The Hay Wain The Hay Wain The Hay Wain is a painting by John Constable, finished in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It hangs in the National Gallery in London and is regarded as "Constable's most famous image" and one of the greatest and most popular English paintings. Painted in oils on canvas, the work depicts as its central feature three horses pulling what in fact appears to be a wood wain or large farm cart across the river. Willy Lott's Cottage, also the subject of an eponymous painting by
John Wain work. Wain is still known for his poetry (for example, his " Apology for Understatement") and literary interests (contributions to "The Observer"), although his work is no longer as popular as it was. Critical remarks about Wain by Amis and Larkin in their posthumously published letters may have contributed to diminishing his reputation. Wain's tutor at Oxford had been C. S. Lewis. He encountered, but did not consider himself part of the group of Lewis's literary acquaintances, the Inklings. Wain was as serious about literature as the Inklings, and believed as they did in the primacy of literature as communication,