Hilding Werner - Landscape with Cloud Formations

Hilding Werner (1880–1944) Sweden

Landscape with Cloud Formations

inscribed and authenticated by the artist on the reverse:
“Anstående målning (utkast) är utförd av Hilding Werner”
oil on canvas
unframed 37 × 29 cm (14.6 × 11.4 in)
framed 47 × 39 cm (18.5 × 15.4 in)

Provenance:
Private collection, Sweden.

Condition Report
The painting is in very good condition and has recently been cleaned by professional art restorer. well preserved paint surface and clear, harmonious colours. Presented in a gilded frame.

Essay:
This landscape is a particularly intimate example of Hilding Werner's fascination with the dramatic skies and changing weather of the Värmland landscape. Described by the artist himself on the reverse as an utkast, or study, a preparatory work for a more formally resolved composition.

Hills stretches horizontally across the lower part of the composition, Above it rises an immense sky filled with towering cloud formations. The proportions leave little doubt as to Werner's true subject: approximately three quarters of the composition is devoted to the sky.

Hilding Werner studied at Caleb Althin's painting school in Stockholm before continuing his artistic development independently. He became closely associated with the landscapes of Värmland, whose forests, lakes and broad horizons provided him with an inexhaustible source of motifs. Throughout his career, Werner demonstrated a particular sensitivity to atmospheric phenomena. Reflections, evening light, approaching weather and dramatic cloud formations recur repeatedly in his paintings.

In the present work, this interest is reduced almost to its purest form. The landscape acts primarily as a foundation against which the extraordinary scale of the sky can be experienced. The low horizon makes the clouds appear even more imposing, while the small tree at lower right provides an important sense of scale.