The Grove, Hampstead

The Grove, Hampstead, painted in 1821 during Constable's most intensive period of Heath observation, depicts the ancient woodland in the northern part of the Heath that he observed from his rented summer house on Lower Terrace. His treatment of trees was never merely decorative: he once declared that he had painted a tree as a tree, not as a generalized 'umbrageous mass,' and his observation of specific tree species — their bark texture, branching structure, and the way light penetrated or was blocked by their particular canopy — was among the most sophisticated in the history of European landscape painting. The 1821 Grove study belongs to a period of extraordinary artistic productivity, sandwiched between the major Stour Valley canvases he was presenting at the Academy and the systematic cloud studies he was conducting on the open Heath. Ruskin, writing a generation later, would cite Constable's tree painting as a model of empirical observation, though he qualified his admiration with reservations about Constable's preference for overcast conditions over clear skies. The National Gallery's Constable collection places this study in direct dialogue with his major exhibition works.

Constable's handling of dappled light filtering through the canopy of trees is masterly, achieved through touches of bright pigment against deeper greens and browns. The loose, spontaneous brushwork anticipates the plein air techniques of the French Impressionists.

The Grove, Hampstead is in the Tate collection, London. The painting dates from Constable's most productive Hampstead period. The canvas has been cleaned and restored. The dense foliage, painted with vigorous broken strokes, is well-preserved. The thick impasto has been consolidated where necessary. The work demonstrates the richness of subject matter Constable found in his Hampstead surroundings.