Study of Clouds over the Roman Campagnac. 1782/1785
A procession of grey and white clouds sweeps across a vivid blue sky above a thin strip of land, painted quickly in oil on paper. More about this work
About this work
A procession of grey and white clouds sweeps across a vivid blue sky above a thin strip of land, painted quickly in oil on paper. Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes made such sketches outdoors in and around Rome in the early 1780s, and in his treatise on landscape painting of 1800 he urged artists to paint skies directly from nature, working fast because the light changes so quickly. Never meant for exhibition, these studies are now admired for their freshness and look forward to the open-air painting of Corot and the Impressionists.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
A sliver of land across the bottom of this composition gives way to a procession of puffy gray and white clouds sweeping up across a vivid blue, panoramic sky in this horizontal landscape painting. An area of darker gray beyond the brown land could be a valley, mountain, or shadows from the billowing clouds. About one-fifth of the way up the composition, the horizon glows the faintest peach. The clouds trundle from our left up and to our right. The view is loosely painted, especially in the land.
Description from the National Gallery of Art.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Pierre Henri de Valenciennes
French, 1750–1819
Valenciennes was the leading theorist of French historical landscape. During years in Italy in the late 1770s and 1780s he made small oil sketches outdoors, recording the same rooftops or clouds at different times of day, studies he kept in his studio but which are now his most admired work. His treatise of 1800 urged students to paint from nature, and his teaching helped bring about the Prix de Rome for historical landscape, created in 1817.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The National Gallery of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1997.23.1
- Credit
- Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Type
- Painting
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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