A Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm

“Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm” is one of a pair of monumental landscapes commissioned by the Marquess of Lansdowne for his famous collection at Berkeley Square in London. Originally, this “sublime” evocation of the terror associated with the destructive power of a violent storm was meant to find its complement in a “beautiful” sunset harbor scene, but the two paintings were separated in the early 19th century and the pendant to the DMA painting is now in a private collection. The drama of this large-scale landscape with thundering waterfall, craggy coast, and ominous storm clouds anticipates the emotional intensity of romanticism, which reached its height in the first half of the 19th century.