Cloud Study

private collection, Belgium (about 1950); sale, Christie's South Kensington, London, April 16, 1997, no. 310, one of "Eight Studies of Skies around Brussels"; [W. M. Brady and Co., New York]; Eugene V. Thaw, New York (until 2009)

New York. Pierpont Morgan Library. "The Thaw Collection: Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, Acquisitions Since 1994," September 27, 2002–January 19, 2003, no. 109 (as "Clouds and Blue Sky").

Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. "The Romantic Prospect: Plein Air Painters, 1780–1850," June 22–August 15, 2004, no. 80 (as "Clouds and blue sky").

Sydney. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Plein-air Painting in Europe, 1780–1850," September 4–October 31, 2004, no. 80.

Melbourne. National Gallery of Victoria. "Plein-air Painting in Europe, 1780–1850," November 19, 2004–January 16, 2005, no. 80.

New York. Morgan Library & Museum. "Studying Nature: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection," January 23–August 30, 2009, unnum. checklist (as "Cloud Study").

New York. Morgan Library & Museum. "Sky Studies: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection," April 15–December 28, 2014, no catalogue.

McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. "Nature's Mirror: Reality and Symbol in Belgian Landscape," September 10–December 10, 2017, no. 37.

Kathleen Stuart in The Thaw Collection: Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, Acquisitions Since 1994. Exh. cat., Pierpont Morgan Library. New York, 2002, pp. 234–35, no. 109, ill. (color), notes that it is one of a group of about twenty recently discovered oil sketches of cloud and tree studies by Cels and that no other works by the artist are known; states that they are more abstract than the cloud studies of Simon Denis; discusses the artist's technique in producing this study; states that the viewpoint is from the ground looking up and that Cels omitted the narrow strip of landscape at the bottom edge conventional in Valenciennes' cloud studies; indicates that there is a very similar sketch signed by Cels in the Gere collection.

Charlotte Gere in Plein-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1850. Exh. cat., Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. Shizuoka, 2004, pp. 152–53, no. 80, ill. (color), dates it 1838–42; notes that the two portfolios from which this work came constitute the entire known oeuvre of the artist, that they were rediscovered in a Belgian private collection, and that they included oil sketches on paper of flowers, sky, trees, and landscapes, as well as some drawings; inscriptions on the sketches included technical notes, as here (with a note regarding mixing copal varnish thinned with turpentine into his paint), and locations as well as times of day; discusses his technique.

Charlotte Gere. "Collecting Oil Sketches: A Reminiscence." Studying Nature: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection. Ed. Jennifer Tonkovich. New York, 2011, p. 4.

John House. "Impressionism and the Open-Air Oil Sketch." Studying Nature: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection. Ed. Jennifer Tonkovich. New York, 2011, p. 86.

Esther Bell. "Catalogue Raisonné of the Thaw Collection." Studying Nature: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection. Ed. Jennifer Tonkovich. New York, 2011, p. 108, no. 20, ill. (color), calls it "Cloud Study" and dates it about 1838–42.

Alison Hokanson in Nature's Mirror: Reality and Symbol in Belgian Landscape. Ed. Jeffery Howe. Exh. cat., McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. Boston, 2017, p. 44, colorpl. 37.

Damien Dumarquez in Jean-Michel Cels (1819–1894). Exh. cat., Galerie La Nouvelle Athènes. 2018, unpaginated, ill. (color) [http://lanouvelleathenes.fr/wp-content/uploads/Catalogue-Cels-WEB.pdf].

Sarah Herring. The Nineteenth-Century French Paintings: Volume I, the Barbizon School. Vol. 1, London, 2019, p. 68, as "Clouds Study".