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Constable's Sky Sketches

Author(s): Louis HawesSource: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 32 (1969), pp. 344-365Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750618Accessed: 06/03/2010 19:37

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CONSTABLE'SSKY SKETCHESBy Louis Hawes

I' have done a good deal of skying- I am determined o conquerall diffi-culties and that most arduous one among the rest.... The sky is thesourcef ightn nature andgoverns verything.' Sowrote hemostdedicatedcloud sketcher n history,John Constable. No otherpaintermastered o hisextent the ever-changing ppearances f nature'smostelusiverealm. Whileseveralearlierandcontemporaryrtistsmadeoccasional kystudies,Constableholds a unique place in this sphere,not only because of the unprecedentedquantityof his studies(mostof them in oil) butaboveall because hey so oftenpossess compellingveracityanda richlyexpressive itality. Theyachieveanunrivalleddegree of pictorialself-sufficiency,ullyjustifying heiracceptancetoday as autonomousworksof art.Constable'spreoccupationwith the sky culminated n I82I-22, when hewaged a veritablecampaignof 'skying'while residingat HampsteadHeath inthe late summerand earlyfall of each year. Many of these studiessurvive,frequently nscribedon the back with the place, date, time, wind directionand furtherspecificweather nformation.2Those of I82I (P1.sIa) generallyinclude some suggestionof the earth, most often tree tops; moreover,theclouds are seldom particularlynaturalistic,being very freely brushedon,sometimeswith an almostexpressionistehemence. The 'pure'cloudstudies(P1. IC) date chieflyfromthe followingyear. Mostof these are larger,withthe cloudsmorefully andsubtlycharacterized.As theartisthimselfput it in alettertoJohn Fisher,7 OctoberI822: 'I have made about50 carefulstudiesof skiesolerably arge, to be carefull.'3Often, the cloud forms are so con-vincing as to invite the meteorologicallyminded person to classifythemaccordingto the standardcategories:cirrus, stratus,cumulus,nimbus andtheir combinations.This in fact gave rise to one of the most widely citedbookson the artist,KurtBadt's Zohnonstable'sloudsI950), which expresslytries to demonstrate hat Constablereceiveda decisive, even indispensablestimulusfrom the new science of meteorology.His thesishaswon consider-able acceptance in subsequent iterature,4despite its arbitraryarguments,

1 Letterto John Fisher,23 OctoberI82 I;R. B. Beckett, fohnConstablend theFishers,London 952, pp. 8 I-82.2A typical entry reads: 'Sepr. I2. I82I.Noon. Windfreshat West.... Sun veryHot.looking outhwardxceedingly rightvivid &Glowing,very heavy showers n the After-noon but a fine evening. High wind in thenight' (no. 222 in the Victoria and AlbertMuseum). Characteristics the thoroughlyempirical,unschematicnatureof such nota-tions. This particularentry reveals Con-stable's interest in linking a momentaryweather ffiectwith subsequent evelopments.He possessedhe 'modern' iewof weatherasa sequentialprocess, ather hana melangeofisolable,unrelatedphases.

3 Op. Cit., p. I04. Probablya fairnumberof theseskieswereamong the forty-onepurecloud studies (mostdatable I822) formerlyin the Newson-SmithCollection, sold atChristie's,6 January I95 . Photographs feach areavailableat theWittLibrary,Cour-tauldInstituteof Art.

4 While some scholarscite Badt'sconclu-sion withoutparticularlyaffirming t, nonehave criticallyexaminedor challenged t inprint. The onlydemur s A. P. Oppe'spass-ing comment n his book,Alexander ndffohnRobertCozens (London I952). He rightlyobservesthat the aspects of clouds whichConstablespeciallyemphasizes 'their mo-bility, buoyancy, and above all, lighting'-are 'purely a matter of vision and totally344

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C1KTCS A BT SC! C!T7wt OT7r^TTUOJ t N o 1 ADJN o J I JD 1 bnO 345distortionsndomissions.The I 960 Germanedition5presentshistheory n thesame unqualifiedmanner,makingno attemptto deal with the relevantbutcontraryevidence that had becomereadilyaccessibleduringthe Igso's.6 Inview of this, a critiqueof Badt's nfluentialstudy is needed, togetherwith anew attempt to account for the Hampsteadsky sketches or rather, aninvestigationof the known and most probablefactorsinvolved. Such anexamination,furthermore, an have broadimplicationsconcerningthe re-spectiveroles of conceptualstimuli and immediatevisual experience n thecreativeprocessof a predominantly aturalisticpainter.Priorto Badt'sbook, the one externalcircumstance ccasionallycited inconnexionwith Constable's loudsketchingwas the artist'sbriefemployment(C. I792-93) in one of his father'swindmills,an occupationrequiringcloseobservation f the skyandweatherconditions.Badtrejects hisenvironmentalexplanationn favourof a specific cientific ource. He pointsoutthatthefirstmodern cloud classificationsappearedin Luke Howard's essay, 'On theModificationsof Clouds',published n Tilloch'sPhalosophacalZournalI803)togetherwith sevenschematic llustrations.In I820, Howardreprinted heessay(minus he illustrations) s the closingchapterofvolumeII of hismajorwork, TheClamatef London.The latter,Badtmaintains,Constable got holdof. . . as soon as it appeared'.7 He then argueshis increasingconvictionof aindifferento thescientiSc nalyser' p.5 ) . Indismissinghe coreofBadt's tudy,heremarksthatit 'mighthavegained n cogency f Con-stablehadnot beenincluded'. My reviewofGrahamReynolds'sCataloguef theConstableCollectionn the Victoria ndAlbertMuseum,London 960, for TheArtBulletin,liii, I 96 ,pp. I60-6, brieflyput fortha few objectionsto Badt'stheory. In his recentmonograph,ConstableheAaturalPainter,London I965,GrahamReynoldsspeaksof LukeHoward'sClimate f London, ondon I8I8-20, as pro-viding probably 'an additional mpetus'forConstable's kying,but sharingimportancewith severalother factors,notably: (I) thepainter's pparent oncernaboutachievingaconsistencybetween the illuminationof thegroundand the structureof the light sourcein the sky; 2) hisreflections n theroleofthesky in landscape,crystallized n a letter ofI82 I (discussedbove n sectionVI); (3) cer-tain featuresabout HampsteadHeath (cf.sectionIV); (4) the evidentvalue to a land-scapepainter of increasinghis 'range n thechoice of potential skies' (p. 86). Thisbroadenedview is mostwelcome, thoughitomitsseveralequallyrelevantconsiderations.

5 WolkenbilderndWolkengedichteerRoman-tik,Berlin I960. The new title bettercorre-spondsto the broadfocus of the little book,three chaptersdealing with the impact ofHoward'sessay(via Goethe'sprompting)onGermanromantic andscapepainters n the23

I820'S, especiallyCarus,Dahl and Blechen.Thisportionof thestudy s argelyconvincing.6An invaluablenew body of research sR. B. Beckett's fifteen-volumetypescript,Correspondencend otherMemorials f JohnConstable,.A., I953-56, in the VictoriaandAlbertMuseumLibrary.Becketthasrecentlypublishedmost of this material:John CSon-stable'sCorrespondence-VI, Ipswich I962-68;Also essential is the unrivalledarchive ofphotographs f Constable'sworks n theWittLibrary,greatlyexpanded n the I950'S, in-cludinga largenumberofcloudstudies,mostof themunpublished.

7 Badtandsubsequentwriters nGonstableerr in assumingthat Tilloch's Philosophicaljournalhad only a very limitedcirculation,forwe knowthat it was,alongwith WilliamNicholson's ivalffoarnalf Aatural hilosophy,Chemistry,nd heArts,one of the two leadingintellectual ndscientificournalsof thetime.By no meansstrictlyconfined o philosophyperse, it ambitiously mbraced The VariousBranchesof Science,The Liberaland FineArts,Agriculture,Manufacturers nd Com-merce'. Pertinent or Constablewas a seriesof nine essays on art by Edward Dayes,appearing n I80I-I802, the last two in thevolumepreceding hat containingHoward'sessay. Being an avid readerof art theory,especially in his student years, Constablemight conceivablyhave delved into a fewvolumesof the journal and come upon the

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346 LOUIS HAWES'decisive' nfluence from Howard on the artist, concluding that the cloudstudies must'and 'could only' be attributable o the impact of the former.V9henwe examine the available evidence, we find no firm grounds tosubstantiateBadt's conclusion. To begin with, Constable'svoluminouscor-respondence nd notations so generous n references o booksand ideas thatspecially nterestedhim nowherementionHoward or his terminology. Thisis likewise the case with the only commentaryon clouds that Constableintended or publication: he interesting letterpress' c. I833) for the engrav-ing Springn his EnglishLandscape.He employspurely colloquialexpressions,such as 'the lanes of the clouds',or 'messengers' as they are 'called by wind-millersand sailors') The absenceof Howard's erms s all the more ndicativein that the passagedealsexclusivelywith the 'naturalhistory'of clouds,makingno reference o art.8We do know, however,that some time beforeDecember 836, Constablehad read or consultedThomasForster'sResearchesboutAtmospherichaenomena(I8I3), which he cited as 'the best book'on the subject.9 The openingchapterwould have exposed him to Howard'scloud categories. Unfortunately,wecannot tell just when he firstencountered uch literature. True, he may verywell have gained some awareness f Howard, if only by hearsay,during thefirst or especially he second decade of the century, when the meteorologistdrew occasional discussion n periodicals. Yet, it remains possible, if lesscloud essay. Moreover, the one withHoward's reatise no. xvi) had a frontispieeeportrait engraving after a sketeh by LadyBeaumont,making t almost eertainthat SirGeorgeBeaumont ossessed eopy. All knowhow often Constablestopped by the Beau-monts' town house during the first twodeeades,wherehis highly au courantostsfre-quently diseussedreeent literature. In anyease, Howardseldom et slip an opportunityto disseminatehis nomenelature, ssuing arevised version of llis essay in Rees's Cyclo-paedia (viii, I807) and Nieholson's Xournal(op. cit., September I8I I). In addition,ThomasForster's uitesueeessful ook ( 8 I3;enl. edn., I8I5, I823), eited above, spreadHoward's work to a still wider audieneeduring he teens. Thus, there s eonsiderablelikelihood hat Constableaequireda generalaequaintaneewith Howard's lassiISeations,fonly indireetly,a good eight or ten years ormore before eommencing his Hampsteadstudies. Even so, his work throughout histime and later shows no sign that any suchawareness had a decisive effect on hisapproach o skysketching.

