Alive
Painted in 1821. An empty hay cart is crossing the river at Flatford, on the Stour between Suffolk and Essex. It is heading for the meadow on the far side, where the haymakers are at work. Flatford Mill, just out of the picture, belonged to Constable’s father. The house on the left belonged to Willy Lott, a farmer who spent 4 nights away from it in his whole life. Constable painted it in London, in his painting room on Keppel Street, from oil sketches he had made on the spot. He asked John Dunthorne in Suffolk to send him a drawing of a cart. X-rays show a horse and rider between the dog and the cart. He painted them out, put a barrel in the water instead, then painted the barrel out too. He showed it at the Royal Academy in 1821 as Landscape: Noon, and nobody bought it. In 1824 the dealer John Arrowsmith took it and 2 other pictures for £250 and sent them to the Paris Salon. Charles X gave it a gold medal. Henry Vaughan gave it to the National Gallery in 1886. The canvas is 130 cm by 185.
look closer
Willy Lott’s house. Lott farmed here all his life and spent 4 nights away from it. A woman is at the water’s edge below the wall.