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Cloud study (after Alexander Cozens' 'Engravings of Skies')

Maker

(artist)
1776-1837

After
(artist)
1717-1786

Title

Cloud study (after Alexander Cozens' 'Engravings of Skies')

Date of Production

c. 1822-1823

Medium

graphite covered in fixative on wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 9.4 cm
Width: 11.5 cm

Accession Number

D.1932.LF.31

Mode of Acquisition

Arthur Hamilton Lee, gift, 12/12/1932
Arthur Hamilton Lee, bequest, 1947

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords


Label Text

At around the same time Constable devoted himself to painting cloud studies from Hampstead Heath, he also made pencil copies of twenty drawings of skies from Alexander Cozens’s 1785 treatise A New Method of Assisting the Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of Landscape, even copying out the inscriptions. Cozens’s publication reflects the increasingly scientific understanding of clouds, which Constable balanced with an appreciation of their poetic qualities, as well as direct observation from nature.

Provenance

Viscount Lee of Fareham (1868-1947); Fareham Gift 1932

Exhibition History

John Constable: The making of a master, Victoria and Albert Museum, 20/09/2014-11/01/2015

A Dialogue with Nature: Romantic Landscapes from Britain and Germany, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 30/01/2014-27/04/2014

Wolken Welt des Flüchtigen, Leopold Museum, Vienna, 22/03/2013-01/07/2013 ...More

Cloud Images, Altenationalgalerie & Berlin & Germany, 24/09/2004-30/01/2005

Cloud Images, Jenisch Haus, Hamburg, 06/06/2004-12/09/2004

Goethe and the Visual Arts, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 28/08/1994-31/10/1994

English Landscape Drawing and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/05/1977-01/06/1977

Constable: paintings, watercolours and drawings, Tate Gallery, London, 18/02/1976-25/04/1976

'The Cloud Watchers': an exhibition of Instruments, Publications, Paintings and Watercolours concerning Art and Meteorology c. 1770 - 1830, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, 01/06/1975-27/07/1975 ...Less

Literature

Wolken: Welt des Flüchtigen, Leopold Museum, Vienna, 2013
p. 341
Ill. p. 103

Constable: Impressions of land, sea and sky, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2006
p. 38

Wolkenbilder. Die entdeckung des Himmels, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg; Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin; Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, 2004-05 Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2004
no. 203, pp. 166-67 ...More

Thornes, John E., John Constable's Skies, Birmingham: Birmingham University Press, 1999
p. 80

Fleming-Williams, Ian, Constable and his drawings, London: Philip Wilson, 1990
p. 289

Alexander and John Cozens, the poetry of landscapes, V&A; Art Gallery of Ontario, 1986-87 New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986
Ill. p. 86

Reynolds, Graham, The later paintings and drawings of John Constable, New Haven: Yale University Press 1984
no. 23.57, p. 129
Ill. pl. 443

English Landscape Drawing and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1977
cat. no. 41

Constable: paintings, watercolours & drawings, Tate Gallery, 18 February - 25 April 1976 London: Tate Gallery 1976
no. 210

William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1976
Ill. no. 146

'The Cloud Watchers': an exhibition of Instruments, Publications, Paintings and Watercolours concerning Art and Meteorology c. 1770 - 1830, Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, 1975
cat. no. 35 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower centre, pen and brown ink, artist's hand: "3. Streaky Clouds at the bottom of ye Sky.".

Collector's mark: none.

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