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New Exhibitions in February

Georges Seurat devised the Neo-Impressionist painting technique popularly known as Pointillism. He didn't live long and left only a small body of work, of which seascapes were a recurring motif; a couple of dozen paintings and drawings from summers spent on the northern coast of France will be brought together for  Seurat and the Sea   at the Courtauld Gallery in London from February 13 to May 17. Lucian Freud gained recognition as one of the greatest of British portrait painters for his intensely observed works, often of nudes. From February 12 to May 4, the National Portrait Gallery is putting on  Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting , which will be the first exhibition in Britain to focus on his creations on paper, some of which have never been on public display before.   Ramses and the Pharaoh's Gold  is a travelling exhibition of treasures from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities: 180 of them, with the coffin of the long-lived Ramses II among highlig...
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Opening in February

Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon are the stars of Tate Britain's big overview of British 20th-century figurative painting, All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life, which starts on February 28 and runs until August 27. It promises about 100 works, with Walter Sickert, Stanley Spencer and Frank Auerbach among the other artists featured. 

Over at the National Gallery, a small free display in Room 1 marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Bartolome Esteban Murillo by showcasing his only two known self-portraits. They can be seen from February 28 to May 21.

Dulwich Picture Gallery's new exhibition is devoted to the Canadian artist David Milne, a contemporary of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, the subjects of an enlightening Dulwich show a few years ago. David Milne: Modern Painting opens February 14 and is on until May 7.
The Victoria & Albert Museum has a new show looking at the golden age of luxury sea travel: Ocean Liners: Speed & Style. Running from February 3 to June 10, it will explore in more than 250 objects the design and cultural impact of a mode of a transport that's now virtually disappeared.

Outside London, Chichester's Pallant House Gallery will draw on its significant collection for POP! Art in a Changing Britain, which starts on February 24. Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi are among the artists featured until May 7.

Finally, there's a big Rubens exhibition arriving at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt from Vienna, where it had good reviews. Rubens: The Power of Transformation includes 31 paintings by the Flemish master, and Titian and Tintoretto are also represented. Running from February 8 to May 21, the exhibition aims to show how Rubens drew on the art of previous generations and why he's still an artist to be reckoned with. 

Image

David Milne, Pink Reflections, Bishop's Pond, 1920, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Gift from the Douglas M. Duncan Collection, 1970. Photo: NGC. (c) The Estate of David Milne.

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