The English artist John Constable has been called the father of modern landscape painting. The first major English artist to concentrate exclusively on the depiction of rural scenes, without classicizing or historical associations, Constable was also the first to paint such scenes on the scale usually reserved for recording important events in history. Devoting his life to painting a small portion of the English countryside, especially the area around the River Stour in East Anglia, he never founded a school, although he did exert a strong influence on the genre. Constable's interest in the effects of light later became an inspiration to the painters of the impressionist movement.
Constable was born in East Bergholt, Suffolk. He showed a strong interest in art from his childhood. After working in his father's flour mill, he went to London in 1799 to study painting at the Royal Academy schools.
