"The Hay Wain" by John Constable (1821)
This is one of England's most famous and most loved paintings. It resides in The National Gallery in London, next to Trafalgar Square. It was painted by John Constable when he was 45 years old. The canvas is quite large - measuring 51 inches by 73 inches.
The scene depicts a hay wain or wagon crossing the River Stour which separates the ancient ceremonial counties of Suffolk and Essex. Constable grew up very close to this spot for his father owned nearby Flatford Mill.
The house on the left was rented to a tenant farmer called Willie Lott. It is reckoned that he only spent three or four days away from this spot in his entire life. Though it was originally known as Gibeons Farm, in Constable's lifetime it was always known as Willie Lott's Cottage just as it is today.
What do people like about this painting? Perhaps its fame is simply cumulative with its established familiarity gilding its popularity with modern witnesses. But thinking more aesthetically - maybe it is the sense of rural peace that the work exudes. It celebrates country life and the composition guides our eyes towards a distant future where there is a little blue sky, a little hope overhead.
It was a way of life that by 1821 was already giving way to industrialisation and the growth of cities. Many farm workers were seeking a way out of rural poverty and servitude and new industries seemed to represent that possibility. Soon the quiet bucolic lifestyle of the folk who occupied the countryside will be gone along with the hay wains their horses pulled.
Have you seen it before? What, if anything, do you think about the picture?
My mum and dad had that picture in the house when I was growing up. I had no idea it was a copy of a famous painting.
ReplyDeleteThe industrial revolution moved poverty and death from the countryside, into cities, but still poor people suffered the most, as they still do. There is enough in the world for everyone and yet people and children still starve to death, and die from unsafe water. I think the painting was what people wished for, not the harsh reality of living hand to mouth, hoping each harvest would get them through to the next harvest.
Thank you for your thoughtful and relevant reflections Pixie.
DeleteI have been to Trafalgar Square but not to this museum and thus, this piece is new to me. I am not surprised it's loved. I see what you mean about rural peace and without much context, when I look more closely I wonder, are these flood waters? The water is so close to the home. Is the water receding? Thus the garden's saved? The dog's playing again? The dark clouds likewise receding? Faming life (the source of all our origins) resumes. It seems hopeful for this reason too.
ReplyDeleteI like the way the painting has stirred your thoughts DB.
DeleteI have seen it before; it feels like the quintessential "time gone by" painting. A time which we will never see again.
ReplyDeleteThe painting helps us to hang on.
DeleteI love Constable for the feeling of bucolic peace in his landscapes.
ReplyDeleteThere was something about his work that appealed to ordinary people.
DeleteIt does look idyllic and not a John Deere tractor and slurry tanker anywhere to be seen. I have seen the Haywain in lots of places.
ReplyDeleteIt has become something of a cliché.
DeleteIt is a beautiful painting and while there is much to see within the work, it is also quite simple. There is nothing hidden, nothing complex to understand, just a simple scene so well captured.
ReplyDeleteI am sure something of Constable's lost youth was present in the painting.
DeleteI have never seen it before and think it is beautiful, like you said, a sense of rural peace comes from it.
ReplyDeleteNot that money means anything here but experts have suggested that "The Hay Wain" would currently sell for over £25 million or 48 million AUS dollars.
DeleteIt looks idyllic, but I wonder just how idyllic those people's lives were. It's a beautifully executed painting but not one I'd want on my wall - not my "style" at all. I find it rather dreary.
ReplyDeleteNo. I wouldn't want it either. It's just interesting as it says something about England in 1821.
DeleteNot surprisingly, I have never seen that painting before but I do like it for the sense of peace it gives me. I've spent lots of time in rural areas along gurgling streams and there is nothing more peaceful. Some of the best naps I have ever taken are in the shade along gurgling streams.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you can relate to this picture in your own personal way.
DeleteI don't know if I have seen it or not. So much has changed in 200 years, what will the next 200 years bring?
ReplyDeleteAccording to some we will be living on Mars but I don't believe that. It is too outlandish.
DeleteI know this painting like the back of my hand because my parents had it hanging on their wall in their lounge for decades and I only disposed of it when my mother died seven years ago. It was not a print but a copy done by some art students and it was so realistic it looked like the real thing. I always found it restful to look at and imagine what life was like in another time
ReplyDelete"Disposed of"? What did that mean for your parents' copy?
DeleteNot sure I understand what you are asking. When mum died, i gave the painting to a charity shop.
DeleteI am glad you gave it to a charity shop ADDY and didn't just stick it in a dustbin. Hopefully someone else has re-homed it.
DeleteI've never seen the painting before that I know of. There's so much going on between the sky and the water that instead of peace, it seems too busy to me. Probably just the mood I'm in this morning.
ReplyDeleteAt different times we do bring different moods to our appreciation of art.
DeleteI suspect it was nostalgic even for Constable at the time. It looks a lot like Dutch landscape paintings of the 1600s, like those by van Ruysdael, harkening back to an earlier, simpler time -- though like Coppa's girl says above I'm sure it was a hard life.
ReplyDeleteI can see why you would make the Dutch connection.
DeleteI thought it looked familiar and I found where I had seen it before. On the blog "By Stargoose and Hanglands", do you follow him, Neil? John does wonderful hikes with his brother and always has wonderful photos and explanations in his posts. I think you would like his blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the connection Ellen. I had never hears of that blog before.
DeleteLandscapes are my favorite and I very much like this Constable. It makes me think of my ancestors, farmers and sheep growers.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to capture a time that is lost to us.
DeleteWow, that canvas is quite large. I have not seen this painting before. I think people like it because it does capture the essence of what the countryside looked like back then.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is wistful and romantic.
DeleteI must have seen it someplace before, it looks so familiar. Very Idyllic.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of British adults will know that picture straight away Tom.
DeleteI am familiar with the painting but it does not hold that strong appeal for me as for most of my fellow commenters here. There is nothing for me to complain about, it simply does not "speak" to me the way some works of art do.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, there is a Midsomer Murders episode where apparently an unknown painting by Constable is found, and it is very funny how the inspector develops into an art expert in the course of 90 minutes and solves the crime. Some of the dialogue and the clues were, in my opinion, rather clever in that old episode.