Extreme weather has long loomed large in the artist’s imagination. Michael Prodger celebrates the poetic beauty of Nature’s all-consuming fury.
In late 1631, the 25-year-old Rembrandt van Rijn decided to try his luck in Amsterdam. He was, by then, a well-known painter in his native Leiden and had been talent spotted by connoisseurs who suggested he leave his large, but provincial town and aim instead for the upper echelons of Dutch society. Rembrandt made this…
