Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds

Constable’s friendship with the bishop of Salisbury and his family gained him access to these gardens, where he sketched this on site. For the painter, observation of Nature underpinned Art. Such sketches captured his intense engagement with the world – both its ever-changing appearances and its underlying structures. Constable’s contemporaries believed gothic vaulting began in imitation of the spreading canopy of sacred groves, and he evokes this by framing the cathedral with the arching trees.