Hampstead Heath, with a Bonfire

John Constable, 1776–1837

ca. 1822

Oil on canvas

Yale Center for British Art

A landscape painting depicts a bonfire with a group of people gathered around it on Hampstead Heath. A building and trees are visible in the background under a cloudy sky. From 1819 onwards Constable, his wife Maria, and their growing family spent part of every year living near Hampstead Heath, an open area of uncultivated land northwest of London. This setting spurred Constable on to a new phase of experimentation: he perfected the representation of dramatic meteorological effects, which were visible from the high ground of the Heath. To emphasize the relatively untamed wildness of the Heath, Constable often included tiny figures in the landscape. In the present example these figures are rendered with a startling economy of touch—they are composed of little more than flicks of black paint. Yale Cente