National Museum Wales counts among its treasures the Davies Collection, an extraordinary group of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century paintings that is remarkable for its breadth and quality. Assembled between 1908 and 1923 by sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, the collection is exceptionally strong in Realist and Impressionist works and includes masterpieces by Cézanne, Daumier, Manet, Millet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Van Gogh. Turner to Cézanne features approximately fifty-five extraordinary paintings—many of which are rarely exhibited outside of Wales—and five important Impressionist works on paper selected from the collection by Guest Curator Oliver Fairclough, Keeper at National Museum Wales. The exhibition explores the stylistic innovations that shaped the art of the nineteenth century, offering an exceptional survey of the evolution of modern art from its beginnings in the romantic naturalism of Turner through Post-Impressionism.

Compelling juxtapositions illustrate the crosscurrents between approaches that prompted the century’s revolutions in style, theme, and technique. In this way, the exhibition’s stunning Turners, including the remarkable The Storm (undated), represent the kind of technical experimentation and stylistic innovation that influenced the late Monet in such works as the evocative Charing Cross Bridge (1902). Similarly, the naturalism and sense of fresh observation illustrated by Corot’s The Pond (ca. 1860) and Distant View of Corbeil (ca. 1870) offer a context for Manet’s first Impressionist landscape, Effect of Snow at Petit-Montrouge (1871). The period’s varying approaches to the human figure and to scenes of daily life are illuminated by Millet’s Peasant Family (1871), Daumier’s A Third Class Carriage (ca. 1860–65), and Renoir’s iconic La Parisienne, which appeared at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.

This rich overview of the period is capped with the work of Cézanne, Van Gogh, and the School of Pont-Aven and includes examples of the influence of French modernism on progressive American and British art via such works as Whistler’s Nocturne, Blue and Gold (1880) and Matthew Smith’s Apples on a Wicker Chair (1915). Published by the AFA in association with Hudson Hills Press, the exhibition catalogue includes individual entries on each work, an essay on the Davies sisters and the evolution of their collection, and an essay on collecting French art in Britain during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Exhibition Itinerary: Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina (March 6–June 7, 2009); Oklahoma City Museum of Art (June 25–September 20, 2009); Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse (October 9, 2009–January 3, 2010); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (January 30–April 9, 2010); and the Albuquerque Museum of Art & History, New Mexico (May 16–August 8, 2010).

For more information, contact Curator of Exhibitions Lisa Small at 212.988.7700 ext. 225 or lsmall@afaweb.org. You may also contact Curatorial Assistant Elisabeth Sherman at 212.988.7700 ext. 216 or esherman@afaweb.org.