The approach to Fen Lane from Flatford Lane.
Painted in the vicinity of East Bergholt during a long holiday Constable and his wife Maria took in East Bergholt in 1817. This was the last oil painting he executed directly on site.

Constable painted numerous sketches in Fen Lane over the years, a place he knew well having walked the route as a boy from Flatford Lane, down Fen lane, and over the Stour at Fen Bridge to the Grammar School in Dedham.

The figure of the drinking boy in this sketch appears again in ‘The Cornfield’ 1826 and based on a view towards the Stour from Fen Lane, the track that runs down to the river from Flatford Lane and the route Constable would have walked each day as a boy to the Grammar School in Dedham.

A view of Fen Lane from Flatford Lane in pencil.

A view from the top of Fen lane over the valley towards Dedham.
Constable’s landscapes capture specific locations of the English counties where he lived and worked.

The lane from East Bergholt to Flatford and one that Constable must have walked hundreds of times as a boy both on his way to Grammar School in Dedham and also to his father’s mill at Flatford.

A country road with trees and figures

This was a two sided piece for Constable, on the front of the canvas is a country road, that of Flatford Lane with three figures and trees, and on the reverse of the piece a house sits next to the water, that of Willy Lott.

A view across the lawn from the back of West Lodge.

Landscape view of fields towards Dedham with large tree in the middle ground

Watercolour sketch of the Fen Bridge, looking east, with typical romantic "Constable sky".

A rider urging a barge horse to jump over a barrier on the tow path at ‘Float Bridge’, upstream from Flatford. This full size oil sketch a last 'study' for the composition prior to his great painting that went on exhibition at the Royal Acadamy alongside 'View on the Stour' and the final version of this piece 'The Leaping Horse'

Cottage in a cornfield with a donkey in the foreground.

Constable had exhibited a similar composition at the Royal Acadamy in 1817, an unfinished piece and of which the finished dimensions were similar.

This watercolour had been called ‘View towards Dedham Church’ but the building in question now seems more likely to be Stratford St Mary church, seen from more or less the same angle as in the two versions of ‘Landscape, Ploughing scene in Suffolk (A Summerland), the first of which was exhibited in 1814, and ‘Summerland’ which presents a view westward up the Stour valley from the outskirts of Old Hall, East Bergholt and of which the precise viewpoint has not been determined.

A cottage surrounded by trees on the right with four cows grazing in a field separated by a low fence in the mid foreground. A large bank of trees on the left (the location is approximate).

Believed to one of the smallest of Constable's oil sketches, it shows the home of Constable's elderly neighbour and friend Mrs Sarah Roberts.

A view of the Stour in flood from the grounds of Old Hall, home of the Godfreys, friends and neighbours to the Constables.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin, East Bergholt as seen from the grounds of West Lodge

Orignally from the Charles Golding Constable collection of which on his death he requested that this be divided by his trustee for his children, and which were placed originally on loan to South Kensington Museum until 1883.

An empty wagon (wain) making its way through the shallow water to cross over to the meadow on the other side where haymakers are at work.

Constable created six River Stour scenes for his ‘Landscape’ exhibits, known as the ‘six-footers’ and exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Willy Lott's House from the Mill with a boy fishing.

Willy Lott's House as seen in numerous paintings during the artist's lifetime,  a place he loved  best, dated Oct 1 1812 (upper right)

Natural landscapes and scenes of the Suffolk agricultural work is how Constable is best known. This piece is a view from the forecourt of Flatford Mill, across the street to the river with the water churned up by the water wheel. The water flow through the archway below the forecourt explains the turbulence seen in the foreground of this sketch.

A double sided piece with an alternative view on either side, the most noticeable difference being that of a horse in this one and a dog in the other.

A double sided piece with an alternative view on either side, the most noticeable difference being that of a dog in one and a horse in the other.

A view of a figure punting a boat, next to a wood at Valley Farm.

Constable only exhibited a single painting at the Royal Academy in this year, ‘Valley Farm’.

The artist was known to produce both pencil and oil sketches in preparation for the final piece, such as this example to ‘Valley Farm’ 1835 Tate

Painted entirely in the open air, this painting depicts the building of a boat at a dry dock along the River Stour.

A view of Willy Lott's House at Flatford from the River Stour.

Constable painted Willy Lott’s House, or The Valley farm throughout his life and the building featured in some of his most prominent pieces such as ‘The Haywain’ 1824 and ‘The Mill Stream’1810. Even Flatford Mill did not receive the attention the artist seems to afford to the more humble building that faced it.

Flatford Mill 'Scene on a Navigational River' was Constable's most ambitious painting to date and depicts a boy disconnecting a rope whilst another sits astride a tow horse along the tow path of the Stour at Flatford.

Flatford Lock with the bridge and Bridge Cottage beyond and two boys fishing

The painting marked a vital turning point in Constable's career and was the first in the series of ‘six-footers’ depicting scenes on the River Stour which also included The Haywain and was said to define his artistic maturity and secured his professional reputation.