Impressionists and Gainsborough at Compton Verney in Warwickshire

Impressionists and Gainsborough at Compton Verney in Warwickshire - Monet Le Havre (c) Compton Verney (p) GoUK.com

What

Art exhibitions:

• Into the Light: French and British painting from Impressionism to the early 1920s
• Gainsborough’s Landscapes: Themes and Variations 

When

31 March to 10 June 2012

Where

Compton Verney, Warwickshire CV35 9HZ

The Fanfare

The art gallery that occupies the Georgian mansion of Compton Verney is to hold two new exhibitions when it opens for its 2012 season at the end of March.

Into the Light: French and British painting from Impressionism to the early 1920s marks a decisive period in the history of European art.

This exhibition looks at paintings produced on both sides of the Channel from the 1870s to the early 1920s.

There will be 54 paintings and drawings on show by artists including Cézanne, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sickert, Sisley, Vanessa Bell, Eugène Boudin, Alexander Stanhope Forbes and Philip Wilson Steer.

The exhibition reveals interesting connections and shows how a more spontaneous approach to painting produced depictions of the shifting of light over the landscape.

Gainsborough’s Landscapes: Themes and Variations will be the first exhibition devoted solely to the landscapes of Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88).

It brings together a group of paintings and drawings from public and private collections that span his whole career.

If painting portraits was Gainsborough’s business then painting landscapes was his pleasure. These works reveal the mind of the great artist at work and play.

Compton Verney

Compton Verney is a Grade 1 listed Robert Adam mansion set in 50 hectares (120 acres) of parkland.

It was home to the Verney or Willoughby de Broke family for almost 500 years, until the early 20th century.

Then their derelict 18th-century mansion was transformed into a gallery of international standing.

The gallery houses six permanent collections which focus on areas currently under-represented in British museums and galleries, and include British Folk Art, masterpieces from the Golden Age of Neapolitan art from 1600 to 1800, and one of Europe’s foremost Chinese collections.

Compton Verney is open 11am–5pm Tue–Sun and Bank Holiday Mons.

Admission to the grounds, the six permanent collections and special exhibitions is £12 adults, £10 concessions and students, £24 family ticket, £2 children 5–15, under-5s free.

Into the Light and Gainsborough’s Landscapes will be on show from 31 March to 10 June.

Compton Verney, Warwickshire CV35 9HZ
Tel: +44 1926 645500
Website: www.comptonverney.org.uk
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Twitter: @ComptonVerney
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