Opening Day Lecture | “Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond”
John Robert Cozens, View of Vietri and Raito, Italy, c. 1783, watercolor over graphite on cream laid paper, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Stuart Collection, museum purchase funded by Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer in honor of Dena M. Woodall.
January 12, 2025
Dena M. Woodall, curator of prints and drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents a lecture to accompany the opening of Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond. The Stuart Collection highlights the flowering of landscape painting in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Tracing the shift from topographical and picturesque depictions of the natural world to intensely personal ones, this exceptional collection includes standout works by such notable artists as Richard Wilson, Thomas Gainsborough, John Robert Cozens, John Constable, and J.M.W. Turner. The included works of art also highlight innovative approaches to watercolor that raised its status as an art form and heralded a golden age for the medium.
Plan Your Visit
- Free with Museum admission
- This lecture takes place in the Brown Auditorium Theater in the Law Building. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- The exhibition is located in the European Art Gallery, Audrey Jones Beck Building.
- On the day of the lecture, the illustrated exhibition catalogue is available for purchase.
- Parking Information | Museum Hours | MFAH Campus Map
About the Speaker
Dena M. Woodall is the curator of prints and drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
All Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from H-E-B; Institute of Museum and Library Services; Sempra Foundation; the Brown Foundation, Inc.; the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; the John M. O'Quinn Foundation; the Joe Barnhart Foundation; the Cockrell Family Fund; the CFP Foundation; Macey and Harry Reasoner; the Texas Commission on the Arts; and the Junior League of Houston, Inc.
Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Medha and Shashank Karve; Virginia and Ira Jackson; Jesse H. Jones II; the CFP Foundation; the Favrot Fund; gifts in memory of John Wynne; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.
Special thanks to the Jackson Prints and Drawings Endowment.
"Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond" is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.