8 The paragraph eserves uotingnearly nfull. 'The naturalhistory if the expressionmay be used of the skies . ., whieh are soparticularlymarked n the hail-squalls t thistime of year, s this: the eloudsaceumulate n

very large and dense masses,and from theirloftiness eemto move by slowly: mmediatelyupon these large elouds appear numerousopaque patehes, whieh, however, are onlysmall eloudspassing apidlybefore hem . . ..detaehed probably from the larger eloud.These floating mueh nearer the earth, mayperhaps all in with a mueh stronger urrentof wind, whieh as well as their eomparativelightness,eauses them to move with greaterrapidity; henee they are ealled by wind-millers and sailors "meassengers",beingalways he forerunnersf bad weather. Theyfloat about midway n what may be termedthe lanesof the elouds; and from being sosituated,are almostuniformlyn shadow....In passingover the bright parts of the largeelouds, hey appearas "darks"; ut in passingthe shadowedparts they assume a grey, apale, or lurid hue' (Andrew Shirley, ThePublishedMezzotints f DavidLucas fter tohnConstable, .A., Oxford I930, Appendix D,p. 254). While these comments reveal aclosenessof observation ivalling Howard's,they nowhere presupposecontact with his

* awrltlngs.9 Letter o GeorgeConstable, 2 DecemberI836; C. R. Leslie,Memoirsf theLifeof jtohnConstable,d. J. H. Mayne, London I95I;orig. edn. I843, pp. 257-8.

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CONSTABLE'SSKY SKETCHES 347likely, that he began dipping into suchwritingsonly in the I830'S, when heacknowledged hat the natural scienceshad becomehis majorside interest.Badt, on the other hand,assumes hat direct contactwith Howard's ext wasmade in I 820/ I .10A more serious and challengeablepoint is Badt'scentralargumentthatConstablewouldnot havesketcheda seriesof skiesunless irststimulatedby anexternal,conceptual influence of just the sort afforded by Howard'sessay.Observational xperienceby itself,he assumes,cannot fosternew awareness;essential is a guiding, articulateconcept. 'Only an externalstimulus canexplain why Constable uddenly elt an urge to paint a mass of cloudstudiesall at once. He did not arriveat this point . . . by painting hisway to it, butwasguided to it intellectually romthe outside. . . Once this is admitted, t isobvious hatthe stimulus an only havecome fromLukeHoward.'llWe might firstaskwhyHoward'sverbaldescriptionshouldbeexpected ooffer so essentiala stimulus orConstable. DoesBadtimply that the diversityof cloudshad not been much noticed until the advent of Howard'spreciseclassifications?The skiesof many seventeenth-century utch landscapesaswell as a numberof convincingcloudstudiesdatingbefore 800 (citedbelow)shouldsuffice o dispel hisnotion. Besides,we knowfromcommonknowledgethat what Howard termed cirrusclouds had long caught men's eyes, andacquiredsuch colloquial names as 'cats' or 'mare'stails'; similarly,cirro-cumulus clouds were popularlyknown as 'flocks',while the cumulo-stratusvarietywerecalled 'anvil'clouds, and cumulus ormswere occasionally alled'mushroom' louds.l2Howard,to be sure,made the valuable contributionof formulating ate-gories that were moreprecisethan earlierdescriptions; nd, mostimportantfor science, they formed part of a consistentand comprehensive heoreticalsystem concerning the physical laws governingthe formation and trans-formationof clouds. Doubtless, his was a significantadvance n the develop-ment of meteorologyas a science,but its indispensibilityor Constable s notat all apparent. Granted,non-visual,conceptualsources affect an artist's

10It is true that by the I8IO'S, the termscirrus, stratus and so on, were gaining widercurrency in London (often independent ofHoxvard),making it quite plausible that Con-stable heard them on occasion. Moreover,while they are conspicuously absent from theweather data on the backs of the sky studies,there is one possible exception: the deftlysketched study of cirrusclouds in the Victoriaand Albert Museum (P1.5IC). Graham Rey-nolds points out that the present inscription,'Painted byJohn Constable, R.A.', is 'writtenover an earlier inscription in ink (renderingit nearly illegible) which appears to have beenwritten by the artist and perhaps readscirrus' (op. cit., p. I49). If the word is cirrus,and not added later, then one may associatethe I822 studies with current meteorologicalterminology, though not necessarily withHoward's text specifically. Even if this should

prove true, Badt's main contention hat thelatterprovided hemotivating actorremainspure assumption,unsupportedby existingevidenee.0p. cit., p. 54.12 Certain aymen, such as shepherds, ea-

men and windmillers,had for eenturieskepta close wateh on the sky in order to makeshort-rangeweather predietions. Howardhimselfpaid tributeto them,conceding hatthe modernmeteorologist s 'still obliged toyield the palm in the seience of prognostiesto the shepherd, the ploughman, or themariner, who without troubling his headabout things, has learned,by traditionandexperience,o eonneeteertainappearanees fthe sky with certain approachingchanges'(I807 versionof his essay,Rees'sCyclopaedia,

* * *\Vlll) .

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348 LOUIS HAWESchoice and attitude towardssubjectmatter and objects,but they can hardlyplay as direct and far-reaching role as visual sources --nature nd art ininspiring he actual physicalappearance f an artist'swork, particularlywithrespect o conscientious tudiesmade fromnature. In any case, Valenciennes,for one, had alreadyby the early I 780'spaintedseveral uperb ky sketches noil which are empirically onvincing,even though he could not have utilizedat that time any scientificcloud analysescomparable o Howard's. Indeed,his example and severalothers discussedbelow refute any assumption hat aforeknowledge f Howard'sclassificationswas necessary or subtly observingand effectively epresenting ariedcloud forms. Rather, ntensiveobservationand repeatedsketchingof skies appear to have been the most potent factorsoperative.l3 We shall see that this was also the case with Constable,exceptthat thereare a numberof important upplementaryactorsand circumstances(overlooked y Badt) which we eitherknowor can reasonably laim had somebearingon his sky sketching.

I. CLOUD STUDIES BEFORE CONSTABLEA considerable umberof pre-I800 studiesof cloudsexist, althoughonly avery few receiveany notice in Badt'sbook. One of these few is a study tradi-tionallyascribed o ClaudeLorrain P1. Id),14 the importanceof which Badtplays down, claiming t is essentiallya decorative xerciserather han a 'true'study of clouds. This reflectshis assumption hat the latter was not reallypossible before Howard. To my eye, this study representsa thoroughlyplausible spread-outcumulus cloud mass; in fact, the cloud is hardly lessclassifiable han the clouds in Constable's tudies. Its pre-Howardiandateargues hat such a studydoesnot presuppose scientificknowledge f clouds. 5Also relevanthere are two literaryreferences o cloud studiesby Willemvan de Velde the Younger I633-I707), who spent the latter halfofhis life inLondon. The first appears n William Gilpin'swidely read 7:hree ssaysonPicturesque...LandscapeI792). 'Nobodywas better acquainted with theeffiects f sky, nor studied hem with moreattention, han the youngerVender-veldt. Not many yearsago, an old Thames-waterman as alive, who remem-beredhim well; and had often carriedhim out in his boat, both up and down

13 Even Howard's analytieal deseriptionsderive roma purelyempiriealmethod,as heemphasized n an artiele of I8I0, assertingthat the fundamental asis or all his findingswas 'longeontinued nd attentiveobservationofthe phenomena..' (Nieholson'sournal...0fi. Cit., Vi, p. 2I4).

14 Mareel Rothlisbergerpersuasivelyat-tributes this drawing (and about seventyotherson blue paper) o an unknownartist nthe eirele of G. F. Grimaldi,workinge. I650(MasterDrawings, ii, I965, p. 380). He hasalso publishedanother cloud study on bluepaper, eonvineingly assigning it to Ange-lueeio, a pupil of Claude, aetive e. I645-50(ibid., iv, I966, p. 383, P1. II). The studyreproduced above once belonged to Sir

ThomasLawrenee,who wasnotablygenerousin giving artistsaeeess o his superbdrawingeolleetion. Constablewas on friendly ermswith him by I 82 I (ef. letter to Fisher,4 August 82 I ), and eopiedone of his Claudedrawings,Studyof Trees(Mellon Colleetion),inJuly I825. However, was unable o learnwhether this eloud study had entered hiseolleetionby I 82 I .

15 The sameapplies o a precociously arlysketch n oil by A.-F. DesportesI66I-I743),usually dated e. I 690'S (ManufaetureNationalede Sevres; eprodueedn Mastersofthe LoadedBrush,Knoedler,New York I 967,P1. 59). Doubtless,Constablehad no know-ledge of this study.

