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Home>Exhibitions>Past>2020>True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870

True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870

February 2 – November 15, 2020
West Building, Ground Floor, Inner Tier Galleries

Léon-François-Antoine Fleury, The Tomb of Caecilia Metella, c. 1830, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Frank Anderson Trapp, 2004.166.16

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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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 Nature Open-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

True to Nature Virtual Tour

Exhibition Feature

Press Materials

Shop: NGA Custom Prints

Gallery Talks: Attend staff led gallery talks.

Concerts: Canceled - yMusic: Liquid Music @NGA
April 19 at 3:30 p.m.
West Building, West Garden Court

Painting in the Open Air: A Conversation with Ann Lofquist
Video, Released: March 17, 2020, (62:29 minutes)
Painting in the Open Air: A Conversation with Ann Lofquist
Audio, Released: March 17, 2020, (62:29 minutes)
Weather in Art: From Symbol to Science
Video, Released: March 10, 2020, (70:25 minutes)
Weather in Art: From Symbol to Science
Audio, Released: March 10, 2020, (70:25 minutes)
Collecting European Landscape Sketches: An Introduction to Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Audio, Released: March 3, 2020, (60:52 minutes)
Collecting European Landscape Sketches: An Introduction to Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Video, Released: March 3, 2020, (60:52 minutes)
True to Nature: Curator’s Quick Tour
Video, Released: February 2, 2020, (3:33 minutes)
Press Event: True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870
Audio, Released: January 28, 2020, (95:25 minutes)