\u201cWhat say you to a summer morning?\u201d John Constable wrote of this painting in a letter to a friend. Even after many years living in London, Constable continued to portray the countryside, dear to him from boyhood. Stoke-by-Nayland lies a few miles from his native village of East Bergholt in Suffolk. In this view, he divided the canvas between a brilliant, airy vista toward the hamlet on the left and a shady, tunnel-like country lane leading off to the right. Constable explained in his letter that the painting depicted a speci\ufb01c time, a morning in \u201cJuly or August, at eight or nine o\u2019clock, after a slight shower during the night, to enhance the dews in the shadowed part of the picture.\u201d The artist emphasized the abundance of water through his painting technique, \ufb02ecking the surface with white highlights to create an effect of sparkling wetness. Here, the whole scene appears dewy, with a stream and puddles in the foreground and a central tree that droops from the weight of rainwater, emphasizing the fertile land.<\/p>\n
Painted as much with a palette knife as with brushes, Stoke-by-Nayland<\/em> lacks the \ufb01nish of pictures Constable exhibited publicly; it was meant as a full-scale sketch for a work that he never realized. Nonetheless, this canvas seems to capture Constable\u2019s delight in freely scribbling and scraping the image into existence\u2014what it lacks in detail it gains in atmosphere. The roughness of the surface evokes the textures of real landscape, and the coexistence of natural and built elements in the scene embodies an ideal of harmony indicative of Constable\u2019s vision of rural England.<\/p>\n","short_description":"John Constable produced this full-size oil sketch for an unrealized painting near the end of his life. Its subject\u2014the countryside of Constable's youth in Suffolk, England\u2014was one of the artist's favorites. To achieve the effect of sparkling wetness and fresh earth and air, Constable painted with a palette knife, flecking the surface with white highlights as he sketched and scraped the picture into existence.","dimensions":"126 \u00d7 169 cm (49 5\/8 \u00d7 66 1\/2 in.); Framed: 170.2 \u00d7 212.1 \u00d7 16.6 cm (67 \u00d7 83 1\/2 \u00d7 6 1\/2 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":169,"height":126,"diameter":null,"clarification":null},{"depth":16,"width":212,"height":170,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Framed"}],"medium_display":"Oil on canvas","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"C[harles] R[obert] Leslie, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, Esq. R. A. (London: James Carpenter, 1843), 104\u2013105.\n\nC. J. Holmes, Constable and his Influence on Landscape Painting (Westminster: Archibald Constable, 1902), 249\n\n\u201cAccessions and Loans: August\u2013November, 1922,\u201d Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (Dec. 1922), 98.\n\nMarguerite B. Williams, \u201cValuable Collection of Paintings Added to Chicago\u2019s Art Treasures,\u201d America Today\u2013Fort Dearborn Magazine (1924): 10\u201311, 26.\n\nA Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute, 1925), 131 no. 750.\n\n\u201cConstable\u2019s Stoke-by-Nayland,\u201d Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (April 1926), 51\u201353.\n\nKimball Gallery of Paintings: 17th to 19th century (Chicago: Art Institute, nd), 37\u201338.\n\nCharles Holmes, \u201cMr. Shirley on Lucas and the Lucas Constable,\u201d Burlington Magazine 58 (May 1931): 253\n\nA Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute, 1932), 89 (ill.).\n\nC. H. Collins Baker, British Painting (London: The Medici Society, 1933), 160 (ill.).\n\nAlfred M. Frankfurter, \u201cArt in the Century of Progress,\u201d The Fine Arts (June 1933): 26 (ill.), 61.\n\nR. H. Wilenski, English Painting (London: Faber and Faber, 1933), pl. 115, 218.\n\nA Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 1933), 30 cat. 190.\n\nA Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 1934), 24 cat. 136.\n\nA Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Chicago: Art Institute, 1935), 26.\n\nC[harles] R[obert] Leslie, Memoirs of the Life of John Constable, R. A., Andrew Shirley, ed. (London, The Medici Society, 1937), 339, pl. 124a.\n\nA Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Chicago: Art Institute, 1941), 32.\n\nAn Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Prints by J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, R. P. Bonington, exh. cat. (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1946, 51\u201352 under cat. 146.\n\nMasterpieces of English Painting: William Hogarth, John Constable, J. M. W. Turner, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 1946), 32 cat. 44, pl. 25.\n\nMartin Davies, The British School (London: National Gallery, 1946), 31\u201332.\n\nAndrew Shirley, John Constable, R.A. (London, The Medici Society, 1948), 25 no. 124a, pl. 124a.\n\nAndrew Shirley, The Rainbow: A Portrait of John Constable (London: Michael Joseph, 1949), 199\u2013200.\n\nAn Illustrated Guide to the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute, 1956), 31 (ill.), 32.\n\nA Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago: Art Institute, 1956), 32.\n\nAndrew Carnduff Richie, Masters of British Painting, 1800\u20131950, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1956), 30, 33 (ill.), 135 cat. 27.