he was painting. It was created as a picture of his boyhood home in the Stour Valley and it is impossible to see it as an unbiased work because the artist’s feelings are so evident. The Romantic obsession with nature as representing truth and purity is portrayed at its best in this painting. In many ways it could be compared to a Garden of Eden, when put in the context of 19th century industrial London. (Rosenblum, pg.158) Although the scene is of the working class, the hardships of the class are not seen. Farmers working in the hot sun are barely visible in the painting. It is, above all, a landscape painting meant to show the beauty of nature and to evoke feelings from the viewer, not a painting meant to show the unfairness forced on the working classes. The Hay Wain shows Constable’s affinity for the place where he grew up, not acknowledging the hardships that must have been a large part of farm life. (Rosenblum, pg.157-158) In Constable’s letter to Rev. Fisher from 1821, he explains his reasons for painting the places that he does. “Still I should paint my own places best; painting is with me but another word for feeling, and I associate ‘my careless boyhood’ with all that lies on the banks of the Stour; those scenes made me a painter…” (Holt, pg.115) His comment about painting being synonymous with feeling is a perfect illustration of the main beliefs of the Romantic Movement. The method of painting The Hay Wain was unique in that the paint was partially applied with a palette knife, but it was also different because the brushwork was speckled and the colors were so energetic that individual details were difficult to pick out. (Rosenblum, pg.158) In another letter to Rev. Fisher from 1825, Constable writes about other artist’s opinions of his brushwork and color. “…Thought that as the colors are rough, they should be seen at a distance. They found the m...
