artists were stimulated by the innovative character of Constable’s work.

Constable took his family to Brighton in May, hoping that the sea air would restore his wife’s health. They continued to visit Brighton annually until 1828. Constable found a new stimulus for his art there.

1828
Maria’s health was rapidly declining, and Constable took her on a last visit
to Brighton. She died of pulmonary tuberculosis in Hampstead on 23
November.

Constable wrote to his brother Golding: ‘Hourly do I feel the loss of my
departed Angel … Nothing can supply the loss of such a devoted, sensible,
industrious, religious mother, who was all affection … I shall never feel again as I have felt, the face of the world is totally changed to me.’

1829
On 10 February, Constable was elected a Royal Academician, considered to be the highest honour for a British artist at the time. Such was the value he placed on A boat passing a lock,1826, that he presented this work to the Academy as his diploma painting.

1837
Constable died suddenly on 31 March, aged 60. He was buried alongside his
wife in the churchyard of St John’s, Hampstead.