Oil paint on canvas
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-constable-108" aria-label="More by John Constable" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Constable</a>
Grove Hampstead
Presented by Miss Isabel Constable 1888
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
cow
England
figure
Hampstead, The Grove
heathland
horse
house
landscape
path
people
places
pool
residential
riding
society
townscapes / man-made features
transport: land
tree
UK countries and regions
UK London
water: inland
<p>The house known as ‘The Grove’ was occupied in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by Fountain North, a former lieutenant in the navy. North made alterations to the building so that its flat roof resembled the quarter-deck of a man-of-war; from here he is said to have fired a cannon on special occasions. By the time Constable came to stay regularly at Hampstead in the 1820s, the main relics of this eccentric arrangement seem to have been the railings round the edges of the roof.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
26 August 2002 – 9 March 2003
2003-03-09
26 August 2002 – 9 March 2003
2003-03-09
2002-08-26
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-08-26
Constable
Collection based display
12 May 2003 – 7 May 2006
2006-05-07
12 May 2003 – 7 May 2006
2006-05-07
2003-05-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-05-12
Constable 1
Collection based display
8 May 2006 – 22 May 2007
2007-05-22
8 May 2006
2006-05-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-05-08
John Constable
Collection based display
28 May 2007 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
28 May 2007 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
2007-05-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-05-28
John Constable: The Struggle for Recognition
Collection based display
8 November 2010 – 5 January 2011
2011-01-05
8 November 2010 – 5 January 2011
2011-01-05
2010-11-08
Sayyid Faisal Bin Ali Museum (Muscat, Sultanate of Oman)
2010-11-08
The Art of Seeing Nature: Masterpieces from Tate Britain
Loan-out
22 July 2013 – 28 June 2014
2014-06-28
22 July 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-07-22
Compton Verney (Compton Verney, UK)
5 October 2013 – 5 January 2014
2014-01-05
2013-10-05
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
1 March 2014 – 28 June 2014
2014-06-28
2014-03-01
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
2013-07-22
Capturing British Landscape in the age of Turner and Constable
Loan-out
7 February 2015 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
7 February 2015 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
2015-02-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-02-07
Constable
Collection based display
20 February 2021 – 4 February 2023
2023-02-04
20 February 2021 – 31 May 2021
2021-05-31
2021-02-20
Mitsubishi Ichigokan (Tokyo, Japan)
1 July 2022 – 9 October 2022
2022-10-09
2022-07-01
Villa Vauban (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg)
24 October 2022 – 4 February 2023
2023-02-04
2022-10-24
Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin, Italy)
2021-02-20
Constable and England: A History of His Affections
Tate partnerships & programmes
The Grove, Hampstead
support: 356 × 302 mm
frame: 550 × 495 × 65 mm
Presented by Miss Isabel Constable 1888
<p>The house known as ‘The Grove’ was occupied in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by Fountain North, a former lieutenant in the navy. North made alterations to the building so that its flat roof resembled the quarter-deck of a man-of-war; from here he is said to have fired a cannon on special occasions. By the time Constable came to stay regularly at Hampstead in the 1820s, the main relics of this eccentric arrangement seem to have been the railings round the edges of the roof. </p>

Display caption
2007-05-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-the-grove-hampstead-n01246" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01246</span></a> <b>Admiral's House, Hampstead</b> <i>Circa</i> 1820–25</p>
<p>
<br/>Oil on canvas, laid on board, 14×11 7/8 (35.6×30.2).
<br/>Inscribed on a label on the stretcher: ‘Lionel 1848.’, i.e. the picture belonged to Lionel Constable that year.</p>
<p><i>Prov:</i> Lionel Constable (see above); presented by his sister Isabel Constable to the National Gallery 1888; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1962. <i>Accession </i><span>N01246</span>.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>International Exhibition</i>, London 1874(143); R.A., <i>Old Masters</i>, 1878(238); Tate Gallery 1937(p.37, No.89); <i>Comparisons</i>, Art Gallery of Toronto [now Ontario] 1957(2); Tate Gallery 1976(206).
<br/><i>Lit</i>: Holmes 1902, pp.124, 250; Shirley 1937, pp.285, 294; Davies 1946, p.27, 1959, p.17; Beckett 1961, Paintings: Middlesex B (3) No.8; Hoozee 1979, No.390.
<br/>
<br/>At some time known as The Grove, Admiral's House takes its present name from Admiral Matthew Barton (?1715–95), who retired there towards the end of the eighteenth century. Barton rigged out the roof of the building in nautical style: ‘from this elevated position’, wrote T.J. Barratt in 1912, ‘the old sailor was accustomed, at times when naval victories were being celebrated, to fire salutes from a couple of cannon he had mounted there, on what he called his quarter-deck’ (The Annals of Hampstead, 1912, 11, pp.66–7). Barton's roof-line appears to have been even more eccentric than it is today, judging from a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> of 1797 reproduced by Barratt (p.65). In No.23 the building is seen from the south. The pond, which no longer exists, was known as Clock House Pond or Crockett's Pond (Barratt, op. cit., p.278).
<br/>
<br/>Admiral's House is seen from a different angle in an oil sketch in the V.&amp;A. (Fig. 1, R.402, H.360)<sup>1</sup> and a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> derived from it in the Nationalgalerie, Berlin (Fig.2, H.391).<sup>2</sup> John Baskett has suggested that the former was made from a window of No.2 Lower Terrace, which Constable rented in the summers of 1821 and 1822 and which lies just to the west of Admiral's House (Constable's Oil Sketches, 1966, p.58). An oil sketch belonging to the Royal <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a> (TG 1976 No.205, H.333), dated 29 July 1822, may be a more distant view of the house.
<br/>
<br/>Constable exhibited a painting entitled ‘A romantic house at Hampstead’ at the R.A. in 1832. While it may well have shown Admiral's House, it is unlikely to have been No.23, as has sometimes been supposed - this looks like a product of Constable's early years at Hampstead.
<br/>
<br/>1. Oil on paper, laid on canvas, 9 1/2×11 15/16 (24.5×29.2).
<br/>
<br/>2. Oil on canvas, 23 9/16×19 5/16 (60×50).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Leslie Parris, <i>The Tate Gallery Constable Collection</i>, London 1981
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: mammals architecture cow England figure Hampstead, The Grove heathland horse house landscape path people places pool residential riding society townscapes / man-made features transport: land tree UK countries and regions UK London water: inland