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>
Branch Hill Pond Hampstead Heath with a Boy Sitting on a Bank
Bequeathed by Henry Vaughan 1900
animals: mammals
bank
boy
children
cloud
England
Hampstead Heath, Branch Hill Pond
heathland
horse
landscape
people
places
pool
UK countries and regions
UK London
water: inland
weather
<p>By the early nineteenth century the open landscape of Hampstead Heath, north of London, was increasingly appreciated as a refuge from the ever more crowded and polluted city. This is one of many views  of the Heath that Constable painted.  His picture revels in the wildness of the landscape, both in the choice of scene and in the freedom of his painting style.  It was created for his friend, the actor  Jack Bannister, who, the artist reported, wanted a landscape in which he could 'feel the wind blowing on his face'.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</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
3 March 2006 – 1 October 2006
2006-10-01
3 March 2006 – 12 June 2006
2006-06-12
2006-03-03
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
7 July 2006 – 1 October 2006
2006-10-01
2006-07-07
National Museum of New Zealand (Wellington, New Zealand)
http://www.tepapa.govt.nz
2006-03-03
John Constable: The lessons of landscape
Loan-out
5 August 2010 – 17 April 2012
2012-04-17
5 August 2010 – 17 April 2012
2012-04-17
2010-08-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-08-05
Constable: Sketching from Nature
Collection based display
16 March 2013 – 4 August 2013
2013-08-04
16 March 2013 – 4 August 2013
2013-08-04
2013-03-16
Galerie Neue Meister (Dresden, Germany)
2013-03-16
A shock to the Senses
Loan-out
8 April 2017 – 8 October 2017
2017-10-08
8 April 2017 – 8 October 2017
2017-10-08
2017-04-08
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (Brighton, UK)
http://www.brighton.virtualmuseum.info
2017-04-08
Constable in Brighton
Loan-out
8 June 2021 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
8 July 2021 – 14 November 2021
2021-11-14
2021-07-08
Museum of Art Pudong (Shanghai, China)
20 December 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
2021-12-20
Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
15 June 2022 – 13 November 2022
2022-11-13
2022-06-15
ACMI (Melbourne, Australia)
25 February 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-02-25
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
12 July 2023 – 2 October 2023
2023-10-02
2023-07-12
National Art Center (Tokyo, Japan)
26 October 2023 – 14 January 2024
2024-01-14
2023-10-26
Nakanoshima Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan)
2021-06-08
Light
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Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath, with a Boy Sitting on a Bank
support: 333 × 502 mm
frame: 579 × 747 × 105 mm
Bequeathed by Henry Vaughan 1900
<p>
By the early nineteenth century the open landscape of Hampstead Heath, north of London, was increasingly appreciated as a refuge from the ever more crowded and polluted city. This is one of many views <br/>
of the Heath that Constable painted. <br/>
His picture revels in the wildness of the landscape, both in the choice of scene and in the freedom of his <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> style. <br/>
It was created for his friend, the actor <br/>
Jack Bannister, who, the artist reported, wanted 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/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> in which he could 'feel the wind blowing on his face'. </p>
Display caption
2004-09-08T00:00:00
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-branch-hill-pond-hampstead-heath-with-a-boy-sitting-on-a-bank-n01813" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01813</span></a> <b>Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath, with a boy sitting on a bank</b>
<i>Circa</i> 1825</p>
<p>
<br/>Oil on canvas, 13 3/4×19 1/4 (33.3×50.2).</p>
<p>Inscribed by Henry Vaughan on a label now removed from the back and separately preserved: ‘Bought at Jack Banister's Sale in his late house: Great Russell Street by H Vaughan’.<sup>1</sup> Over this was stuck another label, probably not in Vaughan's hand, repeating the same information.
<br/><i>Prov:</i> acquired from the artist by John Bannister at some date after November 1825 (see text below) and in his sale, Foster &amp; Sons 28 March 1849(87), bt. Henry Vaughan £45. 3s.; bequeathed by Vaughan to the National Gallery 1900; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1919. <i>Accession </i><span>N01813</span>.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Tate Gallery 1937(p.14, No.15); <i>Constable and his Contemporaries</i>, Burgh House, Well Walk, Hampstead 1951(10).
