A few versions of this painting exist, the 1825 version above being painted with a clearer sky after his patron objected to a dark cloud over the cathedral. The patron in question was John Fisher, the Bishop of Salisbury and a friend of Constable. Fisher and his wife are depicted in the bottom-left of the painting.
This was painted for the owner of Wivenhoe Park and captures its quintessentially English rural landscape in brilliant detail. The daughter of this work’s patron, Major-General Francis Slater Rebow, is depicted in the background to the left of the painting.
Another of his bucolic landscapes and one of a frequent subject, the settlements along the River Stour where he lived for most of his life. Even today, the landscapes of Dedham Vale on the Essex-Suffolk border are reminiscent of Constable’s paintings.
Being a watercolour, this easily stands out amongst his work, with visible hints of moodiness and mysticism typical of his paintings in his final years. The death of Constable’s wife in November 1828 profoundly affected him, manifested in his paintings from Hadleigh Castle (1829) until his own death in 1837 in their greater darkness and intense melancholy.