Bloomsday June 16th 2026

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Bloomsday is an annual celebration on June 16th honouring James Joyce and his novel, Ulysses, commemorating the day the book's events take place. Bloomsday is named after Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Joyce's 1922 novel which chronicles a single day in Dublin on 16 June, 1904 when Joyce met Nora Barnacle, his future wife, and enjoyed his first sexual relations with her. The first mention of such a celebration is found in a letter, written by Joyce, to a Miss Weaver on 27 June 1924, which  refers to "a group of people who observe what they call Bloom's Day --16 June."  What became known as Bloomsday seems to have been celebrated ever since and not only in Dublin, but, following the emigre paths of the wandering Irish as far afield as the U.S. and Australia.

The Ulysses route in Dublin

The 50^th anniversary in 1954 celebrated the occasion with a day-long pilgrimage along the Ulysses route, organized by John Ryan, an art critic, artist and founder of the Envoy magazine, together with Brian O’Nolan. They were joined by Patrick Kavanagh, Antony Cronin, Tom Joyce, (James’ cousin to represent the family interest), and A.J. Leventhal, a lecturer in French at Trinity College, Dublin. Ryan had engaged two horse-drawn cabs, like the old-fashioned models in which Bloom and his friends had driven to Paddy Dignam’s funeral in Ulysses. Each member of the group was assigned roles from the novel. Cronin was Stephen Dedalus; O’Nolan represented Simon Dedalus, Stephen’s father; Ryan was the journalist, Martin Cunningham; and Leventhal, who was Jewish, filled the role of Leopold Bloom. They planned to drive around Dublin throughout the day, starting at the Martello Tower at Sandycove [where the novel begins], visiting, in turn, the scenes portrayed in the novel, ending, at night, in what had once been the brothel area of the city called Nighttown by Joyce. This 1954 literary pilgrimage, important though it was,  had to be abandoned halfway through at the Bailey Pub because of drunken quarrelling among group members. Ryan, the pilgrimage organiser, filmed it unofficially so that there is a record of Bloomsday 1954. He happened to own the Bailey Pub by 1954, and, in 1967, he installed the door to 7 Eccles Street [Leopold Bloom’s front door in the novel] which he had been able to buy at auction, saving it from demolition. 

Bloomsday universal.

 The festival itself, organized by the James Joyce Centre on behalf of the city of Dublin, involved, and continues to involve, a range of cultural activities including Ulysses readings, community runs and dramatisations, pub crawls and other Joycean events. Enthusiasts often dress up as characters from the book, in Edwardian costumes  to celebrate as they retrace Bloom’s route around Dublin via landmarks such as Davy Byrne’s pub. Hard-core devotees have even been known to hold marathon readings of the entire novel, some lasting up to 36 hours. The James Joyce Tower and Museum at Sandycove also hosts many free activities around Bloomsday including musical events, tours of the iconic tower and public readings from Joyce’s masterpiece. On Bloomsday 1982, the centenary of Joyce’s birth, RTE, the Irish State broadcaster, transmitted a continuous 30-hour dramatic performance of the entire Ulysses text on radio.   

Bloomsday devotees in costume and in action!

 A five-month long festival, Rejoyce Dublin 2004, took place in Dublin between 1st April and 31st August 2004. On the Sunday before the hundredth anniversary of the fictional events described, 10,000 Dubliners were treated to an open air, free breakfast of sausages, bacon rashers, toast, beans and black pudding plus white pudding. Joyce enthusiasts in Dublin never do things by halves!  But more Joycean celebration excesses were to come although the 2006 Bloomsday festivities had to be cancelled when its normal day of remembrance coincided with the funeral of Charles Haughey, three times Taoiseach of Ireland. Senator and Joycean scholar, David Norris was not impressed with the cancellation. He said, "He, (Haughey) was a great Joycean. ....  You can't cancel Bloomsday! You can't cancel Sunday. Perhaps you

Hats in the air on Bloomsday!

won't go to Church but it's still Sunday. And in Dublin, the 16th of June is Bloomsday." 

