Light fantastic

A new exhibition at the National Gallery sets out to explore how artists use light to create mood and meaning in their work. The display of 21 pictures ranges from the effects of candles to street lights and fireworks to sunsets. Important works from artists such as El Greco, Goya, Turner and Renoir are on hand to demonstrate the painter's skill in capturing light.

The exhibition is the first in a new four-year partnership scheme set up with the Bristol Museums And Art Gallery and the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, and relies on a generous grant from the Lottery.

The symbolic use of light in religious paintings to suggest divine glory or presence is represented in Rembrandt's 'Adoration Of The Shepherds', with Salvator Rosa's use of darkness in the disturbing 'Witches At Their Incantations' suggesting the absence of both God and reason. Similarly, Monet's mission of capturing the particular effects of sunlight on the same scene is represented with his evocation of a pallid winter morning in 'Lavacourt Under Snow', a striking contrast to the scintillating midsummer sun captured by fellow Impressionist Renoir in 'Boating On The Seine'.

Paintings by Degas and Pissarro conclude the show with a demonstration of how artists responded to the new forms of artifical lighting in the 19th century.

Light, from Thur 18 Jul, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2 (020-7747 2885).