label affixed to stretcher: "Augt 1 1822 II O clock A.M. very hot with large climbing clouds under the sun. Wind westerly."
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.144
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
clouds | blue | gray (color) | gray (color) | white (color) | science | meteorology
Currently On View:
On view
Exhibition History:
In a New Light: 500 Years of British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-04-01 - 2026-01-30)The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26)Constable's Clouds (Walker Art Gallery, 2000-04-28 - )Constable's Clouds (National Galleries of Scotland, - 2000-10-29)English Romanticism (Center Gallery, Bucknell University, 1990-02-24 - 1990-04-08)Art by Chance - Fortuitous Impressions (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1989-07-22 - 1989-09-03)John Constable (The Yomiuri Shimbun, 1986-01-30 - 1986-06-17)Constable's England (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983-04-13 - 1983-09-04)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)
Publications:
Art, Lux, et Veritas 2012 : personal responses to collections at Yale, , Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 2012, cover, pp. 25-27, V 2414:2Arts Council of Great Britain, An exhibition of sketches & drawings by John Constable from the collection of Dr. H. A. C. Gregory, M.C., London, UK, 1949, p. 12, Haas Arts Library Spec. Coll.Kurt Badt, John Constable's clouds, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1950, pp. 41-49,, Plate 5, Nj18 C74 B2313 (YCBA)Gemma Brace, Air Visualising the Invisible in British Art 1768-2017, Sansom & Co., Bristol, p. 8, fig. 1, N6764 .A57 2017 (YCBA)Kenneth Clark, The Romantic movement, a handlist , Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1959, p. 65, V 2022 (YCBA)Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 62-63, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)Exhibition of paintings by John Constable, 1776-1837 : 8th July to 30th August, 1952 at the Guildhall Art Gallery, , The Guildhall Art Gallery, London, 1952, p.10, No. 46, NJ18 C74 E95 1952 (YCBA)Robert Hoozee, L'opera completa di Constable, 98, Rizzoli, Milano, Italy, 1979, pp. 126-27, no. 337, NJ18 C74 A12 +H66 (YCBA)John Constable : a selection of paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, , National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1969, pp. 48-49, no. 51, NJ18 C74 U5 (YCBA)Edward. Morris, Constable's clouds : paintings and cloud studies by John Constable, , National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh & Liverpool, UK, 2000, p.81, no. 51, NJ18 C74 C76 2000 + (YCBA)Graham Reynolds, The later paintings and drawings of John Constable, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1984, p. 104 (v.1), no. 22.16, pl. 349 (v.2), NJ18 C74 R485 + (YCBA)Michael Rosenthal, Constable, Thames and Hudson, London, UK, 1987, pp. 128, 130, fig. 123, NJ18 C74 R683 (YCBA)Basil Taylor, Constable : paintings, drawings and watercolours, , Phaidon, London, UK, 1973, p. 199, note 30, no. 67, NJ18 C74 T39 + (YCBA)John E. Thornes, John Constable's skies : a fusion of art and science, , University of Birmingham Press, Birmingham, UK, 1999, pp.258-59, no. 40, pl. 116, NJ18 C74 T56 1999 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
“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, 2027
Provenance:
Created by John Constable (1776-1837), the artist; . . . ; acquired by Sir Michael Ernest Sadler (1861-1943); acquired by Dr. Henry Alexis Chodak Gregory (1889-1964); Sale, Sotheby & Co., London, England, July 20, 1949, (lot 126,“Cloudscape: grey and white cumulus clouds drifting from left to right, patches of blue and layers of lighter clouds at a greater height in the background”), in “Paintings and drawings by John Constable, R.A.” [1] [a]; acquired by Gilbert Israel Davis (1899-1983), 7 Heath Drive, Hampstead, London [b]; acquired by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London [c]; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907-1999), 1965 [d]; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, 1981.[e] Notes: --- [1] There given as "Cloudscape: grey and white cumulus clouds drifting from left to right, patches of blue and layers of lighter clouds at a greater height in the background. Paper on canvas, 11 3/8 x 19 1/8." Correctly reproduces the inscription on the back of the canvas's stretcher bar. Citations: --- [a] Sotheby’s. July 20, 1949. Paintings and drawings by John Constable, R.A. https://worldcat.org/en/title/171399439 [b] Graham Reynolds, The later paintings and drawings of John Constable, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1984, p. 104 (v.1), no. 22.16 [c] Ibid [d] Ibid [e] Ibid