John CONSTABLE
English 1776-1837
Study of a boat passing a lock
c. 1823
oil on canvas
102.2 x 128.0 cm
Felton Bequest 1951
2900-4

John Constable and J.M.W. Turner are arguably the finest exponents of nineteenth-century British landscape painting. Indeed, it has often been stated that they elevated the genre to a level on a par with history painting.

Constable studied the work of great landscape artists who preceded him, such as Claude Lorrain, Salvator Rosa, Jacob van Ruisdael, Rembrandt, and Thomas Gainsborough. He also spent much time out of doors, working directly from nature, and adapted these open-air studies to fully worked paintings in the studio. Throughout his career he concentrated on a comparatively limited number of locations, producing many versions of particular areas in a variety of weather and atmospheric conditions.

This lock, located in Flatford in Suffolk, the county in which Constable was born, is the subject of many of his paintings. Some writers have stated that the sketchiness of this work indicates it was not 'finished', or was a study for another painting. However, the foreground in particular is fully worked and forms a striking contrast with the loosely painted background and the figure operating the lock.