Study of Clouds over a Landscape

c. 1821–22

For Constable, the sky was as important as the land in his finished paintings. He used studies like this one, which captures the interplay of light and shadow on swiftly moving clouds, to develop his studio paintings, remarking: “It will be difficult to name a class of landscape, in which the sky is not the ‘key note,’ the standard of ‘scale,’ and the chief ‘organ of sentiment.’”

Medium	oil on laminate cardboard, mounted on canvas
Dimensions	Board size: 9 5/8 × 11 5/8 in. (24.4 × 29.5 cm) Stretcher: 11 1/8 × 12 1/16 in. (28.2 × 30.7 cm) Frame: 14 7/8 × 16 5/8 × 2 in. (37.8 × 42.2 × 5.1 cm)
Object Number	2007.8.35
Acquisition	Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007
Status	Off View

Image Caption

John Constable, Study of Clouds over a Landscape, c. 1821–22, oil on laminate cardboard, mounted on canvas. Clark Art Institute, gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton, 2007.8.35

Select Bibliography

Pionk, Richard C. and Margaret Somers. Constable. Salmagundi Club, October 14 - November 2, 2000. New York, Salmagundi Club. 2000. Parris, Leslie. Constable: A New York Private Collection. New York: Published Privately, 1994. Reynolds, Graham. The Early Paintings and Drawings of John Constable. 2 vol. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1996. Clarke, Jay, ed. Landscape, Innovation, and Nostalgia: The Manton Collection of British Art. Williamstown, MA: The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2012. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

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Provenance

[Possibly Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris]; private collection; [Deborah Gage (Works of Art), Ltd., London, sold to Manton, 4 Nov. 1993]; Sir Edwin A. G. Manton (1993–d. 2005); Manton Family Art Foundation (2005–7, given to the Clark); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2007.