<exchanging gazes> 8: Nocturnes

The 8^th in the series <exchanging gazes> looks at the history of the nocturnal landscape through a selection of ten works from the Permanent Collection and the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. These are scenes of darkest night but also of the transitional times of dusk and dawn by Van der Neer, Vernet, Friedrich, Grimshaw, Cole, Bierstadt, Nolde, Puigaudeau, O’Keeffe and Delvaux, now shown alongside each other in the Museum’s balcony gallery on the first floor with direct, free access from the Main Hall.

Night has always been a challenge to painters, who have investigated the potential of darkness with the aim of making it a convincing visual theme. Traditionally associated with negative images such as death and danger, its depiction has evolved over the history of painting into an attempt to mitigate these terrors, adding a calming light to the darkness. Ranging from Aert van der Neer, the great 17^th-century Dutch specialist in moonlit scenes, to Georgia O’Keeffe’s modern night, this exhibition includes ten nocturnal scenes in which visitors can appreciate the way artists have revealed night-time’s colours, which are different to those of the day.