The Hay Wain

This Romantic landscape depicts three horses pulling a farm wagon across the River Stour near Flatford Mill, with a thatched cottage visible on the left. It is regarded as Constable’s most famous image and one of the greatest English paintings, and is one of his series of large "six-footer" canvases made especially for the Royal Academy’s summer exhibitions.

Purchased from the artist in 1824, the painting passed through several private collections and dealers in Paris and London before being acquired by Henry Vaughan, who presented it to the National Gallery in London in 1886.

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