Lecture | Old Masters, Dutch Skies: Fiction or Reality?

Meteorologist David Henneveld gives a lecture on Thursday, 11 March 2027 about the cloud skies in paintings by the old masters - and whether those skies are still the same after hundreds of years. His answer: yes.

The presentation centres on a comparison between paintings from bygone eras and contemporary cloud photographs. The focus is not on the painter's biography, but on how faithfully the skies are depicted on canvas. All photographs in the presentation were taken in or near Soest.

David Henneveld is a self-taught meteorologist who has been interested in weather since the 1970s. He works at Weathernews in Soest and photographs cloud skies as a major hobby. Meteorology runs as a golden thread through his life - via observer work, military service and his job - though he himself prefers to call it a hobby that got out of hand.