Today, the scene immortalised in John Constable's probably most famous painting, The Hay Wain is somewhat different. The cottage is much as it was but the trees in the painting have gone, together with the view across the river where folk are at hay making.
The mill pool is also deeper than in Constable's day. The painting shows a hay wagon or wain heading toward the 'flat ford' across the river to collect another load.
The Hay Wain and John Constable
This beautiful painting hangs in the National Gallery in London. Some decades ago Constable had a reputation for 'chocolate box' painting. This has largely changed thankfully, seeing as it was completely undeserved. In fact compared to the tradition of the Royal Academy his work was considered rather 'out there' and it was quite some time before he was accepted despite his obvious talent. Now we can see that such was his talent that his pictures are among the most popular and well known in the world.
Nowadays many people prefer the rapid oil sketches he made as preparation, sitting before such scenes as these. A considerable time before the French Impressionists. Sketches of The Hay Wain are at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Constable's father was a wealthy man and owned both the mill and the cottage. Flatford Mill is at our back as we look towards the cottage. Constable and other members of the family are buried in the nearby village of East Bergholt.
Willy Lott
The tenant farmer of the cottage was a Willy Lott who it is said never spent more than four or so nights away from it in his entire eighty years. A National Trust notice pinned to the wall of Flatford Mill suggests that in Constable's day it was known as 'Willy Lott's House' and they insist that it is properly described as such.
England's Constable Country
The Stour Valley is picturesque in an understated southern English way. Our impression of this whole countryside is informed by Constable. In a way he has created it even at the same time he was created by it.
It is interesting to reflect that the England it conjures was already passing even when The Hay Wain was finished in 1821. But should Willy Lott's Cottage be flattened tomorrow it will still delight in two dimensions because of John Constable.
For the present, thanks to the National Trust, should you make an exhausting pilgrimage to this place from America or Japan for instance, you won't be disappointed. Although if you want an ice cream on a hot summer's public holiday you might be trampled underfoot.
Further Reading: John Constable A Kingdom of his Own by Anthony Bailey. Vintage, London.
