The artwork
Study of Clouds
oil on paper · Height: 298 mm (estimate); Width: 483 mm (estimate)
No museum image is reproduced here.
View the museum objectJohn Constable · Victoria and Albert Museum · 590-1888
Study of Clouds
“Sepr. 5. 1822. looking S.E. noon. Windvery brisk. & effect bright & fresh. Clouds. moving very fast. with occasional very bright openings to the blue.”
Museum transcription. Source record. Each underlined phrase links to its claim.
The V&A transcribes 5 September 1822 and noon. These are statements carried by the object, not an independently timed observation of its making.
Finding · Nephos analysis · version 2026-09-09
Howard describes the day as “Fine” and records SW. Constable’s note gives wind strength but no direction. The day-level register and regional reconstruction cannot establish the speed of the moving clouds, the brightness or the openings to blue at noon.
The Nephos method
How this study was read
The method in fullWhat is written
Great Britain, 5 September 1822, noon.
Sepr. 5. 1822. looking S.E. noon. Windvery brisk. & effect bright & fresh. Clouds. moving very fast. with occasional very bright openings to the blue.
Victoria and Albert Museum, 590-1888, 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. 5. 1822.” The V&A transcribes 5 September 1822 and noon.
- “noon.” The computed Sun describes the light available at an assumed place and hour.
- “looking S.E.” No independently identified landmark or measured painted solar direction fixes the painting’s bearing.
- “Windvery brisk.” The inscription supplies no wind direction to compare with Howard’s SW.
- “effect bright & fresh.” Howard’s “Fine” is a general description of the day.
- “Clouds. moving very fast.” Neither a daily wind direction nor regional cloud fraction measures cloud motion in this view at noon.
- “with occasional very bright openings to the blue.” Howard’s day-level note does not describe these openings.
Verdict
Howard describes the day as “Fine” and records SW.
- Unknown“Sepr. 5. 1822.”, “noon.”, “looking S.E.”, “Windvery brisk.”, “effect bright & fresh.”, “Clouds. moving very fast.”, “with occasional very bright openings to the blue.”
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. 5. 1822.” Unknown |
The register has an entry for this day. Nothing in it names a painter. Page image | — | — | The V&A transcribes 5 September 1822 and noon. These are statements carried by the object, not an independently timed observation of its making. No independent source assembled here dates the painting. Link to claim |
| “noon.” Unknown |
— | — | 45.4° altitude · 180.6° 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 S.E.” Unknown |
— | — | 45.4° altitude · 180.6° 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 |
| “Windvery brisk.” Unknown |
SWPage image | Wind from 235° · 5.3 m/s; 85 ± 23% cloud; 16.8 ± 2.1°C12:00 UTC; a regional cell, about 111 × 68 km. Mean and one-sigma spread. Query sources. | — | The inscription supplies no wind direction to compare with Howard’s SW. His daily wind cell has no strength, and a regional reconstruction cannot establish brisk wind at the easel. Link to claim |
| “effect bright & fresh.” Unknown |
“Fine.” Note page image. | — | — | Howard’s “Fine” is a general description of the day. It does not measure the brightness or define “fresh” in this painted effect. Link to claim |
| “Clouds. moving very fast.” Unknown |
“Fine.” Note page image. | Wind from 235° · 5.3 m/s; 85 ± 23% cloud; 16.8 ± 2.1°C12:00 UTC; a regional cell, about 111 × 68 km. Mean and one-sigma spread. Query sources. | — | Neither a daily wind direction nor regional cloud fraction measures cloud motion in this view at noon. Link to claim |
| “with occasional very bright openings to the blue.” Unknown |
“Fine.” Note page image. | — | — | Howard’s day-level note does not describe these openings. No independent observation of the same part of the sky at noon is assembled here. 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 · 5 September 1822
The printed register
SW · 73° / 60°F
Wind and first thermometer, maximum/minimum for 5 September 1822. Page image.
“Fine.” Note page image.
The table page does not label its station. Howard's registers for these years were kept at Tottenham and Stratford, not Hampstead.
The computed sun
45.4° altitude · 180.6° 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 235° · 5.3 m/s; 85 ± 23% cloud; 16.8 ± 2.1°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.
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
- Great Britain The exact easel coordinates are not established; the solar comparison uses the assumed Hampstead position.
- Date evidence
- The V&A transcribes 5 September 1822 and noon. These are statements carried by the object, not an independently timed observation of its making. 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 590-1888. 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, 590-1888. Object page; museum transcription. Windvery is the museum's literal transcription. The museum also transcribes Drawn by John. Augst--1822.
- H1Luke Howard, The Climate of London, 2nd edition, vol. III (London: Harvey and Darton, 1833); Table CXCVI, p. 90, with the notes for the Ninth Month (September) 1822 on the same page 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
