Landscape with drifting clouds

Carl Fredrik Hill became one of the most original Swedish landscape painters of his time. In the summer of 1876 Carl Fredrik Hill wrote this often-quoted declaration: “I have now arrived at the conviction that in art there is nothing more to search for than the true, le vrai. But not the rustic, naturalistic, rather the heart of the truth.” Painted in Montigny outside Paris, “Landscape with drifting clouds” show the artist’s own version of realism: an interpretation of reality by focusing a central point and letting the rest fade away into the periphery. Nature's grandeur, its loneliness, its forgotteness spoke directly to Hills mind. He was seized by a strong sense of belonging with these deserted plains. In their interpretation, he laid down a lot of the anxiety that was burning inside him.