''The Hay Wain'' – originally titled ''Landscape: Noon'' – is a painting by
John Constable
John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...
, completed in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the
River Stour between the English counties of
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
and
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
. It hangs in the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
in London and is regarded as "Constable's most famous image"
and one of the greatest and most popular
English paintings
English art is the body of visual arts made in England. England has Europe's earliest and northernmost ice-age cave art. Prehistoric art in England largely corresponds with art made elsewhere in contemporary Britain, but early medieval Anglo-Sa ...
.
[
Painted in oils on canvas, the work depicts as its central feature three horses pulling what in fact appears to be a wood ]wain
A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people.
Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...
or large farm wagon across the river. Willy Lott's Cottage
Willy Lott's Cottage is a house in Flatford, East Bergholt, Suffolk, England which appears in several paintings by John Constable, notably ''The Hay Wain''.
The property is Grade I listed building, listed to reflect its importance "as part o ...
, also the subject of an eponymous painting by Constable, is visible on the far-left. The scene takes place near Flatford Mill
Flatford Mill is a Grade I listed watermill on the River Stour at Flatford in East Bergholt, Suffolk, England. According to the date-stone the mill was built in 1733, but some of the structure may be earlier. Attached to the mill is a 17th-c ...
in Suffolk, though since the Stour forms the border of two counties, the left bank is in Suffolk and the landscape on the right bank is in Essex.
''The Hay Wain'' is one of a series of paintings by Constable called the "six-footers", large-scale canvasses which he painted for the annual summer exhibitions at the Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
. As with all of the paintings in this series, Constable produced a full-scale oil sketch for the work; this is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
in London. Constable originally exhibited the finished work with the title ''Landscape: Noon'', suggesting that he envisaged it as belonging to the classical landscape tradition of representing the cycles of nature.
The painting measures .
History
Flatford Mill was owned by Constable's father. The house on the left side of the painting belonged to a neighbour, Willy Lott, a tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...
, who was said to have been born in the house and never to have left it for more than four days in his lifetime. Willy Lott's Cottage
Willy Lott's Cottage is a house in Flatford, East Bergholt, Suffolk, England which appears in several paintings by John Constable, notably ''The Hay Wain''.
The property is Grade I listed building, listed to reflect its importance "as part o ...
still survives practically unaltered, but none of the trees in the painting exists today.
Although ''The Hay Wain'' is revered today as one of the greatest British paintings, when it was originally exhibited at the Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
in 1821 (under the title ''Landscape: Noon''), it failed to find a buyer.
It was considerably better received in France where it was praised by Théodore Géricault
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is ''The Raft of the Medusa''. Although he died young, he was one of the pioneers of the Romantic ...
. The painting caused a sensation when it was exhibited with other works by Constable at the 1824 Paris Salon
The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...
(it has been suggested that the inclusion of Constable's paintings in the exhibition was a tribute to Géricault, who died early that year). In that exhibition, ''The Hay Wain'' was singled out for a gold medal awarded by Charles X of France
Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Lou ...
, 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
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...
.
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
Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came af ...
on the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
. It was there that the painting came to the attention of the collector Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan (17 April 1621 – 23 April 1695) was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author and translator writing in English, and a medical physician. His religious poetry appeared in ''Silex Scintillans'' in 1650, with a second part in 1655.''Oxfo ...
and the painter Charles Robert Leslie
Charles Robert Leslie (19 October 1794 – 5 May 1859) was an English genre painter.
Biography
Leslie was born in London to American parents. When he was five years of age he returned with them to the United States, where they settled in Philad ...
. On the death of his friend Mr. Young, Vaughan bought the painting from the former's estate; in 1886, he presented it to the National Gallery in London, where it still hangs today. In his will, Vaughan bequeathed the full-scale oil sketch for ''The Hay Wain'', made with a palette knife
A palette knife is a blunt tool used for mixing or applying paint, with a flexible steel blade. It is primarily used for applying paint to the canvas, mixing paint colors, adding texture to the painted surface, paste, etc., or for marbling, decora ...
, to the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
).''The Hay Wain'' was voted the second most popular painting in any British gallery, second only to Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turni ...
's '' Fighting Temeraire'', in a 2005 poll organised by BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's ''Today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...
'' programme.
It has been suggested that the reason for the wagon stopping at the ford was to allow the river water to cool the horses' legs and to soak the wheels. In hot dry weather, the wooden wheels would shrink away from their metal rims. Wetting the wheels reduced the shrinkage and kept the outer metal band in place.
On 28 June 2013, a protester, reported to be connected with Fathers 4 Justice
Fathers 4 Justice (or F4J) is a fathers’ rights organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2001, the group aims to gain public and parliamentary support for changes in UK legislation on fathers' rights, mainly using stunts and protest ...
, glued a photograph of a young boy to the painting while it was on display at the National Gallery. The work was not permanently damaged. On 4 July 2022, two Just Stop Oil
Just Stop Oil is an environmental activist group in the United Kingdom. Using civil resistance and direct action, the group aims for the British government to commit to halting new fossil fuel licensing and production. It launched on 14 Febr ...
protestors attached their own modified "apocalyptic vision of the future" version of the painting to the original and glued themselves to the frame. The National Gallery said the surface varnish
Varnish is a clear transparent hard protective coating or film. It is not a stain. It usually has a yellowish shade from the manufacturing process and materials used, but it may also be pigmented as desired, and is sold commercially in various ...
of the painting and its frame suffered minor damage.
References
External links
National Gallery information
*
''Constable's England''
the full text of an exhibition catalogue from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, which contains material on ''The Hay Wain''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay Wain, The
Collections of the National Gallery, London
1821 paintings
Paintings by John Constable
Dogs in art
Horses in art
Water in art
Vandalized works of art in the United Kingdom
England in art