The Hay Wain by John Constable

The Hay Wain by John Constable

Midday on the Stour

A farm cart and its horses have stopped in the shallows of the River Stour, two men aboard. On the left stands the cottage of Willy Lott, a farmer who lived there nearly all his life; a figure kneels at the water’s edge by the house, and a dog watches the cart from the bank. Across the river the meadow opens out in sunlight towards a line of trees, while heavy clouds roll over from the left. The flecks of white that Constable scattered over leaves and water, which critics mocked as “Constable’s snow”, are what make it glitter.

Painted in London, prized in Paris

Constable grew up nearby at East Bergholt, where his father owned Flatford Mill, and he painted this stretch of river many times. The Hay Wain itself was made in his London studio, after drawings and a full-size oil sketch, and first shown at the Royal Academy in 1821 as “Landscape: Noon”. It found no English buyer. At the Paris Salon of 1824 it won a gold medal from Charles X and made a deep impression on French painters.

Where it hangs

It has been in the National Gallery, London, since 1886, and measures 130.2 by 185.4 centimetres.

About this print

Made from a 6,128-pixel photograph of the original, enough to print sharply at up to about 40 inches on its longest side.

Sources: National Gallery, London · Wikidata Q2366825 · Wikimedia Commons