Opulence and Anxiety: Landscape paintings from the Royal Academy of Arts

Curated by Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor, Yale University

Opulence & Anxiety features the work of over forty landscape painters, bringing together celebrated masterpieces and rarely seen works from the late 1700s to the present day.

Britain’s industrial and commercial progress in the years leading up to 1800 generated the wealth and global power that gave rise to an age of opulence. With the fall of the British Empire, and, later, with the effects of the First and Second World War, Britain entered an era of extreme anxiety. These conflicting themes are explored in this exhibition.

from the Compton Verney website introduction to the exhibition

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Toured to Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea (21 Jul 2007 – 23 Sep 2007)