The natural world continues to inspire Cumbrian artists.  This exhibition features work by both Tullie House’s best-loved North Country artists and our most recent acquisitions by contemporary artists.

In the 19th century William James Blacklock and Sam Bough painted iconic views of Cumbria which demonstrate an intimacy with their subject. In the 20th century, Sheila Fell painted the farmed landscape of her native northern Cumbria with great sensitivity. Today, landscape is the chosen subject of Cumbrian artists Donald Wilkinson and Julian Cooper. For leading landscape photographer Jem Southam, the relationship between natural and man-made environments in Cumbria inspired his recent work.

One of Cumbria’s most important artists, Winifred Nicholson, continues to have a national reputation for her work inspired by the natural world. An appreciation of this world inspired the late Cumbrian artists Jenny Cowern and Lorna Graves in very different ways. Natural ephemeral interventions in the Cumbrian landscape characterise the work of Andy Goldsworthy shown here. For Keith Tyson, an internationally known Cumbrian artist, the process of painting itself is used to explore the complexity of the natural world.

For over 300 years of our collections, Natural Wonder has been a motivating, creative force.