Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River) Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River) Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River) is an oil painting by English artist John Constable, painted in 1816. It is Constable's largest exhibition canvas to be painted mainly outdoors, the first of his large "six-foot" paintings, and the first in the "Stour series" which later included "The Hay Wain". It is owned and exhibited at the Tate Britain gallery in London. "Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River)" is painted in oil on canvas. It depicts a working rural scene from Suffolk, as two lighter barges and their crew progress up the
The Hay Wain a gold medal awarded by Charles X of France, a cast of which is incorporated into the picture's frame. The works by Constable in the exhibition inspired a new generation of French painters, including Eugène Delacroix. Sold at the exhibition with three other Constables to the dealer John Arrowsmith, "The Hay Wain" was brought back to England by another dealer, D. T. White; he sold it to a Mr. Young who resided in Ryde on the Isle of Wight. It was there that the painting came to the attention of the collector Henry Vaughan and the painter Charles Robert Leslie.