by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 14, 2023
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
John Constable is an 18th-century painter who was mostly interested in painting rural landscape sceneries in England. One of his famous work is an oil on canvas painting titled Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead. The painting is landscape in nature and is of the pastoral genre. The painting was done in 1819 when the artist had visited the countryside at Hampstead with his family.
While at Hampstead, he rented a cottage from which he started working on the painting. The uneven typography Hampstead provided Constable with a suitable view from which he depicted various angles to work on the paint. As a result, this enabled him to enhance his progress on the painting. Initially, the painting was a gift to a friend, Jack Bannister. Later on, Constable exhibited the painting in 1828 along with the Dedham Vale painting. Both the two paintings were presented to the royal landscape academy by Constable. Also, there are various versions of the painting have been made by the artist.
The first version of the paint doesn't have a boy sited on the Hampstead cliff while the other has a boy by the cliff. The second version was done in 1925, seven years after the first version was published. Currently, the painting is located at the Edwin and Susan gallery in room 87. A study of the painting shows the way painter was well experienced with his brushes. From the painting, we cannot see the sun. However, the painter curves out the clouds with accurate strides while giving detail on the suns location.
As such one can easily say that it was about to rain or it had been raining and the clouds were clearing out. Also, the pond in the painting describes the weather on the painting and the nature of the region’s climate. The Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead painting is one of the many works of John Constable that is applauded globally by art lovers. Also, the paint itself has received various positive critiques and has led to the up-rise of landscape painters. Lastly, the painting is a source of pride that Constable had for his country, especially the rural sceneries.