Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Henry Tate Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-william-quiller-orchardson-407" aria-label="More by Sir William Quiller Orchardson" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir William Quiller Orchardson</a>
First Cloud
Presented by Sir Henry Tate 1894
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
architecture
arguing
chair
clothing and personal items
column
curtain
domestic
dress
family
features
fireplace
furnishings
heating and lighting
husband
interiors
leaving
light / lamp
living room
looking / watching
man
objects
people
screen
society
standing
table
walking
wife
woman
<p>This is the last of three paintings by William Orchardson on the subject of an unhappy marriage. The empty space of the parquet floor emphasises the psychological tension between the couple. It suggests that their dispute might lead to more serious problems. When it was first exhibited these lines from a Tennyson’s poem <span>Merlin and Vivien </span>were published in the catalogue: ‘It is the little rift within the lute, That by and by will make the music mute’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
2012-11-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-05
Gallery 9
Collection based display
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
The First Cloud
support: 832 × 1213 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999962" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Sir Henry Tate</a> 1894
<p>This is the last of three pictures by Orchardson that focus on the theme of the unhappy marriage. The first two in the series, Mariage de Convenance (1883, Glasgow Museums) and Mariage à la Mode - After! (1886, Aberdeen Art Gallery) depict the disadvantages of marrying for wealth rather than for love. The elderly husband is soon abandoned by his bored young wife. In The First Cloud, the marriage is still based on an exchange of her beauty for his wealth, but the age gap is less noticeable. However, without love, the relationship lacks any firm foundation, and this first rift between the couple is merely the cloud before the storm. The picture was first exhibited at the Royal Academy with these lines from Tennyson: 
<br/>
<br/>'It is the little rift within the lute
<br/>That by-and-by will make the music mute.' 
<br/>
<br/>The setting, as with so many of Orchardson's costume dramas, is an elegant <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/v/victorian" title="Glossary definition for 'Victorian'"><span>Victorian</span></a> drawing room. The wife retires from the room through a pillared arch, her graceful form silhouetted against the dark opening in the curtains. Although she turns her back to us (and to her husband) her face is vaguely reflected in a mirror in the dark room beyond. This figure was modeled by a Mrs Hope, one of a family of very beautiful sisters. For the husband Orchardson used a close friend, the artist Tom Graham. He stands by the mantelpiece, looking extremely disgruntled, and possibly rather drunk, his hands thrust in his pockets. The psychological rift that has grown between the couple is emphasized physically by the empty expanse of parquet flooring that separates them. The colours are typically muted: cool creams, pastel pinks and blues, alongside Orchardson's favorite colour combination of yellow and brown, which the French critic Ernest Chesneau described as 'harmonious as the wrong side of a tapestry.' (Wood 1999, p.257) 
<br/>
<br/>This is a smaller version of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>, now in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1887 and was <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/caricature" title="Glossary definition for 'Caricature'"><span>caricatured</span></a> in Punch: The Academy Guy'd (7 May 1887, p.226). The husband, dressed as a painter, addresses the departing back of his model: 
<br/>
<br/>Yes, you can go; I've done with you, my dear.
<br/>Here comes the model for the following year,
<br/>(To himself) Luck in odd numbers - Anno Jubilee -
<br/>This is Divorce Court Series Number Three. 
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>William R. Hardie, <i>Sir William Quiller Orchardson R.A.,</i> Edinburgh 1972, [pp.49-50], reproduced [p.6].
<br/>Christopher Wood, <i>Victorian Painting,</i> London 1999, p.257. 
<br/>
<br/>Frances Fowle
<br/>31 October 2000 </p>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>This is the last of three paintings by William Orchardson on the subject of an unhappy marriage. The empty space of the parquet floor emphasises the psychological tension between the couple. It suggests that their dispute might lead to more serious problems. When it was first exhibited these lines from a Tennyson’s poem <i>Merlin and Vivien </i>were published in the catalogue: ‘It is the little rift within the lute, That by and by will make the music mute’.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-11-15T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults architecture arguing chair clothing and personal items column curtain domestic dress family features fireplace furnishings heating and lighting husband interiors leaving light / lamp living room looking / watching man objects people screen society standing table walking wife woman