Pierre-Auguste Renoir

This Week in London – ‘Renoir and Love’; Korean art and culture; and the Burberry Trench…

by exploringlondon
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance at the Moulin de la Galette (1876), Oil on canvas, 131.5 cm x 176.5 cm Gustave Caillebotte Bequest, 1896 © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

• A major new exhibition on the work of French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir has opened at the National Gallery. Renoir and Love, which has been organised in partnership with the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, features more than 50 of the artist’s works including his “most experimental, ambitious and admired canvasses’ such as Bal au Moulin de la Galette (1876) which is being exhibited in the UK for the first time. Other works on show include full length figure compositions such as The Umbrellas (1881, reworked in 1885), early works such as Mother Antony’s Tavern (1866), “gallant” scenes from the 1870s such as The Promenade (1870), street and cafe scenes including La Place Clichy (1880) and depictions of life on the outskirts of Paris such as Oarsmen at Chatou (1879). There are also scenes of family life like Sketches of Heads (the Berard Children) (1881), and the artist’s depictions of intellectual intimacy like The Conversation (1878). The exhibition has already been shown at the Musée d’Orsay and will move to Boston from 20th February. It’s running at the National Gallery until 31st January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/renoir-and-love.

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Gourd-shaped ewer with chrysanthemum motif, 1200-1300, Celadon with inlaid white and black slip © National Museum of Korea, LKH193

• Two thousand years of Korean art and culture are on display in a new exhibition at the British Museum. Korea, which is located in The Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery, draws on works from the collection of the late Samsung chairman, Lee Kun-Hee, with highlights including bronze ritual implements dating from 300 to 100 BC, a 13th century gourd-shaped celadon ewer, and rare Buddhist paintings such as Jeong Seon’s Clearing after the Rain on Mouny Inwang. There’s also a a new museum acquisition by internationally acclaimed artist Do Ho Suh which brings together themes of identity, migration and memory. Runs until 31st January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/korea.

• Charles Amherst Villiers (1900-1901), a pioneering engineer whose career stretched from the Blower Bentley to Formula One, the US space program and the world of James Bond, has been honoured with a City of Westminster Green Plaque. The plaque has been unveiled on his former home at 22A Farm Street in Mayfair where he lived during the 1930s. Villiers is best-known for designing the Blower Bentley supercharger and working with Malcolm Campbell on early Blue Bird land speed record cars but he also provided inspiration for his friend Ian Fleming who drew on Villier’s expertise when writing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The display features a Burberry trench coat from 1939. PICTURE Courtesy of Burberry/V&A

• On Now: The Burberry Trench: Crafting an Icon. This free display in the Prince Consort Gallery at the V&A celebrates the fashion staple while also marking Burberry’s 170th anniversary. The display starts with Thomas Burberry’s invention of cotton gabardine in 1879 and how it was used in the Burberry trench, establishing the coat’s reputation as a sought-after piece of protective outerwear. It includes an in-depth look at the elements that make up the coat and spotlights recent runway looks featuring the iconic fashion item as well as looking at the long-standing relationship between Burberry and the V&A. The free display can be seen until 3rd January. For more, see https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/the-burberry-trench-crafting-an-icon.

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This Week in London – ‘Childhood in War’; ‘A Century of American Photography’; and, Monet and Renoir reunited…

by exploringlondon
An image from the Childhood in War display. PICTURE: Courtesy IWM London

• The impact of war on children is the subject of a new exhibition opening at IWM London on Friday. Childhood in War spans the period from World War I to today when more than one in six children globally – more than 450 million – live in areas impacted by war. It features personal testimonies, interactive and hands-on experiences and items from child rights organisations including UNICEF, Right to Learn Afghanistan and War Child. Designed with both families and adult visitors in mind, highlights include a teddy bear still treasured by Holocaust survivor John Hadj, a red knitted jumper given to Jochewet Heidenstein shortly before he and her sisters departed for the UK as part of the Kindertransport at the start of World War II, a large-scale evacuee train carriage, recreations of 20th century war games and reconstructed rooms including a child’s bedroom during World War II and a Cold War-era living room and kitchen. There are also contemporary stories from places including Afghanistan, Ukraine and Sudan. Runs until 28th February, 2027. Admission is free. For more, see iwm.org.uk/events/childhood-in-war.

Arthur Leipzig, ‘Divers, East River’ (1948) © Estate of Arthur Leipzig, Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York

• More than 100 landmark works by some of the most influential photographers of the 20th century sit at the centre of Dulwich Picture Gallery’s new exhibition, Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography. The gallery’s second major photography exhibition, the display opens in the early 1900s, charts the impact of the Wall Street crash of 1929 and then turns to the rise of photographic modernism, how dramatic physical changes reshaped American cities in the mid-20th century and depictions of life on the margins before concluding with a presentation of Bruce Davidson’s renowned Subway series (1980–85). Featuring the works of some 38 artists, other highlights include Lewis Hine’s Riding the Ball High up on Empire State (1930), Dorothea Lange’s White Angel Breadline, San Francisco (1933),  Helen Levitt and Saul Leiter’s studies of street life and works by arry Winogrand, Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, La Grenouillère (1869), © On loan from Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Gift 1924 unknown donor through Nationalmusei Vänner

• Claude Monet’s Bathers at La Grenouillère and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La Grenouillère (both of which date from 1869) are being shown together in The National Gallery for the first time in 19 years ahead of the gallery major new exhibition, Renoir and Love. Painted side-by-side from a similar vantage point the gallery says the works “capture a defining moment in the birth of Impressionism” and provides a glimpse into the friendships and spirit of experimentation which will be explored in the upcoming exhibition (opening in October). The two paintings can be seen until mid-September. Admission is free. For more, see https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

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