John Constable

 John Constable born on 11 June 1776 and died on 31 March 1837 was an English painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known particularly for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his hom now known as "Constable Country" which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling".

His most famous paintings include 'Dedham Vale' of 1802 and 'The Hay Wain' of 1821. Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, he was never financially successful and did not become a member of the establishment until he was elected to the Royal Academy at the age of 52. He sold more paintings in France than in England.

While walking around the Tate Britain I came across this painting by Constable titled 'The Sea Near Brighton' and I was intrigued because half of my project is based in Brighton so these paintings relate to my work well.

In new year 1826 Constable joined his family at Brighton and stayed for a fortnight. 'The Sea Near Brighton is a very gloomy painting because of the colours used for example there are no bright blues that you would normally see for the sea, but replaced with darker more murky blues witch makes me think that he painted this on a cloudy or stormy day. This bold study is one of only two paintings he made during this visit. It is also one of the very few oil sketches he executed outdoors in winter. On an earlier visit to Brighton in 1824, Constable had admired ‘the magnificence of the sea’.
 He later wrote how seabirds ‘add to the wildness and to the sentiment of melancholy always attendant on the ocean’.