Images of fugacity and immateriality, clouds are inherent elements of a landscape. Their representation travels centuries of painting, from Antiquity to today, evolving according to scientific progress and societal changes. A mere decorative motive during Antiquity or home of the divine and the sacred in the Middle Ages, clouds are gradually seen as elements of reality starting in the Renaissance, to then become their own subject matter in the 19^th century. Whereas the landscape, thus freed from symbolic codes and conventions, becomes autonomous, meteorological theories spread widely, especially among artists. Painters start conceding to clouds an important part in their compositions, alternating between a careful observation of the world and a sensitive experience for the artist, between knowledge and dream.

In collaboration with the Laboratoire d’Optique Atmosphérique de l’Université de Lille, the musée des beaux-arts de Cambrai is organizing a show dedicated to this theme with artworks from the collections, especially restored for this occasion with the support of the Societé des Amis du musée des beaux-arts. Spanning from the 17^th century to the 20^th century, the display is the opportunity to rediscover these works through a new public presentation.

As an extension of the show « Looking at clouds: for a history of landscape art. Selected works from the museum’s collection », a specific installation is presented upstairs, confronting the studies on the motif of painter Georges Maroniez (1865-1933) and the contemporary creations of ceramicist Bente Skjøttgaard (born in Denmark in 1961). [Excerpt from the press release of the show]