Eco-protesters glue themselves to frame Constable’s Hay Wain

The Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters also attached their own image of “an apocalyptic vision of the future” of the landscape, on three large sheets of paper.

It featured an old car dumped in front of the Mill and the Hay Wain cart carrying an old washing machine.

The protesters struck at central London’s National Gallery at 2.15pm on Monday.

The actions led to the evacuation of art lovers, tourists and a class of 11-year-old children on a school trip from the room where the painting hangs.

They were later named by JSO as music student Eben Lazarus, 22, and psychology student Hannah Hunt, 23, both of Brighton.

They wore white T-shirts with the logo Just Stop Oil, stepped over a rope barrier and then placed the printed coloured paper on to the front of the painting.

Protesters from Just Stop Oil climate protest group, glue their hands to the frame of John Constable's The Hay Wain. Picture: PA

Each also placed a hand on the frame of the painting and kneeled beneath it before loudly outlining their concerns as visitors were ushered out by security staff.

During the protest Lazarus, who described himself himself as an art lover, said: “Art is important. It should be held for future generations to see, but when there is no food what use is art.

“When there is no water, what use is art. When billions of people are in pain and suffering, what use then is art.”

Many of Constable’s landscapes, including the Hay Wain, were painted from the idyllic countryside of the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which surrounds Flatford, where Constable spent his childhood and early life.

Lazarus said: “We have stuck a reimagined version of the Hay Wain that demonstrates our road to disaster.”

Hunt later said “the disruption will end when the UK Government makes a meaningful statement that it will end new oil and gas licences”.

Visitors were evacuated from the room during the protest. Picture: PA

She added: “I’m here because our government plans to license 40 new UK oil and gas projects in the next few years.

“This makes them complicit in pushing the world towards an unliveable climate and in the death of billions of people in the coming decades.

“So yes, there is glue on the frame of this painting but there is blood on the hands of our government.”

A spokesman for the NG said the room was closed to the public and police were called.

They said later: “The painting was removed from the wall to be examined by our conservation team. The Hay Wain suffered minor damage to its frame and there was also some disruption to the surface of the varnish on the painting – both of which have now been successfully dealt with.”

The painting was rehung by Tuesday morning.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “At approximately 14.25 on Monday officers were called to a protest taking place inside the National Gallery involving two people.

“Two people were arrested.”