[1] Constable visited Salisbury in 1811 and made a series of sketches of the cathedral, from the south-east, the south-west and from the east end.

[2] The artist selected a viewpoint from the bishop's garden (the south-east) and returned in 1820 to make further drawings and an open-air oil sketch, now in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa,[3] which served as the model for the London version.

Following the exhibition of the London version at the 1823 Royal Academy, Constable observed: "My Cathedral looks very well....It was the most difficult subject in Landscape I ever had upon my Easel.

His patron took exception to the dark cloud over the cathedral, and when he commissioned a smaller replica, requested "a more serene sky".

Another, small version of the painting, measuring 62.9 × 75.9 cm, executed between 1823 and 1826, now resides at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.