True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
February 2 – November 15, 2020 West Building, Ground Floor, Inner Tier Galleries
This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.
An integral part of art education in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, open-air painting was a core practice for emerging artists in Europe. Intrepid artists such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, John Constable, Simon Denis, Jules Coignet, and André Giroux—highly skilled at quickly capturing effects of light and atmosphere—made sometimes arduous journeys to paint their landscapes in person at breathtaking sites, ranging from the Baltic coast and Swiss Alps to the ruins of Rome. Drawing on new scholarship, this exhibition of some 100 oil sketches made outdoors across Europe during that time includes several recently discovered works and explores the variety of inventive ways in which enraptured artists recorded their moments in nature.
Originally scheduled to close on May 3, 2020, the exhibition closed early when the COVID-19 pandemic museum closure began on March 14, 2020. The exhibition re-opened on July 20, 2020, with an extended closing date of November 15, 2020.
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Louis Dupré, French, 1789 – 1837, View of Santa Trinità dei Monti in Rome, c. 1817, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, Gift of Jacques and Brigitte Gairard
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Michel Dumas, French, 1812 – 1895, Fountain in the Roman Campagna, c. 1838 – 1840, oil on canvas, mounted on wood panel, Private Collection, London
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
August Kopisch, German, 1799 – 1853, View of Capri, oil on wood panel, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Jean-Charles Rémond, French, 1795 – 1875, Eruption of Stromboli, 30 August 1842, 1842, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Private Collection, London
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Louis Léopold Robert, French, 1794 – 1835, View of Naples with Vesuvius, 1821, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, Bequest of Carlos van Hasselt and Andrzej Niewęgłowski
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Baron François Gérard, French, 1770 – 1837, A Study of Waves Breaking against Rocks at Sunset, oil on millboard, Private Collection, London
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Carl Frederik Sørensen, Danish, 1818 – 1879, Rough Sea beside a Jetty, 1849, oil on canvas, The Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Johan Carl Neumann, Danish, 1833 – 1891, Landscape with Dunes, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Richard Parkes Bonington, British, 1802 – 1828, Dezenzano, Lake Garda, 1826, oil on millboard, The Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont, French, 1790 – 1870, Grotto in a Rocky Landscape, oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Private Collection, London
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Carl Wilhelm Götzloff, German, 1799 – 1866, Limestone Rocks, Sorrento, 1858, oil on paper, mounted on cardboard, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Achille-Etna Michallon, French, 1796 – 1822, The Oak and the Reed, 1816, oil on canvas, The Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Janus La Cour, Danish, 1837 – 1909, Olive Trees near Tivoli, 1869, oil on canvas, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Johann Jakob Frey, Swiss, 1813 – 1865, Cloud Study (4), oil on paper, mounted on canvas, Private Collection, London
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Anton Melbye, Danish, 1818 – 1875, Skrim (Kongsberg, Norway), 1846, oil on paper, mounted on cardboard, Private Collection, London
True to NatureOpen-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Frederik Rohde, Danish, 1816 – 1886, Rooftops, oil on canvas, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris
Organization: The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris; and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Hashtag: #PaintingTruetoNature
Attendance: 28,646
Catalog:True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780-1870. By Ger Luijten, Mary Morton and Jane Munro. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art; Paris: Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt; Cambridge: The Fitzwilliam Museum, 2020.
Other venues: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, May 3–August 29, 2022 Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, December 3, 2021–April 3, 2022