"The Hay Wain" by Constable
©TopFoto.co.uk/The National Gallery
You’ve probably seen this image most often on a tea towel, a place mat or coaster, but Constable's painting really deserves to be seen in its full oil-on-canvas majesty at the National Gallery.
Completed in 1821, it shows an idyllic rural scene near Flatford Mill on the River Stour in Suffolk. It is now known as one of the greatest English paintings, but when it was originally exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821, it failed to find a buyer.
It found more favour in France, where critics were astonished by its freshness. It was duly awarded a gold medal by King Charles X, and inspired a new generation of French painters.
Biography
As well as telling the story of how Constable created "The Hay Wain" in his studio, we examine the history of landscape painting both before and after the English master
Features
Find out a little more about the life of one of England's foremost 19th-century artists, and also those water mills he was so fond of
