Barrie Sheppard continues his exploration of the life and times of John Constable. Barrie writes: In 1816, English landscape painter John Constable married Maria Bicknell. He was 40, she 28. Maria was the daughter of Charles Bicknell Esq. of Spring Gardens London, Solicitor to the Admiralty; and the grandchild of the Reverend Dr Durand Rhudde, Rector of East Bergholt, Constable’s native village.
The two had first met when Maria was a child – just 9 years old. Twelve years later they met again, and the early acquaintance developed into romance. She was then 21, Constable 34.
Family objections delayed their marriage for seven years. The Reverend Rhudde opposed it on the grounds that because Constable had no stable profession, Maria would be marrying beneath herself, with respect to “fortune”. He also questioned the wisdom of her marrying a man his age, considered middle-aged, in those days. Maria’s parents were also against the union fearing that if the marriage were to go ahead it would jeopardise the inheritance that would come to Maria when her wealthy grandfather died.
In reply to his marriage proposal, Maria wrote to Constable on November 2, 1811. She makes plain that her acceptance will, regrettably, depend upon her father’s consent:
…I dare not suffer myself to think of your last letter. I am very impatient, as you may imagine, to hear from Papa, on the subject so fraught with interest to us both; but was unwilling to delay writing to you, as you would be ignorant of the cause of such seeming inattention. I hope you will not find that your partiality to me made you view what passed in Spring Gardens too favourably. You know my sentiments; I shall be guided by my father in every respect. Should he acquiesce in my wishes, I shall be happier than I can express. If not, I will have the consolation of reflecting that I am pleasing him, a charm that will in the end give the greatest satisfaction to my mind, I cannot write any more till the wished, but fearfully dreaded letter arrives.
A day later she wrote:
I have received my father’s letter. It is such a one as expected, reasonable and kind; his only objection would be on the score of that necessary evil money. What can we do? I wish I had it,but wishes are in vain; we must be wise and leave off a correspondence that is not calculated to make us think less of each other. We have many painful trials required of us in life, and we must learn to bear them with resignation (my underlining).
Constable, however, didn’t stop writing. Maria had left the door open for correspondence with her qualification (underlined) that they could continue provided the letters were not love letters. Constable, however, ignored the qualification, writing:
be assured we have only to consider our union as an event that must happen, and we shall yet be happy…
To which she replied:
You grieve and surprise me by continuing so sanguine on a subject altogether hopeless. I cannot endure that you should harbour expectations that must end in disappointment. I never can consent to act in opposition to the wishes of my father; how then can I continue a correspondence wholly disapproved by him?
But he continued to write, and she continued to respond.
To pursue his case, Constable wrote to Maria’s father requesting permission to visit her when he was in London. During those years he was spending the winters in London and the summers in Suffolk painting his oil studies and finished works of the landscape he loved. Mr Bricknell refused his request.
Apparently spurred by the need to establish himself as a professional artist, and with the object of winning the approval of Maria’s family no doubt in mind, Constable took commissions for portraits (on the advice and encouragement of his mother) in addition to the pursuit of his passion for landscape painting. This, said his biographer Charles Robert Leslie, demonstrated in him a “new steadiness of purpose’. In a letter of April 18, 1812, Constable wrote:
… I have dispatched my pictures to Somerset House: my friends say they are my best…I have sent four pictures, “The View Of Salisbury, “Flatford Mill” and two small ones….I shall have great pleasure in giving you some account of the exhibition…. ….
Whether or not Constable’s new sense of “steady purpose” influenced Mr Bricknell, we cannot know, but a second request for permission to visit Maria was successful, and the couple began to meet when Constable was in London, usually at the Bricknell residence, and sometimes in St James’ Park. Of this promising development his mother wrote: “thus speaks this unexpected gleam of sunshine on the lives of the lovers.” Dr Rhudde, however, was furious, disowning Maria as his granddaughter. In response, Constable wrote to her:
…I now more than ever repeat it: and I assure you, that nothing can be done, by any part of your family, that shall ever make any alteration in me towards you… it is sufficient for us to know that we have done nothing to deserve the ill opinion of anyone. our business is now more than ever with ourselves. I am entirely free of debt…my dearest Maria, I have nothing more to say than the sooner we are married the better….
They were married at “St Martin in the Fields Church”, Trafalgar Square, on October 2, 1816, without the approval of Dr Rhudde and Maria’s father. However, Mr Bricknell became reconciled to the union and grew very fond of his daughter’s husband. When Dr Rhudde died, Maria did receive her inheritance of 20,000 pounds.
The marriage was a successful, loving one, though plagued by Maria’s declining health. She was tubercular, and time spent in the purer airs of Hampstead and Brighton proved of no avail. She died on November 23, 1828 leaving a devastated Constable, and six surviving children. Sadly, she wasn’t able to share his pride in his achieving full professional status as an artist when he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1829.
Following her death, Constable wore a black coat for the rest of his life.