when it was painted more than 200 years ago, john constable's the hay wain was considered radical by new exhibition details just why it became so universally famous, as zoie 0'brien reports. more than 200 years old and still the centre of attention, the hay wain catapulted john constable to fame in france and wider europe, winning him a gold medal at the paris salon in 1824. the painting now considered revolutionary, its creator, one of our greatest landscape artists of all time. it wasn't well received in england at first. for the british, who were seeing constable's work from 1802 onwards at the royal academy, the british institution and elsewhere, they were quite familiar with his artisticjourney. but when constable's works were exhibited in paris and then go to the paris salon, that there's a complete revelation for the french, they hadn't seen art like it because of the war, but they hadn't seen radical art like it. in comparison to the classicism that davidian's school of french art. the haywain was painted in 1821, but it's now at the heart of a new exhibition at its home, the