Salisbury Cathedral from the south-west, John Constable, ca. 1820
John Constable, portraitJohn ConstableBritish, 1776–1837

Salisbury Cathedral from the south-west

ca. 1820 · Oil sketch · 25.1 × 30.2 cm

Can I see it?

Yes, on view now

Where is “Salisbury Cathedral from the south-west” now? Victoria and Albert Museum, Paintings, Room 88, The Edwin and Susan Davies Galleries, London. Yes, on view now. Checked September 25, 2026.

Victoria and Albert Museum

London, United Kingdom

RoomPaintings, Room 88, The Edwin and Susan Davies Galleries

Open now· until 5:45 PM

On public display.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum

Details

Accession number
319-1888

What it shows

In the catalog

Sources

In the life of John Constable

The whole life
  1. 1821

    “The Hay Wain” at the Royal Academy

    The picture, shown as “Landscape: Noon”, found no buyer, but it was seen by the painter Théodore Géricault and the writer Charles Nodier. According to Delacroix, Géricault went back to France quite stunned and invited Constable to Paris, while Nodier urged French artists to look to nature rather than to trips to Rome.

  2. 1821

    Son born: Charles Golding Constable

  3. 1821

    “I should paint my own places best”

    In a letter to his friend John Fisher in 1821 Constable wrote that he should paint his own places best, and that painting is but another word for feeling. The Dedham Vale around his home came to be known as “Constable Country”.

  4. 23 October 1821

    To Fisher: “I have done a good deal of skying”

    Constable wrote to Fisher that he had done a good deal of skying and was determined to conquer all the difficulties that remained. He made cloud studies, noting the weather, direction of light and time of day on the back, and held the sky to be the key note of a landscape, drawing on the meteorologist Luke Howard’s classification of clouds.

  5. 1822/1823

    Daughter born: Isabel Constable

All works

In the same room · Paintings, Room 88, The Edwin and Susan Davies Galleries, Victoria and Albert Museum

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On the same theme · Salisbury Cathedral

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