John Constable

John Constable transformed landscape painting by insisting on direct observation of nature, establishing himself as a defining voice of Romantic landscape art alongside his contemporary Turner. The son of a prosperous miller, he came to painting late and largely taught himself, entering the Royal Academy schools in 1799. For years he returned to the Stour Valley and Dedham Vale, painting the Suffolk countryside with brilliant naturalism from sketches made outdoors. His large-scale six-foot canvases, beginning with The White Horse in 1819, secured him recognition as an academician in 1829.