West End Fields, Hampstead, noon
(c. 1822)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
33.2 × 52.4 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1909
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Free of London’s pollution, while still close to the metropolis, the vast, rolling parkland of Hampstead Heath was one of Constable’s favourite painting locations. According to an inscription on the stretcher of this painting, Constable painted it at the ‘End of July, beginning Aug 1822’. That year he rented premises at 2 Lower Terrace, Hampstead, near the western part of the Heath. Constable’s brilliant technique is exemplified by this painting. It has jewel-like qualities with light being caught by rich but delicate dabs of paint, and it is one of his finest small landscapes. Constable must have thought very highly of this work, as he commissioned the mezzotint artist David Lucas to render it as a print in 1830 for the series English Landscape Scenery, titled Noon.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
467-2
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Landscapes
Subjects (specific)
clouds domestic sheep (species) grazing areas Hampstead (neighbourhood) London (inhabited place) sky trees United Kingdom (nation)
Movements
Romanticism (modern European styles)
Provenance
Collection of Captain Charles Golding Constable (1821–79), the artist's second son, by 1872; exhibited Royal Academy, London, 1872, no. 27, as 'Noon, West End Fields', owner Captain C. G. Constable; Estate of Captain Constable, until 1887; included in Captain Constable sale, Christie's, London, 11 July 1887, no. 81; purchased by Agnew's (dealer), London, prior to the auction, 9 July 1887 (stock no. 4620); from where purchased by Sir William Cuthbert Quilter (1841–1911), 1st Baronet, 13 July 1887; Quilter collection, Bawdsey Manor, Suffolk, until 1909; included in the Cuthbert Quilter Christie's sale, London, 9 July 1909, no. 50; from where purchased, on the advice of Frank Gibson, for the Felton Bequest, 1909.
Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 1872, no. 27; John Constable, the Natural Painter: 62 Paintings and Drawings from Great Collections, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1973–74, no. 39; Australian and European Masterpieces from Australian National Galleries, Pushkin Museum, Moscow; Hermitage, Leningrad (St Petersberg), 1979–80, no. 17; John Constable, Isetan Museum of Art, Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art; Kofu Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Sogo Museum of Art, Yokohama, 1986, no. 64; Constable, Tate Gallery, London, 1991, no. 109; The Mezzotints of Turner and Constable, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1992; Constable: Impressions of land, sea and sky, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum of New Zealeand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, 2006, no.44