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CONSTABLE'SSKY SKETGHES 349the river,to study the appearances f the sky. . . . Mr. Vanderveldt ook withhim large sheetsof blue paper, which he would markall over with black andwhite.... These expeditions Vanderveldt called ... going a skoying.'lsConstable'salmost identical term 'skying' a word not in general use sug-gestssome awareness f his predecessor's ctivityand quaintphraseology.Verylikely, he encountered his passage n the later I 790'S, when he was mostunderthe spell of the Picturesqueand apt to read such a source --or ear about itfrom one of his early 'advisors', articularly . T. Smith or Sir GeorgeBeau-mont (a friend of Gilpin). It would have reaffirmedhis already arousedinterest n the sky, mentionedbelow in sectionII.Still more applicable to Constable'sHampsteadstudies is C. R. Leslie'sremark hat Robert Smirke,Sr., knew 'a man who in his youth, had knownWilliamVandervelde . . and this man told him that Vanderveldeused to goto HampsteadHeath to studyskies'.l7 Constablehad met Leslie n the I 8 IO'S,becomingwell acquaintedwith him by the early twenties,and even refers oa visit from Leslie, at Hampstead n October I82I, the very time he wasengaged n his firstextendedphaseof skying.l8 He mightwell have heardthisreportof his Dutch precursor y the time he had begun his own series.The first English artist to draw skies, so far as we know, was AlexanderCozens (I7I7-86). For the most part, his surviving ky drawings, ncludinghis most famous one, 7:heCloud,l9 re not actual studies from nature, butarbitrary loud effectsconjuredup in the studio,as Badt rightlyobserves n hisone passingcommenton them. On the otherhand, at least one comparativelynaturalistic tudy, apparentlybased on first-handobservation,has survived:a subtly nuancedwash drawing n the Oppe Collection(P1.5I b), dating froma generationbeforeHoward. If formsa part of the MackworthPraedAlbum,which Constablecould have seen in April I820, when it was viewable for afew days at Sotheby's.0Cozens s also noted for the unprecedented eriesof twenty engraved kiesaccompanying is extraordinaryreatise,A J%ew ethod f Assistinghe nventionin DrawingOriginalCompositionsf LandscapeI785-86).21 Badt does not men-tion these, which is strange, as Constablecopied the whole series, probablyduring he early I8IO'S (Pls. sIe, s2a). Althoughnot as stylizedas some of his

16 Notes to 'On Landscape Painting, APoem',op.cit.,p. 34. To my knowledge, oneof thesesky drawings as yet come to light. Arevealing act is that the earliestoil sketchesby Constable which exhibit prominent,vigorously aintedskiesare several reecopiesafter Van der Velde the Younger, datableI803, such as the one in theJohnson Collec-tion, Philadelphia (no. 86 I ) or anotherrecently n the MaasGallery,London P1. 46in Sotheby'sCatalogue,8 March I964).

17 Autobiographicalefections, ondon I 860,pl I22.

18 Letter to Fisher, 3 November I82I;R. B. Beckett,op.cit.,p. 84. Constable peaksof the visit as 'not long ago'.19Reproducedby Oppe, op. cit., P1.2I.

20 An equally importantsky study (againunmentioned by Badt) is John RobertCozens'sTheCloud, . late I 770'S-80'S (OppeCollection;reproduced, bid., P1.48). As inthe father'smonochrome rawingof the sametitle, a scale-giving strip of dark groundstretches across the bottom. The cloudforms,however,are softerand more natural,unlike the hard-edge, jigsaw puzzle-likeshapes n the father'srendering. The latter,in fact, looks somewhat ike a Cliffiord tillcanvas urnedon its side.21 The idea for such a series,and perhapssome of the original studies,go back to the

I760'S, according to drafts of letters fromCozens o WilliamHoare of Bath. See Oppe,op. cit., p. 46.

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LOUIS HAWES5oskydrawings,Cozens's ngraved kiesappear o deriveas muchfrommemoryas from observation, alling roughlymid-waybetween 'schemata'and em-piricalstudies. A conditioning actor is their arrangement n varied pairscomprisingwo maingroups:halfcloudy and mostlycloudyskies. The pairsalternatebetween hoseshowing ightcloudsagainsta darkskyand viceversa;within each pair, the clouds differ chiefly according to whetherthey arelighterat the top or at the bottom. Thus, the primaryconcern s not veri-similitudebut a variety of striking ight and darkpatterns hat an artistcanplausiblyeffiectn terms of generalcloudimagery. As such, they could notverywellhavefosteredn Constablea subtler, ruerperception fclouds. Yet,thepainterwasenough nterested n theengravings o copy them (ifsomewhatfreely).22We thereforencludethisuniquesky'sampler'as anotherstimulusthat probably at least reinforcedhis growing convictionabout the radicalimportanceof the skyin landscape. Furthermore,while Cozens's ystemofgroupingthe seriesdid not influence Constable'sapproach,the idea of arepertoryof skies is in itselfsuggestive,and couldvery well have helped totriggerConstable's ecision o makea wholecollectionof studies,albeit not aseriesn thestrictsense.23Anothereminenteighteenth-centuryBritishartistwho made a few skysketches s Joseph Wright (I734-97), though he has never previouslybeencitedin this context. The washdrawingreproduced P1.s2d) is one of threestudiescontained n two unpublished,ntactsketchbooksboth in the Metro-politanMuseum)whichWrightusedin I 774-75,on hisItalian ourney. Theotherexamplesare pencil drawings,portrayingcloudsin a mannerclose toCozens,whose work Wright knew to some extent.24 The wash drawing,

22 E. H. Gombrich, n ArtandIllusion,NewYork 960, brieflycommentson thesecopies,reproducing three for the first time (Pls.I46-8). True to his generalpointof view-one stressingthe role of 'schemata' n thecreative process he asserts that Cozens'sskies provided Constablewith 'a series ofpossibilities,of schemata,which should in-creasehisawarenesshroughvisualclassifica-tion' (p. I78). However,he adds that Con-stable'articulates nd revises' hesesamples'beyondrecognition' n hisHampstead loudstudies. I would tend to questionwhetherCozens's engravingshad any meaningfulrelevanceso late as I 82 I . Their possibleimpact s inferableonly in a few drawingsofI8I2-I4 (see section II). Constable'sskystyle (in all media)from I8I5 on showsthathe had fully digestedand transformedhispassinginfluence;presumably t would nolonger have operated as an isolable con-ditioning actor n the earlytwenties.

23 I should add at this point that LukeHoward'sengraved llustrations f the basiccloud types(P1. 2C) are,unlike his sensitivewashstudies,decidedly tereotyped iagrams,

'schemata'n the truesense,differingn kindfromConstable'sloudstudies, ncludinghisearlierones. Assuch,theycouldhardlyhavecontributed o the particularized erceptionand naturalisticorm-languagembodied nthe youngerartist'seffiorts.The sameholdsfor the equally generic illustrationswhichThomasForsterncluded n thesecond, 8I5,edition of his book (op. cit. ) . Constable'sstudiesareindeed the polaropposites f suchdidacticprints. LukeHowardhimselfcameto suspectthat his schematic cloud printscould be potentiallymisleading n theirover-simplifications.He omitted them from hisbook, 'satisfiedboth by reflectionand ex-perience, hattherealstudentwillacquirehisknowledge n a more solid manner by theobservationof nature, without the aid ofdrawings,and that the more superficialareliable to be led into errorby them' (op. cit.,p. lii).24 In theBritishMuseumPrintRoom, hereexistsa thirdunpublished,ntactsketchbookused in Italy (dated I 774) which containsthree urther louddrawings 939-8- I4- ) .

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CONSTABLE'SKYSKETCHES 35Ihowever,approachesmore the momentary,unconlposed ppearance f actualclouds, and exhibitsno less meteorological ruthfulness han Luke Howard'sstudies,althougha quartercenturyearlier.Turner(I775-I85I) also precededConstable n skysketching, ontrary ogeneralopinion. While the majorityof his morethanfive hundred tudiesarevery modest 'pencil roughs', a number are stunningwater colours. Nonereceive any notice from Badt. Turner began sketching clouds as early asc. I796, as seen in a deftly brushed, utterlyuncomposednotation of a fewdrifting clouds (P1.s2b). We find at least thirty studies (none published)datable before 800,once again precludinganyinfluence rommeteorologicalscience. Moreover, ohn Gage has stated n conversation hat the many laterexampleswere madeindependentlyof the new science. Turner's tudies, ikeConstable's, reempiricallyaccountable-the fruit of intensiveand searchingfirst-hand crutinyand persistent ketchingof cloudy skies, though perhapssecondarily nspired by some awarenessof earlier sky sketches. WhetherConstable aw any of Turner's tudies s not known, but consideringTurner'sfurtiveness bout his sketchbooks,his seemsunlikely.Yet, he may have heardabout them.25The talented amateur, Dr. William Crotch (I775-I847), also practisedcloud sketchingbefore I800. Mr. R. B. Beckettowns a pencil study by him,dating from I799, which could almost be mistakenfor a Constable clouddrawingof a decade or so later. As Ian Flemming-Williams ointed out in arecentarticle,26Constablebecamewell acquaintedwith Crotch oon afterthelatter came to London around I806, and most certainlysaw a numberof hisdrawings.7One continentalartist,Valenciennes I7so-I8Ig), deservesmentionhere,althoughnone of his workwas knownto Constable. Among his one hundredand twenty-four pen-airoil studies n the Louvre,dating from I 778 to I 786,six are essentially kysketches. Etudedecielcharge'enuagesP1.s3a) shows hesurprising xtentto which Valenciennes ould capture he formless, ccidentallook of fast-changing louds. His approach,however, s distinguishablerom

25 We know of at least two conversationalencountersbetween Constable and Turnerbefore 82 : theacademydinnersof I8I 3 andI820, when the two sat together. Of theformeroccasion,Constablewrote, 'I sat nextto Turner, and opposite Mr. West andLawrence-I was a good deal entertainedwith Turner. I alwaysexpectedto find himwhat I did he is uncouthbut has a wonder-ful rangeof mind' (letter o his fiancee,MariaBicknell,30June I8I3; R. B. Beckett,Op. Cit.,ii, I964, p. I IO). The acquaintanceneverwarmed nto a friendship.

