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Cloud study

1830–35
Not on view
Constable used this sketchbook page to capture a September sun sinking through clouds. The artist’s studies of England’s changeable skies were made as part of a systematic and pioneering effort across decades to record varying weather conditions at different times of day. This work represents a significant addition to The Met’s collection since most of Constable’s surviving cloud studies, whether in oil or watercolor, were bequeathed by his daughter to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. The exact subject and date remain to be established, although the month (September) is affirmed by a fragmentary inscription at upper right. We may look west toward Harrow from Hampstead, where the artist lived part of each year to bolster his wife’s fragile health.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Cloud study
  • Artist: John Constable (British, East Bergholt 1776–1837 Hampstead)
  • Date: 1830–35
  • Medium: Watercolor over graphite
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 5 × 6 in. (12.7 × 15.2 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, 2015 Benefit Fund, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, and Connie Simmons and James D. Krugman Gift, 2016
  • Object Number: 2016.589
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Derbyshire landscape, John Constable British, Brush and gray wash and graphite
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Young pollards, John Constable British, Black chalk
Young pollards
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George Frost
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A Mill Near Colchester, John Constable British, Watercolor over traces of graphite, with scratching out and a touch of pen and brown ink on the horizon, evidence of squaring for transfer in graphite, with a color wash test verso
A Mill Near Colchester
John Constable
1833
Stoke-by-Nayland, John Constable British, Oil on canvas
Stoke-by-Nayland
John Constable
ca. 1810–11
Mrs. James Pulham Sr. (Frances Amys, ca. 1766–1856), John Constable British, Oil on canvas
Mrs. James Pulham Sr. (Frances Amys, ca. 1766–1856)
John Constable
1818

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