If you're thinking about seeing Wright of Derby: From the Shadows at the National Gallery in London, be warned: There's not a huge amount to this show. The gallery describes it as "the first major exhibition dedicated to the British artist’s 'candlelight' paintings". Major? There are actually only 10 of Joseph Wright's oil paintings in this smallish display, and while they certainly include some of his finest, it's not a lot for your money. Especially as the star attraction is An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump , Wright's masterpiece of 1768, which you can usually see for free just yards away in another room in the gallery, in rather less cramped circumstances. Without a shadow of a doubt, it's an astonishing painting, somehow encapsulating the 18th-century Enlightenment -- the advance of reason and science -- in one image. Whenever we're in the National Gallery we almost always stop by to look at it for a minute or two. There is...
The Pre-Raphaelites -- their lives, their loves and their art -- have a lasting attraction, and The Rossettis at Tate Britain has got the blockbuster feel to it, with 150 paintings and drawings. It is, surprisingly, the first ever retrospective of poet and painter Dante Gabriel at the Tate, and the biggest show of his work in two decades. It's also the largest show in 30 years of art by his wife and model Lizzie Siddal and will in addition cover the life of Romantic poet Christina Rossetti and Dante's relationships with his muses Fanny Cornforth and Jane Morris. An immersive experience is promised, including spoken poetry. It's on from April 6 to September 24. There'll be some beautiful art to look at, even if we can't escape the feeling we've trodden similar ground a couple of times recently, here and there.
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A very different experience will be on offer over at Tate Modern in the shape of Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life. The Swede af Klint and the Dutchman Mondrian both began as landscape painters before developing their own distinctive forms of abstract art, hers full of organic shapes, his marked by geometric grids and primary colours. They never met, but both died in 1944. It's another large show, with around 250 works, and it will be the biggest ever presentation of af Klint's art in the UK. On from April 20 to September 3, after which it transfers to the Kunstmuseum in The Hague.
The new exhibition at the Queen's Gallery, Style & Society: Dressing the Georgians, may have you considering a wardrobe makeover. The curators aim to explore what fashion can tell us about life for the rich and poor in the 18th century, with the aid of original costumes and accessories, as well as paintings and drawings by the likes of Thomas Gainsborough, William Hogarth and Thomas Rowlandson. April 21 to October 8.
Next year sees the 250th anniversary of the birth of that master of German Romanticism, Caspar David Friedrich, and the first exhibition celebrating the date gets under way on April 2 at the Georg Schäfer Museum in Schweinfurt in northern Bavaria, which houses the most significant collection of 19th-century German art in private hands. Caspar David Friedrich and the Harbingers of Romance (the link is only available in German) looks at how Friedrich drew inspiration from Old Masters such as Claude Lorrain, Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan van Goyen for his atmospheric canvases. There are 100 works in this show, including 25 Friedrich paintings, and it can be seen until July 2, before going on to the Kunst Museum in the Swiss city of Winterthur.
At the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, they're heading back 100 years to an era of major social upheaval and modernisation following World War I, and an epoch of considerable change in the world of art too. 1920s! In the Kaleidoscope of Modernism brings together paintings, photographs, fashion, design objects and more to explore big cities, changing roles and new lifestyles. The exhibition runs from April 1 to July 30.
The big new exhibition at the Kröller-Müller Museum in the eastern Netherlands covers some of the same subject matter but goes further back to before the start of World War I and the Italian Futurists, with their emphasis on speed and technological progress. As will be explained in Futurism & Europe: The Aesthetics of a New World from April 29 to September 3, the Italians influenced other avant-garde movements such as De Stijl in the Netherlands and the Bauhaus school in Germany. There'll be paintings, posters, sculpture, consumer design and lots more amid the tranquil landscapes of the Hoge Veluwe National Park.
In the annals of celebrity, the French actress Sarah Bernhardt played a leading role. The Petit Palais in Paris is marking the centenary of her death with an exhibition that brings together nearly 400 items -- paintings, photographs, posters by Alfons Mucha and others, costumes and film -- exploring her stage appearances, her lavish lifestyle, eccentricity and cult following. Sarah Bernhardt: And the Woman Created the Star is on from April 14 to August 27.
Last chance to see....
Another terrific exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester comes to an end on April 23, and it's one with a very local feel. Sussex Landscape: Chalk, Wood and Water features paintings by Turner, Constable, Ravilious and many others and is well worth a trip out from London as the days lengthen and the weather improves.
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Images
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Lady Lilith, 1866-68 (altered 1872-73), Delaware Art Museum, WilmingtonKarl Hofer (1878-1955), Tiller Girls, 1927, Kunsthalle Emden. © Elke Walford, Fotowerkstatt Hamburg; © DACS, 2019
Eric Ravilious (1903-42), Chalk Paths, 1935, Private collection. © Bridgeman Images
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