It is a little appreciated fact that the National Museum Wales has one of the signature collections of 19th century painting in Britain, a collection that is among the more important in Europe.  The collection was built between 1908 and 1923, and then donated to the museum by two extraordinary sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies.  In keeping with the great Welsh   industrial heritage, these were daughters of a major Welsh mining and shipping tycoon, David Davies.  Turner to Cézanne presents an outstanding group of paintings from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including masterpieces by Cézanne, Corot, Daumier, Manet, Millet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Turner, and van Gogh.  Featuring nearly 60 works, many of which have rarely been exhibited outside of Wales, the exhibition will explore some of the key stylistic innovations that shaped the art of the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Essentially an exceptional survey of the evolution of early modern art, the exhibition will move from the romantic naturalism of J.M.W. Turner, to the verve of Claude Monet and August Renoir’s Impressionism, climaxing in the intensity and passion of Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh’s Post-Impressionism.

Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales is organized by the American Federation of Arts and National Museum Wales . This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.; The presentation at the Corcoran is supported by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.