The French sculptor Auguste Rodin visited London in 1881, and as he saw sculptures from Greece in the British Museum, he was greatly inspired. If you return to the museum today, you can see the result!

The exhibition in itself is a proof of the importance of art museums. If it hadn’t been for the British Museum in 1881, Auguste Rodin wouldn’t have seen the beautiful Greek sculptures in the museum, and his career might have moved in a different path. But, luckily the British Museum was alive back then, and it still is today.

A lot of the sculptures that Rodin saw in the museum back then was in poor shape and lacked heads and other parts. This led Rodin to make sculptures in the same way, without heads. Now, a long time after his death, you can see a large collection of the works of Rodin at this temporary exhibition in the British Museum. And to make it even more interesting, the exhibition will feature Rodin’s work next to some of the original sculptures from Greece that inspired Rodin back in 1881.

Rodin and the art of ancient Greece [Exhibition]

British Museum
Apri 26th – July 29th

We hope you will enjoy the exhibition and your stay in London. For more information about others events and happenings in London, take a look around in our London Guide.

Have you ever heard of the Scythians? Maybe you have, or maybe you haven’t. No matter what your answer is, now is the time to discover more about these legendary warriors of the past.

From September 14th till January 14th (in 2018) you should visit the British Museum in London. The museum will then host a temporary exhibition titled “Scythians – warriors of ancient Siberia.” The exhibition is organized in cooperation with the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. This ancient group of people lived between 900 and 200 BC, and they encountered culutures such as the Greek, the Persian, and the Assyrian culture. But, for a long time their culture has been hidden away.

Based on recent discoveries from ancient tombs we now know much more about the Scythians. At this exhibition you can see clothes and fabrics preserved in permafrost, amazing jewelry, and even mumified warriors and horses. Doesn’t the entire exhibition sound like a treat to you?

Scythians – warriors of ancient Siberia

British Museum
September 14th – January 14th

Would you like to know more about other exhibitions and museums in London? Read around in our London Guide for more information about these and other topics.

Would you like to see and get to know more about watercolour pictures made between 1850 and 1950, portraying beautiful landscapes? Visit the British Museum.

The exhibition named British watercolour landscapes 1850-1950 had its opening on February 23rd in 2017 and it will remain available until August 27th in 2017.

Beneath you can read the official press release about the exhibition:

Drawn from the British Museum’s rich collection, this is the first exhibition devoted to landscape drawings and watercolours by British artists in the Victorian and modern eras – two halves of very different centuries.

The exhibition celebrates the work of British landscape artists during the hundred years following the death of J M W Turner. It demonstrates how they worked in many different styles and techniques on paper – not only in watercolour, but also in mixed media including bodycolour, pastel, chalk and pen and ink – to interpret the changing landscape of the period. It charts their technically brilliant, virtuoso and imaginative responses to the artistic, cultural and social upheavals of the time.

Most of the 125 works are from the British Museum’s remarkable but little-known collection – over half have never been on display before. The exhibition includes works by James McNeil Whistler, Edward Burne-Jones, John Singer Sargent, Muirhead Bone, Paul Nash, John Minton, Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland.

Different sections of the exhibition explore not only the variety of techniques and styles but also the effects of tourism at home and abroad, the role of artists’ colonies, contemporary writing and the devastating effect of two world wars. The exhibition’s title is borrowed from the poet and critic Geoffrey Grigson’s 1949 collection of essays, Places of the Mind. It acknowledges how every landscape drawing is a construct of the mind and imagination of its creator – an attempt to convey not merely the physical properties of a landscape but an almost spiritual quest to capture its essence and sense of place.

The accompanying book, available in the Museum shops and online, is supported in memory of Melvin R Seiden and by a grant from the Dr Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation, awarded to the American Friends of the British Museum.

The press release was copied from the British Museum website.