Clare WillsdonImpressionist Gardens exhibition, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31st July – 17th October 2010, and Jardines impresionistas exhibition, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Caja Madrid, Madrid, 16th November 2010 – 14th February 2011, co-curated by Michael Clarke, Prof. Guillermo Solana, and Dr. Clare Willsdon (Reader in History of Art, University of Glasgow)

The exhibition at the Edinburgh venue (see http://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/news/headline_176924_en.html) has proved to be an outstanding success, attracting nearly 100,000 visitors during its three-month run, with almost 17,000 in the final week alone. This makes it the third most successful exhibition in the history of the National Galleries of Scotland. The National Gallery of Scotland edition of the catalogue, written by Dr. Willsdon, sold out and had to be reprinted.  

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, The Courtyard of the Sorolla House, 1917John Leighton, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, welcomed the achievement as ‘not only a sign of a vibrant cultural life in this country, but also good news for our economy’, and The Scotsman (23.10.10) quoted the view of Sinead Feltoe, Edinburgh Regional Director of VisitScotland, that ‘this stunning exhibition has undoubtedly helped maintain the city’s position on the international stage, attracting visitors from across the world’.

A substantially augmented version of the exhibition opened at the Thyssen-Bornemisza and Caja Madrid Galleries in Madrid on 16th November, and includes further work by Pissarro, Monet, Klimt, and American, Scandinavian, German and Spanish artists, as well as loans from Tokyo and St. Petersburg. This version is expected to attract even greater numbers, and has a separate, enlarged, 316pp catalogue, also written by Dr. Willsdon. A distinctive feature is a dedicated section on the transformation of Impressionist garden painting in the early 20th century by artists such as Munch, Nolde, Malevich, and Braque. The exhibition has received very favourable and extensive media and press coverage, including articles and features in The Wall Street Journal and RTV Espana. It has so far attracted over 60,000 Google references for Edinburgh and Madrid combined.

Dr. Willsdon gave a major public lecture on 17th November at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in association with the opening, and there is a video introduction and ‘virtual tour’ of the exhibition, together with information about associated events, on the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza’s website.

The outstanding success of both the Edinburgh and Madrid versions of the exhibition is the outcome of some four years of research, carried out within the leading research unit for the subject in the UK as recognised in RAE 2008, Glasgow’s Institute of Art History.

Captions for photographs

1) Dr. Clare Willsdon at the opening of the ‘Jardines impresionistas’ exhibition in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, with Guillermo Solana, Artistic Director, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (right) and Michael Clarke, CBE, FRSE, Director, National Gallery of Scotland (centre) (photograph © Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid)

2) Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, The Courtyard of the Sorolla House , 1917. Oil on canvas. 95,9 x 64,8 cm, Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (photograph: © Colección Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza en depósito en el Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza)

http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/exposiciones_actuales

http://www.museothyssen.org/microsites/exposiciones/2010/Jardines-impresionistas/index_en

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibition/5:368/9312

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/media/files/impressionist_gardens_initial_release_final_1.pdf

http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/historyofart/events/exhibitions/#d.en.165722

http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/historyofart/aboutus/staff/willsdon/

http://www.thamesandhudson.com/9780500288818.html

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6028136,00.html

First published: 17 December 2010

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