A Cornfield
- Artist: John Constable
- Date: ?1817
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 613 x 510 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the painting "A Cornfield" by John Constable. Oil on canvas, about 613 × 510 mm, finished around 1817. Constable says he began this work outdoors, chasing the real light, texture and atmosphere of a Suffolk field. He later added finishing touches in his studio – you can spot the carefully painted ears of corn perched above the bank on the left. If you look closely, the trees on the right look lower than they first appeared. Constable probably cut them back to open up more sky, a change that helped him prepare the larger version that went on show in 1826 as “The Cornfield” in the National Gallery. The piece is on display today in the Turner & Constable Rivals & Originals exhibition at Tate Britain, a show that has travelled across Europe and is still running until April 2026. It’s a great example of Constable’s early landscape experiments and his commitment to painting from nature.
See it in person
A Cornfield is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
