Constable met Maria Bicknell in 1809 during a visit to his hometown of East Bergholt and they fell in love. But their romance wasn't received well by family members. Maria's grandfather, Rev. Dr. Rhudde, threatened to disinherit her and her family because marrying an impoverished artist was worse than 'in trade'.

With parents meddling in the affairs of love and eventually forbidding the impending marriage, Constable found solace in painting, creating Boatbuilding, The Stour Valley and Dedham Villiage using an outdoor easel.

In a bittersweet turn of fate, Constable's father died in 1816. The inheritance he received gave him the independence he needed to marry Maria without parental approval. They married in the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London with no family members attending. Maria was immediately disinherited by her grandfather but her father softened and gave his daughter an allowance of £50 per year. On his death, her grandfather left her £4,000.

Maria died in 1829, at the age of 41, from tuberculosis, after giving birth to her seventh child. Constable wrote to his brother Golding, “Hourly do I feel the loss of my departed Angel – God only knows how my children will be brought up… the face of the World is totally changed to me.”