Hampstead Heath depicts the view looking northeast towards St Michael’s Church, Highgate, the spire of which breaks the horizon in the distance. The scene is bathed in the cool glow of a low winter sun: the sky is flooded with pale yellow light and the foreground is bright with scrubby green grass. The palette is vibrant and keyed up with dominant hues of green and purple. The paint is handled broadly with medium-size brushes and clearly visible brushwork; the spreading tendrils of the willow trees in the foreground are evoked by clean, singular applications of the brush, for example. The intensity of colour and freshness of handling suggest Grant painted his picture sur le motif.

Hampstead Heath was painted around the beginning of Grant’s acquaintance with the young Russian-born American painter George Bergen (1903—1984), whom he first met in 1929. His biographer Frances Spalding wrote that ‘[f]or some eighteen months Duncan’s emotional life hinged on this man’s existence and for many years to come he held him in affectionate regard.’ Spalding also reports that they went painting together on Hampstead Heath; it was perhaps in Bergen’s company that Grant made this work. Grant painted another picture of the Heath in 1930 (fig. 1), which may depict a similar view and seems to include the same Highgate church as that pictured in Hampstead Heath.

A fragmentary printed label on the reverse of the picture refers to the London Artists’ Association, 92 New Bond Street. Grant was the premier member of this exhibiting society, which was established in 1925 and dissolved in 1933 after his resignation. It was predominantly a vehicle for showing and selling art by Grant and his circle. Financed by Samuel Courtauld, John Maynard Keynes and F. Hindley Smith, it provided member artists with a regular income that was offset against future sales. The New Bond Street address mentioned on the label was that of the Cooling Galleries, which was used as a venue for the group’s exhibitions. The Association also held exhibitions less frequently at other commercial galleries in London including the Batsford, Leicester, Redfern and Warren galleries. Grant’s painting Hampstead Heath was presumably exhibited with or sold under the aegis of the London Artists’ Association.