John Constable: An Artist with a Scientist's Knowledge

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Divya Bisht

Professor Alok Bhalla

ES433E - Romanticism

25th September 2014

John Constable: An Artist with a Scientist’s Knowledge

Salisbury Cathedral has always been popular among the various proponents of art as

recent as 2005. William Golding’s novel The Spire is based around the plains of Salisbury. The

Cathedral has found its place in Edward Rutherford’s historical novel Sarum. It has also served

as a model for fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral in Ken Follett’s historical novel The Pillars of the

Earth. But Salisbury Cathedral has found a more prominent place in the paintings of John

Constable. Constable was born to a mill owner in the Stour Valley of Suffolk and spent his

childhood in this idyllic setting; “a careless boyhood” as he once himself described. He

developed a deep relationship with his birthplace and chose the place to be a part of the

“English Landscapes”. He was so deeply attached to these places that he majorly painted places

which he had close associations with; mainly – Stour Valley, Hampstead Heath, Salisbury, and

Brighton. “Artists depict not simply what they see, but what they know and understand,

features to which they and their public attach significance.”1 A geographer and an artist are

both fascinated by landscapes. While a geographer’s fascination is purely scientific, an artist

would look for the aesthetic values of the place. But John Constable was a man who admired

1Prince, Hugh. "Landscape through Painting." Geographical Association 69.1 (1984): 3-18. JSTOR. Web. 19 Sept.

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and approached the aesthetic qualities of a landscape with a geographer’s point of view.

Through a detailed study of the painting, namely, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, I

would like to argue that this painting is not just a picturesque representation of an English

landscape but present a deeper understanding of the natural phenomena and the turbulent

time of the 18th century. His landscapes are not just the presentation of the wilderness but

depict a modified landscape inhibited and worked upon by humans. Human beings and their

physical labor are major characteristics of Constable’s paintings. His definition of idyllic is not a

pastoral setting but a place serene and beautiful made so with the sweat of human efforts. One

would find the qualities of English scenes in Constable’s paintings – humidity, rusticity, antiquity

and intricacy.4 Misty mornings and grey weather are markers of humidity, thatched cottages

and wildlife are presenters of rusticity, ivy mantled towers and cathedrals portray antiquity and

the intricate patterns of the creepers, climbers and branches depict the intricacy in Constable’s

paintings. But it is important to note that the turbulent sky and the grey weather not only

represent humidity but are also signifiers of the turbulent time of the 18th century. The

cathedral is also a symbol of faith. In this paper, I would like to discuss these symbols in further

detail.

Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in the history; almost all aspects of life

were touched by it. John Kay’s “Flying Shuttle”, James Watt’s “Steam Engine”, James

Hargreaves “Spinning Jenny”, and Stephenson’s “Steam Powered Train” provides a contrast to


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the rustic and intricate English landscape. The smoke emitted through such inventions can

account for the grey clouds being a possible source of pollution and disturbing the calm and

peaceful life of the countryside. Constable’s clouds are symbolic of the turmoil in the 18th

century as well as are a part of the meteorological study that he was interested in. In both the

Salisbury paintings, that is, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows and Salisbury Cathedral from

the Bishop’s Ground, he has painted two very different emotions with clouds. While the sky in

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Ground is a calm one, the clouds in Salisbury Cathedral

from the Meadows are the raging. It has been noted that Constable used to record the exact

weather conditions on the verso of his paintings. For him, clouds were not just a detail of the

picturesque landscape but he was more interested in their formation and structure. Two books

were of great interest to him – Thomas Forster’s Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena

[2nd Edition, 1815] and Luke Howard’s Climate of London [1st Edition, 1818-20]. In his copy of

Forster’s book Constable’s hand written annotations can be found. An examination of these

annotations would suggest that Constable was not only interested in Howard’s cloud

classification but was also “interested in their formation and precipitation; and he paid

attention to Forster’s comments relating to the illumination of clouds by the sun.”5 “Forster’s

book published in 1813 is one of the first meteorological texts to deal with the explanations

rather than descriptions of physical phenomena of the atmosphere.”6

5Thornes, John. "Constable's Clouds." The Bvrlington Magazine 121.920 (1979): 697-704. JSTOR. Web. 15 Sept.

2014.


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18th century was the time of scientific developments. Industrial Revolution brought

innumerable changes in the lives of people. Furthermore, geology, botany and meteorology

were already establishing their positions and Alexander Von Humboldt was in the process of

establishing a new branch of physical geography. This branch was of great significance to the

landscape painters. Constable immersed himself in the study of nature because for him

understanding of natural forms lies in the knowledge of structure and process. He once

remarked that “we know nothing truly we understand it.”7 During such significant

advancements, Constable developed a deep interest in meteorology and other natural sciences.

