Painting of the Month

Constable, 'The Hay Wain', 1821
Special Feature: An English Masterpiece

'The Hay Wain' shows the mill-pond at Flatford on the River Stour in Suffolk, and the fields behind it on a summer day during harvest time. The mill itself is just out of sight, along with its storage sheds and outbuildings full of machinery.

What we see is a tranquil scene with an empty hay cart, or 'wain', being pulled through the pond towards the flat-bottomed crossing place, or 'ford' (from where 'Flatford' gets its name) to get across to the fields where we can just see harvesters at work. The fact that they are cutting hay sets the season as somewhere around late July or August.

Constable made numerous drawings and oil sketches of this scene. It was an area he knew very well, as he had grown up nearby, and his family had lived there for nearly a century.

Learn more about Constable's oil sketches at the Victoria and Albert Museum

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