Stortbui nabij Gouda.

Willem Roelofs's 'Stortbui nabij Gouda' (Rain Shower near Gouda, 1887) depicts the dramatic atmospheric conditions of the Dutch polder landscape — the sudden heavy rain shower sweeping across the flat land and open sky with a visibility that only the Dutch flat landscape allows. The weather subject in Dutch painting carried a continuous tradition from Jacob van Ruisdael's dramatic cloud studies to the Hague School's atmospheric specialization. Roelofs's Gouda subject is geographically specific, the town on the Hollandse IJssel creating a distinctive topographical context for the atmospheric subject.

Roelofs renders the rain shower with his characteristic atmospheric sensitivity — the approaching or retreating rain depicted through the specific visual quality of rainfall at distance (the grey veil over the landscape) contrasting with the brighter areas where the shower has passed or not yet reached. His handling of the Dutch sky — dominant in any flat landscape composition — creates the dramatic contrast between storm and clearing. The low flat horizon gives maximum vertical space for the atmospheric drama.