Stoke-by-Nayland

By 1836 Constable had lived in London for years, a widower approaching 60, and he kept painting the same few miles of Suffolk countryside he had known as a boy. This is one of those returns, the fields near the village of Stoke-by-Nayland, a short walk from where he was born. It was never meant to be the finished picture. Constable liked to work a big canvas out first at full size, some six feet across, laying the whole scene in fast with a palette knife as much as a brush, before making a neater version to exhibit. Here only that full-size sketch survives. He died the following spring, and the polished painting was never begun. What we have is the rough, knifed field itself, the square church tower of Stoke-by-Nayland rising over the trees, the landmark of the valley where he grew up.