Amber hour

Sky studies and the late light of Lisbon, from Constable’s clouds to living painters.

Plan your visit

Simon Denis, Cloud study (distant storm), ca. 1786–1806

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Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 19:00, Thursday to 21:00

Simon Denis

Cloud study (distant storm), ca. 1786–1806, oil on paper, 19.1 × 25.1 cm

Exhibition

Amber hour

Rooms

1 to 3

Amber hour

Dates

12 September 2026 to 18 January 2027

Rooms

1 to 3

Artists

Clara Nogueira, Tomás Vale and loans from European collections

Sky studies hang at eye level across three rooms. Oil sketches made outdoors in the 1780s sit beside canvases painted in Lisbon this year, so two centuries of painters look up at the same light.

Read about the exhibition

In the rooms

Works from Amber hour, hung at their relative sizes

John Constable
Cloud study, 1830–35, watercolour over graphite, 12.7 × 15.2 cm
Sanford Robinson Gifford
Isola Bella in Lago Maggiore, 1871, oil on canvas, 51.4 × 91.4 cm
Joseph Wright of Derby
Cloud study, 1774–75, brush and wash over graphite, 23.4 × 17.1 cm
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Allegory of the Planets and Continents, 1752, oil on canvas, 185.4 × 139.4 cm
John Frederick Kensett
Twilight on the Sound, Darien, Connecticut, 1872, oil on canvas, 29.2 × 62.2 cm
Harvey O. Young
Sunset, ca. 1870–80, oil on canvas, 50.8 × 76.2 cm

John Constable
Cloud study, 1830–35, watercolour over graphite, 12.7 × 15.2 cm
Sanford Robinson Gifford
Isola Bella in Lago Maggiore, 1871, oil on canvas, 51.4 × 91.4 cm
Joseph Wright of Derby
Cloud study, 1774–75, brush and wash over graphite, 23.4 × 17.1 cm
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Allegory of the Planets and Continents, 1752, oil on canvas, 185.4 × 139.4 cm
John Frederick Kensett
Twilight on the Sound, Darien, Connecticut, 1872, oil on canvas, 29.2 × 62.2 cm
Harvey O. Young
Sunset, ca. 1870–80, oil on canvas, 50.8 × 76.2 cm

John Constable
Cloud study, 1830–35, watercolour over graphite, 12.7 × 15.2 cm
Sanford Robinson Gifford
Isola Bella in Lago Maggiore, 1871, oil on canvas, 51.4 × 91.4 cm
Joseph Wright of Derby
Cloud study, 1774–75, brush and wash over graphite, 23.4 × 17.1 cm
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Allegory of the Planets and Continents, 1752, oil on canvas, 185.4 × 139.4 cm
John Frederick Kensett
Twilight on the Sound, Darien, Connecticut, 1872, oil on canvas, 29.2 × 62.2 cm
Harvey O. Young
Sunset, ca. 1870–80, oil on canvas, 50.8 × 76.2 cm

A show that makes you stand still long enough to watch weather happen in oil paint.

From the visitors’ book, Room 2

Programme

Coming up and past

Detail from Aert van der Neer, Landscape at Sunset

Second sitting

Coming up

24 January 2027 to 12 April 2027

Poster: detail from Aert van der Neer, Landscape at Sunset, 1650s. The Met Open Access (CC0).

Detail from Théodore Rousseau, Sunset near Arbonne

Nocturnes for a small room

Past

3 May 2026 to 24 August 2026

Poster: detail from Théodore Rousseau, Sunset near Arbonne, ca. 1860–65. The Met Open Access (CC0).

Talks and openings

Talks, family mornings and late openings

Thu 15 Oct