Hampstead Heath, with a Bonfire

In the early 1820s Hampstead Heath was rough ground on the high land north-west of London, a place of sand and gravel pits, of gorse and sticks, where the scrub was burned off. That is the scene here. Down in the hollow a knot of people stands round a fire, and its smoke drifts pale blue up the slope toward the houses on the ridge. The people are barely there. Each one is little more than a flick of black paint, and Constable kept such figures tiny so the open land would feel wide and untamed. Off to the right, against the light on the skyline, stand a cow and a man. An old label on the back reads Painted by John Constable RA and is signed by his granddaughter Ella, through whose hands the picture left the family.