Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.1874
Gallery Label:
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)
