Landscape Study: Scene in a Park, ca. 1823

John Constable RA (1776 - 1837)

RA Collection: Art

Although this sketch is frequently described as a Hampstead scene, it is more likely to depict Green Park looking towards Apsley House (the Duke of Wellington’s House) or possibly St. James’s Park, looking towards Whitehall.

Constable focuses upon the trees and sky to convey the atmosphere of the park, rather than the actions or expressions of the figures, which are broadly sketched to add accents of colour.

This sketch may have been made in the same park as another work in the RA collection, Landscape Study: Figures by a Clymp of Trees.

Further Reading

Graham Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable, 1984, Text Vol. p. 131, no. 23.85; Plates Vol. pl. 469

Anne Gray and John Gage, Constable: Impressions of Land, Sea and Sky, exh. cat., National Gallery of Australia, 2006, p.208