It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: the chance to see one of the greatest -- and most fragile -- works of European art before your very eyes. The illustrated manuscript known as the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry contains images that have shaped our view of the late Middle Ages, but it's normally kept under lock and key at the Château de Chantilly, north of Paris. It's only been exhibited twice in the past century. Now newly restored, the glowing pages of Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry are on show to the public for just a few months. "Approche, approche," the Duke of Berry's usher tells the visitors to the great man's table for the feast that will mark the start of the New Year. It's also your invitation to examine closely the illustration for January, one of the 12 months from the calendar in this Book of Hours -- a collection of prayers and other religious texts -- that form the centrepiece of this exhibition in Chantilly. It's su...
"I like either extreme novelty or things of the past," said Berthe Morisot. Just what that meant for her art is revealed in Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impresssionism , a sparkling, fresh show at Dulwich Picture Gallery in south-east London, and an exhibition that changed our view of the leading woman Impressionist. We were a little bit apprehensive on the way to Dulwich, with lingering memories of an extensive Morisot retrospective in Lille about 20 years ago that we unexpectedly found quite dull and repetitive. This new show turns out to be a bit of a revelation, focusing as it does on her fascination with and imaginative reworking of pictures by French and British 18th-century artists. And as for some of her late work.... it's so reminiscent of Edvard Munch. We certainly weren't expecting that. This Self-Portrait is the very first picture in the exhibition. Morisot painted it in her mid-40s, and it's a very self-assured picture, and a very modern one. Her palette...