Some very distinguished old masters are about to visit the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery.
Billed as the gallery’s major exhibition of the year, European Old Masters: 16th – 19th Century is an exhibition of important oil paintings by leading Italian, French and British artists of the High Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and Romantic periods, opening September 28.
Included will be works by Thomas Gainsborough, William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Bernardo Strozzi and Frans Snyders.
The works are on loan from the Art Gallery of New South Wales to Hazelhurst.
This is the first time many of these important European paintings have been shown together outside of their permanent home at the Art Gallery of NSW.
Belinda Hanrahan, director, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery said the gallery is thrilled that the Art Gallery of New South Wales has given Hazelhurst the opportunity for people to encounter the state’s finest European old masters.
“Paintings such as these remind us of what is constant in human experience and emotion while offering an insight into ages and cultures so different to our own,” Ms Hanrahan said.
Sutherland Shire mayor Carmelo Pesce said the the Sutherland Shire community is the first to see the collection outside its home.
AGNSW curator European prints, drawings and watercolours, Peter Raissis said the gallery has acquired an outstanding group of English 18th-century portraits, including works by three of the leading painters of the age, William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds.
The gallery has also purchased landscapes and subject pictures representative of British Neo-Classicism and Romanticism by artists such as Richard Wilson, John Glover, Richard Westall, William Hamilton and Francis Danby.
Added to these was the major donation by James Fairfax during the 1990s which significantly enriched the gallery’s holdings of European old masters, particularly in the area of 18th-century French and Italian art such as the works by Nicolas de Largillierre and Canaletto.
The collection has continued to develop with the acquisition of major Italian Renaissance and Baroque works such as the work of Giulio Cesare Procaccini, also exhibited in European Old masters: 16th-19th Century.
Details:
European Old Masters: 16th – 19th Century, September 28 to December 3, 2017.
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, 782 Kingsway, Gymea NSW
www.hazelhurst.com.au.
