TOLEDO — Works by some of France’s most celebrated painters are featured in “From the Collection: 300
Years of French Landscape Painting, a new exhibition opening July 17 at the Toledo Museum of Art.
Curated by Lawrence W. Nichols, William Hutton senior curator of European and American painting and
sculpture before 1900, this small, insightful show offers a chronological survey of the French approach
to painting landscapes.
“Drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection, the exhibition includes a single, stunning example selected
from each of the many styles of representation that define the tradition of rendering nature,” Nichols
said.
Beginning with Claude Lorrain’s 17th-century classicism and François Boucher’s Rococo fantasy, it
continues through the 19th century with Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (Neoclassicism),
Pierre-Etienne-Théodore Rousseau (Barbizon School), Gustave Courbet (Realism), Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(Impressionism) and concludes with Paul Cézanne (Post-Impressionism).
“This exhibition is unusual in that paintings spanning three centuries are being installed
chronologically in the gallery. Visitors will be able to see the common threads among these artists as
well as the emergence of new styles,” Nichols noted.
Among the works displayed are the Museum’s recently acquired Charles–François Daubigny painting, Auvers,
“Landscape with Plough,” in which the French countryside is realistically captured, and “Renoir’s Road
at Wargemont,” which focuses on the effect of light and color in nature.
The curator said he hopes those looking at the landscape paintings “will be inspired to go out and
photograph nature, to draw nature, to create earth art, or go and look for more landscapes in the
Museum’s other galleries.”
“From the Collection: 300 Years of French Landscape Painting” continues through Oct. 11 in Gallery 18.
Admission to the exhibition and to the Museum is free. For more information, visit:
toledomuseum.org]toledomuseum.org.
(Story provided by Toledo Museum of Art)
