The Hay Wain John Constable (1776-1837)

Description of John Constable’s painting "Hay Wagon"

The pinnacle of fame, as the single greatest landscape painter in nineteenth-century Britain, the painter achieved it on his own through perseverance and thirst for knowledge, as well as by studying the works of the eminent Masters of his time.

He painted in an individual style, abandoning the standard rules that were inherent in the landscape painting of the time. He began to observe nature on his own, painting all its beauty in the context of his real vision.

The motifs of his paintings were simple and natural, but they reflected all the majesty of the compositions and colors, filled with a sense of unity and harmony of nature. He loved to work in nature, where clean, fresh air enveloped his restless and bold strokes, filling them with a gradation of light, live dynamics of colors and the state of the airy environment.

So in the work "The cart on the hay", which is a world symbol of the landscape of English painting, the Romantic artist depicted episodes of daily life of people living near the river Stour. This work was first exhibited at the Royal Academy under the title of Constable’s Paysage: Noon.

Here he depicted a warm, quiet day in a very realistic way. Horses are walking leisurely across the ford, and a curious dog is watching them. The dog’s keen gaze helps the viewer to appreciate the area’s natural beauty.

Unfortunately, despite its acclaim at the Royal Academy and the great number of positive opinions of the jury and critics, the painting was never acquired.

Three years passed and the work was presented at the Salon, in Paris. And it was there that it made a proper furore. The audience was delighted by the water in the river, which was as real. Only Constable painted the water with titanium whitewash and the effect of tiny strokes, which gave the technique its name "Constable’s snowflakes.