So quiet. The exhaust from one tiny ship pulling a grand sailboat in 1856. The exhaust floats into the sky like the larger clouds.
The Art Institute of Chicago has 47 photographs by Gustave Le Gray. This tugboat image is my favorite. There are a couple others that capture the sublime power of nature over humanity.
After viewing these serene scenes, I open a new Chrome tab, and this image appears.
The action in this scene could almost be imagined as a close-up of what’s actually happening on Gustave Le Gray’s sailboat. Quite the contrast going from a quiet distant seascape to a tightly-cropped action packed seascape. Both created in the 19th century on different continents.
Here’s both images side-by-side. The smokey clouds and off-white shades really tie both of these together.
Oh snap. 30 minutes later later, this appears in my browser:
The Art Institute is totally trolling me with images of dramatic clouds today.