folleto - Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza

Eugène Boudin
Estudio de cielo
sobre la dársena
del puerto comercial
de El Havre,
c. 1890-1895
Study of the Sky
over the Basin
du Commerce at
Le Havre
El Havre, Musée
d’art moderne André
Malraux (MuMa)
SKIES AND CLOUDS
The depiction of the sky had been a subject of interest to art theoreticians
since the time of Leonardo. However, it was in the 18th and early 19th centuries
that the custom of executing cloud studies became widespread, and
examples exist by French and German artists who trained in Italy. It was the
English painter Constable, however, who undertook the most systematic observation
of the heavens in his quest for a greater integration of sky and landscape
in his major compositions. Indeed, he painted more than one hundred
studies of clouds during his two principal painting campaigns in Hampstead
between 1820 and 1822. Another important sky painter was Boudin, who
influenced artists such as Courbet and Monet. Among the Impressionists,
however, it was Sisley who conceded most importance to skies and clouds,
following the example of Constable. This room concludes with works by Van
Gogh and Nolde, whose paintings reflect a stylised, subjective and almost
abstract conception of clouds.