Art, science and basic humanity all rolled into one.
Constable had a passion for understanding the science of the skies that inspired his art. Between 1820 and 1822, when he was living at Hampstead, he painted more than 100 studies of the sky, including detailed oil sketches of clouds accompanied by notes on the time of day and direction of the wind. He also wrote about the geometry of rainbows and analysed their shapes and colours in diagrams... "“Constable said we see nothing truly until we understand it. And the rainbow is a case in point. You don't see a rainbow properly until you understand how it's formed.”
“Constable had a real knowledge of meteorology – probably as good as any contemporary meteorologist at that time,” Thornes says. “He studied rainbow science and had some quite mathematical friends who we think taught him about rainbows.”
His theory is that Constable painted it in to commemorate his friendship with Fisher, who died about a year after the work was first displayed. Rainbows can be dated very precisely based on their position in relation to the sun, and Thornes' analysis revealed that this one would have graced the sky on 25 August 1832 – the date of Fisher's death. The end of the rainbow touches Fisher's house.
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170321-why-this-striking-rainbow-may-carry-a-hidden-message
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