Opening and Closing in November

Art history? No, we're starting this month with an exhibition that we'll be tagging #artherstory on social media. Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 opens at Tate Britain in London on May 16, with the aim of charting the path of women to being recognised as professional artists over the centuries. More than 100 will be represented: relatively widely known names such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffman , Gwen John and Laura Knight , as well as the more obscure or neglected -- Levina Teerlinc, Mary Beale and Sarah Biffin . It's on till October 13, and as we've just seen a show in Germany focused on women artists over much the same timescale, we'll be keen to compare and contrast. Let's stick with a female theme. A short stroll up Millbank and across Lambeth Bridge, and you're at the Garden Museum, where from May 15 to September 29 you can see Gardening Bohemia: Bloomsbury Women Outdoors . The show takes you around the gardens of Vane

Opening and Closing in November

There's a blockbuster of an exhibition about to open in London on November 2: Tutankhamun -- Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh at the Saatchi Gallery. Of more than 150 artefacts on show from the Egyptian king's tomb, unearthed almost a century ago, 60 are leaving Egypt for a first and final time on a world tour before they return to be displayed in a new Grand Egyptian Museum. The show's just been to Paris, where it drew almost 1.5 million visitors. It's on in London until May 3. Tickets are, as you might expect, not cheap.

Five hundred years after the death of Leonardo da Vinci, the National Gallery is offering visitors an immersive exhibition designed to reveal the secrets of his painting The Virgin of the Rocks, taking you from inside the artist's mind (!) to how the picture might have looked in its original setting. Leonardo: Experience a Masterpiece opens on November 9 and runs until January 12.

We'll be expecting something a little less hi-tech from George IV: Art & Spectacle at the Queen's Gallery, starting on November 15. George IV may not have gone down in history as one of the wiser, more restrained of Britain's monarchs, but he did have an eye for a good painting and great art (as well as a bit of bling). You can see what he added to the Royal Collection until May 3.

The British Museum's new show examines Troy: Myth and Reality. bringing together archaeology and art to find out why the legend of Troy has endured for 3,000 years. Runs from November 21 to March 8.

Also at the National Gallery, a free display, Young Bomberg and the Old Masters, sets some of David Bomberg's earliest paintings against those that inspired him, including works by Botticelli and Michelangelo. November 27 to March 1.

And for our final listing in the capital this month, at the Garden Museum you can see Play, Protest and Pelicans: A People's History of London's Royal Parks, which starts November 20 and runs until February 9.

The Irish-born artist William Orpen is best known for his portraits and his pictures of World War I. William Orpen: Method & Mastery at the Watts Gallery in Compton, near Guildford, from November 19 aims to provide new insights into his ways of working. Until February 23.

We really enjoyed seeing the abstracted landscapes of Ivon Hitchens at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester earlier this year; now the show moves to the Djanogly Gallery in Nottingham, and it's well worth catching there, especially as admission is free. Ivon Hitchens: Space through Colour runs from November 2 to February 23.

The superb show exhibiting Leonardo's drawings from the Royal Collection moves on to Edinburgh this month, though in condensed form. Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing is on at the Queen's Gallery at Holyroodhouse from November 22 to March 15.

The other big anniversary of the year is the one marking 350 years since the death of Rembrandt, and the final big Rembrandt show of 2019 is the one opening at the freshly renovated Lakenhal museum in his home city of Leiden. Young Rembrandt -- Rising Star is the name of this exhibition, looking at how his early talent developed. It's on from November 2 to February 9, after which it transfers to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

There is yet more Rembrandt to be seen in a show called Inside Rembrandt at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne. This exhibition is a joint venture with the National Gallery in Prague, includes international loans, and runs from November 1 to March 1.

The Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe in south-west Germany is exhibiting the work of Hans Baldung Grien, a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach known for his often eccentric style. This looks set to be one of those massive shows the Germans specialise in, with more than 200 loans. It's on from November 30 to March 8.

The Petit Palais in Paris is celebrating the 17th-century Neapolitan painter Luca Giordano; expect lots of religious paintings and mythological scenes among nearly 90 works on display from November 14 to February 23.

And over in Brittany, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper has assembled 300 works -- covering the applied arts as well as paintings -- by Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) from a private collection. Dufy's explosions of colour can be seen from November 29 to May 4.

Last chance to see....

You only have until November 3 to catch the Orientalist pictures of John Frederick Lewis at the Watts Gallery in Surrey. Closing on the same date at the Queen's Gallery in Edinburgh is Russia, Royalty and the Romanovs, a show we saw previously in London.

Images

Sir Thomas Lawrence, George IV, 1821, Royal Collection Trust. © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Young Man, probably c. 1480-85. © The National Gallery, London
Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, c. 1628, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Hans Baldung Grien, Death and the Maiden, c. 1520-25, Kunstmuseum Basel

Opening and Closing in October

There's been a spate of exhibitions over the past few years aimed at redressing centuries of neglect of the work of women artists, and the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi is the latest to come into focus, at the National Gallery in London, starting on October 3. Most of the works have never been seen in Britain before, and they cover a lengthy career that features strong female figures in Biblical and classical scenes, as well as self-portraits. Until January 24. Also starting at the National on October 7 is a free exhibition that looks at Sin , as depicted by artists from Diego Velázquez and William Hogarth through to Tracey Emin, blurring the boundaries between the religious and the secular. This one runs until January 3. Tate Britain shows this winter how JMW Turner embraced the rapid industrial and technological advances at the start of the 19th century and recorded them in his work. Turner's Modern World , starting on October 28, will include painting

The Thrill of Pleasure: Bridget Riley

Prepare yourself for some sensory overload. Curves, stripes, zig-zags, wavy lines, dots, in black and white or colour. Look at many of the paintings of Bridget Riley and you're unable to escape the eerie sensation that the picture in front of you is in motion, has its own inner three-dimensional life, is not just inert paint on flat canvas, panel or plaster. It's by no means unusual to see selections of Riley's paintings on display, but a blockbuster exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh brings together 70 years of her pictures in a dazzling extravaganza of abstraction, including a recreation of her only actual 3D work, which you walk into for a perspectival sensurround experience. It's "that thrill of pleasure which sight itself reveals," as Riley once said. It's a really terrific show, and the thrill of pleasure in the Scottish capital was enhanced by the unexpected lack of visitors on the day we went to see it, with huge empty sp

What's On in 2024: Surreal Impressions

In 2024, we'll be marking the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition and the 100th anniversary of the Surrealist Manifesto. There'll be lots more shows focused on women artists. It's 250 years since the birth of the great German Romantic, Caspar David Friedrich, and Roy Lichtenstein was born 100 years ago. We've picked out some of the exhibitions coming up over the next 12 months that have caught our eye, and here they are, in more or less chronological order. February Let's start at Ordrupgaard on the outskirts of Copenhagen with Impressionism and Its Overlooked Women , described by the gallery as a "magnificent exhibition featuring works from across the world". The show focuses on five female artists, including Berthe Morisot , Mary Cassatt and Eva Gonzalès , as well as some of the models who featured in the most iconic Impressionist paintings. The exhibition is on in Denmark from February 9 to May 20, after which it transfers to the Na

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Opening and Closing in May

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