View on the Stour near Dedham

Maker John Constable (British, 1776-1837)

Collections

British Painting Highlights

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Date1822

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 51 × 74 in. (129.5 × 188 cm.) frame: 69 × 89 × 5 1/4 in. (175.3 × 226.1 × 13.3 cm.)

DescriptionThe river, filling three-quarters of the foreground, flows, right center, under a wooden footbridge (wheron a woman stands holding a baby), and winds left and away to center distance. On the far bank, in the left foreground, a group of ash and oak trees and a white horse with a red collar. In the water, center, two large barges. In the nearer, a man in a white shirt and red cap pushes on a pole, and an old man in a red cap steers; in the other barge a boy in a red shirt weighs anchor, and a second pushes with his feet against the nearer barge; a man poles off. Left, a barge with dropped brown sail reflected in the water; a man leaning on the far side smokes a pipe. Right foreground, a landing stage and moored boat with one oar in the rowlocks, Beyond, on extreme right, the gable of a cottage; center middle distance, a barge with brown sail. In the center distance, flat, wooded landscape with houses and Dedham church, Blue sky, with light cumulus clouds in the lower half. Swallows skim the water. In the foreground, right corner, an eelspear lies on the ground. Reeds and golden water lilies, center and left of center.

SignedSignature John Constable pinx London, 1822.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

On view

Label TextRevealing an attachment to the countryside of his youth, John Constable told a friend, “I should paint my own places best.” This painting depicts the Stour River in his native Suffolk. Wending its way past Flatford Bridge, the river turns toward the town of Dedham, whose church tower rises in the distance. Constable blocked off the left side of the canvas with a group of trees to direct the viewer’s gaze to the distant meadow on the right. Diagonal devices – a tilting spar, a discarded rake, an abandoned boat – draw focus to the center of the canvas and the principal motif of labor.

Constable made six large paintings of the Suffolk countryside. In an effort to draw attention to his work, he used six-foot canvases for each of the paintings in the series – now referred to as “the six-footers.” Such large-scale canvases were usually reserved for biblical, historical, or mythological subjects. This series of monumental landscapes shows Constable’s determination to secure professional stature.

Bibliography

British paintings at the Huntington

Object number25.18

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