2024-03-29T14:55:59Zhttp://harvester-bl.britishart.yale.edu/oaicatmuseum/OAIHandleroai:tms.ycba.yale.edu:130432024-03-28ycba:pd
YCBA/lido-TMS-13043
http://www.cidoc-crm.org/cidoc-crm/E22_Human-Made_Object
Human-Made Object
300015636
landscape
300078925
watercolor
300033973
drawing
300033973
Drawing & Watercolor
Sky Study with Rainbow
Sky Study with A Rainbow
Inscribed in graphite, upper right: "May 20th 1827"
G & R Turner watermark
500303557
Yale Center for British Art
http://britishart.yale.edu
B1975.4.1874
Not on view
Yale Center for British Art
41.3080060, -72.9306282
Reynolds 27.11
8 7/8 x 7 1/4 inches (22.5 x 18.4 cm)
width
cm
18.4
height
cm
22.5
Sheet
13043
300054713
production
John Constable, 1776–1837, British
ycba_actor_18
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Constable
http://isni-url.oclc.nl/isni/0000000122770039
http://catalogo.bne.es/uhtbin/authoritybrowse.cgi?action=display&authority_id=XX895728
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80007977
http://d-nb.info/gnd/118521934
http://viaf.org/viaf/17265725
http://id.ndl.go.jp/auth/ndlna/00512631
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q159297
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6107?docPos=3
http://libris.kb.se/resource/auth/182141
http://www.idref.fr/030345952/id
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500115382
https://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wm20v2
John Constable
John Constable R. A.
Constable, John, 1776-1837
Constable John, 1776–1837
John Constable, 1776–1837
John Constable, 1776–1837
7011827
7029248
7011781
7011781
British
1776
1837
male
300025103
Artist
300025136
painter
Royal Academician
300112172
draftsman (artist)
300111159
British
1827
1827
1827
24
19th century
Watercolor on medium, smooth, cream wove paper
300014187
wove paper
300015045
watercolor
John Constable: The Late work (Royal Academy of Arts, 2021-10-30 - 2022-02-13)
1053
300054766
exhibition
John Constable: The Late work
Yale Center for British Art
Royal Academy of Arts
ycba_actor_5870
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q270920
https://viaf.org/viaf/153543255
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500115632
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80032672
RA
Royal Academy of Arts
0
0
2021-10-30 - 2022-02-13
2021-10-30
2022-02-13
Royal Academy of Arts
ycba_actor_5870
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80032672
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500115632
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q270920
https://viaf.org/viaf/153543255
Royal Academy of Arts
Piccadilly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccadilly
Piccadilly
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)
500
https://britishart.yale.edu/node/647
300054766
exhibition
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art
Yale Center for British Art
Yale Center for British Art
ycba_actor_1281
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6352575
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500303557
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n77005277
https://viaf.org/viaf/155449049
British Art Center
BAC
YCBA
Yale Center for British Art
1977
0
66
Lender
2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17
2008-06-09
2008-08-17
Yale Center for British Art
ycba_actor_1281
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n77005277
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500303557
https://viaf.org/viaf/155449049
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6352575
Yale Center for British Art
New Haven
7014210
New Haven
300435424
Great British Watercolors brought together eighty-eight outstanding works in the medium from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Center, including masterpieces by J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, William Blake, Paul Sandby, John Robert Cozens, Thomas Girtin, Thomas Gainsborough, and others. The exhibition was organized as part of the 2007 celebrations commemorating both the Center’s thirtieth anniversary and the centenary of the institution’s founder, Paul Mellon, one of the greatest cultural philanthropists of the twentieth century.
In a period of a little over fifteen years, beginning in the early 1960s, Mr. Mellon assembled one of the world’s greatest collections of British drawings and watercolors. As part of his extensive collecting of British art, he purchased several distinguished private collections of British watercolors, enriching and expanding them with astute purchases reflecting his own taste. In his memoirs he praised “the beauty and freshness of English drawings and watercolors, their immediacy and sureness of technique, their comprehensiveness of subject matter, their vital qualities, their Englishness.” — —
Great British Watercolors spanned more than a century of British artistic production, from the emergence of watercolor painting in the mid-eighteenth century to its flowering in the early nineteenth century. The exhibition highlighted the diversity of British watercolor painting, showing both landscapes and figurative works by some of the principal artists who worked in the medium. Paul Mellon’s collecting activity helped to revive the study of British watercolor. — —
Venues — —
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond: — —
July 11–September 30, 2007 — —
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia: — —
October 23, 2007–January 13, 2008 — —
Yale Center for British Art: — —
une 10–August 17, 2008 — —
Credits — —
Organized by the Center in association with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Great British Watercolors was curated by Scott Wilcox, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Center; Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and Matthew Hargraves, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Paintings and Sculpture at the Center.
