Cloud Study, 1822 (oil on paper)

Constable undertook several campaigns of painting clouds from Hampstead Heath over the summers and autumns of 1820-23, usually noting the date, time and weather conditions. This study, painted on a windy day, presented particular challenges: although he worked quickly, in thin, fluid paint, the artist was unable to finish the middle bank of cloud, which remains blue. Although Constable’s interest in clouds was surely fueled by contemporary meteorological studies, it was not purely scientific; he regarded the sky as ‘the chief “Organ of Sentiment”’ in landscape.