photo #7843572

The famed nineteenth-century American landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church never dropped the ball when it came to clouds. His skies were accurate and meticulously observed. This is particularly the case in his 1870 painting Sunset across the Hudson Valley, New York, in which clouds steal the show. Snagged on the distant hills, shreds of cloud known as Stratus fractus reflect the glory of brilliant gold Altocumulus far above. Situated at altitudes between these two, a distant grey bank of Stratocumulus cloud appears in shadow off beyond the hills. That cloud is at the same altitude and of the same type as the dark forms in the foreground covering the top of Church’s painting. Look how the distant Stratocumulus have a blueish tinge compared to those close by. This is the optical effect known as aerial perspective, caused by the way the gases of our atmosphere scatter blue light more than other colours. A posthumous membership to the Cloud Appreciation Society is in order for Frederic Edwin Church, don’t you think?Sunset across the Hudson Valley, New York (1870) by Frederic Edwin Church is in the collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Manhattan, New York, US.