Forests, Rocks, Torrents
June 21 2011
Picture: National Gallery
What a strange thrill one gets from seeing an exhibition before anyone else. Thanks to this blog, I blagged my way into the 'press preview' today for the National Gallery's new show, 'Forests, Rocks, Torrents: Norwegian and Swiss Landscapes from the Lunde Collection' (22nd June - 18th September). It features 45 rarely seen works by artists such as the Norwegian Johan Christian Dahl (1788-1857) and the Swiss Alexandre Calame (1810-1864).
The show's curators gave the press a guided tour of the exhibits. Everyone paid attention, save Brian Sewell, who wandered off on his own. As I'm slightly in awe of Sewell, I tried to imagine his august thoughts as he scampered from picture to picture.
Forests, Rocks, Torrents is certainly worth going to see. The prevailing view is that 19th century landscapes are deeply unfashionable. And since this show is filled predominantly with views of rocks, then you might think it's about as dull as you can get.
But far from it. The artists' quest for realism draws you into each picture, marvelling at the depiction of frothing water, distant glaciers and the odd cow.
By the end of the exhibition, however, you get a sense of how exhausting it must have been - both physically and intellectually - to painstakingly portray an exact representation of, say, a cascade of rocks, and why the next generation of artists, seeing that the faithful depiction of nature could not be bettered, decided that there was no point, and sought instead to paint mere 'impressions'. And, well, thank goodness they did...
Catalogue for sale here.
