Born to paint a happier land

ASKED to name three quintessentially English artists of the 18th or 19th century off the top of their heads, most people today would nominate Gainsborough, Constable and Turner, in no particular order. However, it wasn’t always thus. Gainsborough and Turner enjoyed considerable success during their lives, but Constable, dedicated as he was to Nature, faced an uphill struggle; it wasn’t until 1824, when The Hay and were shown at the Paris Salon, that he began to attract popular acclaim. His friend John Fisher wrote at the time: ‘It makes me smile to myself when I think of plain English John Constable, who does not know a word of their language being the talk and the admiration of the French!’