Oil paint on paper on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-constable-108" aria-label="More by John Constable" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Constable</a>
A Lane near Flatford
Bequeathed by Henry Vaughan 1900
actions: postures and motions
architecture
boy
bush
children
drinking
East Anglia
eating and drinking
England
England, East
Flatford - non-specific
landscape
leisure and pastimes
lying down
people
places
plants and flowers
river
road
Suffolk
townscapes / man-made features
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
water: inland
wooded
<p>Constable’s studio was full of oil sketches made outdoors like this one. Working quickly, Constable would have mixed together colours on the sketch itself – as seen in the white streaks in the lane. His aim was to capture fleeting effects like the movement of wind through trees. He may have liked this spot on a lane near his father’s mill because of the way the view opens up in two directions around the central mass of trees. He used the figure of the boy drinking from the stream in his painting The Cornfield, which is now in the National Gallery.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
paper unique oil paint canvas
15 October 2001 – 4 August 2002
2002-08-04
15 October 2001 – 4 August 2002
2002-08-04
2001-10-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-15
Constable: Outdoor Sketching
Collection based display
19 August 2002 – 27 April 2003
2003-04-27
19 August 2002 – 27 April 2003
2003-04-27
2002-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-08-19
Outdoor Sketching
Collection based display
12 May 2003 – 23 April 2006
2006-04-23
12 May 2003 – 23 April 2006
2006-04-23
2003-05-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-05-12
Constable 2
Collection based display
1 June 2006 – 28 August 2006
2006-08-28
1 June 2006 – 28 August 2006
2006-08-28
2006-06-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-06-01
Constable: The Great Landscapes
Exhibition
28 May 2007 – 31 March 2008
2008-03-31
28 May 2007 – 31 March 2008
2008-03-31
2007-05-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-05-28
John Constable: Marking Out a Path
Collection based display
20 March 2013 – 29 September 2013
2013-09-29
20 March 2013 – 29 September 2013
2013-09-29
2013-03-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-03-20
Focus: Constable's Cornfield
Collection based display
2 February 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
18 May 2015 – 6 September 2015
2015-09-06
2015-05-18
Wolsey Art Gallery (Ipswich, UK)
2015-02-02
John Constable
Loan-out
7 February 2015 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
7 February 2015 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
2015-02-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-02-07
Constable
Collection based display
20 February 2021 – 4 February 2023
2023-02-04
20 February 2021 – 31 May 2021
2021-05-31
2021-02-20
Mitsubishi Ichigokan (Tokyo, Japan)
1 July 2022 – 9 October 2022
2022-10-09
2022-07-01
Villa Vauban (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg)
24 October 2022 – 4 February 2023
2023-02-04
2022-10-24
Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin, Italy)
2021-02-20
Constable and England: A History of His Affections
Tate partnerships & programmes
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 108
Collection based display
11 July 2026 – 4 October 2026
2026-10-04
11 July 2026 – 4 October 2026
2026-10-04
2026-07-11
Christchurch Mansion (Ipswich, UK)
2026-07-11
Constable 250
Loan-out
A Lane near Flatford
support: 203 × 305 mm
frame: 375 × 475 × 63 mm
Bequeathed by Henry Vaughan 1900
<div class="text">
<p>Constable’s studio was full of oil sketches made outdoors like this one. Working quickly, Constable would have mixed together colours on the sketch itself – as seen in the white streaks in the lane. His aim was to capture fleeting effects like the movement of wind through trees. He may have liked this spot on a lane near his father’s mill because of the way the view opens up in two directions around the central mass of trees. He used the figure of the boy drinking from the stream in his painting The Cornfield, which is now in the National Gallery.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-a-lane-near-flatford-n01821" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01821</span></a> <b>A Lane near Flatford</b> (?) <i>Circa</i> 1810–11</p>
<p>
<br/>Oil on paper laid on canvas, 8×11 15/16 (20.3×30.3).</p>
<p><i>Prov:</i> ...; Henry Vaughan, probably by 1875 when etched by Chattock;<sup>1</sup> bequeathed by Vaughan to the National Gallery 1900; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1951. <i>Accession No.</i> 1821.
<br/><i>Exh:</i>
<i>La peinture romantique anglaise et les préraphaélites</i>, Petit Palais, Paris 1972(46).
<br/><i>Engr:</i> etched by R.S. Chattock as ‘Sketch’ and published in <i>The Portfolio</i>, 1875, facing p.172.
<br/><i>Lit</i>: Holmes 1902, p.247; Shirley 1937, p.206; Davies 1946, p.32; Chamot 1956, p.260; Beckett 1961, Paintings: Suffolk B(14) No.42; Smart and Brooks 1976, pp.107–8; Hoozee 1979, No.144.
<br/>
<br/>The figure of the drinking boy at the left of this sketch appears again in ‘The Cornfield’ of 1826 (Fig. 1, National Gallery No.130, TG 1976 No.242, H. 467).<sup>2</sup> The latter was based on the view towards the Stour from Fen Lane, a track which runs down to the river from the Bergholt-Flatford road.<sup>3</sup> No.10 may have been made further down the lane, where the terrain is more level and not dissimilar to that depicted, but the sketch offers few real clues to a precise identification of the site.
<br/>
<br/>The agitated brushwork of the trees at the right is comparable to the handling in some of Constable's Flatford lock sketches of 1810–11: see, for example, the sketch formerly in Lord Binning's collection and now in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California (TG 1976 No.95, H. 112).
<br/>
<br/>1. Etchings by Chattock of two works by Constable appeared in the 1875 Portfolio. The other one was taken from No.9 above, which Vaughan acquired in 1874. Although it may be only coincidence that No.10 also ended up in Vaughan's collection, it seems likely that he already owned it by 1875 and that Chattock took his two examples from the same collection.
<br/>
<br/>2. Oil on canvas, 56 1/4×48 (143×122).
<br/>
<br/>3. See Smart and Brooks 1976, pl. 111 for a recent photograph of Fen Lane.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Leslie Parris, <i>The Tate Gallery Constable Collection</i>, London 1981
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-16T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions architecture boy bush children drinking East Anglia eating and drinking England England, East Flatford - non-specific landscape leisure and pastimes lying down people places plants and flowers river road Suffolk townscapes / man-made features UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions water: inland wooded