Cloud study of Light cumulus above sketched landscape with distant flattened hill

PART OF:
Cloud studies
Made:
circa 1807 in United Kingdom
artist:
Luke Howard
Cloud study of Light cumulus above sketched landscape with Cloud study of Light cumulus above sketched landscape with distant flattened hill

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Cloud study of Light cumulus above sketched landscape with
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Royal Meteorological Society|Enquiries to Science Museum, London

Cloud study by Luke Howard, c1807: Light cumulus above sketched landscape with distant flattened hill. Pencil, grey and blue wash, 12x19cm. Inscribed on former mount: Cross-fell as seen from Alston, wants foreground, etc. [1807? visited Lake District]

Chemist and amateur meterologist Luke Howard captured the different shapes and colours of clouds in these delicate pencil and watercolour sketches. Along with observations of height and movement, he managed the unimaginable and classified the clouds. Howard identified three basic families of clouds, using Latin names: cirrus ('curl of hair'), stratus ('layer') and cumulus ('heap' or 'pile'). He then added a further four subcategories - cirro-cumulus, cirro-stratus (nimbus) to explain the way clouds could swiftly change in appearance or join with others in the sky. Howard collaborated with the artist Edward Kennion to produce more picturesque cloud sketches for the third edition of his 'Essay on the Modification of Clouds' published in Alexander Tilloch’s 'Philosophical Magazine' in 1865.

Details

Category:
Art
Object Number:
1981-862/14
Materials:
paper (fibre product) and watercolour
Measurements:
image: 120 x 190 mm
type:
drawing
credit:
On loan from the Royal Meteorological Society