Get to Sydney for The Greats art exhibition

The Greats Paintings from the National Galleries of Scotland
The Sydney International Art Series 2015 - 2016
Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney October 24 – February 14 

Did you go to the “Degas to Dali” exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery?

Remember it: 80 works of mainly late 19th and early 20th century art from the Scottish Galleries. That was back in 2012. Now there is an even more impressive show of work from Scotland. “The Greats.” Only this time you will have to go to Sydney where it will be on at the Gallery of New South Wales. The exhibition features paintings from Botticelli through to Cezanne with 74 major works of art by some of the great European masters including Titian, Rubens, Velasquez, Poussin, Vermeer and Turner.

Only one work in this show was in the Degas to Dali exhibition – “Diego Martelli” by Degas so the exhibition fills in the previous 400 years.

Since its inception in 2010, the Sydney International Art Series has generated over $90 million in visitor spending, attracting 1.4 million attendances with over 116,000 overseas and interstate visitors coming to the city specifically to see the show.

The NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Special Events, Stuart Ayres, said the series was synonymous with world-class exhibitions and the visitor figures reflect the calibre of the shows and reaffirms the reputation of Sydney as the cultural and creative hub of Australia.

Last year the series had a pop art show, with works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring and David Hockney and a show of American super realist Chuck Close. Previously there have been shows of historic American paintings, Picasso and Yoko Ono.

The wealth of exhibitions is partly down to the competition between Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to seize the country's cultural crown, with Melbourne Winter Masterpieces currently showing Masterpieces from the Hermitage and previously works from the Prado and a big Monet show. The earliest work in “The Greats” is Botticelli’s “Virgin adoring the sleeping Christ Child” (c1485) a work which has not been seen outside the UK in 169 years.

The work, probably inspired by the work of Filippo Lippi, is unusual in two respects: canvas paintings were still uncommon at this time and the Christ Child was rarely shown asleep. His future suffering for mankind may also be symbolised by the detailed plants and fruits. The red strawberries referring to Christ's blood. Titian’s “Venus Rising from the Sea” from 50 years later connects with Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” presenting a much more voluptuous figure.

Titian's Venus fills the canvas. A small shell floating on the water identifies the beautiful nude female as the goddess of love as well as referring to the Botticelli and also shows the artist's use of classical nude sculpture.

Other works from the late Renaissance include “Venus, Cupid and Mars” by Veronese, a small study of dog’s paws by Leonardo da Vinci and a Raphael study for his painting “Madonna of the Fishes.” There is a work by Francesco Guardi of The Piazza San Marco dominated by the Basilica of San Marco with its domes and gleaming mosaics and the campanile.

Guardi may have used a camera ottica, an optical viewing box to help create the perspective of the piazza. This work can be contrasted with the work “Princes Street with the Commencement of the Building of the Royal Institution” by the Scottish artist Alexander Nasmyth painted 50 years later where a looser perspective is applied showing the artist's approach to the atmospheric treatment of the sky and the attention to distant topographical features.

The Royal Institution is part of National Galleries of Scotland. There are a number of works by Scottish artists in the show including several formal portraits but there is also one work which has become almost iconic – “Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808) Skating on Duddingston Loch” by Sir Henry Raeburn.

This serene image of a skater, which is unlike the more traditional works the artist painted, combines a portrait with a reference to the history of skating in Scotland and the role of the clergy. There is a fine group of landscape paintings from both the beginning and end of the 19th century including Constable’s “The Vale of Dedham,” one of his favorite subjects. The composition, with prominent foreground trees, was partially inspired by Claude's 'Hagar and the Angel’ but the massed clouds sky and details are, based on Constable's close observation of nature. His technique of applying paint thickly with touches of white to enhance the effect of light is a feature of the work.

Some of the best landscapes though are those by the French Impressionists with works by Seurat, Cezanne and Monet. Claude Monet’s “Poplars on the Epte” is from his series of poplar paintings made between the spring and autumn of 1891, the year after he had settled in Giverny. He used a boat as a floating studio to capture the shimmering effects of sunlight on water.

The trees were ready to be sold for timber but Monet, in partnership with a timber merchant, bought the trees at auction so that he could continue painting them. One of the most impressive works in the show is Gauguin’s “Three Tahitians.” Deriving from classical iconography, two women flank a young man seeming to offer him a choice, between vice, symbolised by an apple, and virtue, symbolised by flowers.

This suggestion ties in with the allegorical character of many of Gauguin's Tahitian paintings in which ideas from different cultures are fused together. There is an extensive programme of events associated with the exhibition including a keynote lecture on the opening weekend by director of the Scottish National Gallery, Michael Clarke, screenings of classic European films and demonstrations by artists revealing the secrets behind old master oil paintings.

The Gallery of New South Wales has partnered with the Sydney Sofitel Wentworth to offer a package including overnight accommodation and a double pass to the exhibition ($40 each).

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