Johan Barthold Jongkind: Ansicht von Delft, 1844, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague
About fleecy clouds and rainbows
Air layers, wind directions, cloud shapes – all this can be found in the Dutch paintings of the exhibition Clouds and Light: Impressionism in Holland. Meteorologist Franz Ossing vividly explains what we see and what it's all about.
Willem Roelofs: The Rainbow, 1875, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague, gift of the Friends of Kunstmuseum Den Haag
Jacob Maris: Shellfishing, 1885, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Mr and Mrs Drucker-Fraser Bequest, Montreux
An awareness of the weather shaped the vision of a new generation of artists from around 1850 as they turned their gaze toward nature and the landscape. Thanks to modern inventions such as manufactured paint in tubes and portable easels, they could capture their impressions of the landscape directly in front of the motif.
The artists of Impressionism painted in the open air, en plein air, directly exposed to the elements. They wanted their paintings to convey these sensations so that viewers could experience them as well. Their intention was not to create a precise illustration of the landscape, but to evoke the unique atmosphere of specific weather conditions. They wanted their viewers to feel something of what they themselves had experienced while working in nature. Today, these paintings still convey information about the weather at the moment of their creation, about the prevailing conditions and fluctuations in the temperature, humidity, and energy content of the air.
Download the free Barberini App from the App Store and Google Play and explore the meteorological phenomena in selected images of the exhibition Clouds and Light with the audio tour Weather and Clouds.
