In 1827, his beloved wife slowly dying of tuberculosis, the British artist John Constable painted a rainbow.
In the small watercolor, a bright prism arcs across dark skies. Like many artists of his day, the celebrated landscape painter was fascinated by atmospheric phenomena. And at a moment of tragic uncertainty, he found solace in the rainbow.
"For Constable, whose work can be wonderfully direct, rainbows are deeply symbolic," said Edward Town, associate curator for paintings and sculpture at the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA). "He's a fervent Anglican, and the rainbow has great religious resonance for him and a powerful redemptive quality."
The watercolor is one of several of artist's "sky studies" on view in "John Constable: The Landscape Reimagined," a new exhibition at the YCBA that explores how Constable's innovative approach to capturing nature revolutionized European landscape painting in the 19th century.
