1 Painters’ Paintings: From Freud To Van Dyck
When the pungently realist painter Lucian Freud died in 2011 he left the National Gallery a work of art. Was it a British painting, a tough expressionist daub, or perhaps a work by Manet or Courbet? No, it was an enigmatic dark-eyed portrait by the romantic painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, who is usually thought of as a wan landscapist. Freud’s erudite and unusual taste in art raises the question of what paintings artists collect, and why, which this exhibition pursues across the centuries – from the princely art cognoscenti of the baroque age to acquisitive modern artists such as Degas and Matisse.
National Gallery, WC2, to 24 Sep
2 Inspiring Impressionism
Two of the most popular artists in the world are juxtaposed with a far less famous founder of modern art in a battle of the beaches and corn fields. Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet are names to draw the crowds, but who was Charles-François Daubigny? He was one of the first 19th-century French artists to paint in the open air and his landscapes have a brooding, solitary, poetic power. If it comes off, this show will put him up there in the starry night with Claude and Vincent.
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat to 2 Oct
3 Lucian Freud Unseen
If you visit Lucian Freud’s art collection at the National Gallery (see above) it’s worth popping around the corner to see an unfinished self-portrait and some fascinating sketches by him at the National Portrait Gallery. Was Freud the greatest British artist since Turner? The verdict of history seems likely to be “yes”. Like Turner, his archive has been left to the nation, and this is a glimpse of its riches.
National Portrait Gallery, WC2, to 6 Sep
4 Storms, War & Shipwrecks
Sicily has been at the heart of history for thousands of years, fought over by Greeks and Phoenicians, Romans and Carthaginians, Arabs and Normans – and most left shipwrecks on the seabed. This exhibition unveils the latest underwater archaeology from the island.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford to 25 Sep
5 Jim Hodges
Life is a breath, a moment, a passing shadow for this US artist, whose multimedia works are metaphysical meditations on the temporary. In this exhibition, he turns his eyes to the natural world, which is itself now an image of the transitory. Trees turn upside down in a way that eerily echoes Magritte as all that is solid melts into air.
