John Constable - Study of Clouds, Hampstead Heath [c.1821-22]

John Constable - Study of Clouds, Hampstead Heath [c.1821-22], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

From 1819 to 1826 John Constable rented various small houses in Hampstead, an escape in the summer months from the bustle and pollution of London, but an easy coach journey from his house and painting room in Charlotte Street. Hampstead Heath, with its panoramic views and fresh breezes, had attracted writers such as John Keats and Leigh Hunt and artists such as John Linnell, William Collins and F W Watts to live there in the second and third decade of the nineteenth century. It was an ideal spot for Constable’s wife Maria, who was in delicate health, and her growing brood of children. The family settled there permanently, at 6 Well Walk, in 1827.

In his early summers at Hampstead, particularly in 1821-22, Constable produced an extraordinary series of nearly one hundred plein air sketches of skies. Mostly in oil on prepared paper, they range from full-size 20 x 24 inch standard paper sheets to fractions of such sheets: the present work is roughly an eighth of such a sheet. Subjects range from hot sunsets viewed through a fringe of trees at the western edge of the Heath, to pure cloud studies, to works such as the present one, where a delicate cloudscape is anchored and put in context by the merest line of horizon.

[Oil on paper laid down on board, 14 x 21.5 cm]