While browsing our online collection for a project, I entered the word “cloud” into the search field. I was surprised by how many works of art in our collection had cloud connections, either as part of the work’s title or featured in the work itself. As I was looking through the images, I kept hearing Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now playing in my head. Go ahead and give it a listen as you look at just a few of the clouds in our collection.
Olin Herman Travis, “Cloud Study, Arbuckle Mountains,” n.d. oil on board, Dallas Museum of Art, The Barrett Collection, Dallas, Texas, 2007.15.57
Wraparound skit (“kain panjang”): cloud design (“megamendung”), Indonesia, Java, Cirebon, c. 1910, handdrawn batik on commercially woven cotton, Dallas Museum of Art, Textile Purchase Fund, 1991.58
Olin Herman Travis, “The Shower #10,” c. 1933, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen S. Kahn, 1959.169
Odilon Redon, “The Port of Morgat,” 1882, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R.53
Edward Bearden, “Storm on the Plains,” 1944, watercolor, Dallas Museum of Art, Ted Dealey Purchase Prize, Fifteenth Annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition, 1944, 1944.3
Karl Struss, “Storm Clouds, La Mesa, California,” 1921, platinum print, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Page, 1983.568
Alfred Jacob Miller, “Where the Clouds Love to Rest,” c. 1850, oil on panel, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of C. R. Smith, 1955.20
John Rogers Cox, “Wheat Shocks,” 1951, lithograph, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of Rozwell Sam Adams in memory of Herndon Kimball Adams and Loither Iler Adams, 2001.35
Claude-Joseph Vernet, “A Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm,” 1775, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, Mrs. John B. O’Hara Fund, 1983.41.FA
Koshiro Onchi, “Leaf and Clouds,” n.d., color relief print, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred L. Bromberg, 1964.88.FA
Stacey Lizotte is Head of Adult Programming and Multimedia Services at the DMA.