Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows
- Artist: John Constable
- Date: ?1829
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 365 x 511 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows” by John Constable, dated about 1829. In his last two trips to Salisbury that year, Constable began what would become his most celebrated painting of the cathedral. This small oil sketch—about a quarter of the full‑size canvas—is a key studio study. It was preceded by even smaller sketches and drawings, and later followed by a full‑size oil sketch before the final painting appeared in 1831.
The composition is lively: the horse‑drawn wagon now sits at the centre of the frame, while figures of man and dog on the riverbank are highlighted with bold touches of red and yellow. Light moves across the scene as cloud cover clears, revealing blue patches of sky; the dark mass of trees on the left guides the eye toward the cathedral’s spire.
The study captures a fresh, breezy day, and shows Constable experimenting freely with color and brushwork while keeping an eye for composition. It gives us a glimpse into how he balanced architectural grandeur with everyday rural life before committing to the larger canvas that made his final image of Salisbury Cathedral.
See it in person
Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 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.