26 'Dr. William Crotch,' rhe Connoisseur,clix, no. 639, I965, pp. 28-32.27 Another English amateur should becited here, the eminentpatron, Sir George

Beaumont ( 753-I827), Constable's early

mentor and subsequent riend. Sir Georgehad studiedwith AlexanderCozensat Eton(I766-72) and may have pieked up some ofhis teacher's onvictions bout he mportaneeof the sky in landseape. A number of hisworks prominently eature the sky, and atleastone, Cloud ill,nearColeortonc. 802- O),is virtuallya eloudseape one that Constablepossibly saw. This is the painting whiehWordsworth, o whom it was presentedbySir George, mmortalizedn the noted sonnet(eomposed 8 I ) beginning, Praisedbe theArt whose subtile power eould stay / Yoneloud, and fix it in that glorious hape.' Notsurprisingly, his was a favouritepoem withConstable,who twiee quoted from it in the'Introduction' to his book of mezzotints,EnglishLandscape,833.

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LOUIS HAWES52Constable's in his maturity) by the comparativelypanoramicview.28 TheHampstead skies seem like close-up studies; the beholder feels practicallyimmersed n them. All the same, Valenciennes's ky sketchesare the mostimpressiveof any both in visual truth and aesthetic appeal-before Con-stable's.29And once again, meteorologyplayed no part.

II. CONSTABLE S EARLY EXPERIENCE AS A WINDMILLERA significantbut apparently ittle known reference never cited in thepresent context is a statement by David Lucas, the gifted mezzo-tinterofConstable'sworks, concerning he artist'syouthful experienceof working nhis father's windmill on East Bergholt Common, during the early I790'S.Referring o a 'blot' of this mill by Constable,Lucas writes that the artist'workedas a Millar severalYears and here told me that he made his earlieststudies and most useful observations n atmosphericeffects'.30 If the term

'studies'means actual drawn rather than observational tudies, as the usagepossibly uggests, hen Constable, ike Turner,began sky sketchingalreadybythe end of the eighteenthcentury,beforehe could ever have heardof Howard.In that case, the studies (doubtless n pencil), have disappearedalong withmost of the artist'sdrawingsbefore 800. But even if actual sketcheswere notmade then, Lucas's remark confirmsthe view that Constable's nterest inclouds first developed in conjunctionwith his early days spent as a wind-miller an important environmentalcircumstancewe cannot discount theway Badt does.III. CONSTABLE S SKY SKETCHES BEFORE I8XI

There exista numberof skysketchesby Constabledatingfrom he first wodecades,though none are mentionedby Badt. The earliestexamplesknownto me so far are two unpublished halk drawingson blue paper, stylisticallydatableat about I806. One is pastedon the back coverof a sketchbookn theLouvre (P1. s3c). The rather distant viewpoint and the blank zone at thebottom (sea?) recall some of Turner'searly sky drawings. The other study(P1. s3d) appears n a unique, extra illustratedcopy of the first edition ofLeslie'sbiographyof Constable I 843), now owned by Mr. PeterNicholsonofNew York. 1 This sketchportrays loudsexclusively,making t the only known'pure' cloud study datable before I8XI. Moreover, a significantdegree of28 The British artist who most comes tomind here s Thomas ones ( 742- 803 See,for example, his masterfulstudy, ExtensiveLandscapeprobably he Vale of Pencerrig),c. I776?, in the National Museumof Wales,Cardiff. Though labelled a landscape, itsbreezy, cloud-rich ky completelydominatesour attention. Jones and Valenciennesmayhave met during their stays in Rome, whichoverlappedbetween I0 October I 777 and

II September I778; moreover, they bothwere n Naplesduringmuch of I 779.29 Another study, Lande ous un grandciel(RF 2980) bears a close family resemblance

to J. R. Cozens's TheCloud,imilarly utilizingthe device of a dark, undiffierentiated lice ofsloping ground to establish a kind of 'orient-ing' horizon, and help give a sense of scale.Direct contact between the two painters waspossible, as both were working in Rome andits environs in I 778 and late I 782.30 Undated letter (after I837) to a Mr.Hogarth; Andrew Shirley, The PublishedMezzatintsof David Lucasafter fohn Constable,R.A., Oxford I 930, p. I 5 I .31 I thank ProfessorCharles Rhyne of ReedCollege for kindly informing me of the where-abouts ofthis important unpublished material.

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b AlexanderCozeCollectionDenysan

a-Constable, StudRlictoria nd Alber

c Constable, Study of Clouds,c. I822. London, d--Unknownartist,StudyofCloads,c.650. NewRochelle,Victoria and Albert Museum (no. 250) (p. 344) Collection Curtis 0. Baer (p. 348)

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b e

a

d Joseph Wright, Study of Clouds, I 774-75.

of Art, Rogers Fund (,. 350)

a Constable, CopyftesCozens,. I 8 I 2-I 4. London, CourtauldGallery.Lee Co]lection (p. 3493b Turner, Study oJClouds, . I 796. London, British WIusoum.Turner Bequest! xxxp. 85 (p- 35I)

Luke Howard, Basic (loud lypes, CarrusAimbus, I 803. 7Cilloch'shalosophicalvii, pl. iv (p. 350)

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Etudede ciel charge'e nuages, . I778-82. Paris, LouvreI 5) (p. 35 )

b Constable, Study f Clouds,8 I 3.(no. I 2 I, p. 72 ) (p. 353)

c Constable, Study f Sky,c. I806. Paris, Louvre (R.F. 8700) (p. 352) d Constable, Studyof Clouds, .Nicholson(p. 352)

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_ b Constable,TwilightSkyovera Heath,. . .C I8I2. Norwlch CollectlonSlrEdmunda-Gonstable, DedhamVale,c. I806. London, Tate Bacon (p 353)Gallery(no. 2663) (p. 354)

c ConstaCity Art G

d-Constable, Morning Cloud eforehe^Sun,. I806-9. FurnersGreen,England.CollectionH. H. C. Ingram(p. 353) e Constable, J%schen Staatsgemal

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CONSTABLE'SSKY SKETCHES 353illusionismis evident, already surpassingthat achieved in Turner's skysketchesof this time. Also interesting s the comparativelyrich chromaticrange, ncludingthe use of blue chalk togetherwith a fewfaint touchesof redochre andyellow, in additionto the usualblackand white.A definitelydatableexampleis the small but very confidentlysketchedpencil studyof a toweringcumulo-nimbusloud, from the pocketsketchbookConstableusedfromJulyto OctoberI8I 3 (P1. 3b). Sodramatica cloudpilewill seldombe met with in the artist'smany laterstudies. Butwhat is mostunusualhere is that Constable, or all his commitment o naturalness,hasindulgedin the age-old game of finding a face in the sky, which he subtlysuggests n the less shadowy,upper middle portion of this proteancloud.Therewe discovera naturalistic rofileof a man'shead,lookingsternly o theright, mouth downcast. The image is too well defined-tobe coincidental,thoughit is an unobtrusiventrusion,and not at all the raisond'etreof thecloud (in contrast o Mantegna's ntriguingdouble imageclouds).A considerable umberof the drawings n the I 8I 3 sketchbook, s well asin that of I8I4 (V. & A., No. I32), exhibitprominentandeffectivelymanagedskies n a way that is appreciablynew as regardshis drawings.32A few hintthat Constablehad by then encounteredCozens'ssky samples,as does thestudy reproduced P1.s3b).33Especiallyrelevanthere are severaloil studiesplausiblydatablebetween

C. I 806 and I 8I 2. One of theearliests Alorning CloudseforeheSun P1. 4d),stylisticallyvery closeto two skysketches n SirEdmundBacon'scollection,datableI806-I809, and recentlypublishedby R. B. Beckett.34Alreadyskilfulis the diffierentiationf variouscloudformsat severalaltitudes. As in all theartist'spre-I82I oil studiesof clouds, a sweepingstrip of groundstretchesacross hebottomeighth of the sketch, ustenoughto establishan horizonandoffersome sense of scale as was earlierthe case with Cozens'sand Valen-ciennes's studies (except that they utilize a more dynamic, mountainoushorizon)Anotherlittle-knownbut noteworthyearly sky sketch is Early Morning(P1. I5), c. I809. Again we meet an arrestingvariety of cloudsfloating atdiffierentevels,but here they are chargedwith vivid highlight and shadowcontrasts,consistentwith the low angle illumination. This is also true ofTwilightSkyovera Heath(P1. s4b), c. I 8I 2, the most dramaticearly study,featuringa flat, weirdlyshaped cloud mass, strikingly ilhouettedagainstaluminoussky, and vaguely recalling certain of Cozens's sky models in ageneralway (in looser,painterly erms).35This is the onlyoil study,however,wherea possibleconnexionwith Cozenssuggests tself.

32 See particularly pp. 36 and 39 of the the sky recalls Cozens in a general way, withI8I3 sketchbookand pp. 47, 52 and 8I ofthe its unusual semi-schematizedcloud formationI84I sketchbook; all are reproduced in and emphatic contours, is Windmillya River,Reynolds's catalogue. p. 47 of the I8I4 sketchbook. From I8I5 on,

33 See the fourth sky in Cozens's series, however, Constablerepresentsthe skyentirelyfeaturing a generically similar vertical cloud in his own terms.pile similar, that is, in basic cloud type 34 'Constable at Epsom', Apollo,XXXi,I 965,rather than style of execution. Constable's pp. I89-95.eopy of this sky is reproduced by Gombrich, 35 See Constable's copy of the sixth sky inof. cit.,P1. 48. A landscape sketch in which Cozens's set (P1. 8).

