John Constable’s The Hay Wain, one of this nation’s most iconic images, was magnificently recreated by two artists from New Zealand on Sunday.
Finished in 1821, the painting by the Suffolk landscape artist depicts a farm cart, pulled by three horses crossing a tributary of the River Stour, in front of Willy Lott’s cottage, in the grounds of Flatford Mill.
Dozens of people turned up to the site as the scene was recreated and digitally restored at Willy Lott’s cottage at Flatford Mill by Kiwi artists Estella Castle and Cat Auburn.
The work has been given the title Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay, which was taken from a book by George Ewart Evans that collected together classical pictures of rural life in a remote Suffolk village.
Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay was staged to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Constable’s time in Suffolk.
The pair worked with the National Trust and local people to recreate as accurately as possible Constable’s most popular painting.
The work will be screened at Flatford and exhibited in London and at two galleries in New Zealand.
Ms Castle said: “Cat and I camped over the night before and were a bit worried, but there was lovely sunshine (yesterday) and it went really well.
“I grew up with The Hay Wain. My grandmother had a huge print of it behind her big chair in our family sitting room. It is a very iconic painting in New Zealand.”
She said that even the British countryside has been lovingly recreated in the Antipodean landscape as New Zealand’s original English settlers tried to recreate a little bit of home as they forged a new life for themselves half-way round the world.
Estella and Cat, friends from university in Auckland, who are currently working independently in London, met up at the National Gallery a year ago and decided that now was a great opportunity to do something together.
Ms Castle added: “It has been a great privilege recreating the scene. It has been an amazing experience and everyone really got involved.”
Ben Pipe, property operations manager for the National Trust at Flatford, said: “It has been a great event – and nothing like this has ever happened before.
“So many people from the community turned out to experience the recreation of such an iconic painting.”
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