The artwork
Study of sky and trees, with a red house, at Hampstead
Oil on paper · Height: 24.1 cm (estimate); Width: 29.8 cm (estimate)
No museum image is reproduced here.
View the museum objectJohn Constable · Victoria and Albert Museum · 156-1888
Study of sky and trees, with a red house, at Hampstead
“Sepr. 12. 1821. Noon. Wind fresh at West ... [3 or 4 words are erased here] Sun very Hot. looking southward exceedingly bright vivid & Glowing, very heavy showers in the Afternoon but a fine evening. High wind in the night.”
Museum transcription. Source record. Each underlined phrase links to its claim.
The undeleted inscription gives 12 September 1821. The V&A also transcribes a deleted note dated 10 September 1821; both are statements by Constable, not independent dates of execution.
Finding · Nephos analysis · version 2026-09-09
Constable writes West; Howard records SW, an adjacent direction at his station. Howard describes a showery morning and cloud, but does not establish the afternoon showers, fine evening or high night wind in this inscription. The deleted 10 September note remains separate.
The Nephos method
How this study was read
The method in fullWhat is written
England, 12 September 1821, Noon.
Sepr. 12. 1821. Noon. Wind fresh at West ... [3 or 4 words are erased here] Sun very Hot. looking southward exceedingly bright vivid & Glowing, very heavy showers in the Afternoon but a fine evening. High wind in the night.
Victoria and Albert Museum, 156-1888, as the museum transcribes it
Records of those days
- Luke Howard’s registerPrinted daily wind, thermometer and notes, The Climate of London. Kept at Tottenham or Stratford, not Hampstead.
- 20th Century ReanalysisA modern reconstruction for a 1° cell about 111 by 68 km, estimated from pressure, not observed.
Each claim tested
- “Sepr. 12. 1821.” The undeleted inscription gives 12 September 1821.
- “Noon.” The computed Sun describes the light available at an assumed place and hour.
- “looking southward” No independently identified landmark or measured painted solar direction fixes the painting’s bearing.
- “Wind fresh at West” Constable writes West; Howard records SW, an adjacent sector at a different place.
- “Sun very Hot.” A daily thermometer extreme and regional air temperature do not measure the felt heat of sunlight at the easel.
- “exceedingly bright vivid & Glowing,” Howard’s cloudy, showery morning does not establish the brightness of a particular opening at noon.
- “very heavy showers in the Afternoon but a fine evening.” Howard reports a showery morning and cloud, not the claimed afternoon and evening sequence.
- “High wind in the night.” Howard’s daily direction gives neither a night-time observation nor wind strength.
Verdict
Constable writes West; Howard records SW, an adjacent direction at his station.
- Partially agrees“Wind fresh at West”
- Unknown“Sepr. 12. 1821.”, “Noon.”, “looking southward”, “Sun very Hot.”, “exceedingly bright vivid & Glowing,”, “very heavy showers in the Afternoon but a fine evening.”, “High wind in the night.”
01 · The evidence
The claims and their witnesses.
Each phrase of the inscription is a claim. Each column is a witness that never saw the painting, with its own place, scale and limit.
How to read itRead across one row: the phrase Constable wrote, what each witness can say about it, and the verdict on the right. A dash means that witness has nothing to offer on that claim.
| Claim | Howard registerPrinted table · Source | Weather reconstruction20th Century Reanalysis · Source | The sunComputed · Hampstead assumed · Source | Verdict and limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “Sepr. 12. 1821.” Unknown |
The register has an entry for this day. Nothing in it names a painter. Page image | — | — | The undeleted inscription gives 12 September 1821. The V&A also transcribes a deleted note dated 10 September 1821; both are statements by Constable, not independent dates of execution. No independent source assembled here dates the painting. Link to claim |
| “Noon.” Unknown |
— | — | 42.6° altitude · 181.4° azimuthAt 12:00 local mean time; Hampstead assumed. Computation. | The computed Sun describes the light available at an assumed place and hour. No independently identified landmark or measured painted solar direction establishes the time of execution. Link to claim |
| “looking southward” Unknown |
— | — | 42.6° altitude · 181.4° azimuthAt 12:00 local mean time; Hampstead assumed. Computation. | No independently identified landmark or measured painted solar direction fixes the painting’s bearing. The solar position alone cannot establish the stated view. Link to claim |
| “Wind fresh at West” Partially agrees |
SWPage image | Wind from 274° · 1.7 m/s; 64 ± 34% cloud; 18.0 ± 2.5°C12:00 UTC; a regional cell, about 111 × 68 km. Mean and one-sigma spread. Query sources. | — | Constable writes West; Howard records SW, an adjacent sector at a different place. The direction partly agrees; Howard’s wind cell gives no measure of “fresh”. Link to claim |
| “Sun very Hot.” Unknown |
71° / 51°FPage image | Wind from 274° · 1.7 m/s; 64 ± 34% cloud; 18.0 ± 2.5°C12:00 UTC; a regional cell, about 111 × 68 km. Mean and one-sigma spread. Query sources. | — | A daily thermometer extreme and regional air temperature do not measure the felt heat of sunlight at the easel. Link to claim |
| “exceedingly bright vivid & Glowing,” Unknown |
“Showery morning: cloudy.” Note page image. | — | — | Howard’s cloudy, showery morning does not establish the brightness of a particular opening at noon. No calibrated painted-light measurement is established here. Link to claim |
| “very heavy showers in the Afternoon but a fine evening.” Unknown |
“Showery morning: cloudy.” Note page image. | — | — | Howard reports a showery morning and cloud, not the claimed afternoon and evening sequence. His note is insufficient to test this timing. Link to claim |
| “High wind in the night.” Unknown |
SWPage image | — | — | Howard’s daily direction gives neither a night-time observation nor wind strength. Link to claim |
Described. Words used by a person in a particular context: the inscription and the printed register. A felt quality cannot be converted into a threshold, and strength words have no shared numerical scale.
