William Alfred DelamotteWaterperry, Oxfordshire 1803

This is one of a number of oil sketches Delamotte made from nature during
his tenure as drawing master at the
Royal Military Academy at Great Marlow. Despite being a sketch, it is very
carefully painted.

An inscription on the back gives details
of the weather for the two days he spent on the work: on the first it was thundery, by the second it was clearing but
cloudy. Constable was later to make
often extensive meteorological notes
on the backs of his own oil sketches, especially the sky studies he painted
at Hampstead.