The Leaping Horse (full-scale study)

Constable did something almost no painter of his day did. For each of his big Stour canvases he first built a full-size trial version, worked the whole composition out at exhibition scale, then began again on a second canvas the same size. This is the trial for The Leaping Horse, made over the winter of 1824 and 1825. The finished picture hung at the Royal Academy that May, came home unsold, and he went on adjusting it. He told his wife Maria in a note that he had got up early and taken out the old willow stump by the horse, which improved it much. The stump is still standing in this version, and so is a cow drinking at the water's edge. The jump was ordinary Suffolk business, since the towpaths along the Stour carried low barriers to stop cattle straying and the barge horses had to clear them.