At that time meteorological studies were majorly preoccupied by the effect of atmospheric

electricity on precipitation and cloud formation. Constable, no doubt, was familiar with all these

scientific developments. His cloud studies suggest that he was also well familiarized with the

wind movements and the “common phenomenon of clouds at different heights moving in

different directions, the small cumulus tending to move in the same direction as the wind close

to the ground.”8 In his last published lecture, delivered at the Royal Institute of Great Britain in

1836, he declared:

“Painting is a science and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature. Why,

then, may not landscape painting be considered as a branch of natural philosophy, of which

7Leslie, Charles. Memoirs of the Life of John Constable. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans,

1845. University of Toronto Libraries. University of Toronto Internet Archives, 8 Mar. 2007. Web. 12 Aug. 2014.


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pictures are but the experiments?”9

He did precisely the same in his paintings. His paintings of the clouds were not just simple study

of nature but a deeper understanding of their structure and formation. “On other occasions he

described his works as a branch of natural philosophy, called his pictures scientific experiment,

demanded scientific explanations of phenomena he observed and stated that the sciences had

a stronger hold on his imagination than the sister arts, especially the study of geology, which

more than any other seems to satisfy my mind.”10 He perceived all these scientific phenomena

in depth and his understanding of them is visible in his paintings. In many of his painting the

distant objects would be a bit blurred and would seem shadowy. This is because the clouds

would appear too close to the observer and the air close to the sea would be clear and lack the

scattering power that imparts this misty aura to these objects. He interpreted the natural

elements rather than imitating them.

Against the conflicted sky in the painting Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows

Constable painted a rainbow. While many of his contemporaries painted rainbow in their

landscape paintings, nobody painted it with as much precision and detail as Constable did. It

has been already established that Constable had a deep interest in meteorological phenomena

and thus it would be inaccurate to see the rainbow as just another picturesque natural detail in




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his paintings. To consider the rainbow as a mere detail of the landscape would “hinder severely

our ability to understand the full expressive range of his art.”11

The correspondence in 1829 between John Constable and hid friend Archdeacon John

Fisher suggests that Constable was determined to paint the Cathedral “under a cloud” to show

the tumult which the Anglican church Establishment was facing. In the matter of religious

affiliations, although Constable was not particularly a religious man but he had a great deal of

loyalty to the Church of England. His love for the Anglican Church was shared by his close friend

John Fisher. Constable wrote at the end of February 1824:

“I am sorry to see that you are again haunted by that phantom – “The Church in

Danger”- it does not speak a just state of mind of thinking that the vulture will attack it and

everything else is likely enough.”12

Constable was deeply affected by the effect parliamentary attacks on the Church were having

on his friend. His last visit to the Fishers in 1829 culminated in the painting Salisbury Cathedral

from the Meadows. The tempestuous sky in Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows can be seen

as a depiction of these troubled times. “In light of the conversations that Constable and

Archdeacon Fisher had at that time regarding the “Church in Danger”, it is not unreasonable to

speculate that Constable had attempted to paint a symbolic statement about the plight of the

11Schweizer, Paul D. "John Constable, Rainbow Science, and English Color Theory." College Art Association 64.3

(1982): 424-45. JSTOR. Web. Print. 14 Sep. 2014



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Anglican Church.”13 Constable’s wife, Maria Constable died in 1828 and it has been argued that

Constable was deeply affected by it and the dark sky in this painting is expressive of his grief-

stricken feelings. However, later it occurred to Constable that the threatening clouds provide a

negative connotation and thus he added a rainbow to the painting. By doing so a twofold

purpose was achieved. First, he brought forward the biblical allusions associated with the

rainbow and presented it as a symbol of hope, peace and divine blessing. Second, He painted it

as a protective arch above the Cathedral and placed its foot at the exact place where

Archdeacon Fisher’s home used to be.

The Yale Watercolor of 1827 and the British Museum Watercolor of 1831 suggest a

change in the meteorological accuracy in the works of John Constable. The latter paintings were

painted with much precision and accuracy and are suggestive of the fact that Constable began

to study the scientific principles behind the formation of rainbow during that time. Paul D.

Schweizer in his essay “John Constable, rainbow Science and English Color Theory” has

convincingly argued that scientifically the possibility of a rainbow in Salisbury Cathedral from

the Meadows is nil. While supporting his thesis he claimed that,

“In Nature, this phenomenon [formation of rainbow] is in a fixed relationship with sun

and cannot appear in the sky when that body is any higher than approximately 48o above the

horizon; and when the sun is at the horizon, the optimum height of the primary bow is

approximately 42o. As a diagram of Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows indicates, the 38o

13Schweizer, Paul D. "John Constable and the Anglican Church Establishment." IRSA 3.5 (1982): 125-39. JSTOR.

Web. 18 Sept. 2014.

