Hampstead Heath, with the House Called ‘The Salt Box’

Hampstead Heath, with the House Called "The Salt Box," painted in 1819 and held at the National Gallery, depicts a distinctive house on the Heath whose asymmetric roofline gave it its local nickname. The painting captures the Heath’s open landscape with the characteristic freshness of Constable’s outdoor observation, the vast sky dominating the composition above the gently undulating terrain. 1819 was the year Constable first exhibited The White Horse, beginning his ascent to recognition. The National Gallery painting demonstrates the naturalistic directness that made Constable’s Hampstead paintings among the most revolutionary landscape works of the nineteenth century.

The painting demonstrates Constable's characteristic naturalism, with carefully observed cloud formations and the play of light across the undulating heath. His technique of building up the surface with small, broken touches of color creates a vibrant, breathing landscape.

This early Hampstead Heath view from 1819 is in the Tate collection, London. The painting dates from the beginning of Constable's engagement with the Hampstead landscape. The canvas has been cleaned and restored. The heath landscape and sky are well-preserved. The work documents the early phase of Constable's most productive period of landscape observation.