Weymouth Bay

Honeymoon, autumn 1816 · Victoria and Albert Museum, 330-1888, and National Gallery, London, NG2652

Constable painted Bowleaze Cove during his honeymoon in the autumn of 1816. Was the larger version painted there too, or recalled later in London? What do the weather records of those six weeks say?

3.9°C, the mean temperature of November 1816 in central England, among the coldest Novembers since 1659: the month Constable dated three drawings near Weymouth.

The storm on the spot partially agrees1816 or 1819 unknown

The records The painting at the National Gallery

The Nephos method

How this study was read

The method in full

1
What is written
Two views of Bowleaze Cove from Constable's honeymoon at Osmington, about mid-October to the end of November 1816: a small oil sketch (V&A, 1816) and a larger canvas (National Gallery, 1816–17).
- The artist must have painted this on the spot, during a sudden spell of stormy weather.Victoria and Albert Museum, gallery label for Weymouth Bay, 330-1888
- Thick clouds scud across the bright winter sky as the Downs slope to the sandy cove and sea.National Gallery, London, on NG2652
2
Records of those days
- Meteorological Diary kept at ExeterBarometer, thermometer and the weather in words three times a day, October and November 1816, printed in the Gentleman’s Magazine; 79 km west of the cove. Transcribed by Nephos.
- Central England TemperatureDaily means from 1772 and monthly from 1659, for ranking the honeymoon weeks against every autumn on record.
- Luke Howard’s London registerDaily notes on the weather in London for the same weeks, from The Climate of London (1833).
- Constable’s dated drawingsV&A drawings dated 11 October (Netley) and 7, 20 and 21 November 1816 (Osmington Bay, Portland, Preston), and Farington’s diary on his return.
Not found or not yet searched
- No weather record from Weymouth itself has been found for 1816; Exeter is 79 km west and London 195 km east.
- Neither painting is dated to a day.
- The full Tate dating argument and Reynolds’s catalogue entry were not accessible; the dating section distinguishes checked snippets from unverified claims.
3
Each claim tested
- “painted this on the spot, during a sudden spell of stormy weather”, the V&A on its sketch. The Exeter diary records two squally, rainy spells inside the stay, 26–31 October and 9–14 November 1816, and Howard’s London notes have rain and squalls on several of the same days. The sketch’s own day is not recorded.
- “Thick clouds scud across the bright winter sky”, the National Gallery on NG2652. Fair, cloudy, breezy days run through the diary, among them 20 and 21 November, when Constable dated drawings at Portland and Preston; nothing in the records conflicts with an autumn 1816 sky.
- The date of NG2652: painted at Osmington in 1816, or recalled later in London. The 1819 studio-recollection hypothesis supplies no outdoor session to test. The weather records cannot decide between the dates or explain Constable’s technique.
4
Verdict
Constable’s six weeks at Osmington ran from a mild October into one of the coldest Novembers on record, with two stormy spells and fair, cloudy, breezy days between hard frosts. The broad weather conditions fit that autumn, but the cloud perspective remains untested; the records cannot say whether the larger one was painted then or recalled later.
- Partially agreesThe V&A sketch’s storm, on the spot Stormy spells are on record inside the stay; the sketch is not dated to a day, and Exeter is 79 km away.
- Partially agreesThe National Gallery’s bright winter sky Fair, cloudy, breezy days are on record in the window; such skies are common in any autumn.
- Unknown1816 or 1819 Weather cannot test a picture recalled in a London studio.

What this cannot tell you. Central England Temperature describes the English Midlands, not the Dorset coast. The Exeter diary is transcribed from a worn scan; a few cells are unreadable and are left blank, and its observer and thermometer exposure are unknown. The National Gallery calls its canvas twice the size of the sketch; the V&A gives the sketch about 20 × 25 cm and the canvas is 53 × 75 cm.

Step 2 · Records of those days

Six weeks, in a diary kept at Exeter

Constable married Maria Bicknell on 2 October 1816, drew Netley Abbey on the way west on the 11th, and spent about six weeks with John Fisher at Osmington vicarage, about half a mile from the beach at Bowleaze Cove. He dated drawings around Weymouth on 7, 20 and 21 November and was back in London on 9 December. No weather record from Weymouth itself has been found. The closest is a diary kept at Exeter, 79 km west, and printed in the Gentleman’s Magazine: barometer, thermometer and a few words on the weather at morning, afternoon and night. Nephos transcribed October and November in full. Around it stand Luke Howard’s daily notes in London and the Central England Temperature series.

