A brush with nature

Description

More than forty years ago, John and Charlotte Gere, both distinguished art historians, pioneered the collecting of small-scale landscape oil sketches created by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century artists working out of doors in nature. Such paintings, created quickly to capture subtle atmospheric effects and the fleeting play of light, played a vital role in the visual training of generations of European artists. The pictures were not conceived of as finished works of art, were rarely if ever exhibited during the artists' lifetimes, and were often kept in the studio for later consultation. This beautiful book presents the Gere collection, which today numbers some 70 works. These include paintings by Valenciennes, Frederic, Lord Leighton, and Thomas Jones, as well as by less well-known artists such as Gilles Closson and Simon Denis. While the majority were painted in Italy, there are also works by British, French, Italian, German, Belgian, and Scandinavian artists. These intimate and compelling documents of artists at work form what is perhaps the most comprehensive private collection of its kind.

Subjects

Genres

• Exhibitions.
• Catalogs.

Other Editions

• A brush with nature: the Gere collection of landscape oil sketchesNational Gallery Publications1999-01-01
• Brush with NatureYale University Press1999-01-01
• A brush with natureNational Gallery Publications1999-01-01
• A Brush with NatureHardcoverYale University Press1999-07-14
• A brush with natureNational Gallery, distributed by Yale University Press2003-01-01
• A Brush With NatureHardcoverNational Gallery London2003-01-11