Clear to cloudy

The weather has always been observed to determine favorable times for sowing or harvesting, for example. With the economic and political upswing of Dutch society, towards the end of the 16th century artists turned to the domestic landscape as a subject and, associated with this, increasingly to local weather. Atmospheric phenomena and weather events were closely observed, reproduced in detail, and used purposefully to create a pictorial mood or to symbolically charge a depiction.

In what is now the Netherlands, the fertile soils of the coastal areas began to be drained about 1,000 years ago in order to increase arable land and settlement areas. As a result, the low-lying territory was particularly vulnerable to weather extremes. Historically documented floods, storms, and dike breaches that people faced without early warning systems also found their way into art. These depictions are highly topical: due to climate change, extreme weather events such as heavy rain or heat waves are on the increase today, endangering the country and its people not only in Europe, but worldwide.

This small thematic exhibition presents 25 Dutch prints and drawings of the 17th and 18th centuries from the rich holdings of the Kupferstichkabinett. The focus is on intensive observation of nature and curiosity about the external appearance of things. Moving clouds, rain showers, a sudden gust of wind become just as worthy of depiction as the bone-chilling cold during the so-called Little Ice Age, a period with long-lasting and particularly cold winters. The exhibition approaches the awakening interest in the depiction of these visible and thus depictable phenomena as well as the often devastating consequences of weather extremes.

"Bright to Cloudy. Weather Phenomena in Dutch Prints and Drawings" is curated by Christien Melzer, curator of Dutch and English art before 1800 at the Kupferstichkabinett.