The White Horse (Constable)
[1] It was the first in a series of six so called ‘Six-Footers’, depicting scenes on the River Stour,[2] which includes his celebrated work The Hay Wain.The subject of the painting is a tow-horse being ferried across the river in Flatford, just below the Lock, at a point where the towpath switches banks.[3] The painting is based on sketches that Constable produced in his native Suffolk, but the full composition was finished between 1818-1819 during his time in London.He commented in a letter to Fisher in 1826: There are generally in the life of an artist perhaps one, two or three pictures, on which hang more than usual interest – this is mine.[11] After his death in 1837, the painting passed through the hands of various English collectors, before being brought to the United States by financier J. P.