The neighborhood of Dedham, in Essex, and Flat ford, in Suffolk, England is often spoken of as “constable country” because it provided so many subjects for the brush of John Constable (1776-1837), the English landscape painter.
It has been said that constable was the first artist to discover that trees were green. What this really means is that, in the days when constable began to paint, it was fashionable to represent trees and fields in pictures in a dull brown colour which was considered “harmonious” and, also to redesign the landscape to make it more majestic or romantic.
Constable had no use for such notions. He depicted the beauty of the English scene, with its changing seasons, as he saw it. So it was a long time before he was recognized as a great painter. When he tried to reproduce the effect of shimmering light on trees the critic talked contemptuously of “constable’s snow”. They thought his use of green vulgar and showy.
However, in 1824 three of his landscapes which he sent for exhibition at the Paris salon were awarded a gold medal and had considerable influence