Unusual award in the literary world.
A bronze plaque awarded for being an
outstanding example of an authentic Dublin pub
as described in Ulysses.
The James Joyce Pub Award.

Bloomsday run, Spokane.

Possibly the youngest and smartest
Bloomsday partipant.

Every year, hundreds of Dubliners dress up as Bloom characters though they may never have read Ulysses nor intend to. But their costumed participation suggests a willingness, even an enthusiasm, to be part of the whole event. It is impossible to imagine any other modern literary masterpiece having such a striking effect on the life of a city, echoed globally                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Washington. 2004.

 

James Joyce whose character, Leopold Bloom,
 from his novel Ulysses, has fond admirers
throughout the English-speaking world.

                    

Hockney: A Life in Art

Yorkshire landscape.

Self-portrait in earlier years.

David Hockney died this week, on 9^th June 2026, a sad shock to me as he seemed to have always been around
for most of my life. As I was born on July 28^th, 1934, and he on July 9^th, 1937, that statement does seem to fit with the figures! With him, I never had the picture of an elderly man in my mind; it was always the young open smiling face, adorned with large spectacles and topped by a blond mop of bleached hair. He was the fourth of five children of an accountancy clerk who became a Conscientious Objector during WW2, not a popular public position I would assume, from my early childhood memories of the zeal of the anti-Nazi German sentiment which was part of the air one breathed in ordinary, day to day life then.

Hockney was lucky in that both his parents strongly supported the development of his artistic abilities and subsequent career choices. After Bradford Grammar School, Hockney attended Bradford College of Art followed by the R.C.A., the Royal College of Art in London, where he featured, along with Peter Blake, in an historically notable exhibition, New Contemporaries, which announced the arrival of British Pop Art, a movement with which he became strongly associated. Towards the end of his student years, the RCA refused to allow him to graduate unless he completed an assignment of a drawing of a model from life. [1962] He painted Life Painting for a Diploma in protest and refused to write an essay also required for the final examination, insisting that he should be assessed on his artwork alone. While still a student, Hockney had begun to exhibit and the RCA recognized his burgeoning talent and his growing reputation by changing its regulations and awarding him the coveted Diploma without the essay! This enabled him to become an art lecturer, which he saw as a means to an end, and he taught briefly at Maidstone College of Art, followed by teaching spells in the University of Iowa [1964]; Uni of Colorado, Boulder [1965]; Uni of California, Los Angeles [1966/7] and Uni of California, Berkeley [1967].     

Tree- and cloud-scape in Normandy.

Between Kilham and Langsoft.
Yorkshire.

Hockney had moved to America in 1964, hence his U.S. university placements and art, and he became almost intoxicated with the brilliance of the natural light enhancing the bright colours around him, particularly in California. He had always been open to new ideas and to experimentation in his art, and now he moved to painting in acrylics, using vibrant colours, to portray a series of swimming pool paintings. He spent more than the next decade living in a series of homes in Los Angeles, London and Paris, in 1974 beginning a personal relationship with Gregory Evans who moved to live with him in 1976, remaining for many years as a business partner.                                             

Garrowby Hill.  One of his most famous paintings,
demonstrating his love of bright colours.
 Poster  1998

As  to his financial affairs little detail is known except that he moved, over his life, from modest beginnings to a greater opulence in that in 1978 he rented a home in the Hollywood Hills which he later bought, incorporating his studio into the main house. He also owned a large beach house on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu which he sold in 1999 for about $1.5 million.

