John Constable The Haywain

John Constable was born on June 11, 1776, to Golding and Ann Constable. His father was a corn merchant, and he owned Flatford Mill and Dedham Mill in East Bergholt. John had an older brother who was handicapped, and the family business was left up to him to carry on, but his younger brother actually took over the business. He earned part of his education at a boarding school at Lavenham before enrolling in a school in Dedham. When Constable was young, he met with George Beaumont, which led to his career as an artist. Constable was inspired by Claude Lorrain’s landscape painting and later became known as the most accomplished landscape painter. Constable married Maria Bicknell in 1816. He did not sell his first painting until he was 39 years old. In 1821 he showed “The

To me, this painting appears to take place in the countryside because of the older looking house and the horses pulling a wagon. I suppose that the people are crossing over the river to get some food and possibly water. Obviously, back in those days, there was no such thing as a car. You traveled by horses everywhere you went. Constable does a great job painting what life was like in the 1800’s. This painting is very realistic. Constable uses the colors quite well in this painting. He uses naturalistic colors in this painting, meaning these colors are what we see everyday. He uses many shapes in his painting of The Haywain. You see circles for the wheels on the wagon, triangles are used to create the roof on the house, and a square is used for the one window the viewer is able to see on the house. Because of his brushstrokes, it is very easy to tell the texture of each object and what it actually feels like in real life from the trees, to the grass, and the house; it is phenomenal. John Constable’s artwork is very meticulous, and I really like that about