Cloud and Rain (1950) is the most famous painting by David Hare. From the 2 works of David Hare in our catalogue, here are the 2 that collectors and museum visitors look at most, with the year, the museum and the story of each.
Ranked by our popularity score, which combines the searches, visits and orders for each work. Updated November 2026.
1950 is the year of every dated David Hare masterpiece on this page: here they are, in order of fame.
Cloud and Rain (1950).
33 years old: Cloud and Rain dates from 1950 and David Hare was born in 1917.
Our catalogue lists 2 works by David Hare.
In 1950: 2 of the 2 works on this page date from then, among them Cloud and Rain.
To look at the work of David Hare is to confront a deliberate fragmentation of reality. He was an American sculptor who did not merely represent dreams but reconstructed them through heavy, tangible materials. While his contemporaries often drifted into pure abstraction, Hare anchored his explorations in the weight of steel and bronze. His practice was defined by a refusal to let the image remain purely symbolic; instead, he forced it into a physical, biomorphic presence that demands attention through its very mass.
His development was shaped by an unusual proximity to the exiled French Surrealists during World War II. This connection provided him with a technical vocabulary of subversion. He utilized heatage, or brulage, in his photography—a process of melting photographic negatives to distort the subject. In works like his Untitled piece from the VVV portfolio, the technique strips away anatomical certainty, leaving only the contour of a female body amidst black and white masses that suggest burnt flesh. This was not an aesthetic choice made for decoration; it was a method to negate the photographic ability to reproduce an objective truth.
Hare’s transition toward metalwork allowed him to bridge the gap between Surrealist philosophy and the emerging energy of Abstract Expressionism. He moved away from the ephemeral nature of paper and film toward the permanence of bronze and steel. His sculptures often feature organic, biomorphic shapes that feel as though they possess an independent life. These forms do not rely on recognizable figures but instead use abstract compositions to trigger instinctive emotional responses.
The structural logic of his work can be seen in specific series and pieces:
Hare’s significance lies in his ability to use the tools of chance and intuition—such as automatic drawing and collage—to challenge the stability of the visual field. He did not seek to create a window into another world, but rather to break apart the existing one and reassemble it into something more complex. His work remains relevant because it avoids the trap of easy recognition. By manipulating negatives and melting surfaces, he mirrored the instability of a world undergoing profound political and physical transformation.
He remained a figure who straddled two distinct movements without being swallowed by either. His commitment to exploring human desire, death, and love through the lens of Surrealist technique persisted even when such themes lost their mainstream momentum. He proved that art could be both deeply psychological and physically undeniable.