Flatford Mill was made by the famous British landscape painter John Constable between 1816 and 1817. It is a kind of canvas painting, measuring 1016 x 1270 mm. The painting was denoted by Isabel Constable in 1888 and preserved in Tate Art Gallery in Britain.
With the beautiful colors and quiet rural scenery, Flatford Mill reproduces the natural beauty of the countryside. All the details are described with a poetic sense: several country houses, two or three cowboys, a pool of clear and light stream and a ferry boat full of sunshine and soil breath. His very fine color strokes and elegant and pleasant scenery image are the reproduction of the poetic realm. In this painting, the ferryboat is in the upstream of the river and is pulling the rope with the horse to pass through Flatford Bridge (the left of the painting).
All details in this painting are depicted in subtle: a few rural housings appear in front of the old forest zone and rose roof breaks down the color harmony of the entire landscape, in front of it, there is a clear stream. Several children are grazing and taking the horses to the stream for water. The water is so clear, that the light flashes on the water. On the left corner, a ferryboat is pushing by the boatman. The water wave is merged with the sky, making the trees, shrubs, horses and the village children bathed in the light atmosphere. The vision of the whole painting is very broad and the yellow green fields have been stretched the deep forests. The changeful blue clouds give people a kind of humidity sensors. The clouds with transparent and opaque layers billow and gray and green thick clouds outline the contour of treetops. The distance between each other is pushed pretty confusing. Appreciation of this painting which is full of air and sunshine makes people feel the warm atmosphere coming.
flatford mill 1817
