Forza Horizon 4 is partly inspired by one of Britain’s favourite paintings

Earlier this month, Forza Horizon 4 senior game designer tweeted a side-by-side comparison of a screenshot from the game and The Hay Wain, an 1821 painting by English landscape painter John Constable. The two images were captioned “Games are Art. Art are Games.”

Now, it’s fair to say that there are some differences between the two images. For one thing, Constable’s painting is made from oil paints on canvas, while Playground made its game in its own engine. Elsewhere, there are some differences in the scenery and perspective, but the cart and small pond in the painting’s foreground, as well as the white house to the left make it pretty clear what the designers were inspired by when creating this section of the map in particular.

The Hay Wain depicts Flatform Mill in Suffolk, which was owned by Constable’s father, although the county does not feature in the game itself. In a 2005 poll, it was voted the second most-popular painting in a British gallery.

Games are Art.
Art are Games. pic.twitter.com/RvsIIGwOvt