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A taste for impressionnism in Scotland...

The remarkable story of how Scotland became home to one of the world’s greatest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art will be celebrated in a major National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) exhibition this summer.

A Taste for Impressionism: Modern French art from Jean-François Millet to Henri Matisse (30 July – 13 November 2022) will explore how visionary Scottish collectors in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries invested in what were then innovative and radical artworks.

Paul Gauguin Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) 1888. National Galleries of Scotland
Paul Gauguin Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel) 1888. National Galleries of Scotland

World famous paintings by a stellar cast including Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Degas and Paul Gauguin will feature throughout, offering visitors a rare chance to delve into a fascinating yet little-known aspect of Scotland’s cultural history. Other highlights will include seven works by Claude Monet from across his career and, for the first time, the full set of Henri Matisse’s vibrant Jazz prints.

Among the exhibition highlights will be several of NGS’s world-class holdings, such as Paul Gauguin’s Vision of the Sermon and Edgar Degas’s Portrait of Diego Martelli, as well as pre-Impressionist masterpieces such as Camille Pissarro’s The Marne at Chennevières.

Camille Pissarro. La Marne à Chennevières. 1864. National Galleries of Scotland
Camille Pissarro. La Marne à Chennevières. 1864. National Galleries of Scotland

Professor Frances Fowle, Senior Curator of French Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “The Impressionist era is one of the most compelling periods in art history. It gave rise to a host of artists who are now considered among the very best, despite being largely dismissed by the establishment of their time. Several Scottish art collectors were well ahead of their time in acquiring modern French works. We are thrilled to be telling their story for the first time through A Taste for Impressionism, an exhibition which we hope will delight and inspire our visitors.”

In his art history lectures, Fabrice Roy combines the past with the present, in a poetic and playful evocation of the French 19th century...


National Galleries of Scotland,

73 Belford Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3DS




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