Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales

January 30 – April 25, 2010

Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales presents an outstanding group of 19th and 20th century paintings and works on paper from the National Museum Wales—home to an internationally acclaimed collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art.

The works in this exhibition have been drawn exclusively from the extraordinary collection of Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, granddaughters of the wealthy industrialist David Davies. The Davies sisters collected during a crucial moment in the history of art, when European painting was undergoing a revolution in style, theme and technique. Between 1908 and 1922 the sisters actively sought to collect works that reflected the major movements of the time. They assembled one of the earliest and most extensive collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in Britain, which they later bequeathed to the National Museum Wales.

Turner to Cézanne traces the evolution of early modern art—beginning with examples of dramatic Romanticism exemplified by Turner, through the expressionist Post-impressionism of van Gogh. Spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the exhibition contains masterworks of Realism, Naturalism, and Impressionism, by their greatest exponents.

The exhibition will feature 53 works—many of which have rarely been exhibited outside of Europe—including masterpieces by Paul Cézanne, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Honoré Daumier, Augustus John, Edouard Manet, Jean-François Millet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, J.M.W. Turner, and Vincent van Gogh.

The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts and National Museum Wales. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.

The presentation at the Corcoran is supported by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Joseph Mallord William Turner
The Storm, ca. 1840–45
Oil on canvas
12 3/4 x 21 1/8 in.
National Museum of Wales; Miss Margaret S. Davies Bequest, 1963 (NMWA 509)
Courtesy American Federation of Arts

Paul Cézanne
The François Zola Dam, ca. 1877–78
Oil on canvas
21 3/8 x 29 1/4 in.
National Museum of Wales; Miss Gwendoline E.
Davies Bequest, 1951 (NMWA 2439)
Courtesy American Federation of Arts