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LOUIS HAWES54 While these studiesanticipatethe sky and tree-topsketchesof I82I, theyare distinguishableromthe latterby theirmore spacious,panoramiccloud-scape,a trait they share with Valenciennes's tudies as well as with some ofTurner's arlyskydrarings. Thisgroupbyno meanscomprises n exhaustivelistof Constable'sre-I82 I skysketches,36ut shouldsuiciently indicate theartist'snterestandskill n sketching louds n oil at least a dozenyearsbeforehe commencedhis Hampstead eries.We shouldalso take account of the revealingextent to which Constableapplied his nterest n hislandscape ketches nd finishedpicturesbefore 82 .Badtdevotesverylittle attentionto this build-upperiod,merelycitinga fewworks rom he seconddecade,wherein he cloudsarearbitrarily andled,andimplyingthat they are representative f the artist's kiesat that time. This isfar from true. For brevity's ake, I shallmentiononlyfour nstancesn whichcloudy skiesform not only a prominentpart of the landscapebut exhibit anotabledegreeof naturalness.As early as c. I806, we meet in the accom-plishedlittle 'finishedsketch',Dedham ale P1. s4a), a sensitivelyrenderedovercastsky, already impressiven its capturingof the ever-varying hapes,densityand tonalityof severalcloud formations loatingat different evels.While the sketchystyle asserts he medium, the clouds appear utterlyun-schematicand wholely nspiredby observation.37The originalversionof J\feartoke-by-XaylandP1.s4e))38c. I 809, also pre-sents a subtlypaintedsky filled with billowy cumulusclouds. Although itsillusionism annotquite vie with that of the later version n London, t nonethe less indicatesthe appreciable acility in cloud paintingthat Constablecouldachieve by the end of the firstdecade. We may speaksimilarlyaboutsomeof his finished andscapesof the followingdecade,such asLandscapeithCornfieldP1.ssa). I8I5-I6, whichexhibitsa commonplacearm scenemadememorablechieflyby its dramaticyet fully plausible sky. It is a sky em-phaticallyovercastby a heavy, inpenetrablecloudbank(a 'cumulo-nimbusarcus'),sombrelycontrastingwith a bright, irregularrent near the centre.This luminous,visuallymagneticarearecallsa similarsky-rent n the famoussketch,Bargesn heStour,. I 8 2 (V. & A., No. I o4) 39Lastly, the celebratedWivenhoeark I8I6-I7) in the National Gallery,Washington,offers a cheerfulmorningsky chargedwith the fast-moving,

Constable'searly work (through I8I 5), is thefirst to deal with it, and convincingly arguesthat it is the original version, datable c. I809.The well-known version in the LondonNational Gallery (no. 2649) he demonstratesis a slightly varied studio replica, datableC. I82I-22, partly on the basis of its fullymature sky style.

39 This passing preferencefor a bright rentin the sky again may possibly owe somethingto Cozens cf. the six skies (nos. I0-I5) pre-senting an irregular opening near the centreof the cloudscape. However, it is merely inthe choice of such a sky 'motif' that the pos-sible debt lies, for Constable employs it in anexpressiveway wholly diffierent rom Cozens.

36 Among those not mentioned are a num-ber whose style points to some year betweenI 809 and I82 I, such as Cloudy ky (H. L.Dalton, Charlotte, N. Carolina), Stormyunset(E. Colquhoun, Dorchester-on-Thames) orScudding loudsBristolArt Gallery).

37 The same can be said of the sky in theequally advanced contemporary work, Land-scape elow latford A. W. Bacon Collection;on extended loan to the Birmingham ArtGallery). The picture is mistitled 'View nearArundel'.38 This version in the Haus der Kunst,Munich, has been strangely neglected byConstable scholars. Charles Rhyne, in con-nexion with his forthcoming catalogue of

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CONSTABLE'SSKY SKETCHES 355fluffy remnantsof former cumulusclouds; and it is this wonderfullyvivid,fugitivesky,so endowedwith a sense of flux,which mostgenerates he moodof freshness nd airiness uffusing he whole scene. Thesefourworksdemon-strate how effectivea sky-painterConstablehad become by the mid I8IO'S,at leastwithin the limits of the modestly caledcanvases o whichhe confinedhimselfuntil I8I9. When he attemptedhis first'sixfooter',TheWhiteHorse(I8I9), he was not entirelysuccessfulwiththe cloudy sky,which has a heavy,ratherlabouredappearance. Not until TheHay WainI8XI), did he fullymastercloudson a largescale.40We see, then, that Constable's nterestand skill n paintingskieshad beendeveloping or sometime. Of course he I8XI-22 studiesrepresent markedlyintensifiedeffort at masteringsky phenomena. Moreover,they are revolu-tionary in at least two senses: (I) their intimate,close-upformat, especiallythoseincludingnearby treetops; (X) theirexpressiveness.However,the factof the artist's ong-active pecialconcernwith the sky (includingconsiderablepre-I8xI cloud sketching)undermines he argument hat a recent encounterwith meteorologypromptedthe series. We may best view the latter as theclimax,albeit a prolificone, of a preoccupationwith the sky and its role inlandscape,which had beengrowingoverthe preceding wodecades.

IV. TURNER S SKIES: I8Iv-I9Even a cursorysurveyof landscapepaintingin Britainduring the years

I800-20 will reveal,by and large, an increasedprominence(and often anincreasedplausibility) n the skies. In varyingdegrees, his is trueof Crome,P. Nasmyth,Francia,CopleyFielding,De Wint, Callcott,Collins,andseveralothersbesidesConstableand Turner. Of course,a separatearticle wouldbeneeded to do anyjustice to thisimportant endency. Here,we can onlypointto a few highlights n the case of Turner,who is speciallyrelevant,as he is theonlyonewho, threeor fouryearsbeforeConstable,made a wholeseriesof skystudies n a shortperiod albeitvery roughsketches, n the main,and in thinwatercolour.Turner'sexhibited oil paintings from the very beginningincluded skiesthat wereoften impressivenot only in their prominencebut also in the waythey functioncompositionally nd above all, expressively, ontributingmostvitally to the intended mood of the scene. Witness, for example, the FifthPlague f EgyptI800), or some of the earlyseascapesand coastalscenes,suchasFishermenna LeeShorenSquallyWeatherI802) or Calais ierI803). FromConstable'spoint of view, however, he draluaticeffect of the skies n variousearly Turners was often at the expenseof naturalness.4l Turner himself,

40 Constableratherextensivelyretouched a number of the larger and more 'careful',The Hay Wain in the autumn of I82I (and purecloudstudiesof I822 beginto approachperhaps ater),toning down the highlightsn the scale of the skyportionsof his large and-particular (letter to Fisher, 23 October; scapes.Beckett,op. cit., pp. 82-83). One wonders 41 HeprobablyhadinmindTurner'sBenthwhether ts magnificent ky may have bene- Plague of Egypt, a popularfavourite at thefited at this time fromthe enhanced acility Academyexhibitionof I802, when he wroteanddeepened xpressive owerresultingrom in May of that year: 'There is room enoughhisfirst ntensive kysketching.Interestingly, for a naturalpainture. The great vice of the

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356 LOUIS HAWESbetween 806 and the late I820'S, tendedto employ ess dramatized kies,withcertainobviousexceptions. At times, he rathercloselyapproximated aturalappearances, s in Abingdon809). But in this and similarworks, he sky is acomparatively econdary lement, he ground ormsdominatingour attention.One of the relatively ew landscapeswhereinthe sky is both as commandingand as persuasively aturalas one by Constable, sRabyCastle,xhibitedat theRoyal Academy in I8I8 (P1. ssd). This work, indeed, offiersprobably themost illusionistic ky found in any of Turner's arge pictures, and may wellhave had a certain mpact on Corlstable,nvitinghim to consider he sky on amore monumental cale and to give it still greater uminosity. I suspect hatits illusionismowes something o Turner'sonly intensivephase of sky sketch-ing, carriedout shortlybeforehe painted this landscape.AlthoughTurner made occasional leystudies hroughoutmost of his life,in I8I7 or early I8I8, he felt a need to fill a whole sketchbookwith a seriesor'repertory' f sixty-five kies.42Many of these are very slight and free colourwashes, n which the roughlyhinted clouds have little of the veracityof Con-stable's studies.43 Several, on the other hand, are more controlled, deftlysketched mpressions f sunriseand sunsetskies (P1.ssb). Unlike Constable'sstudies, he emphasis s on light and colour,rather han clouds. The latterareoften sparse,and seem selectedmainly to diversify he light effiect,as well asto provideaccentsof warmcolour. It is as thoughTurnerviewed the sky as asort of infinite colour-lightorgan, providinga perpetualperformance f end-lesslyvaried, enchantingeffects. Anotherexceptional, finished' tudy, againpainted on slightly damp paper, is the delicatelyrenderedcumuluscloud onpage xxv, well reproduced n colour in Martin Butlin's 7Murneratercolours(pl. ). Here for once,44 he artisthas perfectlycaptured he soft textureandhovering ightnessof a cloud.Of particular nterest are two sequencesof studies. One is at the verybeginning of the sketchbook pp. -7), showing six phases of a passingraincloud, sketched n quick succession. The other (pp. 38-40) exhibits threestagesof either a sunriseor sunset.45 I know of no comparable equencesbyany earlier or contemporary rtists,not even Constable,despite his at leastequal interest n weatheras a dynamicprocess.46But did Constablehave anyawarenessof these studies or any others by Turner? As already stated, thelatter's habitual reluctance o sllow his sketchbooks o anyone makes it un-likelythat Constable ver caughta glimpseof them. However,word of such acollectionof skiesmighthave reachedhim possibly ven fromTurnerhimselfduring their second known extended conversation t the academy dinner ofI820, when they were table mates.One finds Turner applyinghis heightenedpowersof sky painting in thepresent day is bravura,n attempt at some- Pls. 28-X9.thing beyond the truth Fashion lways 44 None of the other sketches xclusively fhad, & will have its day but Truth in all cloudsare nearlyas illusionistic.things)only will last and can have ust claims 45 I hope to reproduce hesesequencesn aon posterity'(Beckett,Correspondence,p. cit., futurearticleon Turner's kysketches.ii,I964,p. 32). 46A possible reason for this was his use,

42 T. B., clviii,BritishMuseumPrintRoom. normally,of the somewhat slower'medium43 Two typicalexamplesare reproducedn of oil, and/orhis tendency o paint morefull-JackLindsay's . M. W. Turner,ondon 966, bodied, pictorially elf-sufficientkyscapes.

