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Flatford Mill from a Lock on the Stour

Oil Painting
ca. 1811 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This shows the mill that belonged to John Constable's father. It is a study for a painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1812. Constable deleted the figure at the left - a man opening the lock gates - in the final composition. Constable recalled: 'I associate my "careless boyhood" to all that lies on the banks of the Stour'.

Object details

Category
Object type
TitleFlatford Mill from a Lock on the Stour (popular title)
Materials and techniques
oil on canvas
Brief description
Oil painting, 'Flatford Mill from a lock on the Stour', by John Constable, Britain, ca. 1811
Physical description
Painting of Flatford Mill with water and trees.
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 24.8cm
  • Estimate width: 29.8cm
  • Frame height: 452mm
  • Frame width: 505mm
  • Frame depth: 40mm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973
Style
Marks and inscriptions
'Minna Decr 27th 47' (Inscribed in ink on the stretcher; Minna is Constable's daughter Maria Louisa.)
Gallery label
Label - author unknown
This picture portrays a scene at one of Constable's father's mills on the river Stour. He has used a canvas prepared with a warm reddish ground to act as a tonal background to his colours which are applied in thick brushstrokes. No single thing or object is precisely defined and the picture is not so much a portrayal of a particular place as a study of the weather at a particular time.
Credit line
Given by Isabel Constable
Object history
Given by Isabel Constable, 1888
Historical context
'In the year 1811 Constable's exhibits at the Royal Academy comprised 'Twilight', and 'Dedham Vale: morning' (now in the collection of Sir Richard Proby). He visited Suffolk in the spring and paid his first visit to Salisbury in the autumn: this was probably the occasion of his first meeting with John Fisher, who was to become his closest friend. His attachment to Maria Bicknell became known during this year, and he received her father's permission to write to her in October.'

[G Reynolds, 1973, p. 69]
Subjects depicted
Summary
This shows the mill that belonged to John Constable's father. It is a study for a painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1812. Constable deleted the figure at the left - a man opening the lock gates - in the final composition. Constable recalled: 'I associate my "careless boyhood" to all that lies on the banks of the Stour'.
Bibliographic references
  • Parris, Leslie and Fleming-Williams, Ian. Constable London : The Tate Gallery, 1991 no.53
  • Lyles, Anne (Ed.), Constable : The Great Landscapes, London, Tate Publishing, 2006
  • Hoozee, Robert (ed.), British Vision. Observation and Imagination in British Art 1750-1950, Brussels : Mercatorfonds ; Ghent : Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 2007 159
  • 100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum.London: V&A, 1985, p.104
  • Christine Dixon, Ron Radford and Lucina Ward Turner to Monet. The Triumph of Landscape Painting, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2008
  • Catalogue of the Constable Collection, Graham Reynolds, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1973, pp. 69-72
Other number
103, plate 62. - Reynolds Catalogue no.
Collection
Accession number
135-1888

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Record createdDecember 15, 1999
Record URL
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