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Creator:
John Constable, born in East Bergholt, England, 1776; active in England; died in London, England, 1837
Title:
Cloud Study
Former Title(s):

Landscape at Hampstead, Trees and Storm Clouds [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

Clouds over a Landscape with a tall Tree [1984, The later paintings and drawings of John Constable, catalogue raisonné]

Landscape at Hampstead: Trees and Storm Clouds [1969, John Constable: a selection of paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, exhibition catalogue]
Date:
ca. 1821
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on paper laid on card
Dimensions:
8 × 10 3/4 inches (20.3 × 27.3 cm), Frame: 12 1/4 × 15 1/8 inches (31.1 × 38.4 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.148
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1981.25.148FR
Subject Terms:
clouds | dark | light | meteorology | science | silhouette | sky | trees
Access:
On view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:659
Export:
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IIIF Manifest:
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“Skying” was the term Constable used to describe his studying of the sky from Hampstead Heath. He worked rapidly in oils, capturing on paper the character and motion of clouds. His handwritten notes on the backs of the paintings record the circumstances of their making: the date and time, the direction the artist was facing and the direction of the wind, and the atmospheric conditions. Never intended as works in their own right, these studies provide the clearest expression of the naturalism that underpinned the Romantic movement in art, and are therefore as highly esteemed as any of his other paintings.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2026

In a New Light: 500 Years of British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-04-01 - 2026-01-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Picturesque and Sublime - Thomas Cole's Trans-Atlantic Inheritance (Thomas Cole National Historic Site, 2018-04-29 - 2018-11-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

John Constable - A Selection of Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (National Gallery of Art, 1969-04-30 - 1969-11-01) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Timothy J. Barringer, Picturesque and sublime : Thomas Cole's trans-Atlantic inheritance, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2018, pp. 114-115, no. 13, NJ18 .C67 B37 2018 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 60-61, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robert Hoozee, L'opera completa di Constable, 98, Rizzoli, Milano, Italy, 1979, p. 146, no. 578, NJ18 C74 A12 +H66 (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Constable : a selection of paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, , National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1969, pp. 42-43, no. 42, NJ18 C74 U5 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, The later paintings and drawings of John Constable, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1984, p. 97 (v.1), no. 21.123, pl. 326 (v.2), NJ18 C74 R485 + (YCBA) [YCBA]


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