The Hay Wain

John Constable’s “The Hay Wain” (1821) (see the picture below), which depicts the ordinary daily life and landscape in English countryside, is one of the greatest and most popular English paintings. Prior to his time, artists considered landscape paintings below historical and religious paintings, but Constable treated rural scenes as the subjects of his paintings rather than mere backdrops to other subjects. This view of painting influenced some young artists of his time and eventually inspired the movement of impressionism in the history of art. While his original work is six-foot wide, I copied it in a 4’x3’ canvas (see the picture above). The most challenging and yet rewarding part of the process is to render the movement of the formless clouds and the reflection of water in numerous colors and shades of light. In the end, I can appreciate why landscape painting is popular in our time and am inspired to explore the impressionist painting in the near future.