Hampstead Heath, Summer

Hampstead Heath, Summer places de Loutherbourg on the same famous terrain that would later become central to John Constable's art, and where Gainsborough had also painted. Hampstead Heath was at the edge of London proper, a semi-wild open space of gorse, ponds, and sandy paths that provided a near-urban version of picturesque nature, accessible to Londoners without rural travel. De Loutherbourg's summer visit shows him responding to the Heath's particular combination of expansive sky and varied terrain in lighter, less dramatically charged mode than his Sublime landscapes.

The Heath's open terrain — sandy paths, gorse, expansive sky — is treated with a lighter, fresher palette than de Loutherbourg's dramatic storm or cavern subjects. Greens and ochres in the foreground vegetation lead to a broad middle ground under a luminous summer sky.