Painting in the Open Air: A Conversation with Ann Lofquist

Mary Morton, curator and head of French paintings, National Gallery of Art, and Ann Lofquist, artist At the National Gallery of Art on February 23, 2020, Mary Morton is joined in conversation with artist Ann Lofquist to discuss the exhibition True to Nature: Open-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1870. Singling out particular paintings from the exhibition, Lofquist describes the influence of 19th-century artists, such as Camille Corot, on her own practice of sketching in oil paint outdoors. Like these European painters who were aesthetically energized by the light of Italy, Lofquist spent several years in California after a lifetime of painting in the northeast. The conversation highlights a tradition begun in the late 18th century that extends to contemporary painting.