After Luke Howard
- Artist: Howard Hodgkin
- Date: 1976
- Medium: Lithograph on paper
- Dimensions: image: 451 x 565 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “After Luke Howard” by Howard Hodgkin, a 1976 lithograph on paper that bursts with colour and movement. Hodgkin turns a familiar landscape into a vibrant, almost musical composition, layering hues that echo the changing sky. The work is firmly abstract yet recognises its source: a nod to the clouds and fields that inspired the 19th‑century meteorologist Luke Howard, known for classifying clouds. In this piece, Hodgkin takes that idea and reinterprets it in bold, gestural swaths of red, orange, blue and green, letting the viewer feel the rhythm of weather rather than just see it.
The lithograph’s medium gives it a crisp yet textured surface, allowing the colors to pop while maintaining a sense of depth. Hodgkin’s technique—using a lithographic stone to create precise, yet free‑flowing lines—creates a dynamic tension between control and spontaneity. The print sits in a modest size, but its energy is unmistakable, drawing you into a dialogue between nature and the artist’s imagination. It’s a celebrated piece of the collection, presented by the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in 1977, and it reminds us that landscapes can be felt as much as seen.
See it in person
After Luke Howard is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
