Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath, with a Cart and Carters
- Artist: John Constable
- Date: c.1825
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 537 x 768 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath, with a Cart and Carters” by John Constable. Created around 1825, it’s an unfinished oil on canvas that Constable first showed to the public that year. The scene captures a quiet stretch of Branch Hill Pond in Hampstead Heath, with a cart and a few carters moving along the path. The painting is deliberately unfinished – on the back, a note from Edwin W. Field records that Constable told his friend William Purton that the sky was so satisfying he would never touch the canvas again for fear of spoiling it. That tells us Constable was content with the sky’s portrayal and chose to leave the rest as it was. After Constable died in 1837, Purton acquired this work, and it passed through the hands of Miss Susan Field before arriving at the Tate. The piece sits in Tate Britain, where visitors can appreciate both the pastoral scene and the story of an artist’s final choice.
See it in person
Branch Hill Pond, Hampstead Heath, with a Cart and Carters is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
