Landscape Study: Hampstead looking West

In the summer of 1819, Constable rented a house in north London’s Hampstead area at 2 Lower Terrace. He returned there year after year before settling permanently there in 1827. The nearby Hampstead Heath became a key sketching ground for the artist. Here Constable depicts the view towards the west, with the spire of Harrow Church in the extreme distance on the left.

Constable often jotted weather notes on the reverse of the studies he executed. This work is inscribed with “Hampstead July 14 1821 6 to 7 pm N.W. breeze strong.” Weather records for London in this area on the 14 July show that it was a fine but cloudy day and that there was a “very fine sunset”, which seems to match the vivid yellow horizon in this sketch.