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Weather In Art: Paintings And Writing Inspired By Rubbish Weather

Cheer up Britain! Why Rubbish Weather Isn't Always A Bad Thing
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By 

Culture Editor of Huffington Post UK

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The lost summer! The festival killer! The soggy Olympics games!

...Never has a summer in Britain attracted such derision - or, let's face it, rain fall - as 2012, but believe it or not things could be worse.

For centuries, the cantankerous swirl of storm clouds and the dull thud of rain have roused in our artists and writers a desperation to capture - and in many cases exaggerate - the gloomy shadow ashen skies cast over our souls.

Literature students call it 'pathetic fallacy', art students call it lots of blue and black swirls - we call it rotten weather in art, and if nothing else, it ought to make you feel a little better about Britain's summer wash out.

So here, in glorious colour and quotes, are our favourite examples of art inspired by extremely crappy weather. Cheer up Britain!

Bad Weather Art
A Woman In Boat Sheltering From The Rain Under An Umbrella, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi(01 of18)
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Thought your brolly was taking a beating? Check out the character in this Japanese ukiyo-e style painting by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, cowering from the sky like its holding a gun. Or possibly just a very big water pistol.SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
Large Waves Breaking (1989), by Alan Byrne(02 of18)
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The floods have been disastrous in Britain, but at least we're not confronting waves like these down the high street. Well, not yet anyway... SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
(03 of18)
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London, Houses of Parliament (1904), by Claude Monet(04 of18)
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Monet here painting in 1904, on a day when the rain and fog was clearly so bad even Big Ben's visage was obscured.SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
Man To Man At Last! French Infantry Pursuing A Flying German Battery In A Rain-Swept Valley Of The Argonne (20th century)(05 of18)
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Getting on the train during a heavy downpour might be pain in neck - but imagine commandeering a heavy artillery vehicle during a war, whilst going up a hill. This frantic scene from the Argonne puts the commute in perspective a little bit doesn't it. SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
(06 of18)
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Rain Scene At Kita-Shinchi In Osaka, by Matsudaira Sadanobu(07 of18)
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Rain so heavy, it falls in one continuous black line like a laser beam - and barely a pair of trousers between them. Who says we have the worst weather in the world? SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway (19th century), by JMW Turner(08 of18)
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It's hard to make out, but in the bottom right of Turner's painting of what is probably Maidenhead Railway Bridge, there's a tiny hare running in front of the oncoming train. Is it escaping the clutches of the industrial revolution, or just the sodden rain? We'll let you decide.SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
(09 of18)
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Rainstorm Over The Sea (1824-8), by John Constable(10 of18)
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You could read lots of things into the impetuous slashes and swirls of Constable's sky - for us, it captures the mood of a man thoroughly p***ed off with yet another rubbish English summer. SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
Rainy Night, Charing Cross Shops 1903, by Joseph Pennell(11 of18)
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In Pennell's bleak portrait of central London, the rain and shadows are closing in like the slowly clenching fist of terrible weather giant. In our opinion, anyway.SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
(12 of18)
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Scene Of The Deluge (19th century), by Theodore Gericault(13 of18)
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Have you ever seen a meaner looking sky than Theodore Gericault's? You only have to look at the tortured figures struggling to rescue their children to know this was one bad day out. Or the horse. That's one wound up horse.SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
The Rain It Raineth Every Day (1889), by Norman Garstin(14 of18)
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It's not the pictures itself so much, in which a little girl huddles into her mother to escape a moderately miserable day. It's Irishman Norman Garstin's entry in the Most Depressing Title In Art competition - The Rain It Raineth Every Day. Even in 2012 it hasn't done that. Has it?SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
(15 of18)
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The Storm (19th century), by JMW Turner(16 of18)
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Turner again, and this time instead of a train and a hare being engulfed by rain it's a set of ships that, let's face it, don't appear to much chance of reaching shore.SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
Umbrellas In The Rain (1899), by Maurice Brazil Prendergast(17 of18)
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Here American Post-Impressionist American Post-Impressionist beautifully evokes the only thing worse than being caught out in the rain - being caught out in queuing in the rain. Looks like they're going to be there a long time, too...SOURCE: ArtFinder.com
(18 of18)
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