Press Release Drawing from Nature - A Living History
Centraal Museum investigates the historical relationship between people and nature on the basis of a unique collection of landscape drawings.
Press Release - June 3, 2025
Centraal Museum investigates the historical relationship between people and nature on the basis of a unique collection of landscape drawings
October 11, 2025 - March 29, 2026
On 11 October, the Centraal Museum in Utrecht will open Drawing from Nature - A Living History, a thematic and transhistorical exhibition exploring the relationship between humans and nature. The exhibition centres on the Atlas Munnicks van Cleeff – an extensive and centuries-old collection of Utrecht landscape drawings. Alongside this collection of drawings, the exhibition features historical, modern and contemporary works by artists such as Charley Toorop, Peter Vos and Piet Mondriaan. The Annex will showcase the most recent work by Richard Mosse, on view in the Netherlands for the first time.
Bart Rutten, Artistic Director Centraal Museum: “We are deeply honored to be able to present such a large selection from Munnicks van Cleeff's collection of drawings to our visitors this autumn: this outstanding collection, rarely accessible to the public, offers a remarkable insight into how people have related to nature over the past centuries.”
Atlas Munnicks van Cleeff
Living with nature
This large-scale exhibition is structured around three thematic chapters, each illustrating a different shift in humanity’s relationship with the natural world: from fear of nature to the desire to dominate it, to an emerging understanding of humans as part of a larger web of life on earth. Signed, Nature invites visitors to reflect on these developments and to form their own perspectives on what sustainable and meaningful coexistence with nature might look like in this day and age.
Munnicks van Cleeff
The Atlas Munnicks van Cleeff consists of approximately 1,500 landscape drawings and illustrations from the 17th and 18th centuries, around one hundred of which are included in the exhibition. These detailed depictions of the Utrecht region offer valuable insights into the area's history. For instance, some prints portray now-urbanised locations like the Biltstraat in Utrecht, once surrounded by farmland.
Annex: Richard Mosse
The final room of the exhibition, the Annex, will feature Broken Spectre (2022), the most recent work by Richard Mosse. This 74-minute video installation presents a three-channel portrayal of the devastating impact of deforestation in the Amazon. Accompanied by a compelling soundtrack, the artwork invites viewers to reflect on the gravity of the climate crisis.
Featured Artists
Drwaing from Nature includes artworks by Jan de Beijer, Katherine Bradford, Femke Herregraven, Craigie Horsfield, Claudia Martínez Garay, Anne Geene, Jacob Maris, Raquel Maulwurf, Piet Mondrian, Richard Mosse, Ben Sledsens, Jan Sluijters and Charley Toorop, among others.
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Press
Press images are here to download.
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