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rainbow that constable painted above Salisbury Cathedral is theoretically possible, but its

height implies that the sun is 4o above the horizon, which is clearly not the case. Indeed, the 64o

sun that Constable painted into his composition is too high for even the upper segment of a

rainbow to be visible to a spectator standing on a flat ground plane. Any rainbow produced by

the sun of this height would fall below the horizon and thus would only be visible to someone

Diagram of the Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows by D.Gorczynski14



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on a mountain or, in constable’s time, in a hot air balloon.”15

Though the rainbow in Salisbury cathedral from the Meadows is not in agreement with

the scientifically working theory of the rainbow, it would be wrong to assume that John

constable didn’t pay any attention to the scientific aspect of this phenomenon. His Rainbow

Diagrams advocates that he took a great deal of interest in this one optical phenomenon. His

work sheets of his actual Rainbow Diagrams illustrate the exactness and calculations with the

help of which he painted his rainbows. The recto of sheet “A” shows the incident ray, the

reflected ray and the normal ray on the same plane and provides the working knowledge

behind the formation of a rainbow. Under the heading ‘reflxion’ on the right hand side of the

sheet, he has explained the phenomena of reflection and refraction; two elementary principles

regarding the formation of a rainbow. The bottom of the sheet outlines the estimation of the

angles and calculations at which the light ray must have been entered the droplet and reflected

and reflected by it. The recto of sheet “B” illustrates the formation of the seven primary colors,

VIBGYOR, in a rainbow as suggested by Newton. The verso of sheet “A” is an attempt to

understand the double reflection of the light ray in the atmosphere by the water droplets and

the verso of sheet “B” must have been the diagram depicting the full understanding of this

phenomenon and the principles behind it.



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Constable, Rainbow Diagrams, recto of Constable, Rainbow Diagrams, recto of

sheet “A”16 sheet “B”17

Constable, Rainbow Diagrams, verso of Constable, Rainbow Diagrams, verso of

sheet “A”18 sheet “B”19

16-19Schweizer, Paul D. "John Constable, Rainbow Science, and English Color Theory." College Art Association 64.3


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During the 1830s there existed two schools with two different theories about the

formation and composition of clouds, the cause of rain, and the shape of rainbows. “One school

of thought, which claimed the authority of Aristotle, Rene Descartes, Edmond Halley, and Sir

Isaac Newton, maintained that clouds were a collection of hollow spherical vesicles, a notion

that complicated the question of how such floating bubbles eventually fell from the sky.

Another theory was proposed at the end of eighteenth century by John Dalton who, basing his

ideas on earlier observations by James Hutton and John Gough of Kendall, argued that solid

drops of water precipitates when the atmosphere is no longer capable of absorbing any more

moisture.”20 The idea proposed by Dalton was endorsed by Luke Howard and Thomas Forster

and because constable had read them both, it can be argued that he was well acquainted with

this theory. Constable’s paintings are laden with scientific explanations. It would not be wrong

to say that he approached English landscapes with a scientific point of view.

John Constable not only paid attention to the painting of the natural landscape

elements but also to the portrayal of animals, human figures, and the modifications of the

landscape by the human beings. Against the conflicted sky in the painting Salisbury Cathedral

from the Meadows one could see the peaceful white Cathedral. In all Salisbury paintings the

Cathedral has always been painted white emanating a calm and peaceful aura and standing in

direct contrast to the grey and tempestuous sky. The Cathedral and the wagon are the only

man made things in this painting. John Constable has always favored a modified nature instead



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of an idyllic setting. For him, work has been an important and necessary part of everyday life.

“He rejected nature unmodified by man as wilderness and extended his censure to gentle down

land and even to gentlemen’s parks, because unproductive, they were ‘not nature.’”21 His

biographer C.R.Leslie noted, Constable’s temperament “was peculiarly social and could not feel

satisfied with scenery, however grand in itself, that did not abound in human associations. He

required villages, churches, farmhouses, and cottages; and I believe it was as much as from

natural temperament as from early impressions that his first love, in landscape, was his latest

love.”22

Laboring men were as integral to the landscape as the trees and the trees and the

streams. His landscapes were the expression of a social vision whose base was a productive

one. His belief was made public in his last public lecture where he said,

“Man is the sole inhabitant of one vast natural landscape. His nature is congenial with

the elements of the planet itself.”23

The productiveness which Constable time and again has advocated is evident in the painting

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows through the figure of man sitting on the wagon and

crossing the stream. The animals are in action and would not just graze around idly. Every living

21Rees, Ronald. "Constable, Turner, and Views of Nature in the Nineteenth Century." American Geographical

Society 72.3 (1982): 253-69. JSTOR. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.





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being is fulfilling their duties as they are supposed to do. There is no place for lethargy and

aimlessness. For Constable, the English landscape was a site for labor and productiveness.

Constable’s view of the nature was optimistic. His world was a simple one with ordinary

experiences. He found great pleasure in the most simple and ordinary places. But he

approached these ordinary places with a geographer’s point of view and an artist’s sentiment.

For him, the toiling human figures were as natural and flawless as a productive nature. He saw

things as a painter and as a scientist. He was as his biographer Leslie claimed, “the most

genuine painter of the English landscape”24 and a leading practitioner of meteorology and other

scientific theories.



John Constable: An Artist with a Scientist's Knowledge

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