(To get this out of the way first since the word is no longer in common use, a "wain" is a carriage for the transport of grain. It's the thing that we see in middle of the river.)

Way back in the dawn of time, I had a rather romantic and almost nostalgic vision of what England would be like. Much like overseas people's visions of Australia, it's probably a place that doesn't exist and never did exactly, but more an impression drawn from fragments of reality.

This is true of both urban and rural England. For the latter, however, pretty much everything that I imagined about it can be summarised by this painting which at one time was my favourite painting of all time. (And it's still in the top 10. What's my current favourite? I don't really have one. I have several that tie for the position and that would include this one.)

This painting represents a time and a place that probably existed to a greater or lesser extent in the early 1800s. (The painting was done in 1821.) However it would not last many more decades as increasing industrialisation encroached into the agricultural fields, displacing large numbers of workers into the cities by the time the century was out. But for the moment, it's a scene of tranquillity. You can imagine the clopping and splashing of the horse's hooves as it walks through the river, probably taking a chance to get a drink and cool itself at the same time. (Another reason for driving these carriages through the water from time to time was to ensure that the wood on the wheels didn't shrink in the heat (to the extent that they have heat in England); the original title of this painting was "Landscape: Noon", which suggests that it was done during the hottest part of the day. The time of year is less certain but in my opinion the painting has more of a summer than winter feel to it.

The painting is set on the river Stour which forms the border between Suffolk on the north (the left bank here) and Essex on the south (the right bank). The cottage on the left is that of Willy Lott, a tenant farmer who was born in the cottage. Legend has it that he was away from the cottage for only four days out of his entire life. The cottage is still visible if you visit this place. Unfortunately the rest of the view is rather different.

Constable was not exceptionally successful during his lifetime. He was more popular in France than he was in England, despite the essential "Englishness" of his paintings. Nonetheless this often appears in any list of popular English paintings.

As I said, this was at one time my favourite painting. It's a time and a place that I would like to have visited even if briefly to see how much the reality matches to the art. Regardless though, I can still look at the painting and have done so in art books for years and years. I never imagined that I would stand before the real thing. Accordingly, I didn't take this shot. I had someone else do it with me playing a cameo role rather smaller than one you expect from Hitchcock. It proves that for one brief moment, I actually stood in front of something that I had imagined for years and was finally seeing with my own eyes.