Modern life is hard work

Click here to see our gallery of the Work, Rest and Play exhibition

Nostalgia for rural rhythms, with work and play integrated more naturally into our lives, gets the biggest showing. Paintings by Paul Gauguin and David Teniers the Younger reveal work and rest determined by the land and seasonal cycles, while London-based Thomas Gainsborough created an escapist fantasy in his portrayal of children going to market and resting on the fruit - or vegetables - of their labour.

Seurat's iconic image of Parisians at rest may be missing but the exhibition reveals a different kind of rest on the banks of the Seine with Jean-DÈsirÈ-Gustave Courbet's two prostitutes lying next to a tree in a kind of torpor. And an alternative vision of play comes through Gran Turismo by Megan Davies (pictured), depicting two teenage boys on a PlayStation. They are next to their grandmother, who sits staring into space, showing how the idleness of youth contrasts with that of the elderly.

Moments like this make up for the lack of narrative, an outofcontext shaking up that allows new interpretations. Hanging opposite a 1660 painting of skittle players, Gran Turismo actually seems more of a continuation than a dramatic change. A 1904 image of people looking at job ads in newspapers could be a snap of the dole office on any high street today; one man's forlorn face reveals the sense of identity derived from work.

Industrialisation appears in images of a forge by Derby's Joseph Wright, a female factory worker in World War II, and LS Lowry's Coming Home From The Mill - with workers in the recognisable hunched posture of today's commuter. But the only nod to one of the most common forms of modern employment is in four photographs by Lars Tunbjörk. Office workers in New York, Tokyo and Gothenburg are snapped in various states of activity, a reminder of how work has come to be associated with strip lighting and carpet squares. It's a shame that this hasn't been explored more.

Work, Rest & Play
The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DN