18th Century
Burlington Scholarship to Study 18th Century French Fine and Decorative Arts
February 10 2026
Picture: Burlington
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Burlington Magazine are inviting applications for their 2026 scholarship for the study of French 18th-century fine and decorative art.
According to their website:
The Burlington Magazine is pleased to announce its ninth annual scholarship to provide funding over a 12-month period to those engaged in the study of French 18th-century fine and decorative art, enabling them to develop new ideas and research that will contribute to this field of art historical study. [...]
Applicants must be studying, or intending to study, for an MA, PhD, post-doctoral or independent research in the field of French 18th-century fine and decorative arts within the 12-month period the funding is given (i.e. September 2026 – August 2027). [...]
£12,000 is awarded to one recipient per year and applies to a 12-month period.
Applications must be in by 31st March 2026. Click on the link above for the full terms and conditions.
Bank lends Siranis to Museo Civico di Modena
January 27 2026
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that BPER Banca will be lending two works from their art collection by Elisabetta Sirani to the Museo Civico di Modena. The pictures, depicting St John the Baptist and the Madonna and Child respectively, will be on loan as part of a new agreement between the institutions. They will be on display until November 2026.
Reynolds' Margaret Desenfans gifted to Dulwich Picture Gallery
January 26 2026
Picture: The British Art Journal
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has kindly been in touch with news that the Dulwich Picture Gallery has been gifted Sir Joshua Reynolds' portrait of Margaret Desenfans. The picture, which had been on loan from a private collection for some years, is a likeness of the wife of the gallery's founder, the art dealer Noël Desenfans. Here's an article from the BBC (from 2002) regarding the resurfacing of the painting in the USA back in the late 1990s.
Stephen Fry and Canaletto
January 19 2026
Video: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's New York have filmed actor Stephen Fry talking with Andrew Fletcher, Global Head Old Masters, about Canaletto's Venice, the Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day. The painting is coming up for sale on 4th February 2026 with an estimate of around $30m.
Recent Release: Artists and Pirates - Satirical Prints in Georgian London and Dublin
January 14 2026
Picture: Churchill House Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
An interesting sounding book entitled Artists and Pirates - Satirical Prints in Georgian London and Dublin, edited by Silvia Beltrametti and William Laffan, was released at the end of last year.
According to the publisher's blurb:
Single sheet satire – caricature – is one of the most distinctive and original art forms to emerge from England in the eighteenth century. Artists such as James Gillray (1756-1815) and Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) combined devastating wit with graphic brilliance to lampoon the great and create timeless images inspired by moments of fleeting controversy or scandal. Availing of a legal loophole, under which copyright law of images did not apply to Ireland, a business of pirating caricatures by London satirists flourished in Regency Dublin. The work of these plagiarists – which is paradoxically inventive and vibrant – as well as prints of Irish subject matter by English caricaturists such as Gillray, is the subject of the book Artists and Pirates: Satirical Prints in Georgian London and Dublin.
Upcoming Release: Noble Beasts - Hunters and Hunted in Eighteenth-Century French Art
January 8 2026
Picture: Yale Books
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Yale University Press will be releasing Amy Freund's new book Noble Beasts: Hunters and Hunted in Eighteenth-Century French Art next week.
According to the book's blurb:
Noble Beasts highlights the work of François Desportes, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, and others who, operating from the heart of institutions such as the Royal Academy and the Gobelins manufactory, produced an astonishing volume of highly accomplished work. The book draws on the critical frameworks of human-animal studies and on Enlightenment philosophical debates to explore how and why hunting art’s aesthetic and political claims blurred the lines between human and animal.
Veil-Picard Collection at Christie's Paris in March
January 7 2026
Picture: Christie's via artnet.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's Paris have unveiled that they will be offering works from the collection of the late Arthur Georges Veil-Picard (1854–1944) on 25th March 2026.
According to artnet's article linked above:
Christie’s is billing the sale as offering a glimpse into one of “the most mysterious and coveted” private collections in art history, largely known only through black-and-white reproductions. It features 30 works by the likes of Hubert Robert (1733–1808), Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780), Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842), and Marie-Suzanne Roslin (1734–1772). It could bring in as much as €5 million to €8 million ($5.85 million–9.35 million) in total.
Rediscovered José I Portrait acquired by University of Coimbra
December 30 2025
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has kindly been in touch with news from November regarding the following portrait of the young José I (King of Portugal from 1750 to 1777) by Domenico Duprà which was acquired by University of Coimbra in 2023. The picture, which was sold in the Collection Hubert Guerrand-Hermès sale at Sotheby's Paris in 2023 as a 'Portrait of a Young Man', was spotted by Diogo Lemos, a PhD student in Art History at the University. The painting realised €8,890 (inc. commission) over its €2k - €3k estimate. Click on the link above to read more.
Finding Catherine Read
December 23 2025
Picture: Rhodes Trust via ArtUK (where misattributed)
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I hope readers don't mind a short plug for a blog I've written for the website ArtHerStory.net entitled Finding Catherine Read. The piece explains what it is like to go out and find misattributed paintings by female artists. Catherine Read (1720-1778) is widely known as a portraitist in pastel (indeed Neil Jeffares has over 20 pages of them here accessible for free on Pastellists.com), however, her recognised oil paintings are fewer in number.