\n\nHelen Comstock, \u201cConstable in America,\u201d The Connoisseur 137, no. 544 (June 1956): 285\n\nJohn Canaday, Mainstreams of Modern Art (New York: Henry Holt, 1959), 265 fig. 312, 267\u201368. [2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981, p. 90\u201391 fig. 106, 92\u201393.\n\nGraham Reynolds, Catalogue of the Constable Collection (London: Her Majesty\u2019s Stationery Office, 1960), 195.\n\nPaintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute, 1961), 82, 237 (ill.).\n\nGraham Reynolds, Constable: The Natural Painter (New York; Toronto; London: McGraw-Hill, 1965), 130, 146 no. 78, pl. 78.\n\nSketches by Constable from the Victoria and Albert Museum (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1966), 13.\n\nFrederick A. Sweet, \u201cGreat Chicago Collectors,\u201d Apollo (Sep. 1966): 193 fig. 11, 196. \n\nR. B. Beckett, ed., John Constable\u2019s Correspondence, vol. 5, Various Friends, with Charles Boner and the Artist\u2019s Children (Suffolk: Suffolk Records Society, 1967), 44\u201345\n\nJohn Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1970), 264 (ill.), 279\n\nKatherine Kuh, \u201cThese are a few of my favorite things,\u201d Chicago Tribune, April 23, 1972, 33 (ill.), 34.\n\nBasil Taylor, Constable: Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors (London: Phaidon Press, 1973), no. 63 pl. 165.\n\nM. Rosenthal, \u201cReview: Catalogue of the Constable Collection\u2026\u201d Connoisseur 186 (June 1974): 151.\n\nRobert Hoozee, L\u2019opera completa di John Constable (Milan: Rizzoli, 1979), 145 no. 564 (ill.).\n\nJohn Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America: Over 3,000 Masterpieces by 50 Great Artists (Nw York: Abbeville Press, 1979), 56.\n\nGraham Reynolds, Constable\u2019s England, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983), 166 cat. 60 (ill).\n\nLeslie Parris, The Tate Gallery Constable Collection (London: Tate Gallery, 1987), 63 fig. 7, 64, 64n6.\n\nCharles S. Rhyne, \u201cConstable\u2019s Last Major Oil Sketch: The Chicago \u2018Stoke-by-Nayland\u2019,\u201d unpublished manuscript, [1987?].\n\nLawrence Cunningham and John Reich, Culture and Values: A Survey of the Western Humanities, vol. 2 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982), 316, 317 fig. 203.\n\nMichael Rosenthal, Constable: The Painter and his Landscapes (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983), 236, fig. 263.\n\nGraham Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 2 vols. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984), v. 1, 292 no. 36.19; v. 2, pl. 1070.\n\nIan Leming-Williams and Leslie Parris, The Discovery of Constable (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1984), 80, 114\u201315.\n\nRichard R. Brettell and Steven Starling, The Art of the Edge: European Frames 1300-1900, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 1986), 104 cat. 59, inaccurately numbered 1922.4433.\n\nMalcolm Cormack, Constable (London: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 225 fig. 213, 228.\n\nJames N. Wood and Katherine C. Lee, Master paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1988), 50.\n\nIan Fleming-Williams, Constable and his Drawings (London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 1990), 299\u2013301 fig. 277.\n\nCharles S. Rhyne, \u201cConstable\u2019s First Two Six-foot Landscapes,\u201d in Studies in the History of Art 24 (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1990), pl. 2, 119\u201321, 125n3, 128n45.\n\nLeslie Paris and Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable, exh. cat. (London: Tate Gallery, 1991), 15,348, 359, 380\u201381 cat. 218, 472.\n\nMalcolm Warren, \u201cJohn Constable,\u201d unpublished manuscript, [1992?].\n\nJon Margolis, \u201cWhen Paintings talk\u2026,\u201d Chicago Tribune Magazine (Sep. 17, 1995): 21\n\nJohn Gage, Constable: le choix de Lucian Freud, exh cat. (Paris: R\u00e9union des mus\u00e9es nationaux, 2002), 256 (detail ill.), 257, 267\u201368 cat. 190.\n\nLucian Freud and William Feaver, Lucian Freud on John Constable, exh. cat. (London: British Council, 2003), 54, cat. 50.\n\nAnne Lyles, Constable: The Great Landscapes, exh. cat. (London: Tate, 2006), 193 cat. 68 (ill.).\n\nWilliam Feaver, \u201cI was Lucian Freud\u2019s spare pair of eyes,\u201d The Guardian, Sep. 8, 2019 https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2019\/sep\/08\/i-was-lucian-freuds-spare-pair-of-eyes<\/a> [accessed Sep. 16, 2019]\n\nJames Rondeau, ed., Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the collection (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2025), 57 (ill.).\n\nAmy Concannon, ed., Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals, exh. cat. (London: Tate, 2025), 50, 209, 218, 243, cat. 176.","exhibition_history":"Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1\u2013Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 190.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1\u2013Nov. 1, 1934, cat. 136.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Masterpiece of the Month, April 1940, no cat.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Masterpieces of English Painting: Hogarth, Constable, Turner, Oct. 15\u2013Dec. 22, 1946.\n\nNew York, Museum of Modern Art, Masters of British Painting, 1800\u20131950, Oct. 2\u2013Dec. 2, 1956, cat. 27; St. Louis, City Art Museum, Jan. 10\u2013Mar. 2, 1957; San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Mar. 28\u2013May 12, 1957 [New York only].\n\nNew York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Constable's England, Apr. 13\u2013Sep. 4, 1983.