Stoke-by-Nayland1836
John Constable produced this full-size oil sketch for an unrealized painting near the end of his life. More about this work
About this work
John Constable produced this full-size oil sketch for an unrealized painting near the end of his life. Its subject—the countryside of Constable's youth in Suffolk, England—was one of the artist's favorites. To achieve the effect of sparkling wetness and fresh earth and air, Constable painted with a palette knife, flecking the surface with white highlights as he sketched and scraped the picture into existence.
Text from the Art Institute of Chicago.
What you’re looking at
Large English country landscape painting, farmers with horses, green trees.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
John Constable
English, 1776–1837
Constable painted the countryside of his native Suffolk, especially the Stour valley around his father’s mills, with an attention to weather and light new to English art. Recognition came slowly; he made full-size oil sketches for his large “six-footers”, and The White Horse won him associate membership of the Royal Academy. He made many of his cloud studies on Hampstead Heath in the early 1820s, and The Hay Wain was admired in France when shown at the Paris Salon of 1824.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1922.4453
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
