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>
Hampstead Heath with a Rainbow
Bequeathed by Miss Isabel Constable as the gift of Maria Louisa, Isabel and Lionel Bicknell Constable 1888
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
bush
cloud
donkey
England
figure
Hampstead Heath, Branch Hill Pond
heathland
hill
industrial
landscape
natural phenomena
people
places
plants and flowers
pool
rainbow
rocky
UK countries and regions
UK London
water: inland
weather
windmill
<p>Constable was proud of this painting. He called it ‘one of my best bits of Heath’, ‘so fresh – so bright... &amp; sunshiney’. It depicts Branch Hill Pond on Hampstead Heath, north of London. The Hampstead Heath ponds were dug as reservoirs to meet the growing water demand of a rapidly expanding city. Sand was extracted for building works and the flooded pits became watering holes for animals, as seen here, and swimming. Constable’s late work often featured rainbows. He admired the way Old Master painter Rubens had painted them and saw in them a sign of hope.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
19 August 2002 – 27 April 2003
2003-04-27
19 August 2002 – 27 April 2003
2003-04-27
2002-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-08-19
Outdoor Sketching
Collection based display
6 June 2004 – 8 May 2005
2005-05-08
6 June 2004 – 12 September 2004
2004-09-12
2004-06-06
Jenisch Haus (Hamburg, Germany)
6 June 2004 – 12 September 2004
2004-09-12
2004-06-06
Bucerius Kunst Forum (Hamburg, Germany)
http://www.buceriuskunstforum.de
24 September 2004 – 30 January 2005
2005-01-30
2004-09-24
Alte Nationalgalerie (Berlin, Germany)
26 February 2005 – 8 May 2005
2005-05-08
2005-02-26
Aargauer Kunsthaus (Aarau, Switzerland)
http://www.aargauerkunsthaus.ch
2004-06-06
Cloud Images
Loan-out
11 July 2005 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
11 July 2005 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
2005-07-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-07-11
The British Landscape
Collection based display
5 April 2013 – 10 August 2014
2014-08-10
5 April 2013 – 10 August 2014
2014-08-10
2013-04-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-04-05
Constable
Collection based display
26 March 2015 – 27 May 2020
2020-05-27
27 November 2019 – 27 May 2020
2020-05-27
2019-11-27
Hong Kong Museum of Art (Hong Kong, China)
2015-03-26
British Landscape
Tate partnerships & programmes
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
30 October 2021 – 26 October 2022
2022-10-26
30 October 2021 – 13 February 2022
2022-02-13
2021-10-30
Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK)
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk
2021-10-30
John Constable: The Late Work
Loan-out
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 108
Collection based display
Hampstead Heath with a Rainbow
support: 508 × 762 mm
frame: 755 × 1010 × 95 mm
Bequeathed by Miss Isabel Constable as the gift of Maria Louisa, Isabel and Lionel Bicknell Constable 1888
<div class="text">
<p>Constable was proud of this painting. He called it ‘one of my best bits of Heath’, ‘so fresh – so bright... &amp; sunshiney’. It depicts Branch Hill Pond on Hampstead Heath, north of London. The Hampstead Heath ponds were dug as reservoirs to meet the growing water demand of a rapidly expanding city. Sand was extracted for building works and the flooded pits became watering holes for animals, as seen here, and swimming. Constable’s late work often featured rainbows. He admired the way Old Master painter Rubens had painted them and saw in them a sign of hope.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
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-hampstead-heath-with-a-rainbow-n01275" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01275</span></a> <b>Hampstead Heath with a Rainbow</b> 1836
<br/>
<br/>Oil on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, 20×30 (50.8×76.2).</p>
<p>Possibly inscribed by the artist 'J C[...]' bottom left.
<br/>Inscribed on the back of the original canvas: ‘Painted by John Constable RA for me W: Geo Jennings 1836’ (transcribed from a photograph taken before relining in 1964). Canvas stamp of T.Brown, High Holborn recorded before relining.
<br/><i>Prov:</i> painted for W.G.Jennings 1836; acquired by the Constable family at an unknown date and bequeathed by Isabel Constable to the National Gallery, as the gift of Maria Louisa, Isabel and Lionel Bicknell Constable, 1888; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1954. <i>Accession </i><span>N01275</span>.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Leeds 1913(77); <i>Expo '70</i>, Osaka, 1970(IV-227); <i>English Landscape Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries</i>, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, and Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 1970–1(13); Tate Gallery 1971(115); Tate Gallery 1976(334).
<br/><i>Lit</i>: Holmes 1902, p.250; Shirley 1937, p.311; Davies 1946, pp.29–30; Chamot 1956, p.261; Beckett 1961, Paintings: Middlesex B (9) No.23; Taylor 1973, p.32; Hoozee 1979, No.558.