Red: daily mean temperature in central England, 1816. Blue band: the coldest to the warmest value for each date, 1772–2025. Dashed: the 1991–2020 average. Ticks along the bottom: Constable’s dated drawings and his return to London. Met Office Hadley Centre, Open Government Licence.

Every day of the Exeter diary, October and November 1816. Blue: rain, a wet haze, showers, squalls, sleet, snow or hail mentioned; white with a dark edge: frost and no rain; pale: fair. Red outline: a day Constable dated a drawing. The figure under each day is the morning thermometer, °F. Hover a day for the diary’s own words.

3.9°: C, November 1816 in central England, the joint 21st coldest November of 367 (1659–2025)
−3.6°: C on 24 November, the coldest 24 November in the daily record since 1772
11: days of the stay with a daily mean at or below 2 °C; the 1991–2020 average is 1.4
26: of 50 days at Exeter with rain, a wet haze, showers, squalls, sleet or snow written in the diary

Every entry in the Exeter diary, October and November 1816

1816	Morning °F	Morning	3 p.m. °F	3 p.m.	10 p.m. °F	10 p.m.
1 October	60	Blowing hard with sm. rain.	63.5	Fair but windy	61	Wet haze & mod.
2 October	60.5	Cloudy and blowing hard	62	Do.	59	Do.
3 October	55	Very fine; at 12 small rain.	58.5	Small rain	60	Cloudy, mod sm. rain.
4 October	59	Cloudy and gloomy	61	Do.	59	F. & C.
5 October	60	Gloomy & hazy with sm. rain.	60	Gloomy and hazy	60.5	Fine.
6 October	60.5	Gloomy & hazy with sm. rain	61	Gloomy with wet haze	61	F. & C.
7 October	62	Gloomy and hazy; fine	65	Fine but cloudy	60.5	Cloudy, a little rain.
8 October	62	Cloudy, fine	63.5	Fine with clouds	60	F. & C.; wind and rain.
9 October	62.5	Cloudy, lowering	62	Do.	64	Rain.
10 October	63	Cloudy and lowering	65	Do.	58	Fine.
11 October	58	Fine.	61	Very fine.	54	Do.
12 October	52.5	Very fine; after 12 cloudy.	59	Cloudy, lowering	58	F. & C; wet haze.
13 October	56.5	Gloomy and hazy	59	F. & C	56	Do.; frosty.
14 October	51	Fine though cloudy.	60	Do.	51	Do; frosty.
15 October	43	Fog	59	Fine, with clouds	53	F. & C.
16 October		Gloomy	58	Do.; lowering	57	Fine.
17 October	52	Very fine	57	Fine tho' cloudy.	54	F & C.
18 October	49	Very fine	52.5	Do.	51	Fine
19 October	53.5	Fine, aft. 10 sm. drops of rain.	57.5	F. & C.	54	F. & C.
20 October	49.5	Fine; after 10 cloudy	51.5	F. & C.	53	Do.
21 October	49.5	F. & C.; aft. 12 fine	53	Fine.	48.5	Do.
22 October	51	Very fine; aft. 9 small showers.	52	Cloudy, with some sm. show.	48.5	Fine.
23 October	44.5	Fine, frosty	50.5	F. & C.	52	Do.
24 October	49	Rain; after 12 fair	51	Fine	47	Do.; rain.
25 October	49	Rain; after 12 fair	49	Fine though hazy	49	Fine.
26 October	42	Foggy, aft. 10 cloudy with wind & rain.	52	Cloudy with squalls	47	Small rain.
27 October	52.5	Cloudy, lower.	56	Do.	53	Small rain.
28 October	53	Squalls with rain	54	Do.	54	Some small rain.
29 October	53		55	Showers, F & C	52	Do.; showers.
30 October	54			Showers; F & C	54	Do.
31 October	52	Fine; a small shower		Do.: a small shower	44.5	Do.
1 November	50	Fine.	51.5	Do.	45	Do.; some sm. rain.
2 November	50.5	Wet, haze & rain; aft. 10 fair.	49	F. & C.	42	Do.; frosty.
3 November	47	Fine, frosty	48	Do.	44	Do. foggy.
4 November	49	Fine, aft. 10 cloudy & gloomy.	49	Do.	46	Foggy.
5 November	51	Fine, show. hazy	50	Cloudy and wet haze	48	Do.
6 November	46	Thick fog & sm. ra. clear at 11	52	Do. fine sharp frost	48	Do.
7 November	33	Cold with sm. drifts of sleet	40	Fine sharp frost		Do.
8 November	30	Very fine, sharp frost	43	Fine sharp frost	39	Cloudy with small showers
9 November	42.5	Clouds with frequent showers	47	Do. frequent showers	45	Squalls, wind and hail.
10 November	37.5	Fine, frosty, drifts of sleet	39	Cloudy with some drifts of sleet.	32	Frosty
11 November		Hard frost, some sleet; thaw.	41	Foggy, aft 5 rain and blowing hard.	48	Fair & blow. hard.
12 November	48	Cloudy & gloomy, more mod.	49	Do. Do.	52	Wind & some rain
13 November	53	Cloudy & overcast; windy.	50	Cloudy with squalls of rain.	52	Fine but squally.
14 November	46	Cloudy with sq. of rain & sleet	44	Do. Do.	41	Do.; snow & sleet.
15 November	34	Cloudy, after 12 clear	39	Fine, frosty	34	Do.; sharp frost.
16 November	35	Very fine, sharp frost.	40	Do.		Do.
17 November	34	Fine, sharp frost	42	Cloudy and frosty	43.5	F. & C.
18 November	41	Fine with clouds	45	Cloudy with some very sm. showers	42	Do. Do.
19 November	45	F. & C.	50	Do.	49	Small rain; F.&C.
20 November	51	F. & C	52	Do.	50	Do.
21 November	47	F. & C.	48	Do.	46	Do.
22 November	46	F. & C.	40	Do.	33	Frost.
23 November	31	Fine, sharp frost	33	Do.	30.5	Do.
24 November	27.5	Fine, sharp frost	39	Fine.	34	Foggy.
25 November	31	F. & C.	45	Wet haze and small rain	46	Small rain.
26 November	44	Foggy, after 11 fine	46	F. & C.	36	Frosty.
27 November	39	Frost ended	43	Do.	43	F. & C.
28 November		Cloudy & foggy; aft. 12 more clear	46	Fine tho' cloudy	44	Do.
29 November	42	Fine though cloudy	44	Do.	38	Do.; fog.
30 November	39	Very fine, frosty	48	Do.	34	Do.

