The subject of Study of ‘A boat passing a lock’ c. 1826 is the same as the finished painting titled A boat passing a lock, of 1826. It shares the same general elements, with a boat ascending the river and a rainstorm in the sky. This work differs slightly, in that Constable painted the background in a looser fashion and did not include the dog in the right foreground. There is a pentimento (a change made by the artist) which suggests one of the posts at the entrance to the lock was originally higher than it appears.
Scholars have put forward a number of suggestions regarding the relationship of this work to the other painting and other versions of this subject. At first it was generally accepted as a preliminary oil study, however, it has been claimed that this painting might be an independent, finished work.
Whatever the purpose of this work, in painting it Constable used more finished brushwork, and greater definition and coherence than he frequently did in his preliminary full-scale sketches. He carefully modulated the light in the sky to create a sense of wind and weather, and he depicted the plants on the riverbank and the lock’s wooden structure with considerable attention to detail.
It was through such spontaneous freedom and expressive handling of a rapidly painted sketch that Constable redefined the notion of a ‘finished’ picture. Two of Constable’s large paintings – one being The hay wain 1821 – caused a sensation and excited French painters when exhibited in Paris at the Salon, because of their innovative use of character and scale usually reserved for history painting.
Discussions
• Compare this and the following painting carefully and, using the zoom, look at the brushwork of both. Discuss the way in which Constable repeats seemingly spontaneous passages of paint.
• Visit the National Gallery of Australia’s Constable website nga.gov.au/Constable and examine the two drawings of this subject. Discuss how they differ from the paintings.