John Constable was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home – now known as "Constable Country" – which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "painting is but another word for feeling".
The River Stour is a major river in East Anglia, England. It is 47 miles (76 km) long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Sudbury, Bures, Nayland, Stratford St Mary and Dedham. It becomes tidal just before Manningtree in Essex and joins the North Sea at Harwich.
The Hay Wain – originally titled Landscape: Noon – is a painting by John Constable, completed in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It hangs in the National Gallery in London and is regarded as "Constable's most famous image" and one of the greatest and most popular English paintings.
Manningtree is a town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England, which lies on the River Stour. It is part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Stratford St. Mary is a village in Suffolk, England in the heart of 'Constable Country'. John Constable painted a number of paintings in and around Stratford.
The Cornfield is an oil painting by the English artist John Constable, completed from January to March 1826 in the artist’s studio. The painting shows a lane leading from East Bergholt toward Dedham, Essex, and depicts a young shepherd boy drinking from a pool in the heat of summer. The location is along Fen Lane, which the artist knew well. Constable referred to the piece as The Drinking Boy.
Brantham is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. It is located close to the River Stour and the border with Essex, around 2 miles (3 km) north of Manningtree, and around 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Ipswich.
Bridge Cottage is a 16th-century thatched cottage in Flatford, East Bergholt, Suffolk, England. It has been a National Trust property since 1943 and a Grade II* listed building since 1955. The National Trust market the property under the name "Flatford: Bridge Cottage". The building is timber framed, but this is not evident from the outside as it is rendered. The II* grading, unusual for an architecturally unremarkable cottage, "reflects the importance of the cottage as part of the Flatford Mill group and its significance in the work of John Constable".
Dedham Vale National Landscape is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the Essex-Suffolk border in east England. It comprises the area around the River Stour between Manningtree and Smallbridge Farm, 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Bures, including the village of Dedham in Essex.
Dedham is a village in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. It is near the River Stour, which is the border of Essex and Suffolk. The nearest town to Dedham is the small market town of Manningtree.
Willy Lott's Cottage is a house in Flatford, East Bergholt, Suffolk, England which appears in several paintings by John Constable, notably The Hay Wain.
Flatford Mill is a Grade I listed watermill on the River Stour at Flatford in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England. According to the date-stone the mill was built in 1733, but some of the structure may be earlier. Attached to the mill is a 17th-century miller's cottage which is also Grade I listed. The property is in Dedham Vale, a typically English rural landscape.
The Lock is an oil painting by English artist John Constable, finished in 1824. It depicts a rural scene on the River Stour in the English county of Suffolk, one of six paintings within the Six-Footer series. It was auctioned for £22,441,250 at Christie's in London on 3 July 2012.
Michael J. Rosenthal is emeritus professor of the history of art at the University of Warwick. He is a specialist both in British art and culture of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and the arts of early colonial Australia.
The Vale of Dedham is an 1828 oil painting by the English painter John Constable which depicts Dedham Vale on the Essex-Suffolk border in eastern England. It is in the permanent collection of the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.
The White Horse is an oil-on-canvas landscape painting by the English artist John Constable. It was completed in 1819 and is now in the Frick Collection in New York City.
Stratford Mill is an 1820 oil on canvas painting by the British landscape artist John Constable. It is the second painting in the series of six-footers depicting working scenes on the River Stour, a series that includes The Hay Wain. The painting is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London.
Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds is an 1836 landscape painting by the English artist John Constable. One of his later works, it depicts a scene in the grounds of the country estate Coleorton Hall in Leicestershire. Formerly the property of the landowner and artistic patron Sir George Beaumont before his death in 1827, it features a monument commemorating the life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first President of the Royal Academy. The monument was erected in 1812. The artist visited the property in 1823, when he did pencil sketches before developing it into a grander work more than a decade later. Constable shows it amongst the woodland of the estate, with a stag prominently featured. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition at Somerset House the same year. Since 1888 it has been in the collection of the National Gallery.
Arundel Mill and Castle is an 1837 landscape painting by the English artist John Constable. Produced the year of his death, it depicts a scene on the River Arun in Sussex. In the foreground is a mill, while Arundel Castle is shown in the distance. Today it is in the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio, described as Constable's last painting. Constable had viewed the scene while visiting George Constable, a friend and brewer. He was working on the painting in 1836, but shelved it to complete Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds in time for that year's Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. He resumed work on it the following year but died before its completion. His friend Charles Robert Leslie felt it was far enough advanced to exhibit posthumously at that year's Royal Academy Exhibition. Leslie believed that the scene had reminded Constable of the Stour Valley in his native Suffolk.
Malvern Hall is an 1821 landscape painting by the British artist John Constable. It depicts a view of Malvern Hall in Warwickshire. Constable, known in particular for his paintings of his native Suffolk, first visited Malvern Hall in 1809 and returned again in 1820. He was invited by Magdelane, the widow of Earl of Dysart. As the house had been rebuilt and restored since his previous visit, he was encouraged by her to paint it again.
