Landscape with a Double Rainbow
John Constable·28/07/1812
Historical Context
Dated 28 July 1812, this extraordinary landscape captures a double rainbow over the Suffolk countryside, a meteorological phenomenon that fascinated the scientifically-minded Constable. The painting is notable for its accurate depiction of the rainbow's optics — the secondary bow correctly shows reversed color order. It demonstrates Constable's fusion of Romantic sensibility with empirical observation, treating natural phenomena with both wonder and precision.
Technical Analysis
The rainbow is painted with delicate, transparent glazes over the landscape, accurately rendering the spectral colors and the darkening of sky between the primary and secondary bows. The surrounding landscape uses broader, more vigorous handling.
Look Closer
- ◆A double rainbow arches across the Suffolk sky, one of nature's most spectacular optical phenomena painted from direct observation on 28 July 1812
- ◆The landscape below the rainbow is darkened by the passing storm, while patches of brilliant light break through where the rain has cleared
- ◆The precise date records this as a specific meteorological event, lending the study documentary value beyond its artistic merit
- ◆The rainbow's colors are rendered with scientific accuracy — the order of spectral bands correctly observed
Condition & Conservation
This remarkable dated study from 28 July 1812 is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The painting captures a specific double rainbow observed from the hills near East Bergholt. The oil has been cleaned and stabilized. The rainbow colors, painted from direct observation, remain vivid. The work is one of the earliest careful painted studies of rainbow phenomena in English art.
See It In Person
Victoria and Albert Museum
London, United Kingdom
Gallery: Prints & Drawings Study Room, room WS
Visit museum website →
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