My friend and colleague Richard Constable, who has died aged 83, was the great-great-grandson of the landscape painter John Constable, and was himself an artist who did a great deal to further his ancestor’s reputation and legacy.
Born in Lewes, East Sussex, to John, a military officer, and Eileen (nee Saltmarsh), Richard was brought up on a farm in Devon. Time spent on Dartmoor made him a keen naturalist, with a passion for collecting and breeding butterflies and moths. Another early interest, which was one that had run in the family for generations, was painting, and in 1945 Richard won an art scholarship to Marlborough college in Wiltshire.
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