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b Turner, Studyof a sunsetsky, c. I 8I 7- I 8.London,BritishMuseum,TurnerBequest,clviii,p. 4o (p. 356)c-TurnerTate Gal

Landscapewith C,or?/ield,. I 8I 5- I 6.City Art Gallery(no. I408) (p. 354)

RabyCastle, 8 8. BaltimoreThe WaltersArt Gallery(p. 356) e-Constable, Hampstead eath cMuseum (p. 360)

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CONSTABLE'SKYSKETCHES 357seriesof finishedwatercolours f Rhine views painted late in I8I7, as well asthe equally impressivegroup of watercoloursof Britishscenes executed thefollowingyear. All thesewere boughtby WalterFawkesand exhibited n I 8 I 9at his London residence,and doubtlesswere seen by Constable. One of themost noteworthy, romthe standpointof the sky, s SIayencendSastel 8I 7) 47in which the cloudsare very close n style to the above cited studyon page xxvof the skies ketchbook.48The same year, I8I9, Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy a marinecontaining the most imposing sky he ever attempted in a large canvas:Entrancef theMeuse49P1.ssc). The rich arrayof cloud formsare diversifiedto an unprecedented xtent, providing a kind of anthology of his favouritekinds of clouds and perhaps or this reasondoes not resemblenature to theextent we found in RabyCastle.As LawrenceGowing has remarked n con-versation, his sky marks he first beginningsof 'the phantasmagoricalky' inTurner'sart. But only the beginnings, or comparedwith the overtly antasticskies nJohn Martin's machines', uch as fAeFallofBabylonexhibited arlierthe same year at the British nstitution),Turner's ky here is still quite withinthe realm of plausibility. For Constable, hough,RabyCastlend some of thewatercoloursmade for Fawkes would have won more admiration or theirskies. On the other hand, he probablypreferred he grandcloudscape rl TheMeuseo the other most imposing sky among the landscapesat the I8I9exhibition:J. J. Chalon'sView f HastingsV. &A., No. 234) in which thestorm effect is rather forced.50 One wonderswhether these marinesstimu-lated any general discussionamong landscapepaintersabout the problemofrepresenting powerful,dynamic sky on a large scale, without its becomingunduly dominating.5lConstabledoesnot mention heseworks n his letters,but then his survivingcorrespondence appensto be rathersparse n the years I8I7-I9. Surely hecould not help but feel to some extent the combined mpact of the threepublicdisplaysof Turner'swork this year (totallingten large oils and over seventyfinishedwatercolours).52 n any case, for the next severalyears it was sud-denly Constable's large exhibited landscapes which presented the most

47 For a fine colour reproduction, seeButlin, op. cit., P1.5.48 Another notable example aXording aparticularly mpressive ky is Fish Market nan EnglishCoast 8 8), P1. 28 in A. J. Fin-berg's Turner'sWater-Colourst FarnleyHall,LondonI 9 I 2.49 The full title reads:Entrancef theMeuse:OrangeMerchantntheBargoing oPieces;BrillChurch earing .E. by S., Masenslays . by S.Brill, incidentally,was the birthplaceof thebrilliant I 7th-centuryDutch admiral, VanTromp,a favourite eroof Turner.50 An interesting side query is whetherTurner, whose well-known competitivenesshelped to motivatea numberof his exhibitedworks, may here have been additionally

driven by a desire to outstripChalon n the

paintingof a formidable kyscape or a largemarine. Then too, might he also have felt afurtherchallengeto outdo his friendlyrival,Callcott, whose Mouth f the Tyne, xhibitedthe previous ear, drewhigh praise51 At least five contemporaryournals in-cludedbrieSnotices f Turner'spainting, woof them touching on the sky. TheExaminer(I I July I8I9) noted the squallysky, wherethe forms of clouds are in unusual diversedirections' p. 444). More enthusiastic,TheLiteraryGazette emarked hat 'the sea andsky possessed ome of the noblest powers ofpainting' (quotedby A. J. Finberg, TheLifeof 7. M. W. Turner, ondon 939, p. 259).

52 The third exhibition in addition toFawkes's nd the academy's was at SirJohnLeicester's own house, and included eight

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358 LOUIS HAWESimpressive kies (as well as the most 'real'). Chalon never followed up hisHastings ith a comparablework, and Turnerdid not send anotheroil to theacademywith a sky approaching he sublimepower and scale of that in TheMeusentil the later I820'S.

V. THE ENVIRONMENT OF HAMPSTEAD HEATHAnother factor relevant here is the nature of HampsteadHeath, whereConstablepainted his two majorseriesof skies. A hilly, open, windy regionoffering ewer objectsof 'endearingassociations' han did his native Suffolk,it very conceivably nduced the artist to considerstill more than previouslythe crucial role that weather circumstances an play in landscapepainting.GrahamReynoldsalsoseesthis ocale as specially onducive o facilitating uchactivity. '[Constable] found the rising ground at Hampstead admirablyadapted for the seizing of transientappearances n the sky. From where he

sat often no doubt in the gardenof his house the ground ell away fromhisfeet and he could see the sky over and throughbushes, rees and the chimneypots of neighbouring ottages.'53 Moreover,R. B. Beckett,while he enthu-siasticallysupportsBadt's thesis, writes similarlyabout this region. 'It pro-vides a perfect"observatory"or meteorological henomena,and was so usedby Van de Velde over IOO years beforefor sky studies.... All day long theclouds (especially n September) oll over ike non-captiveballoons o that onecan just lie on the grassand watch them with uninterrupted njoyment.'54VI. CRITICISMOF THE SKY IN CONSTABLE S EXHIBITED WORKS: I8I9-2 I

Still another ncentivefor the Hampstead tudies s the criticismdirectedat the skies in some of Constable's izeable, exhibited pictures. The artisthimself alludes to this in his famous etter on skying (23 October I82I). 'Ihave often been advised o considermy Sky as a "White heet ravwnehindheObjects"-Certainlyf the Sky is obtrusiveas mine are) it is bad, but if theyare evadedas mine are not) it is worse.'55 This implied criticismprobablyacted as a furtherprod for engaging n an extendedbout of sky sketching, orConstable was painfully sensitive to any adverse comment. Furthermore,contemporaryournal criticismon at least two occasions ound fault with hisskies,shortlybeforehe began his specialskyingcampaign. The firstconcernsan untraced andscape,A Mill,exhibited at the BritishInstitution n I8I9.TheJew MonthlylZIagazineomplained hat 'the sky was heavy in parts andsomewhatdeficient n cleanness'.56Two years ater, the Repositoryf theArts,in its otherwise audatoryreview of TheHay WainI82I), claimed that theearly landscapes by Turner (dating I799- in the Minories, Colchester. The text givenI809; listed in Finberg, op. cit., p. 478). Four by Leslie (ed. cit.) omits some of the under-of these included impressive skies, particu- liningsand altersthepunction.larly Sun rising hroughVapourI807; London, 56 W. T. Whitley, Art andArtists n EnglandN.G., no 479) * I 80F20, London I 928, p. 299. This picture63 Op. cit., p. 26. iS possibly reflected in David Lucas's mezzo-

54 A letter to the writer, 29 March I965. tint, A Mill, published in I830 (Shirley, Op.55 To Fisher; from the original letter, now cit., P1. v).

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CONSTABLE'SSKY SKETCHES 359'darkclouds mpart oomuch oftheirsombrehue to his trees'. 7 A noteworthypieceof unpublished riticism,made in conversation,was relayed n a letterfromFisher,26 September 82I, who reportedthat a 'grand criticalparty'had insistentlyobjectedto the sky in Stratford ill (I820), the artist's econdsix-footerwhichFisherhadrecentlybought. Apparentlyt wastheprominenceof the sky which disturbedthe party, as Fisher says he 'silencedthem' bybringingout 'two printsfromWouvermans nd a Van der Neer, wherethewholestresswas laid on the sky'.58Of coursesuchcriticismby itselfmay notoffera sufficiently dequateprodfor an undertakinghat producednumerousfinishedstudieswhich went beyond'corrective xercises';yet, takentogetherwith the precedingconsiderations,t providesan addedincentive,as well asanotherclue (alongwith that cited in sectionV) as to why the studiesweremade when they were. I have so far foundno negativecommentson Con-stable'sskiesdating before 8I9.