Self portrait in red braces, with brush, in later years

During the 1990s Hockney returned to Yorkshire every few months to visit his mother who died in 1999. Until 1997, his visits were short but in 1999 after her death, persuaded by a friend, he started to portray local surroundings, originally from early memories, some from his boyhood, but in 1998, he completed his important painting from life, of the Yorkshire landmark, Garrowby Hill. The Yorkshire landscape continued to exert a strong influence on David and he returned there for increasingly long periods and by 2003, was painting in oils and watercolours en plein air, finally taking up residence in a converted ‘bed and breakfast’ in Bridlington, only about 75 miles from where his life had begun.  He produced a series of watercolours entitled, Midsummer: East Yorkshire 2003/4 following a period of intense study of the medium and began to create works of art comprising paintings of smaller canvases, between 2 and 50, placed together, Some of these were art on a large scale and he used digital photographic reproductions to study and assess the day’s work.

Chair, pool and cactus. Normandy Print
Pleasingly geometric!

The Arrival of Spring in Normandy. 2020. iPad

In 2019 Hockney created a studio at La Grande Cour, a rustic farmhouse near Beuvron-en-Auge in Normandy where he spent a whole year using a sketchpad and iPad to paint the changing seasons in a series of images which he said were inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, another Normandy export.He had an extraordinary talent; inventive and exuberant, ever alert to, and receptive of, emerging pop art. and his versatility meant that he could work  happily in painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, stage design and in later digital media such as iPad and iPhone drawings.

 His childhood was a happy one; he was apparently oblivious to the smoke-blackened industrial

Hockney in Washington Square in the Seventies.

landscape outside his door. He seemed unaffected by nostalgia or snobbery and his art, particularly his early art, simply and unselfconsciously depicts modern life, his life as he observed and lived it. His paintings always give a visual pleasure to the observer as he shares his own joy in light and in the beauty of everyday life, especially including the male figure. Hockney was gay but while he was unusually direct in his treatment of gay desire, making it part of his subject matter, it was remarkable in that, in the early 1960s, he felt so comfortable in expressing homosexuality in his art, when it was still illegal with prison a strong probability for ‘offenders’. Being gay was just part of his truth which he lived and painted and thus he unselfconsciously integrated his identity into his art. Both Hockney and his art were insouciant and joyful, but also, innocent and untroubled. His important artistic legacy lies in his innovative approach to light, space and perception with his readiness to integrate both traditional and modern techniques in his highly individual approach to his art.

Pool with two figures
California.

And, below, two more of his swimming pool paintings.

T

Historic and Artistic Seville

 

   

                                                 Torre del Oro, next to the Guadalquivir River.

 Just returned from a holiday week in Seville, Andalucia, and my family and I are full to overflowing after the splendid sights and experiences which even a short break can introduce. My own European experiences seem to have been French and Italian, in both of which languages I can limp along, but Spanish is totally unknown to me and perhaps this heightened for me the slight feelings of perhaps a new reality, underlining the foreign-ness of Seville. But that statement in no way undermines  the sheer delight for the visitor of the sounds accompanying and accentuating the sights of this Spanish city.

Nave of the magnificent Cathedral

Plaza de Espana with a close-up peep at
the decorative blue and white tiles.

Seville's historic centre is compact in layout, with a flat terrain, perfect for exploring on foot, though in my case, in a wheelchair manned by family in a bid to aid my stamina! Small plazas pop up frequently, offering an apparently endless succession of small tapas bars with outdoor tables where visitors may sit and people-watch as they sip companionably together. I particularly
appreciated the wonderful architecture with its Islamic and Christian history visibly blended in a particular harmony. Especially enticing were the frequent decorative  banks and borders featuring the most exquisite tiling. 

Most major attractions sit within a 20 minute walk of each other so that eager tourists can wander from the Cathedral to the Alcazar and over to the Plaza de Espana passing such novelties [to the visiting eye] as bridges, with the parapet, the platform and other pillars ALL lined with the eponymous blue and white tiling. A  continuing feast for the eyes! The Real (Royal) Alcazar of Seville, has overseen centuries of life with its intricate tile work, peaceful courtyards and lush gardens, all off which make the entire complex so special. La Giralda tower stands as Seville's most iconic landmark, rising 104 metres above the city with access to the summit eased by gently sloping ramps, originally designed to allow the guards to ride horses to the top. At the summit, there are panoramic views of the orange-tiled rooftops, winding streets and the Guadalquivir River with its surface so often, glinting and swirling in the sun. On especially clear days, the Santa Cruz area, the Plaza de Espana and even the distant mountains are visible from this vantage point. The tower itself is a unique blend of Muslim and Chrisrian architecture, harmonious and decorative at all times, but especially so in the ever-present sun.

