What a lot of new exhibitions this October! We list well over 20 across Europe below -- many more than usual -- and have still had to leave out quite a few that we'd mention in most other months in order to keep this post to a reasonable length. Let's start at the Royal Academy in London with deep blue seas, cloudless skies, intense light and the heat of the sun. From October 2 to January 31, you can experience the excitement Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and many others felt while Painting the French Riviera . The exhibition features more than 160 exhibits from the 1870s to the 1960s, and a version of the show travels on to the Cleveland Museum of Art in March. Hmm, Renoir. Now perhaps seen as the most chocolate-boxy of the Impressionists, but without doubt the creator of some of the most recognisable images in French art of the late 19th century. Well worth stealing , and clearly the National Gallery is on to a winner with its Renoir and Love ex...
Denmark: We know what you're thinking when you hear about Denmark. You're thinking hygge , even if you don't quite know what it is. You're thinking Nordic noir . Or maybe you're just thinking pastries . But we're thinking about painting. Because for the past 200 years, the Danes have been pretty good, punching above their weight. There's Vilhelm Hammershøi , and the Skagen school. And before them, there was the Golden Age. We've just been to see to an absolutely stupendous, all-encompassing exhibition bringing together many of the masterpieces of The Danish Golden Age at the National Museum in Stockholm. It's possibly one of the best shows we've ever been to.... and we go to a lot. Danish art's finest years lasted for a little over half a century, bookended by two traumatic events: the British naval bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807 aimed at stopping the Danes throwing their lot in with Napoleon, and the loss of Schleswig-Holstein follo...