Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Grounds
John Constable · Romanticism & Landscape
- Artist
- John Constable (1776–1837)
- Date
- 1823
- Dimensions
- 87.6 x 111.8 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom
John Constable painted Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Grounds for his friend John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury, whose nephew was one of the artist’s closest friends. The soaring spire of the cathedral is framed by an arch of trees.
A closer look
In the bottom left corner the bishop and his wife stand on the lawn, pointing towards the cathedral, while cows drink from the stream in the foreground. The grey stone of the building gleams in the sunlight against a blue sky dotted with white clouds. The bishop is said to have objected to the dark clouds in an early version, asking for a clearer sky; Constable obliged, though he preferred the more dramatic weather of his later versions of the view.
History of the painting
This is the version commissioned by Constable's friend John Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury, and shown at the Royal Academy in 1823. It later belonged to the textile manufacturer John Sheepshanks, who in 1857 gave his large collection of British paintings to the nation for the new South Kensington Museum, today's Victoria and Albert Museum, on condition that it be open to working people, including in the evening.