This summer I began to make a list of misattributed oils on canvas that I have spotted in public collections, museums, private collections and on the art market. The blog features many pictures that are published and given to Read for the first time (perhaps in a long time, at least).
Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans acquire Pierre Nicolas Legrand de Serant
December 23 2025
Picture: @guillaume_mbr via 'X'
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Reynolds acquired by Birmingham Museum of Art Alabama
December 20 2025
Picture: dickinsongallery via Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The London dealers Dickinson have announced on their Instagram page the sale of Sir Joshua Reynolds' Portrait of Mrs Moses Franks to the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama. The picture was exhibited at Frieze back in 2023.
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard pre-empted by Palace of Versailles
December 19 2025
Video: tajan_auction via Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from France that the aforementioned Self Portrait by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard has been pre-empted by the Palace of Versailles. The work realised €650,000 over its €300k - €500k estimate at Tajan the other day.
Upcoming Publication & Exhibition: Painters, Ports, and Profits: Artists and the East India Company, 1750-1850
December 19 2025
Picture: Yale Center for British Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Yale Center for British Art will be opening a new temporary exhibition in January entitled Painters, Ports, and Profits: Artists and the East India Company, 1750-1850. The show also coincides with a publication of the same name edited by Laurel O. Peterson and Holly Shaffer.
According to the book's description on their website:
Painters, Ports, and Profits: Artists and the East India Company, 1750–1850 tells the story of the remarkable creative exchanges that coincided with the rise of one of the most ruthless and powerful corporations in history. Scholarship on this period often separates Indian, Chinese, and British artists; Painters, Ports, and Profits instead foregrounds the vital interactions between their practices. Artistic experimentation with papers, pigments, and other materials produced works of astonishing beauty and variety. Compelled by new subjects and techniques, these artists, many now unknown, had a profound effect on visual and material culture within and beyond Asia.
The exhibition will run from 8th January until 21st June 2026.
Old Masters soar at Stern Sale
December 16 2025
Picture: Christie's Paris
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
There were some Old Masters that performed rather well in the recent Les Stern: une famille de collectionneurs sale at Christie's Paris last week. Works by Hubert Robert, Fragonard and Maria van Oosterwyck soared past their top estimates, with a pair of Robert landscapes reaching €3,720,000 (inc. commission) against their estimate of €300k - 400k.
Pietro Francesco Guala Portraits at Casale Monferrato
December 16 2025
Picture: monferrato.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very slow to news that a special exhibition of portraits by Pietro Francesco Guala will run at the Casale Monferrato until 6th January 2026. In particular, the show highlights a group of 15 reunited likenesses made for the Marquises Scarampi di Camino begun in 1738.
Prado acquire portrait of Luis de Paret's daughters
December 16 2025
Picture: Ars Magazine
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via the Ars Magazine in Spain that the Prado have acquired Luis de Paret's portrait of his daughters Maria and Luisa. The picture was acquired for €395,000 (inc. taxes) with assistance from a legacy left by Juan José Luna.
Restoration on View at the Royal Palace of Caserta
December 12 2025
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Visitors to the Royal Palace of Caserta will be able to see the 'live' restoration of a monumental canvas by Ilario Giacinto Mercanti showing Elisabetta Farnese leaving Parma after her marriage to Philip V of Spain. The work is being sponsored in-part by a film company called Eagle Pictures who used one of the halls in the Palace for filming earlier in the year.
Anton Raphael Mengs at the Prado
December 8 2025
Video: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado in Madrid have recently opened their Anton Raphael Mengs exhibition. It will run until 1st March 2026.
According to their website:
Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779) brings together a total of 159 works, including 64 paintings, 14 examples of the decorative arts, and 81 drawings, prints and studies on paper, allowing visitors to explore both the artist’s role as court painter and muralist as well as his intellectual and theoretical dimension. The works have been loaned from 25 international and 9 Spanish institutions and 10 private collections, reflecting the European reach of Mengs’s influence and the richness of his legacy.
Giuseppe Bottani acquired in Mantua
December 8 2025
Picture: gazzettadimantova.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Mantua that the city's Ducal Palace has acquired Giuseppe Bottani's (1717-1784) The Death of Dido. The work will be redisplayed to the public in January once the painting finishes undergoing restoration.
Hubert Robert Drawing acquired by MET
November 27 2025
Picture: @curatornadine
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm slow to news that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have acquired Hubert Robert's Self-Portrait in Saint-Lazare Prison, 1793 (spotted via @gazette_Inter).
According to curator Nadine Orenstein's post on Instagram:
Robert was imprisoned during the Terror. Here, he depicts himself, easily recognizable by his dark eyebrows and receding hairline, in his cell at the Saint-Lazare prison. His correspondence and inkwell sit on his desk. The large drawing or engraving tacked to the wall is related to one of his best-known paintings, the portfolio of drawings leaning against the table is inscribed, “Robert a St Lazare,”.
