Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond Through July 6, 2025
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.
Francis Towne, Lake Albano, 1781, pen and gray ink and grayish-brown wash over graphite on laid paper, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Stuart Collection, museum purchase funded by Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer in honor of Mary Hale Lovett McLean.
John Constable, A View on the Banks of the River Stour, 1809–16, oil on paperboard, laid down on panel, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Stuart Collection, gift of Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer in memory of James Chillan, Jr., the first Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Bridgnorth on the River Severn (Shrosphire), 1798, watercolor over graphite with scratching out on wove paper, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Stuart Collection, museum purchase funded by Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer, in honor of Gary Tinterow.
John Sell Cotman, The Anglers (in Avon Gorge), c. 1829–30, watercolor over graphite, heightened with gouache with blotting and scratching out on wove paper, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Stuart Collection, museum purchase funded by Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer in honor of Kim and Sellers Thomas.
Featuring over 70 works of art in a variety of media, Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond explores how the genre of landscape evolved during an era of immense transformation in Britain. This diverse collection of watercolors, drawings, prints, and oil sketches traces the shift from topographical and picturesque depictions of the natural world to intensely personal ones that align with Romantic poetry of the period.
The exhibition spotlights the Stuart Collection, built over the past decade in collaboration with Houstonian Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer. 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, whose innovative approaches to watercolor raised its status as an art form and heralded a golden age for the medium.
Through the work of these luminaries and their contemporaries, Picturing Nature reveals how landscape emerged as a distinct artistic genre in England in the late 1700s, then reached its greatest heights the following century, attracting international response and inspiring both artists and collectors at home and abroad. Period publications and artist’s supplies, including drawing manuals and a mid-19th-century Winsor & Newton watercolor box, further illustrate the flowering of the landscape tradition.
► Publication
The illustrated exhibition catalogue is available through the MFA Shop (713.639.7360) and the Museum’s Hirsch Library (713.639.7325).
Ready to Visit?
Member and ALL ACCESS tickets include same-day admission to this exhibition, all Special Exhibitions, and the MFAH Permanent Collections. On Thursday, entry to this exhibition is included with a ticket to the Permanent Collections.
Get Your TicketPicturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond / January 12–July 6, 2025
"Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond" is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
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