Description
Book SynopsisArt critic Martin Gayford, author of The Yellow House, brings the Regency period to life in Constable in Love: Love, Landscape and the Making of a Great Painter his account of the life of English Romantic painter John Constable.
Love, not landscape, was the making of Constable. . .
John Constable and Maria Bicknell might have been in love but their marriage was a most unlikely prospect. Constable was a penniless painter who would not sacrifice his art for anything, while Maria''s family frowned on such a penurious union. For seven long years the couple were forced to correspond and meet clandestinely.
But it was during this period of longing that Constable developed as a painter. And by the time they''d overcome all obstacles to their marriage, he was on the verge of being recognised as a genius.
Martin Gayford brings alive the time of Jane Austen in telling the tremendous story of Constable''s formative years, as well as this love affair
Trade Review
Brilliant, wholly fascinating. I can't recommend this delightful book too highly -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *
Delightful...a small drama of love, frustration and despair played itself out with massive repercussions for the history of painting * Financial Times *
A stunning account of Constable's coming of age as both a man and an artist * Guardian *
Gayford's nuanced narrative throws much-needed fresh light, as well as real understanding, on both Constable's painting and his love life * Sunday Telegraph *
A scrupulously observed tragical-comical tale * Evening Standard *
Engaging, cunning, agreeable and alert to the vagaries of human behaviour * Literary Review *
