The Hay Wain by John Constable

John Constable, 1821, Oil On Canvas, National Gallery, London.

When I first saw John Constable’s The Hay Wain, I was overwhelmed by its sheer size, which had the effect of making me feel I was immersed in this idyllic landscape scene. The Hay Wain is one painting in a series of large-scale six-footers created by Constable; the English landscape painter composed these enormous paintings displaying scenes along the River Stour for summer exhibitions at the Royal Academy. They were lauded for their keen representation of nature.

In this piece a hay wain, which is a simple wooden wagon used to transfer hay, and a young boy in a shallow stream draw our eye into the composition. Our gaze then drifts to the left to a brick cottage before sweeping over to the lush trees and sun-drenched field, and finally up to the cumulus clouds. Constable moves our eyes from the warm tones of the foreground to the greener tones of the middle ground and then to the cooler tones of the background. Throughout the composition the interplay between light and shadow is brilliant, bringing the scene to life.

Constable painted this during the Industrial Revolution in the early nineteenth century, when more and more people were moving to the cities looking for a supposedly better life. This period of industrialization began in Great Britain and spread throughout the world; it involved a transitioning from hand power to machines, making liberal use of steam power. Many rural, agricultural people found themselves without jobs since machines reduced the need for manpower to harvest crops or raise farm animals. Uprisings occurred in many rural communities due to job losses. Even people who moved from poor agricultural areas to cities in search of work sadly remained poor since work hours were long and wages were meager.

Artists like Constable turned to the genre of the landscape as an escape from this new reality of the crowded urban life. Constable wanted to present the viewer with scenes of beauty and simplicity via paintings one could melt into. His oil paintings were a breath of fresh air during a time of revolutionary transformation. They still inspire a reverence for nature and simplicity today.

Natural tones are predominant in The Hay Wain, creating a soothing effect for the viewer’s eyes. The warm tones complement the cool tones of the stream and the lush foliage of the trees. The blue in the stream is echoed by the blue sky, and the red in the cottage is echoed slightly in the foliage. All these complementing gives harmony to the composition.

Let your eyes relax upon the water, trees, field, and sky. Do you feel your muscles relaxing? Your mind clearing? Stress melting away?

The Hay Wain is considered one of Constable’s most highly regarded paintings, with good reason. After all, we love to melt into a beautiful painting, to get lost in it. The Hay Wain is simple, calm, soothing, and sweet. It depicts a world that seems to have been left behind, in a natural setting we somehow yearn for. In a fast-paced world, scenes like this where nature predominates serve to ground us.

Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936, Photograph, Harry Ransom Center.

The image is visceral. Painful. Heart-wrenching. Who is this woman, and what is she going through? What about her children? What became of this family?

This emotionally charged Depression-era moment was captured by documentary photographer Dorothea Lange, whose images skillfully portrayed difficult chapters in America’s history. New Jersey-born Lange worked for the Farm Security Administration to document the reality of life for people intimately affected by economic struggle, lack of jobs, home displacement, and loss of hope during the Great Depression of the 1930s. She also covered the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans in the 1940s for the War Relocation Authority. Her haunting images show the human toll of world event consequences, particularly the displacement of millions of people.

Migrant Mother has become an iconic representation of the uncertainty families experienced as they drifted across America in search of work, food, and some semblance of stability. Displaced, bankrupt farm families and migrant workers faced grueling conditions daily as they looked for agricultural work and whatever odd jobs they could find. Through the medium of photography Lange was able to bring public attention to the plight of the struggling poor.

The woman pictured in Migrant Mother was Florence Owens Thompson. Her face expresses the deep concern of a parent grappling with what steps to take next to provide for her children. No stranger to hard work, Thompson was a remarried widow who supported her children by working in fields and restaurants. As a migrant farm worker, she was accustomed to the challenges of following crops and picking everything from beets to cotton, often from daybreak until well past sunset.

The picture was taken at a pea-pickers camp north of Los Angeles. When Lange recalled this photo many years later, she explained, “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, as well as birds that the children killed.”

That day Lange captured what has become the most recognizable image from the Depression. How did the lives of the photographer and the subject unfold afterwards?

Dorothea Lange went on to become the first woman to receive a Guggenheim fellowship, which she used to document the experience of Japanese Americans forcibly detained during WWII. She co-launched a nonprofit foundation to advance photography, and she worked for Life magazine. A childhood polio survivor, Lange died at the age of 70.

Florence Owens Thompson, who was of Cherokee descent, continued to support her children by harvesting fields and getting jobs in bars, restaurants, and hospitals. The family eventually settled in Modesto, California, with Thompson continuing to work in the fields into her early fifties, often negotiating wages for her fellow workers. She died at the age of 80, and her children fondly remember her as the backbone of the family.

Lange’s and Thompson’s time together was brief but pivotal, reminding us that our interactions with others matter, regardless of how fleeting each encounter may be.

The life of Florence Owens Thompson is a strong, albeit heart-wrenching, testament to a mother’s sheer determination, strength, and never-ending love for her children. May all of us moms strive to have her strength, determination, and boundless love for our children.