Nostalgia as nature intended
Anne Lyles
A new series of In Focus displays at Tate Britain takes an in-depth look at artworks as well as items from the Tate archive. The subject of one of these is Constable’s oil sketch A Cornfield c.1817, an unfinished picture he made outdoors in Suffolk, and which was acquired by Tate in 2004. It is connected with the genesis of the famous picture in the National Gallery, The Cornfield 1826, which, as one Constable expert argues, means far more to us than its simple subject would suggest
