The artwork
Study of clouds above a wide landscape
Pencil and watercolour on laid paper · Height: 189 mm; Width: 227 mm
No museum image is reproduced here.
View the museum objectJohn Constable · Victoria and Albert Museum · 240-1888
Study of clouds above a wide landscape
“about 11--Noon--Sepr 15 1830. Wind--W.”
Museum transcription. Source record. Each underlined phrase links to its claim.
The year is disputed. The V&A transcribes 1830 but says the last figure could read 1 and is probably a blind 0 written with a blunt pencil. This record compares 15 September 1830 conditionally; it does not use weather to choose between 1830 and 1831. The solar calculation uses 11:30 as a midpoint.
Finding · Nephos analysis · version 2026-09-09
For the museum’s preferred 1830 reading, Constable writes W and Howard records SW, an adjacent direction. The comparison partly agrees in direction but cannot decide the disputed year or establish local wind at the stated hour.
The Nephos method
How this study was read
The method in fullWhat is written
great britain, 15 September 1830 · disputed, about 11--Noon.
about 11--Noon--Sepr 15 1830. Wind--W.
Victoria and Albert Museum, 240-1888, 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 15 1830.” The year is disputed.
- “about 11--Noon” The computed Sun describes the light available at an assumed place and hour.
- “Wind--W.” On the conditional 1830 date, W and SW are adjacent sectors at different places.
Verdict
For the museum’s preferred 1830 reading, Constable writes W and Howard records SW, an adjacent direction.
- Partially agrees“Wind--W.”
- Unknown“Sepr 15 1830.”, “about 11--Noon”
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 15 1830.” Unknown |
The register has an entry for this day. Nothing in it names a painter. Page image | — | — | The year is disputed. The V&A transcribes 1830 but says the last figure could read 1 and is probably a blind 0 written with a blunt pencil. This record compares 15 September 1830 conditionally; it does not use weather to choose between 1830 and 1831. The solar calculation uses 11:30 as a midpoint. No independent source assembled here dates the painting. Link to claim |
| “about 11--Noon” Unknown |
— | — | 41.3° altitude · 171.8° azimuthAt 11:30 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 |
| “Wind--W.” Partially agrees |
SWPage image | Wind from 298° · 1.3 m/s; 65 ± 33% cloud; 15.8 ± 1.6°C12:00 UTC; a regional cell, about 111 × 68 km. Mean and one-sigma spread. Query sources. | — | On the conditional 1830 date, W and SW are adjacent sectors at different places. That gives only partial agreement. No 1831 register is substituted, and the weather does not resolve the inscription. 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 · 15 September 1830
The printed register
SW · 65° / 55°F
Wind and first thermometer, maximum/minimum for 15 September 1830. Page image.
“Fine.” 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
41.3° altitude · 171.8° azimuth
At 11:30 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 298° · 1.3 m/s; 65 ± 33% cloud; 15.8 ± 1.6°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 disputed date
Museum reading
The year is disputed. The V&A transcribes 1830 but says the last figure could read 1 and is probably a blind 0 written with a blunt pencil. This record compares 15 September 1830 conditionally; it does not use weather to choose between 1830 and 1831. The solar calculation uses 11:30 as a midpoint.
Museum recordReynolds reading · unverified
Graham Reynolds, Catalogue of the Constable Collection (1973), p. 198, no. 328, plate 248, as cited by the V&A. The catalogue text was not accessible for an independent reading. The museum’s possible 1831 reading is not presented as a separately verified Reynolds transcription.
Located catalogue; borrowing required03 · 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
- great britain The exact easel coordinates are not established; the solar comparison uses the assumed Hampstead position.
- Date evidence
- The year is disputed. The V&A transcribes 1830 but says the last figure could read 1 and is probably a blind 0 written with a blunt pencil. This record compares 15 September 1830 conditionally; it does not use weather to choose between 1830 and 1831. The solar calculation uses 11:30 as a midpoint. 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 240-1888. 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 clouds above a wide landscape, 240-1888. Object page; museum transcription. The museum says the last date figure might read 1 but is probably a blind 0 written with a blunt pencil. Its chosen catalogue date is retained and marked disputed.
- H1Luke Howard, The Climate of London, 2nd edition, vol. III (London: Harvey and Darton, 1833); Table CCXCII, p. 364; continuation and results, p. 365 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
