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Section 2.
The Hay Wain (1821), John Constable.
The Hay Wain is a painting by John Constable in 1821, a leading Romantic artist, it shows a country scene on the River Stour in Suffolk. It is probably Constable's most famous image and one of the greatest and most popular English paintings. The painting is near Flatford Mill in Suffolk, it is painted in oils. The image shows three horses pulling a hay wain across the river and Willy Lott's Cottage with farm workers in the background. The simple yet charming picture has had a great influence on modern landscape painting and made the area it was painted in, the East of England famous. Constable delighted in painting scenes of the area that he lived in, his local area, and his greatest works were produced here. Ronald Parkinson observes that he wrote to John Fisher in 1821 "I should paint my own places best", "painting is but another word for feeling". Constable painted with a bright, clear atmosphere and straightforward realism capturing the countryside before the industrial revolution creating images that are aesthetically pleasing, with a nostalgic and wistful air to them. .
Human figures blend in with the natural background, the whole scene is serene, this is one of Constables artistic themes. The Hay Wain is also significant because Constable does not show the civil unrest of the farming working class or the development of the industrial revolution. Constable aims for realism and accuracy, and by doing so the theme of unity between man and nature is portrayed. He said of painting Painting is a science and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature. Why, then, may not a landscape be considered as a branch of natural philosophy, of which pictures are but experiments?.
Constable demonstrates his strong sense of aesthetic and beauty, he said There is nothing ugly; I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.
