S otheby’s New York is pleased to present the selling exhibition En Plein Air: Landscapes through the Ages. Fusing historical tradition with contemporary perspectives, this exhibition will showcase works by Gustave Courbet, Charles Ephraim Burchfield, Mary Cassat, Wayne Thiebaud and Shara Hughes. Each piece pays homage to the enduring essence of landscape, capturing the complex and nuanced dimensions of the genre as a method of self-expression, with the artist’s emotions and admiration for their surroundings reflected in their output.
Tracing its origins through centuries, landscape painting unveils profound insights into our relationship with nature and the environment, enriching art history with its exploration of the natural world and its representation. The French term en plein air refers to the practice of painting landscapes directly from nature, an approach that became prominent in the 19th century and was pivotal in shaping modern art, emphasizing the direct engagement with nature, and fostering new artistic techniques and styles. Artists through their distinct visual languages, adeptly capture the environment and the depth of their surroundings, using their knowledge and methods to create impactful works of art that resonate across time and place whilst solidifying their personal experience within the world. This fall season, these works will highlight the brilliance of landscape paintings across a mode of artistic interpretations.
“I could certainly never mirror nature. I would more like to paint what it leaves with me”
Kathryn Kremnitzer joined Sotheby’s in June 2021. She earned her PhD at Columbia University in 2020 with a dissertation that explored how Édouard Manet worked across media in the 1860s. She was previously Research Associate in the Painting and Sculpture of Europe department at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she worked on Manet and Modern Beauty (2019), Monet and Chicago (2020), and Cezanne (2022), and contributed to the online scholarly catalogue of Manet’s works in the collection. As a Curatorial Assistant at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, she worked on Madame Cézanne (2014) and Tiepolo Caricatures from the Robert Lehman Collection (2014). She specializes in 19th century European painting, particularly French, and works on paper.
