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How Artists Approach
Fairweather Clouds
Visual Essay
As painted by six noted artists:
Tom Thomson (1877-1917) Canadian
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) American
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) French
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch
Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) French
Claude Monet (1840-1926) French
Summer Day
Tom Thomson (1877-1917) Canadian
Oil on composite wood-pulp board, 11" x 9" (w x h), 1915
McMichael Canadian Art Collection,
Vaughan, Ontario, Canada
Painted at the Algonquin Park in Ontario. From 1912 to 1917 Tom Thomson spent spring summer canoeing and camping at Algonquin Park. Taking odd jobs as a ranger and guide left him time to sketch and paint the wilderness landscapes.
In the Patio VIII
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) American
Oil on canvas, 20" x 26" (w x h), 1950
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Georgian O'Keeffe's view from interior of her Abiquiu patio in New Mexico.
Sky Study
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) French
Pastel on paper, 1869
This was painted early in Degas' career. From 1865-1869 we submitted work to the Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. In 1979. when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, Degas enlisted in the National Guard, where his defense of Paris left him little time for painting. During rifle training his eyesight was found to be defective. For the rest of his life his eye problems were a constant worry to him.
Wheat Field with Cypresses
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Dutch
Oil on canvas, 37" x 29", (w x h), 1889
In late June 1889 Van Gogh devoted one of his first series of paintings in Saint-Rémy to the towering Cypress trees. His exuberant on-the-spot studies include this majestic horizontal composition, which he illustrated in reed-pen drawings sent to his brother on July 2. Van Gogh regarded the present work as one of his "best" summer landscapes. He was prompted that September to make two studio renditions: one on the same scale (in the National Gallery, London) and the other a smaller replica, intended as a gift for his mother and sister (private collection).
Study of Clouds, Blue Sky
Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) French
Oil on wood, 18" x "15 (w x h), circa 1888-1895
MuMa, Musée d'art moderne André Malraux,
Le Havre, France
Eugene Boudin didn't start out to be a painter. His father ran a ferryboat between Honfleur and Le Havre, the big English Channel port, and Boudin worked on the boat as a child. In school a teacher spotted artistic talent, and from then on, Boudin went to sea via the his painted canvases. On the back of every painting, he recorded the weather and the winds on the day it was made, like a seaman. Eugene had a grand time painting beach activity. He urged his young friend Claude Monet to join him at the seaside. Monet was 15 years younger and making a reputation in Paris, drawing caricatures in charcoal. Boudin thought Monet could do more. "I want you to see the light."
Regatta at Sainte-Adresse
Claude Monet (1840-1926) French
Oil paint on canvas, 40" x 30" (w x h), 1867
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Monet was destitute and spent the summer of 1867 with family at Sainte-Adresse, a well-to-do suburb on the Normandy coast of Le Havre, home to his father and aunt. It was at the cost of abandoning his pregnant companion, Camille Doncieux. On June 25, he reported that he had about twenty pictures under way, noting, "Among the seascapes, I am doing the regattas of Le Havre with many figures on the beach and the outer harbor covered with small sails." In August Monet return to Paris to attend attended the birth of Jean on August 8 and returned to the coast a few days later to continue painting.
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