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Rembrandt & van Hoogstraten: The Art of Illusion

It takes a split second these days to create an image, and how many millions are recorded daily on mobile phones, possibly never to be looked at again? You can see it all happening in the palatial surroundings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, definitely one of those tick-off destinations on many travellers' bucket lists, where those in search of instant pictorial satisfaction throng the imposing statue-lined staircase for a selfie or pout for a photo in the café under the spectacular cupola. But we're not in Vienna for a quick fix, we're at the KHM to admire something more enduring in the shape of art produced almost 500 years ago by Rembrandt and his pupil Samuel van Hoogstraten that was intended to mislead your eyes into seeing the real in the unreal. Artistic deception is the story at the centre of  Rembrandt--Hoogstraten: Colour and Illusion , one of the most engrossing and best-staged exhibitions we've seen this year. And, somewhat surprisingly, a show wi...
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Opening and Closing in March

Impressionism shook up the world of art, but that was nothing compared to what followed. After Impressionism at the National Gallery in London, starting on March 25, aims to take us through the revolutionary period from around 1880 to the start of World War I, on to Expressionism, Cubism and Abstraction, with Cezanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Klimt, Kokoschka, Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky and Rodin; among more than 100 works, including loans from around Europe and the US, there'll also be unfamiliar artists like Broncia Koller-Pinell. Until August 13.
However, if you're not quite ready for the Post-Impressionists just yet, how about the leading woman Impressionist, who's coming to Dulwich Picture Gallery on March 31? Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism will include more than 30 of her works, nine of them from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, as well as looking at how she drew inspiration from 18th-century paintings by the likes of Fragonard, Watteau, Gainsborough and Reynolds. It's the first Morisot show in the UK since 1950, apparently, and it's on until September 10.

Now, we love Dutch Golden Age art, though one of those genres we must admit we tend to gloss over is maritime painting. Among the most celebrated Dutch exponents were the father and son both called Willem van de Velde, but during an era marked by Anglo-Dutch wars, in 1672 they switched to Charles II's side and became the founding fathers of British maritime art, working from the Queen's House in Greenwich. And it's there, from March 2 to January 14 next year, that you can explore their art and their story in The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea. Free entry, though donations are welcome. 

We've been hugely impressed by recent exhibitions in the new space at the Wallace Collection, so we've got high hopes of Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney, which runs from March 29 to October 15. The title says it all, really, but more than 50 works of art will be on show, going back to classical times. 
That other British favourite -- gardens -- is the theme of a new exhibition at the Garden Museum in Lambeth looking at how British artists portrayed green spaces in the 1920s and 30s. Featuring more than 30 works by artists including Eric Ravilious and Evelyn Dunbar, Private & Public: Finding the Modern British Garden will be on from March 22 to June 4.  

There are a couple of gardens and a few dogs on show in Telling Tales: The Story of Narrative Art in the Victorian era at Southampton City Art Gallery, which runs from March 17 to July 1. There's free entry, though somewhat restricted opening hours, for this fascinating exhibition, which we saw at the Russell-Cotes Museum in Bournemouth late last year. It turns out that, like Dutch 17th-century painting, Victorian art is full of symbolism that was clear to contemporaries but now needs quite a bit of explication.  

In the Jacobite rising of 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie's army got as far south as Derby before retreating to Scotland. In William Hogarth's The March of the Guards to Finchley, loyal troops are being readied to defend London. This and many other Hogarth paintings will be on show at Derby Museum & Art Gallery from March 10 to June 4 in Hogarth's Britons, exploring how his work, packed with social and political commentary, defined British identity in a turbulent era. And Bonnie Prince Charlie will be there too, in the shape of an Allan Ramsay portrait only recently acquired by the Scottish National Galleries. Entry is free; you're asked to give what you think.
There are a lot of big shows opening in Paris in March, starting on the first day of the month with Matisse: Cahiers d'art, the Pivotal 1930s at the Musée de l'Orangerie. The avant-garde magazine Cahiers d'art reported extensively on Henri Matisse's work throughout the decade, helping to reestablish the artist at the forefront of the contemporary art scene. This exhibition comes to Paris from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it gained glowing reviews. Until May 29.   

Starting on March 3, the Musée Jacquemart-André will be highlighting the work of the early Venetian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini through around 50 paintings from public and private collections across Europe, some on show for the first time. It's on until July 17. We admired some emotionally charged religious paintings and wonderful portraits by Bellini in a 2018 National Gallery show about him and his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna; this exhibition looks to have quite a few pictures we didn't see in London.  

At the Musée du Luxembourg, it's all about Monet: not the painter Claude, but Léon Monet, Brother of the Artist and Collector. Léon, a Rouen-based chemist and industrialist, played a big role in the development of modern art by starting a collection of the works of his sibling and other Impressionists a century and a half ago. Morisot, Sisley, Pissarro and Renoir, who feature in this show, are among those whose paintings and drawings he purchased. From March 15 to July 16. 

More stellar names from late 19th-century French art at the Musée d'Orsay in Manet/Degas, running from March 28 to July 23. Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas were born only two years apart in the 1830s and were both friends and rivals. The show looks at the similarities and the differences in their work as their careers developed in parallel. This exhibition goes on to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in September. 

There seems to have been a concerted effort in recent years to redress the gender balance in the Surrealist movement, and the latest show to do so is on at the Musée de Montmartre, featuring 50 women artists and almost 150 works. Meret Oppenheim and Dorothea Tanning are among the top names in Surréalisme au féminin? from March 31 to September 10. 

There's another show opening just outside Paris on March 31 that is likely to be far less challenging but utterly charming. Children of Impressionism at the Musée des impressionismes in Giverny promises pictures by Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, as well as Renoir, Monet and Pissarro. More than 100 exhibits in total with childhood as their theme. It's on until July 2.
Hugo van der Goes was one of the most important Netherlandish artists of the second half of the 15th century, but he's never had a major exhibition devoted to him -- until now. Hugo van der Goes: Between Pain and Bliss at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin brings together around 60 exhibits -- almost all his surviving work -- from nearly 40 collections, following recent restoration work on major paintings. From March 31 to July 16. 

Last chance to see....

Telling Tales: The Story of Victorian Narrative Art ends its run at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum in Bournemouth on March 5 before transferring to Southampton. 

March 19 is the final day to see the show at Leighton House in Kensington about the Holland Park Circle of Victorian artists who lived and worked in the area. 
And, should you be in southern California, March 27 offers your last chance to see Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts, the intriguing exhibition showing how much Disney cartoons were influenced by the Rococo. We saw the show at the Wallace Collection in London last year. 

Images

Broncia Koller-Pinell (1863-1934), Die Mutter der Künstlerin (The Artist's Mother), 1907. © Artothek des Bundes, on permanent loan at the Belvedere, Vienna
Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), Brizo, A Shepherd's Dog, 1864. © The Wallace Collection, London
William Hogarth (1697-1764), The March of the Guards to Finchley (detail), 1750, The Foundling Museum, London
Claude Monet (1840-1926), The Artist's House at Argenteuil, 1873, The Art Institute of Chicago 
Emilie Russell Barrington (1841-1933), Girl Seated, c. 1885. © Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

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