<br/><i>Lit</i>: Holmes 1902, pp.235, 246; Shirley 1937, p.157; Chamot 1956, p.261; Beckett 1961, Paintings: Middlesex B (5) No.11; Hoozee 1979, No.461.
<br/>
<br/>Apart from a number of <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> and sketches in which Branch Hill Pond is seen from a variety of angles (for example, Nos 19–20 above), Constable produced what might be called a standard 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>, presenting a view to the west and south-west over the pond. Two types of this often repeated composition can be distinguished: type A, in which a bank rises steeply across the right foreground, partially obscuring the distant view, and type B, in which the viewpoint is higher and a wider horizon is visible above a small plateau. Examples of type A are a sketch in the V.&amp;A. dated 1819 (Fig. 1, R.171, .267),<sup>2</sup> the present work, No.29, a painting in the V.&amp;A. which was exhibited in 1828 (R.301, TG 1976 No.254, H.481), and No.42 below. Type B is seen in a painting in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, exhibited in 1825 (Fig. 1 to No.30 below), in a version of the Virginia picture in the Oskar Reinhart Collection (Fig.2 to No.30), and in No.30 below, where fuller reference is made to the Virginia and Reinhart paintings. Other versions of both types are known.
<br/>
<br/>Constable was involved with the Branch Hill Pond composition in one form or another from 1819 to 1836, when No.42 below was painted. He also chose one of the versions of it, the painting of 1828 now in the V.&amp;A., for Lucas to <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engrave</span></a> for English Landscape (Shirley 1930, No.23). The present example, No.29, clearly derives from the sketch of 1819 mentioned earlier, but it is difficult to say how long afterwards it was painted. The picture was acquired from Constable by Jack (John) Bannister, the comedy actor (1760–1836), who in his youth had been a student in 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> Schools and who still maintained a lively interest in painting. Bannister called on Constable on 23 November 1825 and, the artist wrote to his wife, ‘saw all my goings on he is so fond of 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/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>Landscapes</span></a> he says he must have one - I think he likes the lock so much that I shall reduce it to a size about like fishers old mill - I shall see but M<sup>r</sup> B- say<sup>3</sup> he must possess one how I shall please him or When I do not know - he say he breaths my pictures they are more than fresh they are exhilarating’ (JCC II, p.411). A few days later Constable gave Fisher a similar account: ‘I have just had a visit from Mr. Bannister to request a landscape. He has long desired one of me, in which, he says, he can feel the wind blowing on his face. He says my landscape has something in it beyond freshness, it's life, exhilaration&amp;c.’ (JCC VI, p.211). There was no ‘Lock’ in the sale of Bannister's pictures. The only Constable included was the present picture, which Bannister must therefore have acquired at some time after 23 November 1825. Whether he got an old work or whether Constable painted something especially for him is not indicated in the correspondence, and a date of circa 1825 is accordingly assigned to the picture here. Bannister had a house in Well Walk, Hampstead at this time and Constable therefore became a neighbour when he moved to Well Walk in 1827. They remained great friends until the actor's death in 1836.
<br/>
<br/>1. According to the catalogue, the sale took place at Fosters' gallery, 54 Pall Mall. Bannister, in any case, does not appear to have had a house in Great Russell Street. His pictures were removed by Fosters' from 65 Gower Street, where he had died thirteen years earlier. Probably Vaughan wrote the label some time after the event and forgot the precise circumstances. That the label is in his hand is confirmed by comparison with a letter from him to Lionel Constable in the collection of Mrs E. Constable.
<br/>
<br/>2. Oil on canvas, 10×11 7/8 (25.4×30.2); inscribed on the stretcher ‘End of Octr. 1819’.
<br/>
<br/>3. Writing at speed in the journal he sent in instalments to his wife in Brighton, Constable seems to lapse here into the sort of ‘Suffolkism’ described by Norman Scarfe in ‘Constable and Vernacular Speech’ (JC: FDC, pp.343–4), where further examples of the artist using ‘say’ for ‘says’ are quoted.
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Leslie Parris, <i>The Tate Gallery Constable Collection</i>, London 1981</p>
<p></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
animals: mammals bank boy children cloud England Hampstead Heath, Branch Hill Pond heathland horse landscape people places pool UK countries and regions UK London water: inland weather