18th Century
James Cumberlidge Reidentified
October 1 2024
Picture: @edward.town
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Yale Center for British Art's curator Edward Town has shared a fascinating piece of research on his Instagram account. The project relates to the reidentification of a household servant which features in Chatsworth's 'Portrait of Lord Burlington with family' by Baptist van Loo. James Cumberlidge, whose descendants worked for the family into the nineteenth century, was rediscovered after research into payments was conducted (see the link for more details). The painting features in Chatsworth's Picturing Childhood exhibition which closes on 6th October 2024.
Torcuato Ruiz del Peral Exhibition in Granada
October 1 2024
Picture: museosdeandalucia.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new exhibition has recently opened at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada celebrating the career of the sculptor Torcuato Ruiz del Peral (1708-1773). Considered one of the last great sculptors in the grand Baroque manner, the show draws on works from private and public institutions in order to mark the 250th anniversary of his death.
The display will run until 5th January 2025.
Winterthur sends Graff Self-Portrait back to Poland
September 24 2024
Picture: swissinfo.ch
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The city of Winterthur in Switzerland have sent Anton Graff's Self-Portrait at the Age of 72 back to Poland after a provenance probe. The painting had been hanging in a museum in Wrocław in 1937 but later disappeared from a depot a few years later in 1939. Graff's picture was eventually purchased by the Swiss city from a Basel art dealer for 16,800 CHF in 1986. Click on the link to read more.
Monumental Desportes Coming Up
September 20 2024
Video: ARTCENTO
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The French auction house Pousse-Cornet will be offering a monumental still life by Alexandre-François Desportes in a few days' time. The painting, which cataloguing suggests hasn't been offered for sale since 1961, carrys an estimate of 100,000 - 150,000 euros.
Revolution at the Musée Carnavalet
September 18 2024
Picture: Musée Carnavalet
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musée Carnavalet in Paris will be opening an exhibition dedicated to 'Year II' of the French Revolution.
According the museum's website:
1789, the year of the Storming of the Bastille and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, is often considered to be the glorious year of the Revolution and even to embody the French Revolution in its entirety. It is the year during which Paris established itself as the capital of the Enlightenment and Revolutions.
But compared to the clarity of “89”, “93” appears much darker and thornier. As it was just coming to an end, this long political year spanning from the spring of 1793 to the summer of 1794 had already found a name: the “Terror”. Fabricated for political reasons, the word points to the authoritarian transition that the republican regime had undergone. And yet, the years 1793-1794 are also the years that some, confident in their ability to reinvent history, called “Year II”: a year defined by its breaking with the past and its revitalising of revolutionary utopias.
The exhibition is a collection of more than 250 works of all kinds: paintings, sculptures, objects of decorative arts, historical and memorial objects, wallpaper, posters, pieces of furniture… And all translate collective histories and incredible individual fates.
These varied objects reveal a context imbued with collective fears and state violence, but also with extraordinary daily activities, feasts, and celebrations.
The display will run from 16th October 2024 until 16th February 2025.
AIL Gainsboroughs on Display at No.1 Royal Crescent
September 16 2024
Picture: No.1 Royal Crescent
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
No.1 Royal Crescent in Bath, run by the Bath Preservation Trust, have just displayed four recently acquired paintings by Thomas Gainsborough. The portraits of the Tugwell family, who were middle-class manufacturers from a small West Country town, were painted by the artist around the year 1760. The works were acquired through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme (AIL), via the auctioneers Duke's, and settled £88,125 worth of tax.
According to the article linked above:
Senior curator for Bath Preservation Trust Dr Amy Frost said: "The portraits are remarkable for capturing two generations of a manufacturing family." [...]
"When I opened the email saying 'Do you want four Gainsborough portraits?' my first reaction was to ask: 'Is this real?' especially as it then said 'as a gift'.
"We're a small museum, and a gift like this can be revolutionary in terms of the quality of what we display," said Ms Frost.
The Botanical World of Mary Delany at Beningbrough
September 10 2024
Picture: The British Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Beningbrough Hall, a house in North Yorkshire cared for by The National Trust, are opening a new exhibition today entitled The Botanical World of Mary Delany. Organised in partnership with The British Museum, who own one of the greatest collections of her paper mosaics, the show will also feature contemporary works by photographers reacting to these eighteenth century marvels.
The show will continue there until 23rd March 2025.
Beneath the Surface | George Stubbs & Contemporary Artists at Wentworth Woodhouse
September 9 2024
Picture: wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I appear to have neglected the fact that a brilliant sounding exhibition opened at Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire earlier this summer. Beneath the Surface | George Stubbs & Contemporary Artists has been organised in celebration of the artist's 300th Birthday Anniversary.
According to their website:
Join us this summer as we celebrate the 300th birthday of artist, George Stubbs, by returning his paintings to Wentworth Woodhouse and displaying them here publicly in South Yorkshire for the first time!
George Stubbs has long been revered as a ground-breaking and curious artist, possessing an exceptional ability to present animals with a human-like quality. In 1762, Stubbs spent some time at Wentworth Woodhouse, working on paintings commissioned by the Second Marquess of Rockingham.