VII. CONSTABLES LETTER ON THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF THE SKY IN LANDSCAPEA furtherpertinentfactoris Constable'smountingcconvictionbout thedecisiveeffectthat the sky has in any landscapepainting,a convictionthatburstforthin his extraordinaryetterof 23 October I82I. 'That Landscapepainterwho doesnot make his skiesa verymaterialpart of his composition-neglectsto avail himselfof one of his greatestaids. Sir Joshua Reynoldsspeakingof the "Landscape"of Titian & Salvator& Claude says "Eventheirkieseemosympathiseith heSubject".... The skymustand alwaysshallwithme make an effectualpartof the composition it will be difficult o namea classof Landscape in which the skyis not the "key ote" the standardf

"Scale"-and the chief "Organf sentiment"....The skyis the sourcef lightin nature and governseverything.... Their difficulty n paintingboth asto compositionand Execution s verygreat . becausewith all their brilliancyandconsequence theyoughtnot to comeforward r be hardly houghtaboutin a picture anymore thanextremedistancesare Buttheseremarksdo notapply to phenomenonr what the painterscall accidentalEffectsof Sky-becausethey alwaysattract particularly.... I know very well what I amabout. & thatmy skieshavenot beenneglected houghthey oftenhave failedin execution and often no doubt from over anxiety about them whichalonewill destroy hat Easy appearancewhich naturealwayshas in all hermovements.'9WhileConstable efershere to complete andscapes ather hanskystudies,the generalrelevancefor the latter is obvious;indeed, thesereflectionsm-mediately ollowhis remarkaboutdoing 'a good dealof skying',and probablycrystallizedn conjunctionwith thatactivity. The letteralso states,aswe sawin the precedingsection,what he regardedas a particularchallenge:to givethe sky its due prominencewithoutits becoming'obtrusive'. This, on theotherhand, is hardlya reason ormaking he 'pure'cloudstudies he followingyear, for inasmuchas they deal exclusivelywith the sky, the problemofobtrusivenessoes not apply. Curiously,he saysnothinghereaboutachieving57 Vo. iX (nd series, 8XI), p. 367. 59 From heoriginaletter, p. cit.68 Beckett,p. cit., pp. 80-8I.

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360 LOUIS HAWESgreatervisual truth, which would seem the chief impetusbehind the studies,the makingof which, in any case, could not help but increasehis skill in skypainting. In view of his reverentialardour for 'truth to nature', so oftenreiteratedelsewhere n his letters and lectures,we may justifiably nfer thatthis aim constituted majorpartof his consciousmotivation,at least nitially.0On the other hand, there remains he fact that in TheHayWainnd a fewsmaller andscapes,he had already achieved a remarkablenaturalism n theskies shortlybeforeaunching his skying campaign ate in I82I. This is wellevident in Hampsteadeath: he SaltBox' n theDistance,8I9 (Tate Gallery,No. I 236) and Upper eath,Hampstead,ear heSand its,c. I820 (FitzwilliamMuseum). The main differencebetween their skies and those in worksafterI822 iS that in the latter the clouds are more strongly modelled and oftenpresent a more dramatic appearance. Constable's wo spells of intensiveskyingdid not result n his conspicuously xcellingthe alreadyhigh degreeofnaturalismmanifest n the skies of several pictures dating I8Ig-2I.6l Thissuggests he possibility hat he ended up paintingskiesout of sheer ascination(or obsession)with such phenomena. That is, by I822 he may have begunsketching loudswithout any definiteulteriormotive, and perhapshave cometo look upon his studies (privately)as end products,enjoyable or themselves,thoughwell aware hat the publicwould not acceptthem as such. In his case,I do not feel that such a view merely projectsa twentieth-century ttitude.Certainlyhe made more cloud studiesthan were necessary or improvinghisskill. Moreover, hose of I822 are generallymuch more 'finished' han anyof his sketch-modelsor landscapes. In other words, Constablemay initiallyhave undertakenhis Hampstead eriespartly as practiceexercises,made witha view to betteringhis skill and to amassinga repertoryof particularcloudeffiectswhich might help to stimulatehis conceptionand executionof skies nstudio andscapes. But at some point his sky sketchingmay well have becomean autonomousactivity.

VIII. ART THEORYLastly, several notable writingson landscapeavailableto Constableem-phasize the desirabilityof sketching kies n the open air. The earliest s thepioneering hapteron landscape n RogerDe Piles'sPrinciplesf Painting 708;Engl.tr., I 7 5), which ncludesa separate ectionon clouds,urging he studentto sketch effectsof the sky n the several imesofthe day, and seasons fthe year

60 The view, sometimes expressed, that is the mostplausibledating,on the grounds fConstablewanted to build up a collectionof style; moreover, agreewith Reynolds's ug-sketch-models o adapt in his studio land- gestion (in I960) that this work may be thescapes,conflictswith the fact that none of the 'GreenHigAgate'mentioned n a letter by theskies in these are derived from his studies. artist,70ctoberI822. Inanycase,thecloudTrue, the latter probablyprovideda certain formsapproximate he look of actual cloudsamountof general nspiration s well as con- to a degree unequalledelsewhere n art, invenient standardsof naturalness. my estimation. On the other hand, this sky61 Probably he mostsubtly llusionistic ky lacks some of the compelling, expressivefound in his entireoeuvres ppears n Hamp- vitalityofthe skies n TheHay Wain, TheLockstead Heath (Pl. sse), which Reynoldsdated (I824), Dedham Vale (I828) and other large

C. I 820-30 in his I 960 catalogueand c. I 820 picturesof the I 820'S.in his 1965 monograph. To my eye, c. I822

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CONSTABLE'SSKY SKETCHES 36Iin the variousdispositions f clouds,both irl serene,thunderingn nd stormyweather'.62AlthoughConstabledoes not referto this treatise,he verylikelyhad some familiaritywith so standarda work, being an avid readerof artliterature.63Secondly,towardsthe end of the century,WilliamGilpin, asnoted, endorsed he youngerVan der Velde's 'skoying'on the Thamesriverin his celebrated ThreeEssays on Picturesque. . LandscapeI792),64 whichConstablealmostcertainlyknew.65In I793, the engraver,CharlesTaylor,publishedanonymouslyhis com-prehensive llustratedtreatisenTheLandscateMagazine. This containedaspecialsectionon the sky,advisingclosestudyof actualclouds,especiallyheirshape,densityandtone. Morethananyearlierwriter,hedirectsour attentionto the movementsof clouds,which 'occasiona thousandcompositions f oneagainstothers;and as they areat differentheightsand oftenpursuedifferentcourses, hey introducean infinitevarietyinto the movingpicture'.66In alatersection,he specifically ecommendsky sketching. 'It is evidentthat thecomponentparts of a picturemay each requiredistinctand carefulstudy:thesky for nstance in a morning-at noon in the evening at rvight . . theformsof the clouds,theircolours, he composition f one againstothers, heir

62 p. I48 ( 743 edn. The contemporarytheorist,Gerardde Lairesse, lsoremarks nskies in his widely read Art of Psinting,AmsterdamI 707; Eng. tr., London I 738,confininghimself,however,to their role inlSnishedandscapes Worthnothing,anyway,is the unprecedentedaluehe allotsthesky-beyondwhat even De Piles granted. 'Doesnot the Sky most adorn and invigorateaLanskip,andmake t lookagreeable? . . Isa beautifulSky. . . so easily to be painted?Is it not moreartful o representhindrivingClouds hana flat Ground? . . A beautifulSky is a Proofof a good master' (p. 289).Certainly Gonstablewould have assentedmostheartily,hadhe read this(not unlikely).

63 A three-page istof books n Constable'sart library, ogetherwith thosementionednletters,appearsn Beckett'sypescript, p.cit.,xv, Appendix I. For a discussionof theartist'sextensive amiliaritywith and partialindebtedness o earlier art theory, see mydoctoraldissertation)Constsble'sWrztingsnArt,Princeton 963, chs.i-ii.

64 p. 34. In his didacticpoem on land-scape, appended to the essays, he recom-mends cloud observation, but withoutmentioning ketches.'. . . markeachfloatingcloud:its form, Its variedcolour;andwhatmassofshade It givesthescenebelow,preg-nantwith change/ Perpetual . .' (p. 3). Incertainof his Eours he stresseshe crucialroleplayedby the sky, and in fact was amongthefirst to emphasizehow its light and colour24

(dependingon the arrangement nd charac-terof thecloudsaswell ason thetimeof day)determines the whole chiaroscuroeffect,tonality and mood of a landscape. Forexample,'He who shouldsee any one sceneas it is differently ffectedby a lowering ky,or a brightone,mightprobably ee two verydifferentandscapes.... We sometimeseeavariationof light alter the wholedispositionof a landscape'(Lake Tour, I786, i, p. Vii;seealsohis ScottishTour, I 789, ii, pp. 7-9)*This wasa convictiondearto Constable,whoapplied it much more extensivelyand re-sourcefullyhanGilpineverconceived.

65 Gilpin'scontemporary,. H. Pott,in hisanonymouslypublishedEsssy on Landscape,I782, alludesbriefly o the beauties hat theEnglish ky holdsforthe observantandscapepainter,notingespecially he rich varietyof'action . . seen in the rollingof the clouds,. . . which is nearlyunknownto the placidsouthernhemisphere' p. 56). There is noreference, owever, o sky sketching.

66 p. 86. Regardingthe myriadforms ofclouds,he remarks ow 'sometimes,sit were,heavy aden,and scarceable to remain n theair, they appear like solid massesof con-densation;their skirtsappear hard againsttheir neighbours.... Sometimes hey seemtruly the fleecy clouds, wanton in everyimaginaryshape, and float in transparentthinness;at other times, they speckle theheavens and distributethemselves n airyfilms hroughouthecelestial xpanse' p. 86).

