Constable’s iconic Hay Wain in 10 minutes or less | National Gallery

What made John Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’ so radical for its time? Vivmar Curatorial Fellow Emily Burns explains Constable’s groundbreaking use of colour and skilled composition, and how he set about painting this masterpiece in only 5 months. The view in the painting is of the millpond at Flatford on the River Stour. Flatford Mill was a watermill for grinding corn, operated by the Constable family for nearly a hundred years. It still survives and is about a mile from Constable’s birthplace at East Bergholt, Suffolk. The house on the left also survives; in Constable’s time it was occupied by tenant farmer Willy Lott.