The fact that the clouds and the sky can shape and change the character of a landscape has long been known in painting. What was new, however, was that the view of the sky was also possible without a landscape. While cloud types were categorised in meteorology, artists captured the ephemeral formations in small sketches - often using the quick medium of the oil sketch. In Germany, Dahl in particular was known for such cloud studies. He brought the technique back from Italy in 1821. As Dahl noted, he painted the small cumulus clouds, on ‘11 July 1835’, more than ten years after his trip to Italy.