The White Horse

Constable painted The White Horse between 1818 and 1819, during the years when he was producing the large-scale landscapes of the Stour Valley that would define his reputation. He was 42 years old and had been elected to the Royal Academy only the year before, after years of struggle. The White Horse was the first of his six-foot canvases, the large-scale paintings of the Suffolk countryside that he exhibited annually at the Royal Academy from 1819 to 1825. The painting shows a scene on the River Stour, near Flatford Mill, where Constable had grown up. A white horse is being ferried across the river on a barge, guided by two men with poles. The riverbank is lined with trees and cottage gardens, and the sky fills the upper third of the canvas, filled with rolling clouds. The composition is wide and expansive, with the viewer looking across the river at the landscape of the Stour Valley. The White Horse was the first of Constable's six-footers, and it established the format that he would use for the next six years. These paintings were the same size as the landscapes of Claude Lorrain and Thomas Gainsborough that Constable had studied in the collections of London, and they were intended to elevate landscape painting to the same level as history painting. But where Claude and Gainsborough had painted idealized landscapes, Constable painted the real countryside of Suffolk, with its muddy riverbanks, its working barges, and its changeable skies. Constable painted The White Horse from a full-size oil sketch, which he made outdoors in the Stour Valley. The sketch, now in the National Gallery of Art, is the same size as the finished painting, and it shows the scene in a more spontaneous, less finished state. Constable used the sketch as the basis for the finished painting, which he worked on in his studio in London. The finished painting is more polished than the sketch, but it retains the freshness and directness of the outdoor study. Oil on canvas, 131 by 188 centimeters. Constable painted with a loose, expressive touch, building the trees and the fields in thick, directional strokes of green and brown. The sky is painted in layers of white and gray, with the clouds built in thick, opaque strokes that catch the light. The water is painted in translucent layers of brown and gray, with the reflections of the trees and the sky visible on the surface. The surface has the rich, worked quality of a painting built over many sessions. The horizontal format and natural palette make this print work well in a living room, dining room, or office. The greens, browns, and grays pair with natural wood, white walls, and rooms with a traditional or rural mood. The 18x24 size is the best choice, as the composition needs width to read. The painting has a calm, expansive quality that suits rooms with a relaxed or pastoral mood. The painting entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington as part of the Widener Collection. This is a public domain artwork, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The image is released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed.