0:00:03 > 0:00:07I'm here in London at the Victoria And Albert Museum
0:00:07 > 0:00:12to see the wonderful works of John Constable, of who I'm a huge fan.
0:00:14 > 0:00:19People know me best for the...the Glastonbury Festival
0:00:19 > 0:00:21that I started in 1970,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25but first and foremost, you know, I'm really a dairy farmer.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33I'm Michael Eavis and this is my private view of Constable.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55It's incredible, the beauty and the detail.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Oh, fantastic.
0:00:59 > 0:01:00Look at the wheels on that wagon.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03The steel rims around the outside of...of the wheel,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05look at them shining.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07Amazing.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11And a couple of ducks here, look, mating away.
0:01:15 > 0:01:16That child's got a whip.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22But horses don't usually need whips, actually.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25But racehorses maybe, but not these horses.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28So full of the desire to work and to pull
0:01:28 > 0:01:30and to...
0:01:30 > 0:01:33Amazing creatures, they really are.
0:01:34 > 0:01:40My father's love for his horses was...insurmountable, really.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44He had two or three horses and his favourite horse died,
0:01:44 > 0:01:50and...and it was...it was one of two occasions in my life when I...
0:01:50 > 0:01:54I saw him break down and cry about the loss of the horse, you know,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56because it meant so much to him.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03The horse was the main...creature on the farm, really,
0:02:03 > 0:02:05apart from his wife, I suppose.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09HE LAUGHS
0:02:28 > 0:02:29Oh, it's so beautiful.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33I mean it...it's a really romantic view of England at its best,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35with the church and the village
0:02:35 > 0:02:37and the...the farmer
0:02:37 > 0:02:39and the two reapers over here, look.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41They're drinking out of the stream.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43I used to do that when I was a kid, you know,
0:02:43 > 0:02:46drink the spring water from the fields on my farm.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49And we used to catch eels with bare hands,
0:02:49 > 0:02:51you're going down into the river...
0:02:51 > 0:02:54and picking great long eels out of the water, so thrilling.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57So joyful and so real.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00That turns you into a real person.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06See the plough, the horse-drawn plough?
0:03:06 > 0:03:10No horse, though, to go with the plough, but, em...
0:03:10 > 0:03:13that's what they would actually plough the field up,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15to plant the wheat.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Em, there's a genuine article there
0:03:18 > 0:03:21and I...I pulled many a plough, actually.
0:03:21 > 0:03:26I mean, when I was a child with my father and, em,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29I've got fantastic memories of living in the country when I was that age.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33It might be romantic, but...but what's wrong with romance?
0:03:33 > 0:03:35It's fantastic.
0:03:48 > 0:03:49So, this is Stonehenge.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56It's a bit, em, sort of topsy-turvy, isn't it?
0:03:57 > 0:04:00I mean, it's very atmospheric and the sky is lovely,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03rays of light coming through as well.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08I mean, it's...it's very magical and mystical,
0:04:08 > 0:04:09the hippies would love it.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15When I was a kid, you know, we used to go past there
0:04:15 > 0:04:17cos we had some uncles and cousins there,
0:04:17 > 0:04:19and we used to play cricket,
0:04:19 > 0:04:24and we actually used the stones as the wickets.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27We had a piece of chalk and we just drew...
0:04:27 > 0:04:30we drew the stumps on the stone, you know?
0:04:30 > 0:04:33A terribly wicked thing to do,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36but we didn't think there was anything wrong with doing that.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38And so we'd ball up against it with the proper cricket ball,
0:04:38 > 0:04:40and had the time of our lives.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46They're very good wickets, actually, the stones.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48HE LAUGHS
0:05:01 > 0:05:03I think it's a pretty good drawing of the horse...
0:05:03 > 0:05:04painting of the horse, actually,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08because they're very muscular, you know, the cart horses.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10Look at the size of his backside.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14I love the colour of the water there.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19The... The light on the water coming through these, the lock gates.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24And the way that that's built from... from those old timbers,
0:05:24 > 0:05:25isn't it fantastic?
0:05:28 > 0:05:31Bits of iron going rusty there, you know, holding it all together.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful stuff.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40You do take ownership a little bit, you know,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42while you live in the country, you take stock of where you are
0:05:42 > 0:05:46and, eh, you sort of take ownership of it in a way,
0:05:46 > 0:05:48"And that's ours, and that's ours."
0:05:48 > 0:05:53And... And you do focus on your own patch,
0:05:53 > 0:05:58on your own sort...sort of space, really, and...so that...
0:05:58 > 0:06:00so that those are the bits that you love the most
0:06:00 > 0:06:03cos that's where you are and that's where you were brought up,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07and that's why it's so... it's so special to him,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10this bit of Suffolk, because that's where he was born and bred,
0:06:10 > 0:06:12that was his life.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17You don't wander far away from that, you know?
0:06:17 > 0:06:18Never.
0:06:20 > 0:06:21Extraordinary really, isn't it?
0:06:30 > 0:06:35So, this is The Village Fair, East Bergholt.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38I used to work on this sort of thing in Pilton when I was about 15.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42Could be my village, in fact, 200 years ago.
