On This Side of Jove's Clouds

Will Hicock Low · 1885

Medium

Black, gray and white gouache on cream wood-pulp laminate board

Original size

45.1 × 34.6 cm (17 13/16 × 13 5/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Impressionism

"On This Side of Jove's Clouds" is a quietly commanding work — its restrained palette of black, grey, and white lending it an atmosphere that feels simultaneously mythological and intimate. Will Hicock Low trained in Paris under Carolus-Duran alongside John Singer Sargent, absorbing the French academic tradition before returning to America as one of its most accomplished decorative painters. This 1885 piece, executed in gouache on a laminate board rather than canvas, shows Low working in a more private register than his large public murals — the tonal discipline of the medium demanding precision over spontaneity, and rewarding it with a luminous, restrained depth. Low was a close friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, who dedicated "A Child's Garden of Verses" to him — a connection that speaks to the literary, imaginative quality that runs through much of Low's work, including this piece with its allusion to the skies above Jupiter's domain. Now held in the Art Institute of Chicago, the original's subtle gradations of light and shadow present a genuine challenge to any artist working in oil. This hand-painted reproduction meets that challenge directly, translating Low's precise tonal language into brushwork that honours the mood and scale of the original.