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Curator's introduction

Discover Constable & The Hay Wain

Discover the radical nature of Constable's The Hay Wain with exhibition curators Christine Riding and Mary McMahon
Date
Thursday, 5 December 2024
Time
1 - 2 pm GMT
Available online only
Accompanied by Stagetext

About

Now a symbol of a quintessential and somewhat romantic British countryside, 'The Hay Wain' has entered our collective visual memory and pop culture as an icon of traditional British landscape painting, and it is hard to imagine that it was once considered radical. Yet, when it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821, it was viewed as an innovative reimagining of the landscape tradition. 

Join Director of Collections and Research, Christine Riding and Mary McMahon, Associate Curator NG200 Collections, as they introduce our current exhibition. Explore how Constable came to be established as a master in the history of British art, as his work entered the collections of major galleries and museums. They will also look at the ownership of the painting and its acquisition by the National Gallery in 1886 and examine the rise in popularity of both Constable and 'The Hay Wain' since this point. 

This session will be accompanied by live speech-to-text transcription supported by Stagetext.

Image: Detail from John Constable, 'The Hay Wain', 1821

Christine Riding

Christine Riding is the Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery. Before joining the Gallery, she was Head of Arts and Curator of the Queen's House at Royal Museums Greenwich (2011–18), where she curated the 'Turner and the Sea' exhibition (2013). From 1999 to 2011, she was Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century British Art at Tate.

Mary McMahon

Dr Mary McMahon is Associate Curator (NG200 Paintings) at the National Gallery, where she was previously Bernays Curatorial Fellow of British Paintings. Prior to this she has held curatorial, exhibition and research positions at the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Watts Gallery.  She is co-curator of the 'Discover Constable and the Hay Wain'.

Supported by

Supported by Elizabeth and Daniel Peltz OBE

Talks & conversations

Curator's introduction

Discover Constable & The Hay Wain

Discover the radical nature of Constable's The Hay Wain with exhibition curators Christine Riding and Mary McMahon
Date
Thursday, 5 December 2024
Time
1 - 2 pm GMT
Available online only
Accompanied by Stagetext

Online tickets

This event is open for Members priority booking until Friday, 22 November 2024. Members please sign in to book.

Free

This is an online event, hosted on Zoom

Please book a free ticket to access this event. You will receive an E-ticket with instructions on how to access your online events, films and resources via your National Gallery account. 

Please note, only one ticket can be booked per account. Bookings close one hour before the event.