In our largest exhibition to-date, Beneath the Surface features Stubbs’ work alongside pieces by contemporary artists, including Ugo Rondinone, Mark Wallinger and Tracey Emin, who have drawn on similar themes. These artists also look beneath the surface, exploring animal and human experiences through their innovative and thought-provoking work.
The show will run until 3rd November 2024.
Marie Antoinette at the V&A in 2025
September 6 2024
Picture: V&A
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London have announced a big exhibition on Marie Antoinette in September 2025. Entitled Marie Antoinette Style: Shaped by the most fashionable queen in history the display is being sponsored by the footwear retailers Manolo Blahnik (who participated in the wildly popular shoe show at the Wallace Collection back in 2019).
According to the website:
A complex fashion icon, Marie Antoinette's timeless appeal is defined by her style, youth and notoriety. Explore the lasting influence of the most fashionable (and ill-fated) queen in history – with over 250 years of design, fashion, film and art.
Susanna Drury Soars!
September 5 2024
Picture: Woolley & Wallis
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This charming watercolour of London by the rare and little-known artist Susanna Drury (c.1698-c.1770) achieved an impressive £81,900 (inc. premium) over its £1,500 - £2,500 estimate at Woolley & Wallis yesterday.
In other related W&W news, the fine Constable sketch I posted the other day eventually realised £516,600 (inc. premium) over its £50k - £80k estimate. Never underestimate a Constable sketch, it seems clear!
Mary Robinson at Chawton House
September 4 2024
Picture: chawtonhouse.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Chawton House in Hampshire have just opened an exhibition dedicated to the eighteenth century actress and writer Mary Robinson. Art lovers will know that she was sat for many artists including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Hoppner and Romney.
According to the exhibtion's blurb:
Long remembered only for her relationship with the Prince of Wales (later George IV) – who fell in love with her on stage as Perdita in The Winter’s Tale – in recent decades Mary Robinson has been reclaimed as one of the most important and overlooked writers of the late 18th century. This exhibition will trace the extraordinary journey of her life and artistic development from the most famous woman in England to social outcast, exploring her hard-won second career as one of the most popular and influential writers of her day.
Rare and early editions of her writing – from the debut novel that sold out by lunchtime on the day it was published to her impassioned argument for women’s rights – are brought together with scant surviving manuscript material from collections and archives across the UK. These will be interpreted alongside the portraits, engravings and caricatures through which her image was circulated and her reputation both shaped and ruined. Her compelling biography enables reflections on the complexity of female celebrity and sexuality, at the time and in society today.
The show will run until 21st April 2025.
Temporary Export Ban on Sir Robert Walpole's £6m Watteau
September 2 2024
Picture: gov.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The UK Goverment has placed a temporary export ban on the following picture Le Rêve de L’Artiste, a Watteau which had once been in the collection of the first-ever Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. An interested institution will have to find £6,075,000 (plus VAT of £215,020) to keep the work in the country.
According to the government's website:
Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant said:
This painting was once owned by our first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and was hanging for several years in 10 Downing Street, so Watteau’s Le Rêve de L’Artiste has a fascinating connection to British History, offering us insights into the tastes and development of art in Britain in the 18th century. It portrays the artist’s dream, but perhaps its surreal fantasia inspired political dreams as well. Either way, it is an important and unusual work by a genius.
I hope a UK buyer has the opportunity to purchase this work so it can continue to be studied and enjoyed by the public.”
Why are paintings by Richard Wilson so difficult to restore?
September 2 2024
Video: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Big cracks, apparently!
The National Gallery in London have just published this video regarding the recent conservation of a landscape by Richard Wilson. The film features curator Mary McMahon and Conservation Fellow Maria Carolina Peña-Mariño.
Uffizi acquire Pierre Subleyras Mystical Marriage
August 1 2024
Picture: Uffizi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that the Uffizi in Florence have acquired Pierre Subleyras's The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine de' Ricci. The painting, which is signed and dated 1746, was acquired from Filippo Benappi's stand at TEFAF earlier this year.
According to the related press release:
The Director of the Uffizi Galleries, Simone Verde, stated: "The 'Mystical Marriage' is a work of primary importance for 18th-century art and will be a prominent new addition to the museum's 18th-century rooms. Besides its refined aesthetics and compositional elegance, it significantly reflects the taste of the circle of nobles and intellectuals around the Roman Curia in the mid-18th century. It is a true masterpiece, rare to find on the market, that will enrich the Uffizi's 18th-century collections, filling a significant gap and representing another step towards completing the pictorial history of Italy pursued by Luigi Lanzi, a mission that remains central to the museum today due to its national and international collection significance."
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This was a truly magical painting to see in-person and I even took some photographs of it on my phone to try and capture something of its beauty. The interaction of the figures, putti and their respective faces and gestures seems to allow for a suspension of time. Only the best paintings can do this, I think.
I don't know why the museum hasn't uploaded a better image online, the photograph above does no justice to it at all!
