Hampstead Heath with a Rainbow
- Artist: John Constable
- Date: 1836
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 508 x 762 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Hampstead Heath with a Rainbow” by John Constable. In 1836 the artist captured Branch Hill Pond, a former reservoir north of London. The ponds were dug for the city’s water supply, and once the sand was extracted the pits filled with water, becoming watering holes for animals and informal swimming spots – you can almost feel the splash in the brushwork.
Constable himself was proud of the piece, calling it “one of my best bits of Heath, so fresh – so bright… & sunshiney”. The scene is bathed in a soft, dewy light that carries the feeling of a fresh rain, which is why a double rainbow arches across the sky. Late in his career he often added rainbows, inspired by Rubens, and saw them as a sign of hope after the storm.
The painting is a lively, almost conversational landscape: a winding waterway, a tiny windmill, the distant hill, and the hint of a herd of animals in the foreground. It’s a snapshot of a public space that was both industrial and pastoral, a place where the city’s expansion met nature’s resilience.
See it in person
Hampstead Heath with a Rainbow 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.
