The skies of Constable’s paintings aren’t just beautiful. There is science in them too – which is how a meteorologist unlocked a message in one of the artist’s most famous works.

His paintings sold regularly during his lifetime ... the silhouette of a tree or the smell of mud in April. Burchfield was a great painter of winter, and though he painted all the other seasons ...

Ice is the great leveller. And this perpetual movement ... did the Dutch keep themselves from starving during these long winter days? This painting provides one answer to that question.