A groundbreaking exhibition exploring the artistic representation of rain will open at the Nantes Museum of Arts on November 7, 2025, running through March 1, 2026, before traveling to the Rouen Museum of Fine Arts from April 11 to September 20, 2026. Titled "Under the Rain: Painting, Living, Dreaming," the show features approximately 150 works that examine how painters have grappled with capturing water's ephemeral, translucent nature. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through two centuries of art history, beginning with the advent of plein air painting in the 19th century. Rather than focusing on mythological or religious interpretations of precipitation, the curators have chosen to emphasize atmospheric and meteorological perspectives, showcasing how artists translated weather phenomena onto canvas.
The central challenge addressed throughout the exhibition is the paradox of painting rain—an element that is both invisible and yet dramatically transforms everything it touches. Artists developed diverse techniques to solve this artistic problem. Gustave Courbet employed thick impasto strokes to convey the weight and force of downpours, as seen in his 1866 work "Marine (La Trombe)," which depicts a powerful waterspout. In contrast, Eugène Boudin favored fluid brushwork and vaporous effects to suggest mist and drizzle, capturing the subtle atmospheric changes along the Normandy coast. These differing approaches reveal how individual artistic vision shaped the representation of a common natural phenomenon.
The exhibition also illuminates the social history embedded in rainy-day scenes, particularly the emergence of the umbrella as a fashionable urban accessory during the modernization of Parisian boulevards. Leonetto Cappiello's 1922 work "Les Parapluies Revel" exemplifies this intersection of commerce, fashion, and weather, featuring the stylish parasols that became essential status symbols. Visitors can trace the evolution of street life through these paintings, observing how inclement weather shaped public behavior and urban design. The show demonstrates that rain-soaked scenes are not merely aesthetic choices but documentations of changing social customs and class structures.
Scientific history provides another crucial layer to the exhibition's narrative. The development of meteorology as a formal science directly influenced artistic practice, beginning with Luke Howard's 1802 classification system for clouds. Camille Flammarion's 1888 publication "L'Atmosphère météorologie populaire" popularized atmospheric studies, while amateur meteorologist and painter André des Gachons created over 9,000 watercolor sky studies accompanied by detailed atmospheric measurements. These scientific observations gave artists new vocabulary and understanding for depicting weather with greater accuracy and nuance.
The curatorial team has arranged the works to highlight both chronological progression and thematic connections. Early 19th-century pieces emphasize the Romantic fascination with nature's power, while Impressionist works focus on optical effects and light refraction through water. Modern and contemporary selections explore rain as psychological metaphor and abstract element. This structure allows viewers to appreciate how each generation reinterpreted the challenge according to their artistic priorities and technological capabilities.
Ultimately, "Under the Rain" reveals that painting precipitation requires more than technical skill—it demands capturing an experience that engages all senses. The exhibition succeeds in showing how artists transformed a mundane meteorological event into a rich subject for exploring transparency, movement, and transformation. By bringing together masterpieces from major institutions, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Lyon Museum of Fine Arts, the show offers a comprehensive look at an overlooked theme that has fascinated painters for generations. Visitors will leave with a new appreciation for how rain serves as both subject and collaborator in the creative process.