Presumed Self Portrait by Jean Baptiste Pater Coming Up at Auction
July 16 2024
Picture: boisgirard-antonini.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Interesting news from France that a work, presumed to be a Self Portrait of the celebrated Fête galante painter Jean Baptiste Pater, is coming up for sale at Boisgirard Antonini later this month. Handled by the art firm Turquin, the portrait is said to be the prime from which other examples (many since questioned) are based. The painting will be offered on 28th July 2024 carrying an estimate of €40,000 - €60,000.
Watteau's Pierrot to be cleaned
July 15 2024
Picture: Louvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news from the Louvre in Paris that Watteau's iconic Pierrot (or sometimes referred to as Gilles) will be cleaned for a special exhibition opening in October 2024. Entitled A NEW LOOK ON WATTEAU: AN ACTOR WITH NO LINES - PIERROT, KNOWN AS GILLES the show promises to reveal new findings from their ongoing conservation project, alongside a more wider cultural history of the painting. Alas, they haven't released any mid-clean or post-clean photos just yet.
According to the museum's upcoming schedule:
Watteau’s Pierrot, formerly known as Gilles, is one of the most famous masterpieces in the Louvre’s collection. This enigmatic work, which has long raised questions for art historians, is currently undergoing conservation treatment at the Centre for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France, after which time it will be the focus of a spotlight exhibition.
Nothing is known about the painting before it was discovered by the artist and collector Dominique Vivant Denon (1747–1825), Director of the Louvre under Napoleon. It soon came to be regarded as a Watteau masterpiece and garnered praise from renowned writers and art historians. It has often been seen as reflecting a certain image of the 18th century – mischievous, cynical or melancholy, depending on the author and the era. Its fame boosted the return to favour of 18th-century art in the age of Manet and Nadar.
The exhibition will present the findings of the conservation project. It will approach this wholly original work – whose attribution to Watteau has sometimes been questioned – both as part of the artist’s oeuvre and in the cultural and artistic context of the time. Alongside many other paintings and drawings by Watteau, there will be works by his contemporaries – painters, draughtsmen, engravers (Claude Gillot, Antoine Joseph Pater, Nicolas Lancret, Jean Baptiste Oudry, Jean Honoré Fragonard, etc.) and writers (Pierre de Marivaux, Alain-René Lesage, Jean-François Regnard, Evaristo Gherardi), with special emphasis on the rich theatrical repertoire of the time.
The Hood Museum's Portrait of Madame Aignan de Sanlot
July 12 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
One story that seemed to escape the art press in 2022 (as far as I can tell) was The Hood Museum of Art's acquisition of Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun's Portrait of Madame Aignan de Sanlot. The work was sold at Sotheby's Paris in 2022 where it made €85,650 over its €25k - €35k estimate. Curator Elizabeth Rice Mattison has had an article published on the pastel in the most recent issue of Notes in the History of Art in case you'd like to read more.
Bologne au siècle des Lumières at the Musée Fesch
July 10 2024
Picture: musee-fesch.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new exhibition will be opening at the Musée Fesch in Corsica in three days' time. Bologne au siècle des Lumières. Art et science, entre réalité et théâtre, organised in collaboration with the Pinacoteca Nazionale, the Musei Civici the fondation de la Cassa di Risparmio de Bologne (CARISBO), promises to explore the lesser known paintings and artists of eighteenth-century Bologna.
The show will run from 13th July until 30th September 2024.
Oudrymania at Château de Chantilly
July 9 2024
Picture: Château de Chantilly
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Château de Chantilly opened a new exhibition last month dedicated to the animal painter Jean-Baptiste Oudry.
According to the exhibition's website:
Depicted in hunting, portraiture or combat, animals feature among the most striking images produced by Jean-Baptiste Oudry. A gifted artist with an unrivalled mastery of his technique, he brings us face-to-face with the animal repertoire as it existed in the 18th century, including in a series of three hunting scenes he painted for the Château de Chantilly, scattered to the four winds after the French Revolution but exceptionally brought together for this show.
Animal scenes were extremely popular with the leading collectors in the 18th century, including the princes of Condé, who commissioned them from the artist. A set of exquisite drawings by Oudry loaned from a private collection will feature in this exhibition alongside works from Chantilly’s collections, allowing visitors to see pieces never displayed in public before. These include a large number of illustrations for La Fontaine’s fables, showing how the fabulist and the artist use the animal kingdom to help us laugh at and reflect on human nature. These illustrations were so effective they were copied by the arts and crafts industry and included in their decorative production, examples of which can also be admired in the exhibition. Through paintings, drawings, objets d’art and rare books, this show shines a light into every corner of the OUDRYMANIA that has gripped art lovers for centuries.
You only have until the 6th October 2024 to catch Oudrymania for yourself.
Versailles pre-empt Portrait of Sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet
July 8 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
La Gazette Drouot have published news that the Palace of Versailles has pre-empted Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Desmarais's Portrait of the Sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet. The painting had sold at Sotheby's Paris earlier in June where it realised €156,000 over its €80k - €120k estimate.
