André Derain (1880–1954)

Leeds Museums and Galleries

This summer twelve UK museums come together with Art UK and Sotheby's to stage a month-long exhibition celebrating the UK's central role in the creative lives of leading international artists.

The free exhibition 'London: An Artistic Crossroads' is on display at Sotheby's New Bond Street Galleries from 25th May to 5th July 2024.

London as inspiration

The exhibition, 'London: An Artistic Crossroads', will bring together an assemblage of remarkable works by artists who passed through or settled in the UK during their lifetime. The earliest of the works is a vivacious portrait by Flemish artist Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, who became one of the most sought-after portraitists in England during the sixteenth century.

It is joined by a vibrant landscape by André Derain, for whom London was a place of explosive transformation, as well as an iconic Composition by Piet Mondrian who, out of fear of German invasion and encouraged by Ben Nicholson, left Paris for Hampstead in 1938.

Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Dame Lucie Rie are included in the line up – all émigrés: Freud from metropolitan Germany, Bacon from rural Ireland and Rie from Vienna, in addition to Frank Bowling, R. B. Kitaj and Dame Magdalene Odundo, among others.

The exhibition coincides with NG200 – the bicentenary celebrations of London's National Gallery – which it is intended to complement. As The National Gallery launches its National Treasures programme, where 12 of the nation's most iconic and well-loved paintings from the collection are lent to 12 venues across the UK, this exhibition does the reverse: bringing 12 works from major regional collections together in the capital city.