It's ranked among Britain's favourite paintings, and considered a quintessential depiction of the English countryside.
But Constable's 'Hay Wain' wasn't painted by the banks of the Stour, or named after the horse drawn farm cart familiar from the painter's youth.
The 1821 oil painting was in fact originally titled Landscape: Noon, and painted in a shed at the artist's Hampstead home.
What's more, some of the sketches it is based on may have been made at Whitestone Pond, where delivery carts climbing the hill through Hampstead would cool their wheels in the water.
The making of the painting and its iconic status in British art will be explored in a free exhibition at The National Gallery in October Discover Constable & The Hay Wain.
But if that's too long to wait, there's Estelle Lovatt's popular walking tours of Constable's Hampstead, which include his homes in Well Walk and Lower Terrace, and grave in Hampstead Parish Churchyard.
The Finchley-based art critic explains that the painter spent long periods living in Hampstead village from 1819 until his death in 1837 as a half way house between his native Suffolk and the London art scene that he needed for his career.
Hampstead's spa waters and fresh air were also beneficial for his wife Maria who had Tuberculosis, and the surrounding countryside proved inspirational to paint scenes such as Branch Hill Pond.
"He had to leave Suffolk and come to London when he was a student at the Royal Academy but he would walk the three miles to Hampstead from central London because he said it reminded him so much of the countryside he grew up in," says Lovatt.
"Hampstead was a spa town with fresh air, 400 feet higher than the smoggy city. His wife was of ill health and it was a good place for them and their seven children."
The artist became a familiar figure roaming the Heath with a wooden sketching box, which he rested on his knees to paint outdoors.
"He said you can always tell an artist because he will have a sketchbook and a pencil in his pocket, he used the same sketches frequently in his paintings sometimes years later," says Lovatt.
Constable still loved the place where he grew up, and Landscape: Noon features Willy Lott's cottage and Flatford Mill, which was owned by his family.
The National Gallery will display the sketches he made of the Stour two decades before he embarked on the painting.
"It was very special to him, he spent his boyhood there and always said the banks of the Stour made him a painter."
What we now know as the Hay Wain is one of Constable's larger works and took five months to paint.
"It's one of his six footers, he painted it in a shed he had converted into an art studio, sort of like a man cave. People have studied the clouds in the painting and say they are Hampstead clouds. And the horse and cart was very possibly resting in Whitestone Pond.
"If you look at the painting closely, the cart would not have been suitable for carrying hay because it has slats at the side. It was probably a delivery driver carrying something north from the City to Barnet, who rolled the wheels of the cart through the water."
Landscape: Noon debuted in 1821 at The Royal Academy's Summer exhibition but "it wasn't appreciated and didn't sell."
But then an Anglo French art dealer took it to France where "they loved its realism."
It was praised by the artist Gericault, won a gold medal, and inspired French painters such as Delacroix. It was eventually bought by a Mr Young from the Isle of Wight and presented to the National Gallery upon his death in 1866.
It has twice been the subject of protests with a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner and Just Stop Oil activists glueing themselves to the frame.
Meeting at Whitestone Pond, Lovatt's tours trace a one and a half mile route to see where Constable painted, learn about his life story and painting techniques, and his rivalry with fellow English painter Turner.
She brings along an iPad to compare the painter's favourite spots with the images he painted, and says the National Gallery's Hay Wain exhibition is "really important, especially for younger people."
"The image is now so familiar as wallpaper, from biscuit tins to screensavers, but to see it front of you is so surprising. It's so large you have to stand back to view it, but stand close and the paint application is very abstract - you can see why he and Turner inspired the Impressionists.
"It's one of the greatest works of art, theatrical, natural, expressive. We do need to revisit it."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here