Yale Center for British Art
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13)
500
https://britishart.yale.edu/node/647
300054766
exhibition
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art
Yale Center for British Art
The State Hermitage Museum
ycba_actor_6557
Olga Ilmenkova
The State Hermitage Museum
0
0
300311675
Borrower
2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13
2007-10-23
2008-01-13
The State Hermitage Museum
ycba_actor_6557
The State Hermitage Museum
Sankt-Peterburg
7010273
Sankt-Peterburg
300435424
Great British Watercolors brought together eighty-eight outstanding works in the medium from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Center, including masterpieces by J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, William Blake, Paul Sandby, John Robert Cozens, Thomas Girtin, Thomas Gainsborough, and others. The exhibition was organized as part of the 2007 celebrations commemorating both the Center’s thirtieth anniversary and the centenary of the institution’s founder, Paul Mellon, one of the greatest cultural philanthropists of the twentieth century.
In a period of a little over fifteen years, beginning in the early 1960s, Mr. Mellon assembled one of the world’s greatest collections of British drawings and watercolors. As part of his extensive collecting of British art, he purchased several distinguished private collections of British watercolors, enriching and expanding them with astute purchases reflecting his own taste. In his memoirs he praised “the beauty and freshness of English drawings and watercolors, their immediacy and sureness of technique, their comprehensiveness of subject matter, their vital qualities, their Englishness.” — —
Great British Watercolors spanned more than a century of British artistic production, from the emergence of watercolor painting in the mid-eighteenth century to its flowering in the early nineteenth century. The exhibition highlighted the diversity of British watercolor painting, showing both landscapes and figurative works by some of the principal artists who worked in the medium. Paul Mellon’s collecting activity helped to revive the study of British watercolor. — —
Venues — —
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond: — —
July 11–September 30, 2007 — —
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia: — —
October 23, 2007–January 13, 2008 — —
Yale Center for British Art: — —
une 10–August 17, 2008 — —
Credits — —
Organized by the Center in association with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Great British Watercolors was curated by Scott Wilcox, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Center; Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and Matthew Hargraves, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Paintings and Sculpture at the Center.
Yale Center for British Art
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30)
500
https://britishart.yale.edu/node/647
300054766
exhibition
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art
Yale Center for British Art
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
ycba_actor_1286
https://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6991x8v
https://viaf.org/viaf/148748621
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4013975
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500310718
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79046025
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
0
0
300311675
Borrower
2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30
2007-07-11
2007-09-30
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
ycba_actor_1286
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79046025
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500310718
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q4013975
https://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6991x8v
https://viaf.org/viaf/148748621
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Richmond
7013964
Richmond
300435424
Great British Watercolors brought together eighty-eight outstanding works in the medium from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Center, including masterpieces by J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, William Blake, Paul Sandby, John Robert Cozens, Thomas Girtin, Thomas Gainsborough, and others. The exhibition was organized as part of the 2007 celebrations commemorating both the Center’s thirtieth anniversary and the centenary of the institution’s founder, Paul Mellon, one of the greatest cultural philanthropists of the twentieth century.
In a period of a little over fifteen years, beginning in the early 1960s, Mr. Mellon assembled one of the world’s greatest collections of British drawings and watercolors. As part of his extensive collecting of British art, he purchased several distinguished private collections of British watercolors, enriching and expanding them with astute purchases reflecting his own taste. In his memoirs he praised “the beauty and freshness of English drawings and watercolors, their immediacy and sureness of technique, their comprehensiveness of subject matter, their vital qualities, their Englishness.” — —
Great British Watercolors spanned more than a century of British artistic production, from the emergence of watercolor painting in the mid-eighteenth century to its flowering in the early nineteenth century. The exhibition highlighted the diversity of British watercolor painting, showing both landscapes and figurative works by some of the principal artists who worked in the medium. Paul Mellon’s collecting activity helped to revive the study of British watercolor. — —
Venues — —
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond: — —
July 11–September 30, 2007 — —
The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia: — —
October 23, 2007–January 13, 2008 — —
Yale Center for British Art: — —
une 10–August 17, 2008 — —
Credits — —
Organized by the Center in association with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Great British Watercolors was curated by Scott Wilcox, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Center; Mitchell Merling, Paul Mellon Curator and Head of the Department of European Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and Matthew Hargraves, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Paintings and Sculpture at the Center.
