Lionel Bicknell ConstableNear Stoke-by-Nayland c.1850

At least five of Constable’s seven children also drew or painted. Two of them, Alfred Abram and Lionel Bicknell, specialised in landscape and exhibited examples of their work at the Royal Academy during the 1840s and 1850s. Lionel, who was also a photographer, modelled his art on his father's. This was one of a number of paintings which, until the late 1970s, was mistakenly thought to have been painted by John Constable himself. In fact Lionel's touch was more tentative than his father's, and the overall effect of his work was more decorative.