Pelleter des nuages

This collage is part of the series “Au pied de la Lettre” (To the letter) begun by Les Murs ont des Oreilles in the fall of 2020.

The French expression “pelleter des nuages” means to put effort into something impossible or pointless, and can be translated literally as “to shovel clouds” or more idiomatically as “to chase rainbows” or “to try to catch the wind.
The expression “Pelleter des nuages” is illustrated by the painting Venus and Her Companions, created around 1726 by the painter Noël Nicolas Coypel (Private Collection).