John Constable, R.A. (East Bergholt, Suffolk 1776-1837 Hampstead)

This sitter for this intimate portrait, dated by Graham Reynolds to 1835 (loc. cit.), has traditionally been identified as the artist's eldest son, John Charles. However, as Reynolds observes, there is a close resemblance to his second son, Charles Golding who was born in 1821 (ibid.). John Charles was a sensitive child and by all accounts the most like his father in temperament and looks. He took great interest in his father's work and encouraged him to paint his last great work: Arundel Mill and Castle, a picture he would later buy along with View of London from Hampstead Heath and Glebe Farm at the artist's posthumous sale at Foster's on 15-16 May 1838.