Heaven/cloud Study 1885

Editor: This is "Heaven/cloud Study" painted by Eero Järnefelt in 1885. It appears to be a watercolor or possibly water colours on painting – interesting. The blues and grays give it such a serene yet somewhat melancholic feel. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Notice how the sky is not simply rendered, but fragmented into studies. Think about the sky itself – how it’s been understood across cultures. Is it a dome protecting us, a divine realm, or simply atmosphere? Järnefelt’s breaking up of the sky might mirror a fracturing of older belief systems as science and rationalism grew. What feelings does this evoke in you? Editor: It makes me think about how fleeting our perceptions are and maybe this also questions established beliefs and world views. The sky is timeless, but it changes, the beliefs changed and keep changing. Is that fair? Curator: Exactly. And plein-air landscape work always returns us to considering our place within the cosmos. Here, Järnefelt presents these cloudscapes almost as if mapping emotional weather. Are the cloud formations more than just meteorological phenomena for the artist? Are they perhaps representative of the psyche or fleeting emotion? Editor: That’s a powerful thought. Seeing the clouds as mapping inner weather, changes the meaning of landscape for me. Curator: Yes. Consider Romanticism’s interest in sublime nature. These artists sought direct experience and engagement. Does the very act of sectioning, or studying, somehow break the continuity with the Romantic pursuit? Editor: Interesting to consider those tensions between lived experience and artistic process! I didn’t really think of it that way at first glance. Curator: Right? It also feels contemporary; it’s similar to modernists breaking up the picture plane! It suggests our perception of the world can’t be grasped as one coherent whole.