Major collections join forces for landscape exhibition

John Knox, Highland Landscape, c.1805, image courtesy of the Fleming Collection.

A wide-ranging survey of northern landscape painting is to be the next ticketed exhibition at Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery.

That it’s not to be a chocolate boxy wallow is clear from the title, Romance to Realities: The Northern Landscapes and Shifting Identities.

Curated in partnership with The Fleming Collection of Scottish art, the exhibition will include works by pioneers of British landscape art such as John Knox, Alexander Nasmyth and John Martin along with more modern creations by Anne Redpath, LS Lowry and Joan Eardley.  

The earliest work on display will date from the 1560s. Among loans from regional and national collections will be a JMW Turner watercolour of Inverness, dating from 1833, from Inverness Museum & Art Gallery.

Alexander Nasmyth, A Stormy Highland Scene, c.1810, image courtesy of the Fleming Collection.

Julie Milne, chief curator of art galleries for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, says the exhibition will highlight the varied stories of the northern landscape.  

“The Laing and Fleming collections are brought together for the first time to explore the unique and ever-changing nature of the northern landscape, from early romanticised works to more multi-faceted and bleaker realities,” she adds.

“The exhibition showcases enthralling and absorbing paintings that not only reflect the changes in the landscape but also human experience.” 

Robert Hutchison, Picking Flowers on the Bents, c.1882, image courtesy of the Fleming Collection.

James Knox, director of the Fleming Collection, says: “It’s a tremendous honour to be working with the Laing.

“Myself and my colleague, Theo Albano, have been strategising a comprehensive landscape show for a long time, and to be pairing our collection with the fantastic holdings of the Laing is wonderful.  

“We hope we have highlighted some new and exciting perspectives about the northern landscape and I think everyone will take away something different from this show.” 

The exhibition will open on October 5 and run until April 26, 2025. Find details of opening times and admission prices on the Laing Art Gallery website.