Any exploration of the work of John Constable must start by looking at his childhood in the Stour Valley, Suffolk. Constable himself said that the landscape in this area is what made him want to be a painter. This lecture provides a general background to the life and work of Constable, it also looks at the ‘wild side’ of Constable’s practice, examining the extent to which he was seen by his contemporaries as a radical artist, as opposed to the traditional, even ‘chocolate box’ artist many think of him as today