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Boat-Building near Flatford Mill
John Constable, born 1776 - died 1837 - Enlarge image
Boat-Building near Flatford Mill
- Object:
Oil painting
- Place of origin:
Great Britain (painted)
- Date:
1815 (exhibited)
- Artist/Maker:
John Constable, born 1776 - died 1837 (painter (artist))
- Materials and Techniques:
oil on canvas
- Credit Line:
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
- Museum number:
FA.37[O]
- Gallery location:
Paintings, Room 87, The Edwin and Susan Davies Galleries, case WEST WALL
This oil painting portrays the construction of a barge at a dry-dock owned by Constable's father. It is based on a tiny pencil drawing in a sketchbook at the V&A. Constable painted the landscape entirely in the open air. His biographer C. R. Leslie praised its 'atmospheric truth', such that 'the tremulous vibration of the heated air near the ground seems visible'.