Yale Center for British Art
William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism (Chicago Historical Society, 1988-04-06 - 1988-06-05)
397
300054766
exhibition
William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism
Yale Center for British Art
Chicago Historical Society
ycba_actor_7183
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500304670
Chicago Historical Society
0
0
300311675
Borrower
1988-04-06 - 1988-06-05
1988-04-06
1988-06-05
Chicago Historical Society
ycba_actor_7183
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500304670
Chicago Historical Society
Chicago
7013596
Chicago
William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism (New York Public Library, 1987-10-31 - 1988-01-02)
397
300054766
exhibition
William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism
Yale Center for British Art
New York Public Library
ycba_actor_5984
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500303617
New York Public Library
0
0
300311675
Borrower
1987-10-31 - 1988-01-02
1987-10-31
1988-01-02
New York Public Library
ycba_actor_5984
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500303617
New York Public Library
Manhattan Island
7022657
Manhattan Island
John Constable (The Yomiuri Shimbun, 1986-01-30 - 1986-06-17)
379
300054766
exhibition
John Constable
Yale Center for British Art
The Yomiuri Shimbun
ycba_actor_7168
The Yomiuri Shimbun
0
0
300311675
Borrower
1986-01-30 - 1986-06-17
1986-01-30
1986-06-17
The Yomiuri Shimbun
ycba_actor_7168
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo
7004472
Tokyo
Art of a Changing Society - British Watercolors & Drawings 1775-1950 (Wichita Art Museum, 1983-10-23 - 1983-12-04)
341
300054766
exhibition
Art of a Changing Society - British Watercolors & Drawings 1775-1950
Yale Center for British Art
Wichita Art Museum
ycba_actor_7148
https://viaf.org/viaf/155527494
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500311711
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7998113
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79086317
Wichita Art Museum
0
0
300311675
Borrower
1983-10-23 - 1983-12-04
1983-10-23
1983-12-04
Wichita Art Museum
ycba_actor_7148
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79086317
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500311711
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7998113
https://viaf.org/viaf/155527494
Wichita Art Museum
Wichita
7016216
Wichita
English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17)
568
300054766
exhibition
English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850
Yale Center for British Art
Yale Center for British Art
ycba_actor_1281
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6352575
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500303557
https://viaf.org/viaf/155449049
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n77005277
Yale Center for British Art
BAC
YCBA
British Art Center
1977
0
63
Organizer
1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17
1977-04-19
1977-07-17
Yale Center for British Art
ycba_actor_1281
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n77005277
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500303557
https://viaf.org/viaf/155449049
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6352575
Yale Center for British Art
New Haven
7014210
New Haven
13043
739062
N5247.M385 L62 (YCBA)
54176846
2886
300054686
publication event
^A loan exhibition of English drawings and watercolours from the collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia^, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1964, cat. no. 41, N5247.M385 L62 (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., established 1760, active ca. 1785–1911, Italian, active in Britain
ycba_actor_6815
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80139197
https://viaf.org/viaf/154766517
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19899797
Colnaghi
300025574
Publisher
1964
1964
1964
London
13043
16225956
NJ18.C74 A12 2021 Oversize (YCBA)
1255597030
4872
300054686
publication event
Anne Lyles, ^Late Constable^, Royal Academy of Arts, London, p. 110, no. 42, NJ18.C74 A12 2021 Oversize (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
Anne Lyles
ycba_actor_9007
Lyles Anne
300025492
Author
Per Rumberg
ycba_actor_14367
Rumberg Per
300025492
Author
Rose Thompson
ycba_actor_14368
Thompson Rose
300025492
Author
Royal Academy of Arts
ycba_actor_5870
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80032672
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500115632
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q270920
https://viaf.org/viaf/153543255
Royal Academy of Arts
300025574
Publisher
0
0
London
13043
582470
NJ18 C74 R485 + (YCBA)
10948407
260
300054686
publication event
Graham Reynolds, ^The later paintings and drawings of John Constable^, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1984, 27.11, NJ18 C74 R485 + (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
Graham Reynolds
ycba_actor_8357
Reynolds Graham
300025492
Author
Yale University Press
ycba_actor_7029
Yale University Press
300025574
Publisher
1984
1984
1984
New Haven, CT
13043
