Visit the evocative Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller exhibition at the National Gallery in London and you could think it was sponsored by the Austrian Tourist Board, because these oil paintings so beautifully depict the magnificent Alpine scenery that has long attracted visitors. Those towering mountains with their craggy grey peaks, so high they're topped with a glacier, the rich green meadows, some above the treeline, others on lower slopes or down in the valleys where the rivers meander. It's all there. But look a little longer and you become aware that some things are missing; where are those familiar chairlifts, cable cars, broad ski pistes, railways and roads? There are only a scattering of houses; maybe just a few inns and hotels catering for the adventurous, for Austrian tourism is in its infancy. That's because Waldmüller was born in Vienna in 1793 and died near the Vienna Woods in 1865. Waldmüller: Landscapes , a free single-room display of just over a dozen paintings...
Swiss-born Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943) was one of the leading abstract artists and designers of the early 20th century, working across a wide range of media from textiles through puppetry and painting, but she's never had a retrospective in the UK. That changes on July 15, when Tate Modern in London opens an exhibition that brings together her most important works from across Europe and the US, many of which have not been on display in Britain before. The show comes direct from the Kunstmuseum in Basel and is at the Tate until October 17, after which it moves on to MoMA in New York. If you're looking for something more cuddly than Germanic abstraction, you should head to the British Library for Paddington: The Story of a Bear , a family-friendly exhibition uncovering the inspiration behind the star of Michael Bond's classic children's books. There are first editions and original artwork for the grown-ups, and a marmalade trail to follow for the younger visitors. F...