While Beijing has no shortage of opportunities to view the best in traditional and contemporary Chinese art, exhibitions showcasing foreign paintings seldom make it to the capital. “Toward Modernity: Three Centuries of British Art,” which displays 80 outstanding paintings from the late 18th Century through the present day, at the World Art Museum is therefore a a real treat. When one thinks of British art, the portraits and landscape paintings of Gainsborough, Reynolds, Constable, and Turner from its 18th to early 19th heyday first comes to mind. “Towards Modernity” underscores how such art, along with mythological and biblical scenes, remained a staple of British painting right up to 1914. The highlight of this genre is Turner’s brilliant 1830 masterpiece, “Calais Sands at Low Water: Possairds Collecting Bait.” The bent over “poissards” seem to merge with the light beige-colored sand. The combination of these figures in the soft-colored sand and low clouds and the orange setting sun make this work both subdued and dramatic. Turner: “Calais Sands at Low Water” (1830) Although the post-Turner landscapes, particularly the ones done just before World War I, like Joseph Farquharson’s 1904 landscape, “The Sun has closed the Winter Day,” are very well done and pleasing to the eye, they have a “Quality of Tradition” feel. And with their strictly representational nature, they also lack the innovative breakthrough character of French Impressionism or immediate Pre-World War I German Expressionism. Speaking of the former, this style appears only after 1914, in Victor Pasmore’s 1935 “Tea Garden.” The one exception here is William Oldham’s revolutionary 1888 painting, “White Mountain.” It is a quasi-abstract rendering of cloud-shrouded peak; the black figures in the bottom foreground can be seen as dark rock outcrops thrusting out of the white-grey clouds. This work has an ethereal and mysterious feel. William Oldham: “White Mountain” (1888) The exhibition also has numerous paintings depicting pre-World War I British social life. However, save for James Sharpe’s classic “The Forge” etching, none reflect directly on the rise of industrial society. But one painting, George Clausen’s 1888 “Spring Morning: Haverstock Hill” provides a commentary (perhaps unintentionally) of social divisions during this time. The upper class woman in the foreground stares at the viewers of the painting with an arrogant assurance, while her fine black dress sets her apart from the shabbily clad and drably colored workman doing street repair in the background. The class divide remained strong in Britain through the late Victorian epoch. Clausen: “Spring Morning” (1888) The haughty self-assurance of Clausen’s Victorian lady stands in sharp contrast to the more anxious looks displayed in the faces of the post-1914 portrait paintings, when Britain underwent imperial decline. The interwar period also marks the start of painting depicting working class life. Highlights here include William Roberts’ 1930 “A Coal Miner’s Toilet;” both it and Laura Knight’s 1944 “In for Repairs” strongly resemble the 1930s American paintings of urban life. The post-World War II art provides viewers with more interesting depictions of British urban industrial society. One of the most striking paintings here is Algernon Newton’s 1945 “House by the London Canal.” The white house in the painting is dramatically juxtaposed against a dark grey background of silhouetted and jagged roofed factories, adjacent plant and smokestack, and overcast sky. The effect is much like the contrast between buildings and sky in Magritte’s “Empire of Light,” but it is done in an entirely naturalistic vs. surrealistic way. Newton: “House by London Canal” (1945) Other highlights of the years following 1945 include John Brothby’s 1957 painting, “The Kitchen,’ with its van Gough like thick brushstrokes, in which a woman does the dishes while a man, presumably her husband, looks on idly from the side. Art from this period runs the gamut from being abstract expressionist, as in Ivon Hitchens’ 1958 “Open Terrance,” to quasi representational, as in Adrian Berg’s 1977-1979 “Gloucester Gate: Regent Park, London.” The latter is striking for its layered depiction of trees and foliage in tiny brushstrokes. With this work, British had indeed made the long march from its 19th Century “Quality of Tradition” paintings to truly modernistic work. The way was open for the 1960s Pop Art Revolution, which began in Northeast England and was spearheaded by the likes of David Hockney. Let’s hope the World Art Museum can mount a similar exhibition of this genre of British art in the not too distant future. For now, we can be grateful to them for providing Beijing with a great glimpse into 300 years of British painting. “Towards Modernity: Three Centuries of British Art” runs through December 21 at the Beijing World Art Museum.