A Distant Hail-Storm Coming On, and the March of Soldiers with their Baggage

Philip James de Loutherbourg painted A Distant Hail-Storm Coming On around 1799, a landscape subject demonstrating his mastery of extreme weather effects derived from both direct observation and his theatrical experience manipulating light and weather on the Drury Lane stage. The approaching storm — the dark sky in the distance, the strange light quality of the air before a hailstorm arrives — was a subject at the extreme edge of Romantic weather painting, the natural world depicted in a state of maximum atmospheric drama. De Loutherbourg's theatrical background gave him an instinct for the most dramatically effective moment in a natural event, and his storm paintings are among the most visually compelling weather subjects in British art.

De Loutherbourg creates a powerful atmosphere of approaching storm through dark, turbulent clouds and hail sweeping across the landscape. The soldiers' column provides a human counterpoint to nature's violence, painted with energetic brushwork.