Five Paintings that Celebrate the Sky

Different perspectives on the power of the sky

Starry Night Over the Rhône (1888) by Vincent van Gogh. Oil on canvas. 28.5 × 36.2 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France. Image source Wikimedia Commons

The world above our heads is full of fleeting episodes. A cloud shifts, the light changes, and the impression brings new associations.

A cloud spotter takes care to acknowledge the weight or lightness of congregated mist. The lapidary nature of a cloud — the extent to which it is bulbously…