Paintings by the world’s best 19th century landscape artists are on display for the first time in Canberra.
Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) is made up of more than 100 works by 48 artists including JMW Turner, Claude Monet, John Constable, Gustave Courbet and Vincent van Gogh.
Works by popular Australian artists Eugene von Guerard, John Glover, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton are also on display, along with German, Swiss and Scandinavian artists who are often overlooked by art historians.
NGA director Ron Radford says it is the most comprehensive collection of 19th century landscape paintings ever assembled and will only be displayed in Canberra.
“This exhibition is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see works of art which have never been seen together in Australia before,” he said.
“You won’t ever see works by all these artists together again as there isn’t a single collection in the world that has this whole gamut of 19th century landscape art.”
The paintings are drawn from 40 of the finest collections around the world including the Tate and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands.
Mr Radford says some of the paintings have never been displayed in Australia before.
Turner to Monet showcases the predominance of the landscape genre in Britain and its spread to Germany, France and the rest of Europe during the 19th century. The genre then became popular among European artists living in Australia and the United States.
“It’s not just a survey of 19th century landscape painting, it’s about the century of landscape, the triumph of landscape,” Mr Radford said.
“It shows how landscape became the major subject. It only became the major subject in Western art in the beginning of the 19th century.
“So it starts off in Britain with Turner and Constable and Palmer and others, and then moves on to France onto the Barbizon painters Corot and the French impressionists but also includes German romantic painting of the early 19th century which we’ve never seen in Australia before .
“It includes also not just paintings of the old world, of Europe, but also of the new world, America, Australia, New Zealand South America.”
Australian artists
NGA chairman Rupert Myer says the exhibition shows the role of Australian landscape art in the context of international works.
“It contextualises Australian and American painting within the story of landscape from Turner to Monet,” he said.
“To assemble all of these works, to tell the story of how landscape painting developed over the century gives a complete understanding to the visitor of what was going on in the minds of artists at that time.
“The story of Australian painting is a very proud part of the Australian visual memory. For many people coming to see these works it will be like visiting old friends within the context of perhaps many new ones.”
Curator Christine Dixon says the exhibition is not just about big names like Monet and Van Gogh.
“What we wanted was the very best paintings that you could possibly have,” she said.
“We wanted the very best art made on this subject during the whole century.
“So it’s not always the most famous artists - although of course there’s Turner, Constable and Van Gough, Monet. But as well as that we want artists who you would never expect to see in a show like this who made extraordinary landscapes.
“So you’ve got a painter like Bastien-Lepage who is known as a painter of peasants and we’ve got a beautiful windswept … uninhabited landscape, which is actually about the eternal nature of land and the recovery of France after the disaster of the Franco-Prussian War.”
Ms Dixon says it is the first time paintings by German artist Caspar David Friedrich have ever been exhibited in Australia.
“[Friedrich] is one of the most important artists of the century but very little known outside of Germany,” she said.
Ms Dixon says the exhibition offers something for everybody.
“There’s such a variety. It’s not just pretty pictures of trees, it’s exciting pictures about nature and society and art. They’re the three topics of landscape painting in the 19th century.
“I defy anybody not to like anything in the show. There must be something that they will find moving, exciting, interesting and unusual.”
Turner to Monet opens tomorrow and will be on display at the National Gallery of Australia until June 9.
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painting, 19th-century, australia, act, canberra-2600
