Past exhibitions

Discover the Sydney artist at the heart of impressionism

Part of the French avant-garde of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, John Russell was a close friend of Vincent van Gogh and Auguste Rodin, taught impressionist colour theory to Henri Matisse and dined with Claude Monet. Yet history has largely forgotten Russell, who was a key member of this ground-breaking group of artists during one of the most exhilarating periods in art history.

Bringing together 120 paintings, drawings and watercolours – including a number of works by his contemporaries – this major retrospective is the first survey of Russell’s work in 40 years. It offers fresh perspectives on French impressionism, reintroducing Russell’s extraordinary painting to today’s audiences.

The exhibition presents the breadth of Russell’s art from his studies in London and Paris, through impressionism and experimentation with pure colour, to his later fauve-like luminous watercolours. It features significant works that were only rediscovered recently and are exhibited publicly for the first time.

Many of the works – which include loans from the Van Gogh Museum, Musée d’Orsay, Musée Rodin, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums and public and private collections in Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom – have not been shown for decades and some never before.

Note: This display includes works that are protected under the Protection of Cultural Objects on Loan Act 2013. More information

Image details: John Russell Mrs Russell among the flowers in the garden of Goulphar, Belle-Île 1907, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, held by the Musée de Morlaix, bequest of Mme Jouve 1948; Morestil Point c1900, private collection; Peonies and head of a woman c1887, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, The Joseph Brown Collection, presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004; Vincent van Gogh 1886, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (State of the Netherlands), photo: Maurice Tromp; In the afternoon 1891, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, purchased with funds provided by the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales 2016; The Needles, winter sun, Belle-Île 1903, The Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art, Perth