Around 1818–1819, John Constable began creating large-scale paintings (known as 'six-footers') that were intended for the annual exhibitions at the Royal Academy. The challenges of painting on this monumental scale encouraged him to adopt the unusual practice of creating full-size sketches to guide his work. This is one of those sketches, made for a landscape now in the National Gallery, London, and derived from a small oil study made en plein air in Suffolk in 1811. These full-size sketches were never meant for a public display and reveal Constable working out aspects of his final composition, such as the placement of the standing boy holding a fishing pole. In the final painting, Constable removed the figure, giving the fishing rod to one of the kneeling children on the right.