Watch match of the Hay
LET’S IMAGINE for a moment that you decide tonight to watch England v Scotland (EURO 2020, ITV, from 7pm). Let’s also imagine that at half-time you find yourself having a re-think. Maybe this much-hyped encounter is proving a wee bit dreary. Maybe neither side has had so much as a measly shot on target.
Alternatively, maybe one side has had loads of measly shots on target, several of which have resulted in actual “goals”, but unfortunately this side doesn’t happen to be the one you’re supporting.
Either way, you may be thinking: “To hell with this tomfoolery. I’d rather switch over to Channel 5 and hear the BBC’s former political editor telling us the story of 19th-century artist John Constable’s masterpiece The Hay Wain.”
If so, great news – you’ll be in luck.This week’s GREAT PAINTINGS OF THE WORLD
WITH ANDREW MARR (9pm) does indeed focus on that very work, and on the somewhat surprising story surrounding it.
I say “somewhat” because I wouldn’t want to raise your expectations here to an unrealistic degree. It’s not as though it turns out to have been painted by Disraeli or a dolphin or anything like that. It’s just that people hated it at first.
They’d hated Constable’s previous pictures as well, it seems – his understated landscapes were considered boring, up against the huge, epic, historically themed monstrosities that were in vogue in the early 19th century – but he rather hoped he’d turned the corner at last, particularly as he’d gone supersized with this one. Instead, its unveiling at the Royal Academy was a bit of a car crash. Or maybe a cart crash.
One thing I love about this series is hearing how worked up people used to get about pictures. It wasn’t just a case of looking at a new one and saying: “Sorry, doesn’t really do it for me. Have you tried doing one of a tennis player scratching her bottom? I reckon that’d sell like hot cakes.”
No, if a picture didn’t meet with folks’ approval they’d go apoplectic.
When The Hay Wain went on display, reveals one historian, people were “shocked” and “horrified”. Its creator was “sneered at”.
Poor man. Honestly, it was just a nice picture of a wagon in a river.
Only when French artist Théodore Géricault sang The Hay Wain’s praises did the mood finally shift. Unappreciated here,The Hay Wain found a new home in France.
“When it was exhibited in the Paris Salon,” another expert explains, “that’s when people’s eyes were opened.”
Well, marvellous.About time. And then what?
“They wept in front of it.” Oh, for goodness’ sake.