0:06:44 > 0:06:50The fairs have been going since 1100, you know, the sheep fairs,
0:06:50 > 0:06:51and the country fair, you know.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53# John Pearce, John Pearce
0:06:53 > 0:06:55# Lend me a grey mare
0:06:55 > 0:06:57# Out along, down along, right along lee
0:06:57 > 0:07:00# And oft I go to Widdecombe Fair... #
0:07:02 > 0:07:05They were very traditional fairs for farmers
0:07:05 > 0:07:07to sell sheep and horses, really.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12A lot of people gathering round the stage there, look.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15And they're listening to... Oh, I don't know,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18the equivalent of Billy Bragg or something.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Look at this rain, isn't it lovely? These people are going to
0:07:25 > 0:07:28get absolutely drenched in no time at all.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31HE LAUGHS
0:07:44 > 0:07:50What an incredible...painting of the sky and the clouds and the rain
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and the darkness of the clouds looks quite unattractive
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and quite threatening and quite frightening in a way.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02It's not one that I would choose to hang up at Worthy Farm, actually.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04I mean, I prefer the other one,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06the one with the fairground.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10He lost his wife, didn't he? Bless his heart.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15He had a lovely wife and she died at the age of 41 or something.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20Churchill used to talk about
0:08:20 > 0:08:25the...the darkness in the sky that made him depressed,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and there's obviously something in that, then, I suppose.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33But he could still paint.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49This is where they built the barges, looked after the barges,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53to move the grain around, I suppose, from his father's milling business.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59No cows so far.
0:09:01 > 0:09:02HE CHUCKLES
0:09:02 > 0:09:04I say it regrettably.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08And there's a girl there, a little girl.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13Must be enjoying herself while her dad's doing the work on the boat.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Lots of tools lying around.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21He's cutting some old timber, isn't he?
0:09:21 > 0:09:23The... The shape of the boat.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26But these are the clinker pieces
0:09:26 > 0:09:29that they put together to make a boat, you don't...
0:09:30 > 0:09:33To make it float and stop it leaking and everything.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35I bet he knew a lot about this, you know,
0:09:35 > 0:09:36with his father having the mill
0:09:36 > 0:09:40and he would have been aware of all the work involved with...
0:09:40 > 0:09:44with keeping the barges floating, keeping them going.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46But he didn't want to do it himself, did he?
0:09:46 > 0:09:48Because he was a great painter.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53And he did what he could do best and thank God he did, eh?
0:10:01 > 0:10:03Path To The Church.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06Constable likes his little church towers, doesn't he?
0:10:06 > 0:10:11But I'm a Methodist myself, so we don't have churches.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14We have little chapels.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18And... And so it's all about praising your creator, you know,
0:10:18 > 0:10:22whatever the creation is, whatever the mystery of life is,
0:10:22 > 0:10:26but it's praising and saying, "Thanks for this, this is fantastic."
0:10:26 > 0:10:29# Love divine, all love's excelling
0:10:29 > 0:10:32# Joy from heaven to earth come down... #
0:10:32 > 0:10:34That sort of thing.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36I mean, whether you believe in God or whether you don't,
0:10:36 > 0:10:40it doesn't really matter that much, but you can still enjoy singing.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44The elm trees are fantastic.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46God, we haven't got elm trees any more,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48but they will come back one day.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51They'll be the same as these, I think.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54They'll be everywhere again and...
0:10:54 > 0:10:56But there'll be new Constables painting them.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00So they're coming back, yeah.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15Ah, so lovely sunset.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19God, that could be Worthy Farm, you know? In the evening.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25Say about an hour after the sun has set - there's no...sun there,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28but there's the glow of... the red glow of the...the sky.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31Lovely.
0:11:31 > 0:11:33Fantastic, isn't it?
0:11:33 > 0:11:34And the whole gentle valley,
0:11:34 > 0:11:39look at the lovely valley with the sloping fields and the trees.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41Loads of elm trees.
0:11:43 > 0:11:44Beautiful, aren't they?
0:11:47 > 0:11:50And the sky, the glow.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55So that's a godly picture, that one, isn't it?
0:11:55 > 0:11:56Yeah, lovely.
0:11:58 > 0:12:04And it's very soothing, actually, and it's very therapeutic as well,
0:12:04 > 0:12:06you know, people that... that are...
0:12:06 > 0:12:09that are slightly bothered about city life
0:12:09 > 0:12:11and lack of employment and things.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14And that they can come and sit in a field like that
0:12:14 > 0:12:19and really find some peace and some solace and some happiness.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Constable probably felt it was a privilege for him to be able
0:12:25 > 0:12:30to paint all these lovely scenes from his land that he was familiar with.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37He must...have had so much pleasure from it,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40and so much contentment and joy, I would have thought.
0:12:40 > 0:12:41Satisfaction.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50It's quite easy to talk about these pictures
0:12:50 > 0:12:54because there's so much stuff in there that I'm familiar with.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58And it fits in with me and my background
0:12:58 > 0:13:01and my upbringing, in fact, too, you know?
0:13:01 > 0:13:04It's all in these pictures, it's all there.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06I've really enjoyed it, thank you very much.