Step 3 · The claims tested

A sudden storm, and a bright winter sky

1816 was the year without a summer: July was the coldest in the English record since 1659. The autumn began mild and then turned hard. November 1816 was the joint 21st coldest of 367, and from 7 to 17 November the Exeter diary is a run of sleet, frost and squalls. The V&A’s small sketch shows a sudden storm, with figures fighting their umbrellas in the wind. The Exeter diary records two squally, rainy spells inside the stay, from 26 to 31 October and from 9 to 14 November, and Howard’s London notes have rain and squalls on several of the same days. The National Gallery’s larger canvas shows thick clouds over a bright winter sky. Fair, cloudy, breezy days run through the diary too: on 20 and 21 November, the days Constable dated drawings at Portland and Preston, Exeter wrote “F. & C.”, fair and cloudy, and Howard in London watched clouds form “rapidly” as the wind veered south.

“The artist must have painted this on the spot, during a sudden spell of stormy weather.”
Victoria and Albert Museum, gallery label for Weymouth Bay, 330-1888

“walking their dogs on the beach and battling their umbrellas against the wind”
The same label

“Thick clouds scud across the bright winter sky as the Downs slope to the sandy cove and sea.”
National Gallery, London, on Weymouth Bay: Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill, NG2652

“Snow this morning in the high lands: shower, with hail: snow again at night.”
Luke Howard, London, 7 November 1816, The Climate of London (1833), vol. 2

“Fair at 2 p. m.: Cumulostrati formed rapidly, and passed off at a great elevation, the wind veering S.”
Luke Howard, London, 20 November 1816, the same volume

“My house commands a singularly beautiful view, and you may study from your very window.”
John Fisher to Constable, from Osmington, August 1816, in C. R. Leslie, Life and Letters of John Constable (1896)

Step 3 · The scholarship tested

The case for 1816, and for 1819

The small V&A sketch is dated 1816 and treated as an outdoor study from the honeymoon, about mid-October to late November. The dispute concerns the larger National Gallery canvas. V&A collection record.

For 1816. Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-Williams date the canvas 1816 in Constable (Tate, 1991), no. 85. Their entry compares its canvas size with another Weymouth view. Constable’s Clouds reports their view that it was painted substantially from nature. The full Tate argument was not accessible. The National Gallery now dates it 1816–17 and suggests work back at the vicarage, so an early date need not mean painting outdoors. Tate, pp. 173–174; Constable’s Clouds, p. 46; National Gallery.