Flamenco includes graceful and 
dramatic hand movements in
time to the rhythm of the music.

The Cathedral is a remarkable architectural achievement, one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the world. Built between 1401 and 1528, it was designed to show off the city's wealth and power and contains 80 elaborate chapels while also housing the important tomb of Christopher Columbus. 

As a stunning postscript to this hymn of praise to Seviglia, flamenco must be included! The city claims to be the birthplace of flamenco when this passionate art form took shape in the Triana neighbourhood centuries ago. We witnessed the glory of this ritual with its soulful guitar, powerful singing and dramatic stamping movements: an unforgettable expression of Andalucian culture which brings a shiver to the spine.

 

Moorish arcade and courtyard in the Alcazar

                                                                                                    Views of exquisite tile decor and sun-in-the-eyes family

 

Real Alcazar gardens, Seville.

Sun, shadows and tapas in Seviglia.

Royal Tobacco Factory, Seviglia

     

Islamic architecture, 16th century.
Patio de la Doncellas  Marble pavement, laid 1581-84.

 

 

U.K.Energy in A Conflicted World.

 

GLOBAL INSECURITY AND POLITICAL EXTREMISM

HOW IS THE UK AFFECTED?

The Strait of Hormuz Explained

Background

On February 28^th, 2026, Israel and the United States began a campaign of military strikes against Iran. In response, Iran launched air strikes against Israel and U.S. military bases plus other targets in many nearby Arab states including energy infrastructure. And additionally, Iran both threatened, and then acted against, ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane which links the Arab/Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and beyond, to the wider sea. The result of the Iranian Gulf of Hormuz air strikes resulted in a massive decline in shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz thus
curtailing the export of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf. By mid-March 2026 the International Energy Agency estimated that around 20 million barrels of oil had been affected by the Iranian-imposed reduction in shipping volume in the Strait of Hormuz, with oil production cut by at least 10 million barrels in the Gulf countries, equivalent to about 10% of global production. Liquefied natural gas exports from the region, notably from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have also been severely interrupted. The result of this disruption to energy supplies has been a sharp rise in the prices of oil, other petroleum products and natural gas in international markets. Brent crude [an international benchmark price for oil] rose from around $70 a barrel, pre-conflict, to over $100 a barrel, with volatility in prices resulting from the uncertainties of the developing situation which also contains the terrible possibility of military escalation.

Effects on the UK.

The initial economic consequences of the conflict were immediately felt globally. This single act has disastrous potential for the world. As an example, U.K. wholesale natural gas prices rose by roughly 75% between late February and 23 March 2026 together with other petroleum-based products, such as jet fuel and heating oil, with attendant costs inevitably increasing sharply. The Persian Gulf is also an important hub for fertilizer production and exports; thus, fertilizer prices have also risen, raising agricultural costs and potentially, threatening future crop yields. Petrol prices have risen between 28 February and 23 March, by approximately 14 pence a litre (10%) while diesel prices have risen by 29 pence a litre, (about 20%) and farmers have reported large increases in the costs of their fuel and fertilizer. The National Farmers’ Union has already warned that food prices will rise due to the higher costs of energy and fertilizer while the manufacturers’ trade body, Make UK, has underlined the impact of high industrial energy costs on the manufacturing sector.

