January 27 - April 1, 2007

"an oasis of tranquil, contemplative beauty" - Ed Sozanski, Arts Reporter, Philadelphia Enquirer

Featuring paintings and prints from the Museum's permanent collection, this exhibition explores the pastoral landscape tradition in art from classical times through American and European art of the 19th and 20th centuries.

A special feature will be the inclusion of artists associated with the Berks County art heritage including Francis Daniel Devlan, Mary Hiester Reid, Christopher High Shearer and J. Heyl Raser.

Prominent American artists will include Frank Benson, N.C. Wyeth, George Inness and others. European artists will include Rembrandt van Rijn, Albrecht Dürer, Giovanni Battista Piranesi and artists associated with the Barbizon art movement in France and Holland. This exhibition will be divided into four categories of landscape genre: rural agrarian scenes, forests and woodlands, the visionary landscape, and Impressionism.

Ron Roth, Director and CEO of the Reading Public Museum stated, "Pastoral themes first enter Western art in literature through the work of the Roman poet Virgil (70 B.C. – 19 B.C.) His series of poems entitled the Eclogues celebrated the virtues of simple rural life. These poems defined pastoral themes expressed as a nostalgic, yearning for the countryside and its attendant scenes of shepherds and grazing flocks of sheep. These early themes would continue to find expression in western art for two thousand years into the present day."

You'll enjoy traditional classical pastoral music as part of your gallery experience. Also on view in the Founders' Gallery will be the newly-restored sculpture, Drinking Girl by Edward McCartan.

Related Programming

Exhibition Gallery Talks by Ronald C. Roth, Director and CEO

• Wednesdays After Dark lecture series on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 7 p.m. (snow date: February 7)

• Noontime Knowledge on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at 12 noon (snow date: February 13).

This exhibition is underwritten by The Widgeon Foundation, Inc. on behalf of Jennifer Malmberg. Additional support provided in part by grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

On display during regular Museum hours.

Top: Anton Mauve, Return of the Flock, ca. 1880, oil on canvas; Middle: N.C. Wyeth, Buttonwood Farm, 1920, oil on canvas; Bottom: C.H. Shearer, Landscape with Cattle, oil on canvas