For a later studio picture. Graham Reynolds’s reported 1819 date remains unverified here: his catalogue raisonné entry was not accessible. Constable’s Clouds cites his no. 19.10 and reports his interpretation of a studio work between the small sketch and the exhibition picture of 1819. That catalogue gives the National Gallery canvas a range, c.1816–19. The National Gallery identifies the 1819 exhibition picture as probably the Louvre version, so the exhibition does not date this canvas. Reynolds (1984); Constable’s Clouds (2000), no. 26.

A possible sky, or a new technique? John E. Thornes accepts 1816, describing lines of cumulus clouds rising at 45 degrees. He defends their plausibility through meteorologist J. B. Tyldesley’s account of a similar Dorset sky on 4 August 1966: clouds formed over high ground and streamed out over the sea, where the cooler surface limited their growth. This is an analogy, not an 1816 observation. Timothy Wilcox’s catalogue raises a different problem: the convincing depth of the clouds is so new in Constable’s work that casual observation or memory seems insufficient to explain it. That allows a later, composed picture as an interpretation; the passage checked does not establish that Wilcox dates it 1819. Thornes (1999), pp. 106–109; Wilcox (2000), p. 46.

What the records can test. Exeter records squally, rainy spells on 26–31 October and 9–14 November 1816, and fair, cloudy weather on 20–21 November. Howard records rapidly forming clouds at a great elevation on 20 November, with wind veering south. November CET is 3.9 °C. These support changeable autumn weather, but Exeter is 79 km away and Howard is 195 km away; CET describes central England. None records cloud streets or the land–sea temperature difference at Bowleaze Cove. Thornes’s sky is therefore possible, not confirmed by these records. The 1819 studio-recollection hypothesis supplies no outdoor session to test. Weather records cannot decide between the dates or answer Wilcox’s question about technique. Exeter and CET records; Howard’s account.

Questions for students

What evidence would distinguish an 1816 painting from a later recollection?
Does a similar sky seen in 1966 establish what Constable saw in 1816?
Can convincing cloud perspective be evidence both of observation and of artistic construction?

Step 4 · Why the verdict stops at the season

1816, or 1819?

The National Gallery dates its canvas 1816–17 and suggests it was painted back at the vicarage. Was it, or was it recalled later in London? The records cannot settle that. The broad weather conditions fit the autumn of 1816; the cloud perspective remains untested. No document found places Constable in Dorset in 1819, and a picture recalled in a London studio supplies no outdoor session to test. The autumn of 1819 was in any case colder still: the same weeks were the 7th coldest of 254 in central England. What would decide it lies in the paintings and their papers, not in the weather.

“The National Gallery’s canvas is twice the size of the millboard sketch and may have been painted back at the vicarage, about half a mile from the beach.”
The same

“having returned to London yesterday with His wife after passing Six weeks with the Revd. John Fisher in Dorsetshire”
Joseph Farington’s diary, 10 December 1816

“Osmington Shore, near Weymouth”
Leslie on Constable’s two pictures at the British Institution in 1819; the National Gallery takes it to be the larger Louvre version

Sources

Every source on this page

The weather data and earlier quotations come from fingerprinted files (sha256), checked when the data is rebuilt. The dating literature below was read in accessible catalogue snippets; each entry states what was checked and what remains unread.

