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Stratford Mill - John Constable

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About the artwork

This is the full-scale oil sketch for one of Constable's exhibition pictures, commonly known as "six footers": he was slow and meticulous in his working processes and painted such a sketch before each of the large landscapes that he showed at the annual Royal Academy exhibitions from 1819 onward. His main aim at this stage was to see how the masses of light and dark would work across the composition. Brilliant and full of life though his sketches are, he regarded them as a means to an end, preferring to be judged by works of detail and "finish." He showed the exhibition version of the present view at the Royal Academy in 1820 (now at the National Gallery in London). Stratford Mill was a watermill that powered a paper factory on the river Stour, near the artist's birthplace. The barge in the middle distance is waiting to pass a lock off to the right.

Creator:
John Constable, 1776–1837
Title:
Stratford Mill [1998, This Other Eden: paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, exhibition catalogue]
Former Title(s):
Stratford Mill, "The Young Waltonians" [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]
Landscape [1820, Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition catalogue]
Date:
1819 to 1820
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
51 1/2 × 72 1/2 inches (130.8 × 184.2 cm), Frame: 66 × 88 inches (167.6 × 223.5 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Signed, lower right: "John Constable. R. A. | London"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul


About the artist

Founded by Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929), the Yale Center for British Art is the largest museum outside of the United Kingdom devoted to British art. Located in the final building designed by Louis I. Kahn, the YCBA is a focal point for modernist architecture. It is free and open to all.

The artwork posted on this site is through the museum's public domain/CC0 data and does not imply endorsement.

Address: 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut, USA


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