The Cornfield

The boy lies flat beside the water to drink. Nearby, sheep move along a shaded lane towards the open field beyond. His brief pause makes the warmth of the summer scene easy to imagine. John Constable, an English landscape painter, based the lane on one he had known as a child in Suffolk. He often walked it between East Bergholt and his school in Dedham. The painting joins that remembered route to a view of countryside that he largely invented. Despite its summer appearance, Constable made the picture in his London studio during the winter and early spring of 1826. The light, clouds and distant buildings were shaped into a composition rather than copied together from one moment outdoors. Look from the shaded foreground towards the sunlit crop. The change of light carries attention along the path. The picture failed to find a buyer during Constable’s lifetime. After his death, friends and admirers bought it for the National Gallery as a tribute to his work.