The Water Lilies - The Clouds (1915/1926) by Claude MonetMusée de l'Orangerie
1. The Water Lilies - The Clouds, Claude Monet
For the last eleven years of his life, from 1915 to 1926, the Impressionist master Monet painted many enormous studies of the lily pond in his garden at Giverny.
In this example, he focuses on the reflection of clouds in the surface of the pond, suggesting the passage of time and a dreamlike atmosphere.
Study of Clouds with a Sunset near Rome (1786–1801) by Simon Alexandre Clément DenisThe J. Paul Getty Museum
2. Study of Clouds with a Sunset near Rome, Simon Denis
Dark, swirling clouds loom over a narrow strip of land, gently punctuated by far-off trees and a city skyline. The place is Rome. The weather: an impending rainstorm. The day: a late afternoon within the last decades of the 1700s.
This dramatic cloudscape predates by a century the Impressionists' celebration of outdoor landscape painting. In Denis's time, oil sketching on paper while outdoors offered the artist an opportunity to test and sharpen his skills.
Above the Clouds I (1962-1963) by Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'Keeffe Museum
3. Above the Clouds I, Georgia O'Keeffe
This large canvas gives an aerial view of the sky from above the cloud level. O'Keeffe paints the sky in a vibrant blue dotted with islands of white clouds like icebergs in the sea.
The pale horizon fades from salmon peach to grey-blue to the edge of the canvas, giving a soothing and contemplative effect.
A Cloud Study, Sunset (ca. 1821) by John Constable, 1776–1837, BritishYale Center for British Art
4. A Cloud Study, Sunset, John Constable
John Constable made his cloud studies in a concentrated burst of activity while living in Hampstead, north London, in the early 1820s. It was the first time he had devoted himself exclusively to skies, even though he had been painting directly from nature since 1802.
As Constable explained at the end of his career: “I am greatly mistaken if every landscape painter will not acknowledge that his most serene hours have been spent in open air, with his palette in his hand.”
Seeing (2011) by Dyani White HawkKemper Museum of Contemporary Art
5. Seeing, Dayani White Hawk
Dayani White Hawk is an artist of Sičangu Lakota and European American heritage, and her work combines these traditions and influences.
This oil-on-canvas painting explores texture and vision.
Trade (Gifts for Trading Land With White People) (1992) by Jaune Quick-to-See SmithChrysler Museum of Art
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