
On loan
Mitsubishi Ichigokan (Tokyo, Japan): Constable and England: A History of His Affections
- Artist
- John Constable 1776–1837
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 759 × 632 mm
frame: 940 × 815 × 80 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1984
- Reference
- T03901
Display caption
This portrait depicts the artist's father who was the son of a farmer. In 1764 Golding inherited valuable property and land in the parish of East Bergholt from his uncle Abram, a successful corn merchant. This included the tenancy of the corn milling business of Flatford Mill on the river Stour. The business prospered under Golding’s direction, and by 1785 he was described by another miller as ‘a man of fortune’ who ‘lives in the style of a country squire’. This portrait is thought to date from 1815, when Golding was already in his seventies, although he looks considerably younger.
Gallery label, May 2007
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Catalogue entry
T03901 Golding Constable 1815
Oil on canvas 759 x 632 (29 7/8 x 24 7/8)
Purchased (Grant-in-Aid) 1984
Prov: As for T03899
Exh: John Constable, R.A., Colchester Public
Library 1950-1 (29); The Constable
Family - Five Generations, Christchurch
Mansion, Ipswich, June-Sept. 1954 (8),
South London Art Gallery, Camberwell,
Oct-Nov. 1954 (13) and subsequent tour
(see T03899); John Constable 1776-1837,
Manchester City Art Gallery, April-June
1956 (19); John Constable: The Natural
Painter, Auckland City Art Gallery,
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne,
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney,
Sept. 1973-Jan. 1974 (4, repr.); on loan to
Tate Gallery 1975-84; Constable:
Paintings, Watercolours & Drawings, Tate
Gallery, Feb.-May 1976 (III, repr.);
Constable's Country, Gainsborough 's
House, Sudbury, June 1976 (6)
Lit: Robert Hoozee, L'opera completa di
Constable, Milan 1979, no.217, repr. Also
repr: Freda Constable, John Constable, Lavenham 1975, p.61 (col.)
Golding Constable (1739-1816), the artist's father, was a prosperous Suffolk merchant with interests chiefly in corn and coal. At the time of his death his property included two cornmills on the river Stour, at Flatford and Dedham, a yard for building barges at Flatford, a wharf downstream at Manningtree, a vessel for making shipments to and from London, farmland, property, a windmill at East Bergholt and East Bergholt House, the family home in the village, which he built when the mill-house at Flatford became too small.
The only portrait of his father documented in Constable's correspondence is one begun in May 1815, a year before Golding's death. His wife had died at the end of March and Golding had been in poor health. Nevertheless, Constable was able to tell Maria Bicknell on 21 May: 'I find my father uncommonly well, which has tempted me to begin a portrait of him - he is pleased and makes quite an amusement of it. It promises to be quite the best that I have done, which I am very glad of (R. B. Beckett, ed., John Constable's Correspondence, II, Ipswich 1964, pp.140-1). It has usually been assumed that T03901 is the portrait in question. Golding perhaps looks younger and in better health than one might expect for a man in his mid-seventies who had recently suffered bereavement and illness ('My late loss brought me almost to the grave', he wrote on 6 May) but as he appeared 'uncommonly well' towards the end of May, the identification is probably acceptable. Constable's reference to the 1815 portrait as promising to be 'quite the best that I have done' may suggest that he was comparing it in his mind with an earlier portrait of his father, perhaps the one now at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich (Hoozee 1979, no.52, repr.). The latter certainly looks earlier in style, although the sitter does not appear much younger. He may, however, simply have meant that it was the best portrait he had painted of anyone. No other portraits by Constable of his father are known.
Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1984-86: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions Including Supplement to Catalogue of Acquisitions 1982-84, Tate Gallery, London 1988, pp.18-19
Explore
- people(35,021)
- named individuals(12,478)
- portraits(4,294)
-
- individuals: male(1,847)
- industrial and crafts(1,330)
-
- miller(8)
- businessman(86)
You might like
-
John Constable Maria Bicknell, Mrs John Constable
1816 -
John Constable Ann Constable
c.1800–5 or ?c.1815 -
John Constable Maria Constable with Two of her Children. Verso: Copy after Teniers
c.1820 -
John Constable The Bridges Family
1804 -
John Constable Mrs James Andrew
1818 -
John Constable Susannah Lloyd
1806 -
John Constable The Revd Dr James Andrew
1818 -
John Constable Hampstead Heath, with the House Called ‘The Salt Box’
c.1819–20 -
Formerly attributed to John Constable A Cornfield with Figures
date not known -
John Constable A Windmill near Brighton
1824 -
John Constable Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath, with a Boy Sitting on a Bank
c.1825 -
John Constable A Cornfield
?1817 -
John Constable Dedham Lock and Mill
?1817 -
John Constable Dedham from Langham
?1813 -
John Constable Fen Lane, East Bergholt
?1817