Sketch for A Boat Passing a Lock

Constable was 48 and had sold very little at home in England. Then came 1824. The lock picture he sent to the Royal Academy in London found a buyer on the opening day, 150 guineas from James Morrison, the only occasion in his career when a painting of his sold on the first day of a show. That same year three of his canvases went to the Paris Salon and Charles X awarded him a gold medal. This is the working version of the lock subject, laid in fast and left rough. On the right a barge waits for the sluice gates to open so the water can drop to its level, and the navigator has put down his fishing rod to work the gate. Constable once listed in a letter what he loved in such places: the sound of water escaping from mill dams, willows, old rotten banks, slimy posts and brickwork.