He Haywain By John Constable

he Haywain, by John Constable, is a brilliant piece of artwork that thoroughly encompasses most, if not all, elements and principals of art. Constable masterfully incorporates these concepts to provide his audience with a clear and realistic depiction of a rural farm scene. This scene includes a house dating around the 1820’s, a semi flooded front porch, over hanging trees that stand in the middle ground, and a vast meadow containing a few cattle in the background. Two men and a horse drawn cart are wading through the flooded area in the direction of a girl poised on a stair step just above the water and dispersing storm clouds float overhead. Constable is seemingly implying a sense of quiet persistence in the piece, through a mood comprised of many similar principals. First of all, the painting is clearly depicting a post storm flood of some sort, leaving the audience feeling how solemn the ambiance is. This is created through his use of cool colors combined with a dark value or tint through most of the painting. In addition, the semi-flooded creek is dark and deep in color as is reflects an equally dark sky, allowing the viewer to almost feel the morning cold. Again, the bark of the tall trees, their cast shadows thrown upon the house,
and the cast shadows of distant trees are repeated to help create this sense of unity in mood and appearance. However, there is variety and contrast created in the piece as well.
In the top right corner of the painting, Constable creates the reflection of new sunlight on the clouds that falls into the open meadow, illuminating a portion of the area. Here, the shades are softer and lighter and the brush strokes more broad and blurred, creating an atmospheric perspective. These bright horizontal lines also create a sense of peace and persistence that carries into the darker portions of the painting to keep it from appearing hopeless. The viewer can almost empathize with the people and want to join in rebuilding what was broken. Such use of light puts emphasis on the open space to counter balance the dark and detailed shadows to the
left.
Lastly, the variety, yet harmony, of textures in the piece cement the emotions discussed before. The water is mostly calm and smooth except for a few ripples around the wagons wheels. In addition to the long rolling grasses of the meadow, the vague details of the dirt, and the top left portion of the sky (depicting a gap in the clouds and soft sunlight), create the peace and persistence mentioned before. In contrast, sharper and more vivid textures are found in the jagged branches of the closer trees, the mixed reeds and weeds lining the water, and the harsh, heavy clouds in the left portion of the sky. These pieces of the scene are what force the dark, solemnity and fear of a heavy storm.