A brief history of the Art of the Sky

Our relationship with nature can be charted by the way artists over the centuries have depicted the sky in the
backgrounds of their paintings. Images from a talk by Lionel Playford, landscape artist, on clouds in Western art
at the Cloud Appreciation Society Sky Gathering on Lunday, May 2019
​See Lionel's talk here

Paintings from the talk in presentation order:
​From calm to stormy weather across the ages

John Constable: Study of cirrus
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Albrecht Durer: Pond in the woods
© British Museum, London

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Hunters in the snow
© Kunsthistorisches Vienna

George Shaw: The National Game
​© George Shaw

Piero della Francesca: Baptism of Christ 
​© National Gallery, London

Piero della Francesca: Legend of the True Cross
Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo

Giovanni Bellini: The Transfiguration of Christ
​​© Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

Titian: Bacchus and Ariadne
© National Gallery, London

Nicolas Poussin: The Four Seasons - Summer
​© Louvre, Paris

Johannes Vermeer: View of Delft
© The Mauritshuis, The Hague

Claude Monet: Regatta at Sainte-Adresse
© Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jacob van Ruisdael: Wheat Fields
​© Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

John Constable: Weymouth Bay
© National Gallery, London

John Constable: Bowleaze Cove, Weymouth
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Joachim Patinir: Landscape with St Jerome
© Prado, Madrid

Salvator Rosa: Rocky Landscape with huntsman
​© Louvre, Paris

JMW Turner:
Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps
​© Tate Britain, London

JMW Turner: Rain clouds approaching over a landscape
​© Tate Britain, London

John Constable: Seascape Study: Boat and Stormy Sky,
​20 July 1828
© Royal Academy, London

John Constable: Pencil Sketch with notes

Len Tabner: Straithes, North Yorkshire coast
© Len Tabner

Andrea Pozzo: Triumph of St Ignatius
Ste Ignazzio, Rome

Jan Schueler: Sound of Sleat
© ​Jan Schueler

Jan Schueler: Burning blues
© Jan Schueler

Thomas Baldwin: A view from the balloon 1786 
© The Royal Society

Thomas Monnington: Battle Area 15 000ft
© Manchester Art Gallery

Georgia O'Keefe: Sky above clouds
​© Whitney Museum, New York

Samuel Palmer: Shepherds under a full moon
© Ashmolean, Oxford

John Atkinson Grimshaw: In peril
© Leeds Art Gallery

Rene Magritte: Empire of Light II
© MoMA, New York

David Abbey Paige: Tents, Rare Clouds
© David Abbey Paige

Lionel Playford: Tropos 1 - Tropical Sunset Canary Islands
© Lionel Playford
​

​
​Additional paintings by Lionel Playford.

To see more images and to find out
about Art and the Weather World, 
a collaboration with Climate Change scientists visit Lionel's blog:
Art and Weather


Lionel's North Pennine Moors 48 
features as the header on this page

Lionel Playford: ​North Pennine Moors 78
Drama over Rotherhope

Lionel Playford: North Pennine Moors 19

Lionel Playford: ​Tropos 3, English Channel
​

To find out about JMW Turner's connection to Tottenham visit turnerintottenham.uk