Image: Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727–1788), A Coastal Landscape, about 1782–84, oil on canvas. The Berger Collection at the Denver Art Museum, TL-18382
This exhibit opens June 10, 2017 at the Taft Museum of Art:
Fifty paintings span six centuries in this who’s who of British painting. Highlights from the Berger Collection, housed in the Denver Art Museum, convey the history of British artistic achievement and delight the eye. Beginning with a medieval crucifixion scene and ending with contemporary painting, the exhibition touches on all major eras and genres in between. Captivating portraits show the faces of Tudor royalty, powerful aristocrats, and the rising middle class. Landscapes reveal the importance of the sea, the countryside, and the city to British identity. Compelling paintings of horses underscore the popularity of equestrian sports in Britain. In short, Treasures from the Berger Collection, with its masterpieces by artists including Anthony van Dyck, Benjamin West, Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, and John Singer Sargent, provides a rich survey of British painting.