583226
NJ18 .C74 R47 +Oversize (YCBA)
54244607
4921
300054686
publication event
The Yomiuri Shimbun, ^John Constable^, The Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, 1986, pp. 101, 159, no. 55, NJ18 .C74 R47 +Oversize (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
The Yomiuri Shimbun
ycba_actor_7168
The Yomiuri Shimbun
300025492
Author
The Yomiuri Shimbun
ycba_actor_7168
The Yomiuri Shimbun
300025574
Publisher
1986
1986
1986
Tokyo
13043
4462236
NJ18 C74 T56 1999 (YCBA)
42624209
1445
300054686
publication event
John E. Thornes, ^John Constable's skies : a fusion of art and science, ^, University of Birmingham Press, Birmingham, UK, 1999, pp. 135-36, pl. 52, NJ18 C74 T56 1999 (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
John E. Thornes
ycba_actor_9471
Thornes John E.
300025492
Author
University of Birmingham Press
ycba_actor_9472
University of Birmingham Press
300025574
Publisher
1999
1999
1999
Birmingham, UK
13043
134265
NC228 W45 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
501614148
326
300054686
publication event
Christopher White, ^English landscape, 1630-1850, drawings, prints & books from the Paul Mellon Collection ^, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 89-90, no. 161, pl. XXVIII, NC228 W45 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
Christopher White
ycba_actor_8406
White Christopher
300025492
Author
Yale Center for British Art
ycba_actor_1281
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n77005277
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500303557
https://viaf.org/viaf/155449049
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6352575
Yale Center for British Art
300025574
Publisher
1977
1977
1977
New Haven
13043
581467
ND1928 .W65 (YCBA)
10570797
4922
300054686
publication event
Howard E. Wooden, ^Art of a changing society : British watercolors and drawings, 1775-1900^, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS, 1983, pp. 48, 82, fig. 56, ND1928 .W65 (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
Howard E. Wooden
ycba_actor_14414
Wooden Howard E.
300025492
Author
Wichita Art Museum
ycba_actor_7148
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79086317
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500311711
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7998113
https://viaf.org/viaf/155527494
Wichita Art Museum
300025574
Publisher
1983
1983
1983
Wichita, KS
13043
739114
PR5885 W67 1987 (YCBA)
15662277
744
300054686
publication event
Jonathan Wordsworth, ^William Wordsworth and the age of English romanticism^, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick Grasmere, UK, 1987, pp. 66, 215, no. 132, fig. 61, PR5885 W67 1987 (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
Jonathan Wordsworth
ycba_actor_8910
Wordsworth Jonathan
300025492
Author
Rutgers University Press
ycba_actor_8825
Rutgers University Press
300025574
Publisher
1987
1987
1987
New Brunswick Grasmere, UK
13043
7842306
ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
71833360
4877
300054686
publication event
Yale Center for British Art, ^Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection^, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 122-23, no. 52, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
Yale Center for British Art
ycba_actor_1281
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n77005277
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500303557
https://viaf.org/viaf/155449049
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6352575
Yale Center for British Art
300025492
Author
Matthew Hargraves
ycba_actor_7112
Hargraves Matthew
300025492
Author
Scott Wilcox
ycba_actor_1252
Wilcox Scott
300025492
Author
Yale University Press
ycba_actor_7029
Yale University Press
300025574
Publisher
2007
2007
2007
New Haven
13043
8047
NC228 Y34 (YCBA)
703749
2811
300054686
publication event
Yale University Art Gallery, ^English drawings and watercolors, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, April 15 - June 20, 1965 ^, New Haven, 1965, cat. no. 41, NC228 Y34 (YCBA)
Yale Center for British Art
Yale University Art Gallery
ycba_actor_1258
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79129213
http://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500303559
http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1568434
https://viaf.org/viaf/158793816
Yale University Art Gallery
300025492
Author
1965
1965
1965
New Haven
13043
466842
N1 A54 + (YCBA)
01481683
1823
300054686
publication event
Mahonri Sharp Young, ^The Mellon Drawings at the Morgan^, Apollo, vo. 95, no. 122, April, 1972, pp. 332, 334, fig. 8, N1 A54 + (YCBA) Another copy available in Vertical File - V 2330
Yale Center for British Art
Mahonri Sharp Young
ycba_actor_9945
Young Mahonri Sharp
300025492
Author
April, 1972
1972
1972
13043
300157782
acquisition
Yale Center for British Art
ycba_actor_1281
YCBA
BAC
Yale Center for British Art
British Art Center
1977
0
300203630
Owner
1975
1975
1975
300138913
gift
