Cloud Study

John Constable, 1776–1837

ca. 1821

Oil on paper laid on card

Yale Center for British Art

John Constable rapidly studied the sky in oils, capturing the character and motion of clouds from Hampstead Heath. “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. Yale Center for British Art,