I saw some portraits yesterday in Brick Lane. In the Underground journey home I saw a poster for Constable Portraits, The Painter & His Circle exhibition. And so now having previously visited Constable Country and Flatford Mill as well as Woodbridge, Salisbury and much of the south of England, I entered the hallowed halls of the National Portrait Gallery to politely dance imaginary minuets before the portraits in order to avoid unsighting the gentility perusing the works.

You are immediately transported from the chewing-gum bespattered pavements of London to the delights of John Constable's family and friends, in generally glowing, rude health or perhaps rouged cheeks, comfortable in the Georgian elegance of their times.

I'm not convinced that Mr. Constable was so assured in his portraiture as in his landscapes, but he still did a damn good job. I made notes about thirty pieces, mainly paintings. I wasn't so much convinced by his drawings. Of the paintings I noted that ten were outstanding and just one or two simply missed me. I noted all the dates but they don't have any relevance to what I simply saw by opening my eyes and my mind and seeing the works simply as they are. The frames were of such an assortment that they helped support some of the weaker portraits and just occasionally distracted from what might otherwise have appeared as outstanding portraits. In that respect the frames mattered and when I looked through the catalogue I reappraised a few of the pieces. The compositions were more variable than I had expected.

The curators have found some pleasant quotes from contemporary records, which add to the experience, but place yourself in a costume drama of any of Jane Austen's era and you will ease yourself into a kind and gently chauvinistic world. Alright, I have to start with Mr. Constable's dates; born 1776, died 1837. In 1806 he pencilled in a rather tentative manner a profile portrait of himself. He was regarded as a genteel, handsome youth. A few years earlier, in 1799, he painted an exceptional portrait of his 'close friend' Ramsie Richard Reingle. Whether it was the rural air, the ale or the style of portraiture, this healthy, refined and elegant man has flushed cheeks. Ann Taylor said of Mr. Constable that she had never met with so 'finished a model of what is reckoned manly beauty.'

And so in 1816 he married Maria Bicknell after wooing her for seven patient years with her family resisting such a husband with the clear intention of being a painter whether of landscapes or portraits. Yet his own father was well established at Flatford.

The portrait of Golding Constable in 1815 showed him not as a humble or menial miller but as a corn-factor also having a fleet of barges on the River Stour as well as a sea-going vessel 'The Telegraph' trading between Mistley in Essex and London. Again the weather beaten cheeks glow in accompaniment with his modestly curled wig. In a later portrait the finish of the paintwork is looser and the hand placed on a leather bound volume.

An earlier portrait of his brother Abram in 1806 show him having a similar profile. The white lacework at his throat is confident and clearly these brothers got on well.

In 1808 when he painted Master Crosby it is a rendering of a weak child weakly painted. It is similarly unconvincing as the 1806 portrait of James Lloyd. The man was a wealthy amateur writer of the Lloyds who were Quaker bankers from Birmingham. It's unclear and appears to show a sickly man in a relatively colourless painting.

Supporting these portraits there are a few landscapes and the 1809 view of Malvern Hall from the Lake is a very pleasant scene. A fine house in its park, reflected in the lake. A truly green and pleasant land. In the same year Mr. Constable painted a pair of exceptional portraits; Henry Greswold Lewis, to the formula of ruddy cheeks, slightly tousled hair, a high white collar and a fur trimmed coat. His fine lips show a determination. He is a widower. The other work is of his thirteen-year-old ward the delightful Miss Mary Freer. It is said that he was strongly, indeed obsessively interested in his ward. And if one were to let one's guard down, might we not all share such a proper interest. Her face is slightly asymmetrical, but well finished. The remainder of the canvas is more loosely treated. She is a lovely young woman.

The same year Mr. Constable produced an exceptionally large canvas with a group of three Barker children; Sophia Norris, Harriet Sarah and Robert. The elder girl wears a sombre black dress. It's not said that the family is in mourning, perhaps it was just the fashion of the time. Harriet has a white dress but a diaphanous black overskirt. Young Robert, poor boy, has a white top and some sort of bloomers. The black ribbon or belt holds him tight across the chest. The most surprising colour is his bright red shoes.

And so to 1816 when Mr Constable painted a very loving three-quarter view portrait of Miss Mary Bicknell. There is tremendous attention to the face and a beautifully energetic and confidently loose treatment of the dress. Can the black ribbon or belt again be showing she is in mourning as Mr. Golding Constable has recently died?

The Reverend John Fisher married Miss Mary Fisher. The husband's portrait is of a no-nonsense young man, the nephew of the Bishop of Salisbury. The wife's portrait is of a busty daughter of the Canon of Windsor wearing an over elaborated dress and loosely curled hair. The plain gilded frame for the first is in contrast with the particularly complex detail of the second.

When Mrs. Maria Constable died in November 1828 Mr. John Constable was left with seven children. The fourteen year-old second son, Master Charles Golding Constable, chose to become a seaman and enlisted as a midshipman aboard an East Indiaman. His father's portrait of his son was depressingly or pessimistically brown.

Mr. Constable clearly painted many excellent portraits but he generally excelled with painting men and women of his own generation with whom he had a strong bond or deep love. Yet he could still produce impressive portraits such as that of the Reverend Doctor John Wingfield. This 1818 portrait shows a learned master of over twenty years standing at Westminster School. Despite Mr. Constable's aversion to such a subject this work is a powerful and sensitive portrait of the man wearing a wig and a plain collar. In the same year and displayed on the same wall are two sympathetic portraits of women in their elaborate and pastel finery.

The 1829 portrait of Doctor Herbert Evans is particularly poignant. He was a family friend much needed in looking after Mr. Constable's beloved wife and children. The intensity of Mr. Constable's feeling for his friend is shown in this relatively small but finely worked piece. But for me the frame was the least appropriate in the show and more suited to a Tretchikoff print! I asked the opinion of a young woman who was calmly viewing the portraits of Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Tuder. There was a certain something about the layered fashionable clothes that she herself was wearing. We went to look again at the rosy-cheeked portrait of Miss Mary Freer. I observed that she could pass easily herself with such a look with the application of a little rouge. She smiled, almost curtseyed, and made her leave with a dance in her step. Clearly Mr. Constable's well behaved portraits bring out the best in us.

Two artists made studies of Mr. Constable. About 1830 in oils, Charles Robert Leslie produced a confident piece and it is noted that he wrote Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, said to be one of the most eloquent and touching biographies ever written of an artist. The second work is a delicate pencil drawing by Daniel Maclise recording him working on a drawing as a Royal Academician, 'Visitor' in the R.A. Life School.

And so to the 1825 portrait by Mr. Constable of an amateur painter and friend whom he considered 'the most agreeable person in the world.' Sir Richard Digby Neave, Bt. whose grandfather had been Governor of the Bank of England, is a very fine portrait infused with vitality. The rather yellow-gold frame needs to mellow down and avoid distracting from the work.

In the same year William Lambert J.P. is depicted in a work, which it is said, that is not so much the sort of man he likes to portray, but still Mr. Constable did a devilishly fine likeness.

And so the first or last portrait at the entrance to the rooms. Painted about 1808-9 the sixteen year old Jane Anne Mason (Mrs. James Inglis.) is recommended to Mr. Constable. 'you will think her grown.' And so she is represented as a liveable and loveable young woman.

Mr. John Constable. I admire your work all the more. Most of your best portraits are almost plain but they are direct and sensitive. When you have loved a person wholly you have portrayed them with dedication and intensity. Oh that our lives and times could be as well mannered as you have represented yours. I take my hat off to you, Sir.

© Brian Marsh, 2 April 2009 email initiative.cafe@btinternet.com