Plein Air Sketching in the North

During the second half of the eighteenth century, the practice of using oil paint on paper while working outdoors became popular among landscape artists. Artists from Germany and Scandinavia often traveled to Italy and began making forays into the countryside to immerse themselves in nature and record their observations in small-scale studies in oil on paper.

Returning home, artists focused on their native landscapes in Germany, Denmark, and Norway, depicting distinct features from inland forests to rocky coasts. These explorations coincided with the rise of national schools of painting. Fourteen works highlight the innovative approaches employed by northern artists documenting the varied sites and topography of their homelands.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.