Cloud Study
- Artist: John Constable
- Date: 1822
- Medium: Oil paint on paper on board
- Dimensions: support: 476 x 575 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the "Cloud Study" by John Constable. Here, Constable has taken a snapshot of the sky over Hampstead Heath on a hot afternoon in 1822. He’s working with oil paint on paper laid onto a board – a quick, loose sketch that captures the fleeting shape and tone of the clouds. In his own handwritten note on the back he writes “11 o’clock, noon, looking eastward, wind gentle at S. West,” so we know he was painting in just about an hour.
Constable was obsessed with weather. He would record the time, wind direction, and even the general conditions for each piece. That level of detail shows how seriously he treated meteorology as part of his artistic process. It also explains his masterful brushwork: he could render the airy swirls of cumulus and the subtle shifts of light in a single sweep.
This study is one of many he produced in 1821‑22, focusing purely on the sky, no trees or buildings in sight. The size is modest, but the intensity of the clouds makes it feel as expansive as a landscape. In short, Constable turns a simple cloud into an atmospheric study that feels alive and immediate.
See it in person
Cloud Study is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
