John Constable: Cloud Study (1822)

Twenty of Constable’s studies of skies made during this season are in my possession, and there is but one among them in which a vestige of landscape is introduced. They are painted in oil, on large sheets of thick paper, and all dated, with the time of day, the direction of the wind, and other memoranda on their backs. On one, for instance, is written, “5th of September, 1822. Ten o’clock, morning; looking south-east; brisk wind at west Very bright and fresh, grey clouds running fast over a yellow bed, about half-way in the sky.”

—C. R. Leslie, Life and Letters of John Constable, R. A. (1843)