Prior to the conflict, the U.K. inflation rate had been expected to fall from 3% at the beginning of 2026 to closer to 2% from April 2026, remaining at the lower rate for the rest of the year. It remains difficult to forecast likelihoods, as uncertainty over the duration and extent of the Middle East conflict continues, but the Bank of England had a shot on 19 March 2026 and suggested that the CPI [Consumer Price Inflation] would likely remain between 3% and 5% for the rest of this year. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee [MPC] on the same day announced that its main interest rate continued at 3.75%.

As the UK is a net energy importer, higher energy costs are almost certain to lead to UK economic activity weakening. Just yesterday [May 28] we learnt that household energy prices will rise by 13% a year in July -- an average increase for households of £221 a year--as households continue to pay the price for Trump's disastrous war with Iran. Indeed, the rise in energy prices has led to a record high level of domestic energy consumer debt, totalling £444.15 billion at the beginning of 2025, up 150% since late 2021.

Prior to the conflict, the Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast GDP growth at 1.1% in 2026 Forecasts for UK GDP growth in 2026 have now been cut, with slightly varying figures suggested for growth: Barclays, and KPMG, 0.7%; Oxford Economics, 0.4%; Pantheon Macroeconomics, 0.6%.   to  The Government has taken steps to address energy poverty, including proposed reforms to winter support schemes and an ambitious Energy Debt Relief Scheme which is well-intentioned and gratefully received, but which has added £2.4 billion a year in interest over 14 years. The rise in energy costs is painful, not only domestically but importantly over the widely-varied business sector, much of which is energy-dependent and therefore hugely handicapped by the attendant spiralling costs.

Slower GDP growth maybe the result leading to downward pressure on inflation as reduced demand for goods and services leads to, at least, some firms pricing more competitively in order to attract more customers. However this is a slow and unsteady process which could easily be overwhelmed by sudden oil and gas supply shocks pushing up prices against a background of continuing global turmoil.                                      

The above summary outlines some inevitable consequences of global conflict and political extremism not necessarily initially involving the U.K. but nonetheless hugely affecting national and domestic economic life.                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

Remembering Dementia.

 Can we forget it?  Not if we have witnessed the effects of this devastating disease. Apprehension over the possibilities of dementia does in fact feature strongly in the fears of all those ageing into their sixties or beyond. And understandably so when the statistics show that one in three of us will go on to develop the disease. Dementia is, in fact, now the leading cause of death in the UK, accounting for more than 76,000 deaths in 2024 with the economic consequences ever-mounting as the cost to the U.K. economy soars to £42 billion in 2024.

Despite these facts, dementia has long been comparatively neglected as a major health condition, with late diagnosis, substandard treatment and insufficient support for afflicted families featuring as normal. Research from University College, London, shows that it takes roughly three and a half years from first symptom to full maturity of the condition for diagnosis, with up to one third of sufferers remaining undiagnosed.  My sister who died with the disease nine years ago is an example; she remained clinically undiagnosed, partly because her family held the popular belief that it was all part of the normal ageing process.

Last year, the UK Govt. announced a Modern Service Framework for Dementia and Frailty, to improve the quality of dementia care and treatment in England.  Michelle Dyson, CEO of Alzheimer’s Society suggests that this new framework provides a great opportunity to showcase two main ambitions; notably to reduce deaths and importantly, enable sufferers to live longer and better lives outside of care homes. Achieving this will require a two-pronged approach to prevention: earlier diagnosis and intervention, with that formal involvement backed by all departments across Govt. committing the same levels of urgency and ambition as that generated by early cancer campaigns. One of the biggest positives is the renewed backing for the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals Programme, an initiative originally campaigned for by supporters of  Alzheimer's Research U.K. This Programme is committed to speeding up research into new tests and treatments and is a key vehicle for delivering the Governmental promise to transform how dementia is treated in the NHS.

