As we head into October, it is time already to start to think about 2016 and what to expect in terms of exhibitions in some of the biggest galleries in London. So far the Victoria and Albert museum and the Royal Academy of Arts have announced their programmes for next year – but what can visitors expect if they want to visit the National Gallery?
In November, the gallery will be opening a new major exhibition Visions of Paradise: Botticini’s Palmieri Altarpiece, the result of three years of research on Francesco Bottocini’s The Assumption of the Virgin. It will set his painting within the context of the traditions of civic humanism and religious patronage. This exhibition will be on display to the public from the 4th November to the 14th February 2016.
The National Gallery will then present an exhibition of work by an artist described as being the last painter of the grand style and the first of the modern masters: Eugene Delacroix. Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art (17th February-22nd May) will explore his influence on his contemporaries and is the first exhibition of his work in the UK in 50 years.
Meanwhile in Room 1 from the 6th April until the 29th August, the National Gallery will be displaying Dutch Flowers, which will look at the development of Dutch flower painting from its beginnings in the 17th century until it reached its height in the 18th century.
George Shaw: My Back to Nature is the unveiling of the artist’s work that he has created in the last two years while working in the gallery’s studio. He became the gallery’s ninth Rootstein Hopkins Associate Artist in 2014 and his work showcases his attention to detail and suburban subject matter (11th May-30th October).
In Painter’s Paintings: From Van Dyke to Freud (22nd June-4th September), the gallery examines more closely the paintings owned by painters such as Van Dyke’s Titian and Matisse’s Degas, looking at these famous works from the point of view of their famous owners. It will shed new light on the paintings and the painters that owned them that creates a dialogue between ownership and painterly creation.
The final exhibition to be announced for the 2016 programme will look at the influence of Caravaggio on the art of his contemporaries and his followers. Beyond Caravaggio will bring together 50 paintings, many of which will be unfamiliar to visitors in the UK and will explore the context of Caravaggio – not as an individual but as part of a influential artistic phenomenon (12th October 2016-15th January 2017).