William George Jennings Hampstead Heath Looking towards Harrow

An original c.1828 oil painting, William George Jennings, Hampstead Heath Looking towards Harrow.

An outstanding oil painting on paper by William George Jennings (1763–1854). Jennings painted extensively at Hampstead; this fine composition appears to show a view westwards towards Harrow-on-the-Hill, from an elevated vantage point possibly around what is now the Hill Garden. The buttressed wall to the right may have been a feature predating The Hill and Pergola, constructed at the beginning of the 20th century, or it is possibly a capriccio feature added by Jennings.

Jennings's early topographical work was in the manner of Richard Wilson and Joseph Farington, but from around 1826 Jennings became a friend and patron of John Constable, and the two artists shared a house. Constable's profound influence on Jennings can be seen in this landscape view—not least in the Hampstead subject. The Heath was only a short walk from Constable's London home and he formed a special attachment to its scrubby landscape of sand-hills and trees. Constable made several oil studies in the early 1820s looking westward from the Heath towards Harrow, including versions now in the collections of Tate, the Royal Academy and Yale Centre for British Art.

Jennings's oil on rough-textured paper achieves an expressive effect emulating Constable's lively mark-making. The attention given to the skies also evokes Constable intensive study of atmospheric effects during his 'skying' period 1821 to 1822, when he produced dozens of watercolour, crayon and oil studies of the clouds over Hampstead Heath.

Although Old Jennings—as Constable referred to him—was a gentleman amateur, he nevertheless was instrumental in bolstering the younger artist's confidence and in supporting him with his patronage. In the 1830s Jennings bought two paintings from Constable, a ‘Yarmouth Jetty’ and ‘Hampstead Heath with a Rainbow’, the latter of which is now in the Tate.

The present sketch probably originates from an album of fifteen oil paintings (of similar size) inscribed ‘Hamstead 1828 – oil sketches’ which was discovered by Jennings's descendant Karen Addenbrooke in 1981 and was exhibited at the Krios Gallery, 1981.

For a Hampstead subject by Jennings see Tate, T03349, Heath Scene with a Pond c.1831.

William George Jennings exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1797 and 1806 and at the Society of British Artists in 1830.

Provenance: From the Collection of Dr E.M. Brett of Hampstead.

Oil paint on rough-textured brown wove paper. Tipped on to wove backing paper.