Perennial Problems

Late diagnosis and misdiagnosis can lead to problems for patients.  For example, many clinical trials where patients can try life-changing new treatments are only available to those in the early stages of dementia. Paresh Malhotra, Professor of Clinical Neurology at Imperial College, London, believes that earlier, specific diagnosis for everyone is needed. “Everyone in the country deserves an MRI scan and specific blood tests when they present with symptoms rather than having to wait years.” Linsey Farnsworth, Labour M.P. for Amber Valley, observed the longer-term effects of misdiagnosis for her father who was initially diagnosed with depression and anxiety, but then, eventually, with Alzheimer’s.  Several years after the initial diagnosis, he received a CT brain scan confirming he had frontotemporal dementia suggesting that his earlier treatment had been ineffective and the drugs administered had been mainly a waste of resources.

The NHS is expensive; the annual per-person cost of mild dementia is £28,700 compared with £80,500 for severe dementia and these escalating charges can lead to cost problems for any innovation. Two new disease-modifying therapies, donanemab and lecanemab, which slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s rather than just managing symptoms, were approved by the UK medicine’s regulator in April 2015 and are being used in private healthcare settings but not in the regular NHS. NICE decided that the small benefits of their use did not justify the cost. Yet, Professor Malhotra believes that their full benefits will not be realized until they are more widely used in clinics, and that, as new treatments are developed, then incorporated, into combinations of therapies,                                                                                                success will more likely be achieved.

Dementia patients are often discharged from specialist care such as neurological or psychiatric and sent back to their G.P. after diagnosis, which may well result in less specialized care and can lead to a lack of support for families. The new framework is seeking to trace a coherent treatment path for dementia patients where continuous care from specialists is available and patient information is shared between GPs, specialists, care home and clinical research programmes. Recent data shows that only 55% of care staff have received any dementia-specific training and Farnsworth has backed the Alzheimer Society’s call for dementia-specific training for the social care workforce. Meanwhile, Dame Louise Casey is currently undertaking an independent commission on reforming adult social care and has called for the creation of a dementia czar, rather like the creation of a cancer czar more than 20 years ago which brought significant success. 

Professor Malhotra believes that the medical emphasis needs to move from thinking about treating dementia to addressing the diseases and ways of living that cause dementia in the first place. It is estimated that nearly half of all dementia cases worldwide are preventable, with major contributors to its development being mid-life hearing loss, loneliness, physical inactivity and high blood pressure. And better public health messaging, like the effective ‘Stop smoking’ campaigns for cancer, could also raise awareness of the 14 lifestyle factors which increase dementia risk. C.E.O. of the Alzheimer’s Society, Michele Dyson, feels it is very important to provide much more help for carers and families and she urges that this new Modern Service Framework gives a once-in-a-lifetime chance to seize the opportunities presented by recent research to devise systems to respond to the immense challenges of what is being described as the UK's dementia crisis. For too long, dementia has been treated as an inevitability to be managed, rather than a condition where earlier intervention can make a meaningful difference to lives.

John Constable 1776-1837

John Constable 1776-1837 Self portrait in pencil

 The 250^th anniversary of the birth of one of Britain’s most beloved artists, John Constable, is near, the important date being June 11, and there are various celebratory exhibitions in both Suffolk and in London. [See below] His views of rural England are treasured as the embodiment

Boat building near Flatford.

of the nostalgic essence of life then enjoyed. They picture our imagined way of life then prevalent, in picture-perfect country scenes far removed, it must be said, from the hardship and squalor often experienced by much of the population, both in town and country. 

Constable found inspiration locally; in places familiar to him from childhood; the local village church; the mill his father owned in Flatford; the tow paths and lock gates of the canalised River Stour, and the wooded lane down which he had once walked to school in Dedham. In his youth, Constable enjoyed amateur sketching trips in the surrounding Suffolk and Essex countryside which he grew to love. He felt that these familiar and beloved scenes “made me a painter and I am grateful.” He listed, “the sounds of water escaping from mill dams etc. willow, old rotten planks, slimy posts and brickwork. I love such things.” Such everyday sights would not normally have been considered worthy of artistic endeavour but Constable was determined to prove otherwise.

