On an arid day in May 1681, the artist Rochus van Veen witnessed something unusual: the migration of an enormous swarm of dragonflies.
Amazed by the sight, Van Veen recorded the event by making the above drawing of three insects and adding a detailed note along the bottom:
“The dragonflies flew in such a large mass in May 1681 as one had ever seen and all came from the south and flew on the wind towards the north during a big drought.”
Van Veen was from a family of artists who specialized in natural history drawings. He depicted plants, birds, and insects in watercolor. While he isn’t a household name, his work is representative of some of the most pressing concerns of 17th-century Dutch artists: to create a visually compelling and legible representation of the surrounding world. As seen in this drawing, Van Veen accomplished this task with ingenuity, reducing the mass of insects to a more manageable sampling of its parts. In doing so, he captured the shape and coloring of three specimens with such acuity that it is possible to identify them! The bottom left and top right are Libellula quadrimaculata, commonly known as the four-spotted chaser or four-spotted skimmer and the one on the lower right is a broad-bodied chaser (Libellula depressa). Both species can be found across Europe, and the former can also be found in North America.
Van Veen studied these insects closely and used a fine brush to depict the delicate veins of the transparent wings.
But the sheet does more than just record Van Veen’s stray observation. The drawing is evidence of earlier migratory behavior of dragonflies and enriches our understanding of the changing landscape—and climate. Drawn during a period of drought, and long before the Netherlands was shaped into what we know today by extensive land reclamation projects, this sheet reveals how artists were keen observers of the natural world and shows what art can tell us about ecology.
Why did these dragonflies migrate?
Dragonflies, including the Libellula quadrimaculata, sometimes move in large, migratory swarms, though there is no consensus on why. Migrations tend to happen cyclically, possibly triggered by the dragonfly population passing a certain threshold, but they can also be sparked by environmental factors. When dragonflies swarm, they tend to attract others as they migrate, leading to an intermixing of different species. Van Veen likely saw a swarm comprised of both Libellula quadrimaculata and Libellula depressa, which is why the two species are on this sheet.
Dragonflies go through a three-stage life cycle: beginning as an egg, hatching into larva, and finally emerging from the water as an adult. Based on Van Veen’s inscription, we know that he witnessed this massive flight during an important moment in the four-spotted chaser’s life. April and May are when larvae leave the ponds, lakes, and marshes they call home as matured dragonflies.
Van Veen also connected the swarm of insects with the weather. During the spring of 1681 there was a drought that affected much of Northern Europe. There were, fortunately, no long-term ill-effects from the drought, but the unusual weather was a topic of discussion among contemporaries. It is possible that the sudden drop in water in the marshy wetlands of the Netherlands compelled these dragonflies to migrate.
Where are the dragonflies today?
For Van Veen, a swarm of dragonflies was an unusual sight that was worthy of recording in both text and image. Today, these occurrences have become even rarer. While migratory swarms of Libellula quadrimaculata used to occur in Europe at regular intervals—about every decade or so—no such swarm has been seen in the past several decades. The reason is unclear. Though they are still a common insect, shifts in the climate could have led to an overall decline in the species’ population in the Netherlands.
Van Veen was living in Beverwijk in 1681, a city north of Haarlem and near the North Sea coast, a region that has changed dramatically over the centuries due to land reclamation. The Haarlemmermeer, a polder near Haarlem, was at this time submerged under water. Similarly, the Ij (a body of water in the Netherlands) did not yet extend from Amsterdam to the North Sea. Both massive environmental transformations occurred in the 19th century. While this explains the swarm’s flight path as originating in the south, it does not explain the behavioral changes seen today. Instead, the drawing pins these specimens down for closer inspection, inviting deeper reflections on what art can tell us about ecology, and how the climate shapes our worldview.
Extreme weather can have profound effects on people’s lives, animal behavior, and the environment. Artists in the Netherlands were particularly sensitive to weather changes and how it affected the world around them. While Van Veen marveled at dragonflies during a time of drought, throughout the century, the Dutch were contending with a period of global cooling, the results of which led to longer, frigid winters, and cooler summers. Dutch artists working during “The Little Ice Age” were motivated by the same desire as Van Veen to record their observations and created paintings and drawings that depict their changing climate. As a result, we can now look back and reflect on how people of the past adapted in the face of extreme weather conditions.
Learn more about the Dutch response to a changing climate in the exhibition On Thin Ice: Dutch Depictions of Extreme Weather on view at the Getty Center through September 1, 2024.
