PART 1 - ENGLISH LANDSCAPES
Gainsborough, Constable and the painters of East Anglia
09 March - 28 April 1996

PART 2 - FRENCH LANDSCAPES
Corot, The Barbizon School and the painters of Arras
11 May - 14 July 1996

Wolsey Art Gallery

Two exhibitions which looked at the notion of landscape, the similarities and differences, in East Anglia and Nord-Pas de Calais, from 1750 to 1930.

These exhibitions aimed to be a cultural vehicle for an expression of friendship and collaboration between the twin towns of Ipswich and Arras and to highlight the year of Visual Arts. Both towns are in the centre of two major regions renowned for their landscape tradition.

The two exhibitions were formed around the two major painters which the Museums had in their collections. These were Corot and Constable, who were known to have had aesthetic links. Corot had been influenced by the work of Constable after seeing his painting "Hay Wain", in the Paris Salon in 1824, which was to inspire Corot's "La Cervara" of 1831. Historians have also seen Constable's and Corot's work as laying the foundations for the development of Impressionism in France and subsequently in Britain. The works were grouped together in chronological order, the first section from the Musee des Beaux-Arts d'Arras the second from Ipswich Borough Council's Christchurch Mansion.

The recognition of Constable's work in France took place during a period of increased trade and warmth between the two nations after a time of enmity. With the twinning of towns and closer working links forged within the European Union, it was our intention for this relationship which began over a hundred years ago to continue and flourish.

Historians have seen Constable's and Corot's work as laying the foundations for the development of Impressionism in France and subsequently in Britain. We hoped that this exhibition would help define the notion of landscape painting, focusing on the similarities, the differences and the cross fertilisation of ideas in East Anglia and Nord-Pas de Calais.

The works in the two exhibitions covered a period of almost 250 years and included artists such as Churchyard, Cotman, Desavary, Dubois, Dutillieux, Gainsborough, Munnings and Pissarro.

Click here for information about the accompanying catalogue