For as long as humans have been around, we’ve tried to control nature. Sometimes out of admiration, sometimes out of necessity. At a time when the relationships between people and nature are on edge, we look back to think ahead.

At a time when our relationship with the world around us seems increasingly fragile, Drawing from Nature invites to go back in time. In this exhibition, you will walk through four centuries of history in which man’s relationship to nature has changed significantly. Is man subject to forces greater than himself? Can he rule nature? Or is he himself an integral part of all life on Earth — and should he therefore listen to what nature has to say?

The exhibition Drawing from Nature (Getekend, de Natuur) addresses these questions and invites you to think about appropriate and sustainable ways of living together and your own views on living with your environment.

An extensive collection of ancient Utrecht landscape drawings from the Munnicks van Cleeff Collection forms the common thread. This is complemented by old, modern and contemporary works. Some works have never been shown before, including Jan van Niwael’s Portrait of a girl on her death bed.