Landscapes from the Royal Academy Collection

7 January—17 December 2006

In the Council and Reynolds Rooms, John Madejski Fine Rooms

Free admission

J.M.W. Turner RA, ‘Dolbadern Castle’, 1800. Oil on canvas, 1194 x 902 mm. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Limited. © Royal Academy of Arts, London Chronologically this display from the Academy’s Collection begins and ends with two brooding Welsh landscapes. The effect of J.M.W. Turner’s Dolbadern Castle is heightened by historical narrative, whereas Kyffin Williams’s Dafydd Williams includes a contemporary portrait of a hill farmer who appears almost as monumental as the landscape he inhabits. Paintings of the English countryside reveal a strong sense of place, such as John O’Connor’s melancholic, pastoral vision of a harvest moon over a Suffolk landscape. Other artists in the exhibition were inspired by travels in different countries. Freddie Gore’s paintings celebrate Majorcan landscape. They can be seen alongside John Singer Sargent’s peaceful Italian garden and Sir Winston Churchill’s idyllic vision of the South of France.