Victoria and Albert Museum, John Constable, Weymouth Bay, 330-1888 (collection API record)Museum text; quoted briefly · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 ee0a9f7cf3cb019ef80e1bc9d1c9febb0923b89adc0ad19960f349a25d8dac4d
National Gallery, London, John Constable, Weymouth Bay: Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill, NG2652Museum text; quoted briefly · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 a5d83de794afc8fe12ef279e3d131bf9efa15b17350fc7be1a15d90685296d93
Graham Reynolds, The Later Paintings and Drawings of John Constable (1984), catalogue raisonné, no. 19.10retrieved 5 October 2026Entry not read: restricted access. The reported 1819 date is unverified here. Constable’s Clouds (2000), p. 46, cites RL19.10 and reports Reynolds’s studio interpretation.
Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-Williams, Constable (Tate Gallery, 1991), no. 85, pp. 173–174retrieved 5 October 2026Google Books snippets: 1816 heading on p. 173; part of the canvas comparison on p. 174. Full argument not read. Bibliographic records identify 1991, not the proposed 1990 date. The from-nature interpretation is also reported in Constable’s Clouds, p. 46.
John E. Thornes, John Constable’s Skies: A Fusion of Art and Science (1999), pp. 106–109, plate 28retrieved 5 October 2026Google Books snippets, not full pages: 1816 caption; steep cumulus streets; J. B. Tyldesley’s 4 August 1966 observation, quoted by Thornes; coastal explanation and qualified defence of the perspective. Tyldesley’s original 1968 article was not read.
Edward Morris (ed.), Constable’s Clouds (Edinburgh/Liverpool, 2000), no. 26, p. 46; catalogue by Timothy Wilcoxretrieved 5 October 2026Google Books snippets: c.1816–19 heading, Tate and Reynolds interpretations, and the problem of cloud perspective. Foreword p. 7 identifies Wilcox as catalogue author. The complete entry was not read; a later composite is an inference, not a verified Wilcox dating.
Wikimedia Commons, Weymouth Bay (1816), Victoria and Albert Museum, from the museum’s online collectionPublic domain (PD-Art) · retrieved 1 October 2026sha256 09641ab2041886c607e7c5f92b1c386c3763bed3383e50081d2a8d72c0301e32
Wikimedia Commons, Weymouth Bay, c. 1816 (National Gallery, NG2652), The Yorck ProjectPublic domain (PD-Art) · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 4178ca05e9df8a2527ad88f4f5c739c982e2818d83fc13716074ae8cdf127791
Meteorological Diary kept at Exeter, October 1816, The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 86 pt 2, p. [482] (page image)Public domain; Internet Archive · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 41a2a00222eba85c40d3a8a88cdfe92b9b5c5abefdcf630c5a10b77f00ea83c0Transcribed by Nephos into window-engine/evidence/weymouth/exeter-1816.json with the November page.
The same diary, November 1816, p. [638]Public domain; Internet Archive · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 b28002aad6cc7d41bf2159109374eca950542181f8b919e7a2e08b077104037a
Met Office Hadley Centre, Central England Temperature, daily mean, 1772 to dateOpen Government Licence · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 c6948508f8d4b1cff2b302c83d6506244c804abc2d088a743ef8ab6c630184cc
Met Office Hadley Centre, Central England Temperature, monthly mean, 1659 to dateOpen Government Licence · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 c17868e014c4cfcc284a41149e6217b1dec976d7fa22fa91ed515e675eac3304
Met Office Hadley Centre, England and Wales precipitation, monthly, 1766 to dateOpen Government Licence · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 202d0ba7360429539a0d3dd458b1c9b712d9b4dd8c386131d5d098740bb99739
Luke Howard, The Climate of London, 2nd edition (1833), vol. 2, full textPublic domain; Internet Archive · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 7597c605e699090341911a6cc3e4c2bbcd8fb2d37cde273f4804f51ec045b431
The Farington Diary, ed. J. Greig, vol. VIII, full textPublic domain text; Internet Archive · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 625e87975334f7de914a44edfdeea2224867bc04bcce5528641bc2bb45de10e5
C. R. Leslie, Life and Letters of John Constable (1896), full textPublic domain; Internet Archive · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 ca8addd9f3b61b666e1dcbef26f54545ffe8ce2151e6c77d8f2fe575700ad3ec
V&A 823-1888, Netley Abbey: the east window, dated 11/10/1816Museum record · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 bc74406ed7ed2bedd942924fd9d505e9ae5fb79b7320f1bce0bab70473ae9d1b
V&A 311-1888, Osmington Bay, inscribed “Novr. 7. 1816--Osmington Bay”Museum record · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 9cc9311e4ceb87ff59aa00f860a884278b859d2382490d1feec2285a35b2a93a
V&A 628-1888, Portland Island from Chesil Bank, inscribed “Portland Island Novr. 20. 1816.”Museum record · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 1c871ad579fad6262e843aca3c2a9ea83d2ad4fbd9ed3482378fb858f8d49b3c
V&A 303-1888, Preston Church near Weymouth, inscribed “21st. Novr. 1816.”Museum record · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 07e8fb043f83c467d7c8a0dd3f4bb60323d8f569526185d5e23ded43cd588bbe
OpenStreetMap Nominatim: Bowleaze Cove, WeymouthODbL 1.0, © OpenStreetMap contributors · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 72c7747512382ecbbba86bfb36513095aeb3a27bbf996a55addcc3014f236d0c
OpenStreetMap Nominatim: Bruce Castle, TottenhamODbL 1.0, © OpenStreetMap contributors · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 6d6f9dc6bb66838737d3d0a95352246d4a1235b1974c864acfded5ad7c8596b9
OpenStreetMap Nominatim: Exeter CathedralODbL 1.0, © OpenStreetMap contributors · retrieved 30 September 2026sha256 88e6c53897f1e48cc080e2f81b7951d459c751506f0becb65b9c81747a44d18e

The numbers on this page, as JSON The method card, as JSON

Weymouth Bay

What is written

Records of those days

Each claim tested

Verdict