A sliver of land across the bottom of this composition gives way to a procession of puffy gray and white clouds sweeping up across a vivid blue, panoramic sky in this horizontal landscape painting. An area of darker gray beyond the brown land could be a valley, mountain, or shadows from the billowing clouds. About one-fifth of the way up the composition, the horizon glows the faintest peach. The clouds trundle from our left up and to our right. The view is loosely painted, especially in the land.

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Study of Clouds over the Roman Campagna

painter Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (French, 1750 - 1819)

c. 1782/1785

Medium: oil on paper on cardboard
Classification: Painting
Dimensions: overall (paper support): 19 x 32.1 cm (7 1/2 x 12 5/8 in.) ; overall (paperboard support): 19.6 x 33 cm (7 11/16 x 13 in.) ; framed: 30.5 x 43.2 x 2.1 cm (12 x 17 x 13/16 in.)
Culture: French
Museum: National Gallery of Art, CF
Credit line: Given in honor of Gaillard F. Ravenel II by his friends
Rights: Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art

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