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s3 )2 LOUIS HAWESmannerof moving &c. &c. and the mannerof light breaking hrough hem, orreflectingon them.'67 CertainlyConstablewould have provedmost receptiveto suchstatements,had he read them but this is not known. Thoughobscuretoday, this treatise was apparently in some demand in Constable's ime,reappearingprominentlyas volume iii of Taylor's hen widely knownArtists'Repository 9Enfyclopediclf theFineArts(new edn., I808; I8I3).Closer n time to Constable'sHampsteadstudies was the appearanceofHenry Richter's dialogue, Daylight,A RecentDiscoveryn the Art of Painting(I 8I 7) 68 In the courseof the conversation,nvolving ive Flemishand Dutchold masters and three contemporaryEnglish painters,69Albert Cuyp en-thusiastically ecommends hat the art student make 'genuinestudies f lightandcolouraken faithfully rom J%aturetself, outof doors, nder all its variousaspects'.70While the initial phrase s a little ambiguous, ts stated open-aircontext suggests t would include sky sketchesor at least 'sky illuminationstudies',such as some of Constable'sand many of Turner'sskies might wellbe called (in which the emphasis s more on colour and light values than onclouds).7l We do not know whether the artist was acquainted with thisprovocativedialogue,but some form of contactseemsto me likely. Certainlythe title is one which would have caught his eye.72After about I820, the advocacy of sky sketching (at least in pencil orwater-colour) s no longer a rarity in art theory; even Francis Nicholson'spredominantly conservative treatise, Drawingand PaintingLandscaperomJ%ature,n WaterColoursI820), brieflycommends he practice. 'Studiesofthestems of trees, massesof rock, brokenground,folliage,sky, water, &c. will bemore conducive towards mprovement han the delineationof tlle whole ofgeneral subjects, ndependentof the great use to be made of them on futureoccasions. ..'*73 No theorist,however, advised a sky sketchingprogrammeremotelyapproaching he intensiveness f Constable's. Nor did any providesignificantpractical remarkson matters of execution. At most, the abovesourceswould simply have reinforced he artist's ively interest n clouds andcloud sketching.74But neither would Howard'snor Forster'sdescriptions fthe basic cloud types have done substantiallymore than this, if as much.

landscape painter who cin particular dis-tinguishesthe age by the sublimity of hisgenius' p. 9).72 A somewhat arlierpublication ouchingon this problem of dealing with the colourand light values of skies is William Oram'sThe Art of Colouringn Landscape sinting,London I 8 0, written c. I 775, ch. v, 'OnPainting Skies'. The author, however, re-strictshimself o detailedcolour nstructions,and the contextpertains o finishedpictures.More interesting s an engraved schematiccloudscapewith colournotes.73 P. 36 (2nd edn., I823).74 Much the same appliesto the wealth ofreferences o the sky and clouds n romanticpoetryand proseavailable o Constable.

67 p. I I2. In the sectionon CDistances')heautilorunderscoreshe sky's ar-reachingm-portanceas 'the sourceof light' n a landscape-a tenet Constable articularly eld high.68 This dialogue, minus its voluminousnotes, had come out the previous year inAckerman's epositoryf theArts, i) 2nd series,

I 8 6, pp. 269-77.69 The participants included: Teniers)Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt,Cuyp, andthreemoderns a reactionary ortrait ainter(the devil'sadvocateofthe dialogue),a youngart student (the pleinsir enthusiast),and theauthor.70 p. IO.71 Turner is the one modern artist pre-sumably alluded to by the referenceto a

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CONSTABLE'SKYSKETCHES 363When all is said, Badt's heory,however hought-provokingnd influential,is untenable. I have stressed actorswhich eithereludedBadt or were rejectedin favourof the single 'causal'stimulushe isolates. Regarding he latter, theevidence warrants our concluding that a familiarity with contemporary

meteorologywas neither a pre-requisite or Constable's kyingnor one of themore importantlyoperativeof severalknown or probablemotivating actors.Although the painter had likely seen or heard about Howard's erminologyby I82I, there are no grounds or believingthat such contact did more thanreaffirm nd perhaps oncentrate n alreadyactive nterest.In summary, list the followingas the factorsmost relevant o Constable'sHampstead eriesof sky sketching:I Life-longedicationoOpen-airketching-includingporadic kysketchingfrom I806 (if not earlier) The Hampstead eries alls within the artist'smost intensivephase of outdooroil sketching: 820-25.II EarlyExperiences a Windmillerhen he made his 'earliest tudiesand. . . observations'.III SomeAwarenessf Earlier kySketcheswhether by 'Claude', Van derVelde the Younger,A. Cozens,J. R. Cozens,Joseph AVright,WilliamCrotchor Turner.IV Surner'skies:8I7-I9 including he unprecedentedly xtensive eriesof sixty-fivewatercolour tudies n the 'Skies'sketchbook f c. I8I7-I8,and the notable skyscapes n two large oil paintings:RabyCastleI8I8)andEntranceo heMeuse 8 I 9) .V fAe Environmentf Hampsteadeath a 'natural observatory',and thelocality ofthe I82I-22 sky series. (Artist irstpaints there in I8I9.)

VI Criticismf theSky n CertainxhibitedWorks:8I9-2I as indicated intwo letters of I82I and by remarks n two critical ournals, respecting7Che ill ( 8 I 9), Stratford ill ( 820) and TheHayWain 82 I ) .VII ConvictionsboutheCrucial ole f tAleky n Landscapend ts DifMicultiesfExecutiontated n a letter of I 82 I (in the contextof 'skying')VIII Art 7Cheoryassagesadvocating on-the-spotsky sketching, n widelyavailabletreatisesby De Piles, Gilpin, Taylor and Richter.Possible Indirect Relevance: Some awareness of contemporarymeteorological lassifications,ained some time before 836 via ThomasForster's ook ( 8 I 3), a morepalatable tudythan Howard's orbiddingtwo-volumework ( 8I8-20), the greaterpart of which comprises edioustabulations.Certain of the above (IV-VI) concern more the immediate,occasioningstimulifor the Hampstead kies,while others (I-III) denote the fundamentalpreparatoryconditions. No one of these factors, taken alone, adequatelyaccounts or the studies;but taken togetherand seen as converging timuli, Ibelieve they bring us appreciably loserto an understanding f how and whyConstable'sdazzling eruptionof sky sketchescame about.I have given priority to empirical and environmentalconsiderations,allottinga more modest,secondary ole to theoreticalarldconceptualstimuli(whether art theory or meteorologicalscience). This is not to deny that

conceptual sourcescan play an important role in an ar-tist's ractice. The

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LOUIS HAWES64point here is that with Constable's loud studies,existing evidencedoes notjustifyour grantingsuchsourcesa decisive,'causal'role, as Badt claims formeteorology. At most, we are warrantedn viewing the latteras a supple-mentary, reaffirming timulus. The balance of evidence argues that theprincipal factor was the artist's zealous persistence n on-the-spot,con-centratedobservationand repeatedoil sketchingof one type of phenomenaoveran extendedperiod. Thisprocedurewas a logical,specialized pplicationof his habitual practice of outdoor landscape sketching, a progressivelyimportantactivitysince I802, climaxing n the years 820-25.The above conclusionshave broader implicationsworth touching onbriefly. Contrary o a basic conviction of Wolfflin and numerous ater arthistorians,Constable'scloud studies (and quite a few landscape sketches)demonstratehat art need not always owe more to other art than to freshobservationof nature. Certainlyone would be hardpressed o singleout a'model'for any of the I82I-22 studies. The painter'sextensivefamiliaritywith past landscapeconventionsdoesnot here appear a determining actor,but ratherseems temporarilysubmergedby the immediateexperience offirst-hand bservation nd the processof rapidoil sketching.75Thanks o this,in part, the clouds have a uniquelycompellingquality,an almostuncannyimmediacy,setting them apart from all earlierstudies. I do not mean heresheerobjective idelity, or at the same time,they seemmore essentiallyreal'than anyphotographs haveseen, eventhough hey are nevitably ess iterallyaccurate.76Most arevigorouslypainted,revealinga delight in the mediurn,and endowing hemwith an expressive itality that makesthemall the morevivid and 'alive' withoutanysacrifice ftheirsenseofnaturalness.Constablehere, as in his bestlandscape ketches, ucceeds n reconcilingwo potentially

75 A psychological actor conducing thisrelative emancipationfrom tradition wasConstable'sWordsworthian'yper-receptive-ness to the visibleworld. His writingscon-firm (as hissketches uggest) his capacity or'direct',mlnimallybiasednatureexperience.Certainfavourite cenes, as it were, floodedhisconsciousness,irtually ubmergingmem-oriesofpictures, fonlytemporarily.GrahamReynoldsalso notes this 'enrapt'mode ofviewing and feelingnature: 'Whenworkingin the open air, in front of the motif, Con-stablewasin a stateof heightened onscious-ness, rapt in a speciesof hypnoticvision....This trance-likestate gave rapidity to hisgraspof thescenebeforehim,andunity to hisvisual apperception f it' ( 965 monograph,Op. Cit., p. 90). The characteristicualitiesofhisoilsketches their resh,outdoor lookandfeel', their spontaneity and immediacy-would appear o owe most to this 'romantic-naturalist' esponseo nature.Granted,whenwe turnto hisfinishedandscapes,radition sobviously perative.Andyet, a fewexhibitareally phenomenaldegreeof approximation

to actual appearances,notably: Trees atHampstead:hePathto theChurch,82I, andWater-meadowsearSalisbury,829 (V. & A.,nos.223 and32I). AsSir KennethClarkhasobserved,these works'showthe most com-plete acceptance of all the facts of visionwhichhas ever beenmade art' (LandscapentoArt, London I 949, p. 77) Constable'sachieving this unprecedentedevel of illu-sionismchallenges he widelyheldview thattraditionalwaysdominatesboth vision andrepresentation, uggestinginstead, a moreevengive-and-take t times,with the impactof freshexperience nce in a whiledominant.76 The best corpus of photographss theAbridged nternational loud Atlas (WorldMeteorologicalOrganization,Geneva 956).A mosthelpful,up-to-date, hort ntroductionto thesubjects thebookby F. L. LudlamandR. S. Scorer,Cloud tudy:A PictorialGuide,London I 959. Also useful is the succinctbookletpublished by the British Meteoro-logical Office,CloudTypesor Observers,on-don I962.

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CONSTABLE'SKYSKETCHES 365divergent ims:objective ortrayal ndexpressivemphasis.Hispassionateregard or'truth o nature' nd his equallyardent oncern or 'thepoetryofthe art'fruitfully nite n his bestmoments, ivingbirth o a singularyricalnaturalism.