“Sky Studies: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection” Exhibition
The Morgan Library & Museum
This event has ended.
During the second half of the eighteenth century, the practice of using oil paint on paper while working outdoors became popular among landscape artists. In a treatise offering advice to students of landscape painting, Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1750-1819) advocated that artists start with the sky, which determines the palette of the entire composition, and then complete their sketches swiftly, preferably in less than two hours.
Working quickly to capture changing effects of light, the subtle hues of the atmosphere, and the evanescent shapes of clouds, artists developed and refined their techniques in sky studies. Beginning April 15, the Morgan will explore the work of a number of artists from France, Germany, and Scandinavia active largely in the first half of the nineteenth century. The inaugural exhibition in a planned new series, the show’s fourteen works highlight the innovative approaches employed by artists working in conditions that varied according to time of day, season, and weather conditions. The series will be drawn from the collection of oil sketches acquired by Morgan Trustee Eugene V. Thaw, who is also an honorary trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his wife, Clare.
[Image: Jean-Michel Cels, Cloud Study, ca. 1838–42, Oil on cardboard]
Media
Schedule
from June 01, 2014 to December 28, 2014