Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead (1828): Art, History and Details

Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead (1828) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is John Constable (British, 1776–1837).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

An amateur meteorologist, John Constable was most at home painting meticulously observed cloud formations, weather conditions, and natural light effects. He believed an accurate rendering of these constantly shifting elements could convey his vision of the vitality and magnificence of the English countryside. Working from the summerhouse he rented at Hampstead from 1819–26, Constable painted a landscape focusing more on the dark rain clouds than on the laborers in the foreground, keeping the details of their backbreaking work at a picturesque distance.

Object facts

• Title: Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead
• Date: 1828
• Creator attribution: John Constable (British, 1776–1837)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 89 x 105.5 x 11.5 cm (35 1/16 x 41 9/16 x 4 1/2 in.); Unframed: 60.6 x 78.1 cm (23 7/8 x 30 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1972.48

A detail from the museum

In 1820, Constable found a retreat in Hampstead where he completed 100 studies of cloud formations, referring to the process as "skying."

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1972.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3 (1973): 63–115.
• Talbot, William S. “John Constable: Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 3 (March 1974): 97–115.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.