In 1820 Constable moved to Hampstead on the edge of London and the following year began making oil sketches of the skies overhead. He acquainted himself with the latest scientific investigations in meteorology, reading and annotating studies of the subject. Here, in his attempt to capture the transitory and insubstantial appearance of a rainbow, he creates an impression of intense luminescence by contrasting a series of thin arching washes with a heavily washed blue sky. Despite the portability of watercolor pigments Constable seems rarely to have used watercolor outdoors after 1806.
--- --- Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)
13043
300048722
Gallery label
2008-06-24
By the time Constable made his Sky Study with Rainbow in 1827, he was an established and admired landscapist. In 1820 he had moved to Hampstead and the following year began making oil sketches of the skies overhead. It is probable that George Beaumont introduced Constable to the studies of skies made by Alexander Cozens in the 1770s. Cozens, however, was more concerned with schematizing skies to create pictorial effects rather than representing the sky with meteorological accuracy. Constable, by contrast, had grown up observing skies; as a miller's son, the importance of weather can hardly have escaped him. He believed that an artist could not neglect a sky or treat it as subordinate in a painting since "the sky is the 'source of light in nature - and governs everything." he claimed. He even wondered why a landscape painter "should not ... be considered rather as a student in any branch of Natural Philosophy" and dedicated himself to studying natural phenomena, especially skies. ---
The link between landscape painting and natural philosophy was conventional by Constable's day, but he took the connection seriously. There is even some evidence that he acquainted himself with the latest scientific investigations in meteorology, including reading and annotating texts such as Thomas Forster's Researches About Atmospheric Phaenomena [sic] of 1815. Despite his desire to catch fleeting effects, Constable seems rarely to have used watercolor outdoors after around 1806, despite the portability of watercolor pigments. It is likely that he preferred to sketch skies from nature in pencil and then color his drawings once back in the studio. Here, Constable attempted to capture something as transitory and insubstantial as a rainbow. The impression of intense luminescence is created by contrasting a series of thin arcing washes with a heavily washed blue sky. Nevertheless, Constable's scientific interests can be overstated. He was not averse to sacrificing strict observation to pictorial effect, as this watercolor proves. Commentators have been disturbed by the way Constable has darkened the inner side of the rainbow, when strictly speaking it would appear much lighter to the naked eye. But these meteorological studies should not be divorced from his broader artistic interests, as if his primary concern was the recording of natural phenomena rather than painting landscapes. After all, this was the artist who declared that a sky should be "the chief organ of sentiment" in a painting, and he was open to the symbolic possibilities of the weather in his later years when this watercolor was made. ---
This was an unsettling period for Constable. His mentor George Beaumont died in 1827, his wife Maria was succumbing to tuberculosis, and one of his young children became seriously ill. These private anxieties were compounded by public concerns, as the political map of Britain was changing with the campaign for Parliamentary Reform and Catholic Emancipation. Even the family business in East Bergholt was hit by striking workers during the postwar agricultural depression. When Constable suggested sending his children there for a holiday, his brother warned him "a more dangerous place for children could not be found upon earth." ---
In these troubled times, rainbows took on a particular resonance for Constable. By 1830 he could assert that "Nature, in all the varied aspects of her beauty exhibits no feature more lovely nor any that awaken a more soothing reflection than the Rainbow." The soothing aspect of rainbows made them a comforting political emblem for Constable. The most prominent of Constable's late rainbows is found in Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows (fig. 8) of 1831, in which a great rainbow is painted arcing across a stormy sky. Sky Study with Rainbow was unlikely to have been made with this painting in mind; the earliest sketches for it date from 1829, and the rainbow seems to have been a late addition. Nevertheless, he would have drawn on such meteorological studies when completing his canvases for exhibition. In the case of Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, the weather is symbolic of radical attacks on the established Church of England, of which Constable was a committed member. The tag from James Thomson's Seasons (1735) exhibited with the painting captures the moment when "Nature from the storm Shines out afresh" with a rainbow, the "glittering robe of joy" and "sign of danger past." --- ---
Matthew Hargraves
--- --- Hargraves, Matthew, and Scott Wilcox. Great British Watercolors: from the Paul Mellon collection. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2007, pp. 122-23, no. 52.