The Vale of Dedham 1822

The Cornfield  1806

Although he might have been expected to take over his father’s business,  in 1799 John managed to persuade him (Golding Constable) to let John pursue a career in art while granting his son a small allowance to permit this life choice. Entering the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer, Constable attended life classes and anatomical dissections while studying and copying the old masters. He found works by such well-known artists as Gainsborough, Lorrain, Rubens, Carracci and van Ruisdael, particularly inspiring. In 1802 he refused the position of Drawing Master at Great Marlow Military College [now Sandhurst] to concentrate on establishing his main career. 

Around the same time, he wrote to painter, John Dunthorne, articulating his determination to become a professional landscape painter. “For the last two years I have been running after pictures and seeking

The Hay Wain 1821

the truth at second hand. ….  I have tried to make my performances look like the work of other men. There is room enough for a natural painter.” His early style shared many qualities of his later mature work, including a freshness of light and subtlety of colour, and exhibits the influence of the old masters, especially the work of Claude Lorrain. But his usual subjects, scenes of ordinary daily life, were unfashionable in an age that looked for more romantic visions of wild landscapes and ruins.

Constable was, however, desperate to become a Royal Academician but he could see that his modest rural landscapes could easily be overlooked.  He attempted to persuade the art world to take him more seriously by upsizing! Starting in 1819 he began to paint canvases that were much larger than hitherto, scaling up his Suffolk landscapes into oils that were six feet wide. Despite their modest subject matter, the ‘six-footers’ as he called them, were eye-catching and impactful and made even mundane scenes of boats and barge horses seem monumental. These huge canvases were difficult for him to accomplish but proved to be a winning formula in his quest for fame. Thanks to masterpieces such as The White Horse (1819), The Hay Wain (1821) and The Leaping Horse (1825) Constable made a name for himself as a specialist in landscapes that sparkled with vitality and freshness, in the process of which he immortalised the Stour Valley so that, in his lifetime, the Suffolk/Essex border became known as ‘Constable Country’, a fond tribute still heard today.

The Low Lighthouse and Beacon Hill. 1820

By the time he was in his late 40s, dark clouds had begun to gather in Constable’s personal life. His wife, Maria, was 
suffering from the disease that plagued the period: tuberculosis. With the hope that sea air might improve her health, the family moved to Brighton, and the foreboding Constable felt at this time is communicated within the coastal studies he painted on the beach which depict a shaft of light being obliterated by an incoming wall of rain, and which seem to capture his troubled state of mind. Meanwhile, the immediate family situation was hopeless, and Maria died in 1828. Profoundly affected by her loss, Constable’s later works are notable for their change in outlook. The blue skies and summer sunshine that had characterised his childhood remembrances gave way to storms and shadows. He also went on to experiment with printmaking, converting many of his paintings into darker, moodier versions in black and white mezzotint that reflected his grief and anxiety.

Constable's wife, Maria Bicknell who died
of T.B. in 1828.

Maria Constable with two of her children. 1822

Rainstorm over the Sea 1824/28 View from Brighton.

Cloud study 1822
Constable believed that the sky was 'the chief
organ of sentiment' for a painting. It set the tone
for the rest of the picture. 

Curr Curr CurrCurrent Exhibitions. ChrisCristchurch Mansion in Ipswich is hosting not one but three exhibitions: Constable: A Cast of Characters (until 14 June), The Hay Wain: Walking Constable’s Landscape (11 July–4 October) and Constable to Contemporary (24 October 2026–28 February 2027) Step into Constable’s world at the National Trust’s site in Flatford. The Trust has teamed up with Essex Cultural Diversity Project to commission artists Tom Hobden and Phoebe Stapleton on an exhibition and participation project inspired by Constable, titled The Rivers and Skies Gainsborough, Turner & Constable: Inventing Landscape is on at Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury until 11 October John Constable and David Lucas: A Unison of Feeling is a display exploring the artist’s print series, English Landscape Scenery, at V&A South Kensington until 14 June