Modelled. A reconstruction describes a regional cell. It is not an observation at the easel. No weather agreement independently establishes a painting's date.
02 · The witnesses
What each source can reach.
Howard · 12 September 1821
The printed register
SW · 71° / 51°F
Wind and first thermometer, maximum/minimum for 12 September 1821. Page image.
“Showery morning: cloudy.” Note page image.
The table does not establish conditions at Constable’s position. Supplementary Tottenham observations are kept separate from the main register.
The computed sun
42.6° altitude · 181.4° azimuth
At 12:00 local mean time; 51.560° N, 0.165° W is an assumed Hampstead position. No cited source establishes the clock basis; local mean time there trails UTC by about 40 seconds.
A solar calculation supplies no observation of the painting's execution. No painted angular measurement is established here.
Weather reconstruction
Regional context
Wind from 274° · 1.7 m/s; 64 ± 34% cloud; 18.0 ± 2.5°C
12:00 UTC at 52° N, 0° E. Wind speed and bearing calculated from the mean u/v components; component spreads are retained in the query sources. Cloud and temperature show mean and one-sigma spread. This is a 1° cell about 111 × 68 km. No local wind-strength scale or capture cloud measurement is established here.
The deleted 10 September note
The V&A transcribes a second inscription above the 12 September note, by the artist but deleted:
Sepr. 10 1821 Eleven o'clock Sultry with a warm gentle rain falling large heavy clouds... [a word here is illegible] a heavy downpour and thunder
Museum transcription. This deleted note is not treated as an independent witness or merged into the 12 September record.
03 · Making the artwork
The sky passed through an artist's decisions.
Production uncertainty is separate from weather uncertainty. The located sources do not establish every stage of this object's making, and “unknown” is not evidence that a stage did not happen.
- Locationpartly known
- England The exact easel coordinates are not established; the solar comparison uses the assumed Hampstead position.
- Date evidence
- The undeleted inscription gives 12 September 1821. The V&A also transcribes a deleted note dated 10 September 1821; both are statements by Constable, not independent dates of execution. Museum source.
- Outdoor executionunresolved
- The evidence assembled here does not establish that every passage was executed outdoors in the stated interval.
- Preparatory work and later changesunknown
- No complete sequence or timing of working sessions is established by the sources assembled here. No technical examination of this object is offered.
04 · Revisions
How the reading changed.
- Sources assembled
- The museum transcription is placed beside the independently dated register and modelled context. Catalogue qualifications remain explicit.
- What remains open
- This is the first Nephos record for this object. No earlier verdict is being revised.
05 · Take this into your work
A record you can cite, print or embed.
Cite individual claims by their link, and cite museum and historical sources directly when using their statements. Nephos analysis is independent of the holding institution; image licences are separate from the research text.
Machine-readable
For the Victoria and Albert Museum: this record is for 156-1888. If it is right, link it from your object page; if anything is wrong, write to Nephos and it will be corrected the same day.
The museum’s catalogue remains the authority. Nephos does not claim endorsement.
06 · Sources
Follow every claim.
- M1Victoria and Albert Museum: John Constable, Study of sky and trees, with a red house, at Hampstead, 156-1888. Object page; museum transcription. The museum also transcribes a deleted 10 September 1821 weather inscription and the mark M.L.; the undeleted 12 September text is recorded here.
- H1Luke Howard, The Climate of London, 2nd edition, vol. III (London: Harvey and Darton, 1833); Table CLXXXIV, p. 60; continuation and results, p. 61 Page image. Printed monthly results.
- S1Skyfield 1.55 with JPL DE440. Apparent topocentric Sun without atmospheric refraction. The place and clock basis are assumptions; the calculation is recorded in the JSON-LD record.
- R1NOAA-CIRES-DOE 20th Century Reanalysis v3. tcdc mean · tcdc spread · uwnd mean · uwnd spread · vwnd mean · vwnd spread · air mean · air spread
