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
The Lock (Constable) church across the quintessentially English water meadows The scene is set under a towering tree and a dramatic, cloud-filled sky. "The Lock" is the fifth of six paintings that make up the "Stour series" of large-scale rural works, that Constable exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1819 and 1825. The painting is the only one of the series which remains in private hands, with the more famous "The Hay Wain" in the National Gallery, London. After its exhibition in 1824, "The Morning Post" commented: "Mr Constable contributes a landscape composition which for depth, sparkling light, freshness and vigorous effect exceeds