William George Constable (born

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, 27 October 1887, died

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, 3 February 1976, was an

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and gallery director. He was the father of Medieval Historian

Giles Constable Giles Constable (1 June 1929 – 17 January 2021) was a historian of the Middle Ages. Constable was mainly interested in the religion and culture of the 11th and 12th centuries, in particular the abbey of Cluny and its abbot Peter the Vener ...

Education

Distantly related to the landscape painter

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

, William George Constable was educated at

Derby School Derby School was a school in Derby in the English Midlands from 1160 to 1989. It had an almost continuous history of education of over eight centuries. For most of that time it was a grammar school for boys. The school became co-educational an ...

, where his father was headmaster, and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, where he read history, law and economics. In 1909, he was awarded the Whewell Scholarship for International Law. After gaining a First in economics in 1910, he was awarded the McMahon Law Studentship by St John's for four years, then entered the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

and was called to the Bar in May, 1914.

War Service

During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Constable served in the

Sherwood Foresters The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for just under 90 years, from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment to f ...

for two years, but he suffered severe

shell shock Shell shock is a term coined in World War I by the British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD was termed). It is a react ...

when a shell exploded in a trench a few feet from him, burying him alive. He then spent a long period in a nursing home while recovering.

Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge

While convalescing, Constable reworked and resubmitted an existing thesis to St John's and was elected a Fellow of the College, a position he held from January 1919 to the end of 1921.

Art career

From 1921, Constable attended the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in London, worked at the

Wallace Collection The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along w ...

. In 1923, he joined the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

, where he stayed for eight years, the last two as assistant director, and became an art critic for the

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

and the Saturday Review. In 1931, he moved to the newly formed

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, having been recruited as its first Director by

Arthur Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham Arthur Hamilton Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham, (8 November 1868 – 21 July 1947), was an English soldier, diplomat, politician, philanthropist and patron of the arts. After military postings and an assignment to the British Embassy in Wash ...

. In 1935, he succeeded

Roger Fry Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developme ...

as Slade Professor of Fine Art at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, while continuing as Director of the Courtauld. In 1937, he resigned both positions and in 1938 left England to become Curator of the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

. He remained in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

until his death in 1976.

Papers of W. G. Constable

The papers of Constable are held in multiple repositories. The

Smithsonian Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

holds biographical material as well as personal and professional correspondence and research papers belonging to Constable. Its collection also includes an oral history of Constable conducted in July 1972 - June 1973 by Robert Brown. Some material kept and created by Constable is also held at St John's College library. The

Paul Mellon Centre The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art is a scholarly centre in London devoted to supporting original research into the history of British Art. It was founded in 1970 and endowed by a gift from Paul Mellon. Since 1996, it has been si ...

archive holds the research notes, correspondence and photographs of Constable mainly relating to his work on the artist Richard Wilson, as well as other seventeenth-and-eighteenth-century artists.

Marriage

Constable married Olivia Roberts in 1926.

Selected publications

*''John Flaxman 1755-1826'' (University of London Press, 1927) *''Art History and Connoisseurship'' (1938) *''The Painter's Workshop'' (Oxford University Press, 1954) *''Richard Wilson'' (Routledge & Paul, London, 1953) *''Art Collecting in the United States of America: an Outline of a History'' (Nelson, London, 1964) *''Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768'' (2 vols., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1962)

External links

Papers of William George Constable
held at St John's College library, Cambridge
W. G. Constable Papers 1905-1981
held at Smithsonian Archives of American Art
The W. G. Constable Archive
held at the Paul Mellon Centre, London

References

*''W. G. Constable'' by J.G. Links in ''Burlington Magazine'' no. 118 (May 1976) *Terisio Pignatti in ''Arte Veneta 30'' (1976) 277-278 *''Dictionary of National Biography, 1971-1980'', pp. 171–2
William George Constable at arthistorians.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Constable, William George 1887 births 1976 deaths People educated at Derby School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Directors of the Courtauld Institute of Art American art historians British emigrants to the United States English art historians Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers