Three women are crossing a bridge over a canal. In the dreary light, with frocks flapping in the wind, the weather seems especially bleak. The loose brushstrokes give the painting the sense of having been completed in an instant. ‘Rain and Wind’ was one of the first paintings of street scenes in Amsterdam that Breitner exhibited. While some critics praised the artist for the striking impression the picture presents, others had no time for this ‘sloppy way of painting’.