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...
New York, Paris, Venice, Petersfield? Yes, Petersfield. In Hampshire. These are places Peggy Guggenheim made her home. And the American socialite and collector -- whose name is almost synonymous with modern art -- must have liked the town because she lived in the area for five years in the 1930s. If World War II hadn't intervened, would the self-proclaimed "art addict" have ever moved to Venice to exhibit her collection there in the museum that bears her name on the Grand Canal? And, as this photo shows, to soak up the sunshine and the Dolce Vita. This little-known episode is the subject of Peggy Guggenheim: Petersfield to Palazzo at Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery. It's the 25th anniversary this year of this fairly modest local museum, and they've pulled out the stops to tell the story of perhaps the most glamorous resident of the local area and how she began building her art collection during her time there. The curators have even been able to borrow a few...