<br/>
<br/>As explained in the entry on No.29 above, Constable produced many <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>paintings</span></a> depicting views over Branch Hill Pond on Hampstead Heath. No.42 is an example of what was there described as type A of his ‘standard’ treatment of the subject; it was also his final treatment of it in any form. The work was painted for his friend the amateur artist W.George Jennings, who exhibited at the R.A. between 1797 and 1806 and at the Society of British Artists in 1830. The earliest reference to him in the Constable correspondence is on 22 May 1826, when the artist told Maria ‘old Mr. Jennings called’ (JCC II, p.430). By 1831 Jennings had acquired the version of Constable's ‘Yarmouth Jetty’ which had belonged to Dr Gooch (see under No.26 above), and in the following year Constable consulted him about the letterpress to English Landscape (JCC IV, p.383). The first mention of Jennings' ‘Hampstead Heath’, No.42, is in Constable's letter of 14 March 1836 to his children's former tutor Charles Boner: ‘I have this year [?painted/?finished]-a picture of a heath for M<sup>r</sup> Jennings - and am finishing the Scene in Coleorton Grounds with the Cenotaph<sup>1</sup> - or rather I am about such things’ (JCC V, p.197). Jennings spent the months of June, July and August at Richmond and St Albans. From Richmond he wrote to Constable around the beginning of August: ‘I have trespassed on you longer than I wished; but now I have the pleasure of enclosing £50-which I beg you to receive for the Picture, assuring you at the same time how sensible I am to your Kindness in allowing me to possess a most beautiful specimen of your <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>Pencil</span></a> on such friendly terms. The Picture could not have passed into the hands of any person who would more duly appreciate &amp; highly value it than I shall - in short my Dear Sir I mean to become (if possible?) a Painter from studying it -’ (previously unpublished letter<sup>2</sup>). The work in question was presumably No.42. A reference in the same letter - ‘Since you were here I have been ill’ -indicates that Constable accepted Jennings' invitation, expressed in his letter of 6 June (JCC V, p.49), to visit him at Richmond: an otherwise unrecorded excursion. Jennings received the picture after his return from St Albans and wrote the following letter (ibid., p.52) to Constable on 13 September:
<br/>
<br/>	My dear Sir
<br/></p>
<p>Many thanks for sending me the Picture. I am so delighted with it, that I do not know how fully to express my gratification, for it is most admirable - As for the Sky &amp; distance nothing finer was, or ever will be put upon canvass - to use the words of An: Carracci you have ground, not colour, but pure air, they are absolutely aetherial - To the extraordinary power of Art you have added all the Truth of nature &amp; what more can painting accomplish? The foreground is greatly alterd &amp; improved since I saw you, tho I then thought it finished - now it certainly unites more with the distance, the same feeling touch &amp; effect pervade every part - the dewy freshness of the Summer Shower, is as visible there as in the more aerial distance-</p>
<p></p>
<p>I can only assure you my dear Sir, that I shall prize the Picture beyond measure &amp; it will descend as an heir loom to my Family. Accept my most sincere thanks for allowing me to possess such an exquisite specimen of your pencil &amp; believe me ever</p>
<p>
<br/>						Yours most truly
<br/>
<br/>							W: Geo: Jennings
<br/>
<br/>								83 Guildford St
<br/>
<br/>								Sep<sup>r</sup>-13-1836-
<br/>
<br/>								John Constable Esq<sup>re</sup> R A –
<br/>
<br/>In November Jennings added: ‘Your beautiful Picture now hangs in my <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>Drawing</span></a> room to the utter anihilation of my own daubs - When the light is favourable it looks better even than on the easel for there the light was too penetrating -’ (JCC V, pp.52–3). Constable was equally pleased, telling his friend George Constable of Arundel on 16 September: ‘I have lately turned out one of my best bits of Heath so fresh - so bright - [?dewy] &amp; sunshiney - that I preferred to any former effort - at about 2 feet 6 painted for a very old friend - an amateur who well knows how to appreciate it for I now see that I shall never be able to paint down to Ignorance. almost all the world is &lt;...&gt;ignorant &amp; Vulgar’ (ibid., p.35; for the last ‘is’ Constable wrote ‘a’ in error).
<br/>
<br/>To the usual ingredients of his Branch Hill Pond <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>, Constable added in this final version a double rainbow with, at its foot, a windmill which never existed at that spot (no doubt a nostalgic allusion to childhood scenes). Rainbows figured prominently in his late work and it was while Jennings' picture was still on the easel that Constable, in his third lecture to the Royal Institution on 9 June 1836, spoke of Rubens' use of the phenomenon in terms not dissimilar to those he applied to his own picture: ‘By the Rainbow of Rubens, I do not allude to a particular picture, for Rubens often introduced it; I mean, indeed, more than the rainbow itself, I mean dewy light and freshness, the departing shower, with the exhilaration of the returning sun’ (Leslie 1843, p.143, 1951, p.315).
<br/>
<br/>Although The Gentleman's Magazine for May 1837 reported the recent death ‘At Brashfield [presumably Braishfield] House, Hants, at an advanced age, [of] W.G.Jennings, esq. an amateur landscapepainter of considerable skill’, The Post Office London Directory listed a William George Jennings at 83A Guilford Street (the address from which Jennings wrote in 1836) as late as 1851. Constable's friend would seem either to have had a son or other relation of the same name as himself or else a namesake of similar interests. Either way, No.42 cannot have descended far as a Jennings family heirloom since it was reacquired by the Constable family sometime before 1888, when Isabel bequeathed it to the nation.
<br/>
<br/>1. ‘Cenotaph to the memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds ...’, exhibited at the R.A. 1836; National Gallery, No.1272.
<br/>
<br/>2. Coll. Mrs E. Constable. The letter can be placed between those of 6 June and 12 August published in JCC V, pp.49–50. Jennings refers to leaving Richmond for St Albans ‘in a few days’, while in his first letter from St Albans, dated 12 August, he apologises for not writing ‘a day or two sooner’ because the journey had fatigued him.</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 bush cloud donkey England figure Hampstead Heath, Branch Hill Pond heathland hill industrial landscape natural phenomena people places plants and flowers pool rainbow rocky UK countries and regions UK London water: inland weather windmill