13043
300111999
Published catalog entry
ycba_actor_7112
Matthew Hargraves
300025492
Author
2007
300015636
ycba_term_149705
landscape
300055377
ycba_term_222
rain
300054462
ycba_term_7859
science
300054550
ycba_term_7783
meteorology
ycba_term_2036258
sky
300081053
ycba_term_149557
studies
ycba_term_2036222
rainbow
A loan exhibition of English drawings and watercolours from the collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1964, cat. no. 41, N5247.M385 L62 (YCBA)
739062
N5247.M385 L62 (YCBA)
54176846
2886
related to
Anne Lyles, Late Constable, Royal Academy of Arts, London, p. 110, no. 42, NJ18.C74 A12 2021 Oversize (YCBA)
16225956
NJ18.C74 A12 2021 Oversize (YCBA)
1255597030
4872
related to
Graham Reynolds, The later paintings and drawings of John Constable, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1984, 27.11, NJ18 C74 R485 + (YCBA)
582470
NJ18 C74 R485 + (YCBA)
10948407
260
related to
The Yomiuri Shimbun, John Constable, The Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, 1986, pp. 101, 159, no. 55, NJ18 .C74 R47 +Oversize (YCBA)
583226
NJ18 .C74 R47 +Oversize (YCBA)
54244607
4921
related to
John E. Thornes, John Constable's skies : a fusion of art and science, , University of Birmingham Press, Birmingham, UK, 1999, pp. 135-36, pl. 52, NJ18 C74 T56 1999 (YCBA)
4462236
NJ18 C74 T56 1999 (YCBA)
42624209
1445
related to
Christopher White, English landscape, 1630-1850, drawings, prints & books from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 89-90, no. 161, pl. XXVIII, NC228 W45 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
134265
NC228 W45 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
501614148
326
related to
Howard E. Wooden, Art of a changing society : British watercolors and drawings, 1775-1900, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS, 1983, pp. 48, 82, fig. 56, ND1928 .W65 (YCBA)
581467
ND1928 .W65 (YCBA)
10570797
4922
related to
Jonathan Wordsworth, William Wordsworth and the age of English romanticism, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick Grasmere, UK, 1987, pp. 66, 215, no. 132, fig. 61, PR5885 W67 1987 (YCBA)
739114
PR5885 W67 1987 (YCBA)
15662277
744
related to
Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 122-23, no. 52, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
7842306
ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
71833360
4877
related to
Yale University Art Gallery, English drawings and watercolors, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, April 15 - June 20, 1965, New Haven, 1965, cat. no. 41, NC228 Y34 (YCBA)
8047
NC228 Y34 (YCBA)
703749
2811
related to
Mahonri Sharp Young, The Mellon Drawings at the Morgan, Apollo, vo. 95, no. 122, April, 1972, pp. 332, 334, fig. 8, N1 A54 + (YCBA) Another copy available in Vertical File - V 2330
466842
N1 A54 + (YCBA)
01481683
1823
related to
300055603
500303557
Yale Center for British Art
https://britishart.yale.edu
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
300055598
Public Domain
300435434
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
13043
300133025
Item
500303557
Yale Center for British Art
http://britishart.yale.edu
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:13043
oai:tms.ycba.yale.edu:13043
https://manifests.collections.yale.edu/v2/ycba/obj/13043
https://manifests.collections.yale.edu/ycba/obj/13043
IIIF manifest
Yale Center for British Art
500303557
Yale Center for British Art