Study for 'A Stormy Sky', ca. 1933

Sir George Clausen RA (1852 - 1944)

RA Collection: Art

This drawing, which has been squared-up for transfer onto a larger scale, is a preparatory study for Clausen's 1933 Royal Academy exhibit, A Stormy Sky (no. 83). Although Clausen altered the cloud formations and reduced the number of trees in the landscape, the essential view described in this sketch is reproduced in the final work. The detailed pencil hatchings in the drawing show that Clausen had already worked out the movement of light in the leaves of the trees as they are blown by the wind.

Clausen reprised the composition four years later in another oil painting with the same title which was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1937 (no. 124). In this later version, the right side of the composition was extended to include more landscape and trees.