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, The Art of the Edge: European Frames 1300-1900, Oct. 17\u2013Dec. 14, 1986, cat. 59, inaccurately numbered 1922.4433.\n\nLondon, Tate Gallery, John Constable, June 12-Sep. 15, 1991, cat. 218.\n\nParis, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Constable: le choix de Lucian Freud, Oct. 8, 2002\u2013Jan. 13, 2003, cat. 190.\n\nLondon, Tate Britain, Constable: The Great Landscapes, June 1\u2013Aug. 28, 2006, cat. 68; Washington, D.C., the National Gallery, Oct. 1\u2013 Dec. 31, 2006; San Marino, Huntington Library, Feb. 3\u2013Apr. 29, 2007.\n\nLondon, Tate Britain, Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals, November 27, 2025\u2013April 12, 2026, cat. 176, as c. 1835\u20137.","provenance_text":"Sold, the artist\u2019s estate sale, Foster and Sons, London, May 16, 1838, lot 40 together with a sketch of the Opening of Waterloo Bridge to Joy [Graves 1918 and Day 1968]. Miss Morris; sold June 26, 1860 lot 108 to Cox [annotated sale cat. in the Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenisn, The Haag; copy in curatorial object file. See also Redford 1888]. Jonathan Nield (1790\u20131887), Dunster House, Rochdale, England; sold, Christie\u2019s, London, May 3, 1879, lot 13 to Permain [annotated sale cat. in curatorial object file. See also Redford 1888, Graves 1918 and Day 1968]. Sir Frederick Thorpe Mappin (1821\u20131910); sold, his estate sale, Christie\u2019s, London, June 17, 1910, lot 14 to Arthur J. Sulley & Company, London [this and the following according to Knoedler Stock Book 5, no. 12466, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; copy in curatorial object file. See also annotated sale cat. in curatorial object file ]; sold to Knoedler and Company, New York, May 1, 1911; sold to Mrs. William Wallace Kimball (died 1921), Chicago, July 11, 1911; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":14,"fiscal_year":1923,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":true,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":22.2475,"color":{"h":39,"l":49,"s":34,"percentage":0.004974553246852639,"population":26},"latitude":41.8799469546176,"longitude":-87.6234873756766,"latlon":"41.879946954618,-87.623487375677","is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 220","gallery_id":2147483611,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Painting and Sculpture of Europe","department_id":"PC-10","artist_id":34023,"artist_title":"John Constable","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[34023],"artist_titles":["John Constable"],"category_ids":["PC-10","PC-831"],"category_titles":["Painting and Sculpture of Europe","Essentials"],"term_titles":["oil on canvas","19th century","oil painting","oil paint (paint)","landscapes","gates","countryside","british","oil paintings (visual works)","paint","paint","painting","painting","painting techniques","painting (image making)","canvas","painting","european painting","Century of Progress","world's fairs","Chicago World's Fairs","ploughs","wagons","plants","trees","towns","houses","cows","horses","farmers","farm life","rural life"],"style_id":"TM-13203","style_title":"19th century","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-13203"],"style_titles":["19th century"],"classification_id":"TM-66","classification_title":"oil on canvas","alt_classification_ids":["TM-15669","TM-78","TM-10387","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_ids":["TM-66","TM-15669","TM-78","TM-10387","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_titles":["oil on canvas","british","oil paintings (visual works)","paint","painting","european painting"],"subject_id":"TM-8657","alt_subject_ids":["TM-12671","TM-12243","TM-12169","TM-11299","TM-12176","TM-12816","TM-12815","TM-12058","TM-11205","TM-12677","TM-12493","TM-8862","TM-8804","TM-12341","TM-12105","TM-12814"],"subject_ids":["TM-8657","TM-12671","TM-12243","TM-12169","TM-11299","TM-12176","TM-12816","TM-12815","TM-12058","TM-11205","TM-12677","TM-12493","TM-8862","TM-8804","TM-12341","TM-12105","TM-12814"],"subject_titles":["landscapes","gates","countryside","Century of Progress","world's fairs","Chicago World's Fairs","ploughs","wagons","plants","trees","towns","houses","cows","horses","farmers","farm life","rural life"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-2577","TM-13502","TM-3124"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-2577","TM-13502","TM-3124"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","paint","painting","canvas"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-14210","TM-3971","TM-3891"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-14210","TM-3971","TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting","painting techniques","painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":["Essentials"],"image_id":"400ce9e8-2f67-44e2-dd68-e6c98880d27f","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":["86aaf438-63d2-52ea-f883-e81dac4ee695"],"sound_ids":["86aaf438-63d2-52ea-f883-e81dac4ee695"],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"Stoke-by-Nayland","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1922.4453"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Stoke-by-Nayland"],"weight":7929,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-05-19T17:32:27-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-27T15:11:25-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-06T05:49:45-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. 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