19th Century
From Paris to Provence: French Painting at the Barnes
May 14 2025

Picture: barnesfoundation.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia will be opening their latest exhibition From Paris to Provence: French Painting at the Barnes next month.
According to the gallery's website:
Charting a journey through France, this exhibition examines how place informed the work of modern painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Life in and around Paris and the coastal regions of Normandy and Brittany inspired the radical brushwork, light palette, and contemporary subject matter of impressionists like Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, their mentor and friend Édouard Manet, and the post-impressionists. Several of these painters subsequently moved to the South of France, seeking the warmer climate and dazzling sunlight that intensified their colors. The exhibition highlights Vincent van Gogh’s time in Arles and Saint-Rémy as well as Paul Cézanne’s deep connection to his native Provence. Finally, the show returns to Paris to find a new generation of painters who flocked to the City of Light from across Europe—Amedeo Modigliani, Chaïm Soutine, Giorgio de Chirico, and Joan Miró—and reaffirmed the French capital’s place as the center of modern art.
The show will run from 29th June until 31st August 2025.
'Definitive' Turner and Constable Exhibition at Tate in November 2025
May 13 2025

Picture: Tate
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Tate Britain will be opening their 'definitive' exhibition on Turner and Constable this autumn.
According to their website:
The definitive exhibition of two pivotal British artists in the 250th year of their births.
Two of Britain’s greatest painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable were also the greatest of rivals. Born within a year of each other – Turner in 1775, Constable in 1776 – they used landscape art as a way to reflect the changing world around them.
Raised in the gritty heart of Georgian London, Turner quickly became a rising star of the art world despite his humble beginnings. Meanwhile Constable, the son of a wealthy Suffolk merchant, was equally determined to forge his own path as an artist but faced a more arduous rise to acclaim. Though from different worlds they shared a profound connection to nature, and both set their sights on transforming landscape painting, investing it with layers of meaning and emotion. [...]
Marking 250 years since their births, this landmark exhibition explores Turner and Constable's intertwined lives and legacies. Discover unexpected sides to both artists alongside intimate insights seen through sketchbooks and personal items. Must-see artworks include Turner’s powerful and dynamic later paintings, which shocked the art critics of his day and went on to inspire Claude Monet, and Constable's expressive cloud sketches capturing the changing light of an English sky.
Scented Visions at the Watts Gallery
May 9 2025
Video: Watts Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Watts Gallery in Compton, Surrey, will be opening the latest leg of the Scented Visions: Smell in Art 1850-1915 exhibition next week.
According to their website:
Engage your sense of smell to gain a new appreciation for the cultural context behind Victorian paintings, and the artists’ intentions. This exhibition includes three bespoke scents, created by Puig in collaboration with Artphilia, inspired by key elements within selected Pre-Raphaelite works.
Discover the works of renowned artists such as Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, John Frederick Lewis, John Everett Millais, Evelyn De Morgan, G F Watts, Simeon Solomon, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Featuring loans from the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, Birmingham Museums Trust, and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore the Pre-Raphaelite movement through a multi-sensory lens.
The show will run from 15th May until 9th November 2025.
Austen & Turner at Harewood house
May 2 2025

Picture: Harewood House
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Harewood House in West Yorkshire have opened a new exhibition today imagining an encounter between Jane Austen and JMW Turner (imagine that).
According to their website:
For the very first time, the work of these two legendary artistic figures will be brought together, co-curated by Harewood House Trust and the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York.
In 1775, two icons of British culture were born into an era of huge social change. 250 years later, we celebrate Jane Austen and JMW Turner, uncovering their shared interest in the society and culture of the British country house and its landscape.
We imagine an encounter between these iconic figures, whose innovative works recorded the Regency era. Through Austen’s and Turner’s eyes, the show explores the world of the country house in their time and their impact on how we think about stately homes today.
Thrilling, evocative and rarely seen paintings and manuscripts will bring the Regency country house to life. The original manuscript of Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon joins early Turner watercolours and the very paintbox he used when he visited Harewood – all brought to northern England for the first time for this exhibition.
National Museum of Serbia acquires Uroš Predić for €169,500 at Dorotheum
April 30 2025

Picture: Dorotheum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Dorotheum in Vienna have announced that the National Museum of Serbia acquired Uroš Predić's A Girl in their 19th Century Paintings sale the other day. The work achieved €169,500 over its €15,000 - €20,000 estimate.
In case you'd like to know more about this artist, here's their online catalogue note:
Uroš Predić is regarded as one of the most significant Serbian painters of the 19th and 20th centuries and a leading figure of academic realism. Born on 7 December 1857 in Orlovat, then part of the Austrian Empire (now Serbia), he pursued his artistic education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna between 1876 and 1880, where he was influenced by the traditions of the Vienna Academy and its professors, including Christian Griepenkerl and the principles of Realism. These influences are evident in his meticulous technique and his commitment to achieving lifelike representation. After completing his studies, he initially worked in Vienna before returning to his hometown of Orlovat in 1885.
Craft in Art at the Laing Art Gallery
April 30 2025

Picture: Laing Art Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne will be opening an exhibition next month on the subject of craft in paintings, drawings and prints entitled With These Hands.
According to their website:
With These Hands explores the representation of craft in paintings, drawings, and prints. The process of making and mending by hand whether a domestic pastime, rural and semi-industrial labour, or essential war effort, is a persistent theme to which artists return. Yet these artworks are rarely straightforward observations of everyday activity. Instead, the act of making is used to symbolise personal and communal identity, leisure and work, tradition and progress.
Produced in Britain and Europe from the 1750s onwards, these images reflect a society undergoing immense change. The growth of industry, the reorganisation of the methods and places of work, the changing status of women and the conflicts of World War I and II all impacted the value placed on hand skill. Some artists were interested in capturing traditions – their works romanticising crafts they perceived as almost lost – while others were drawn to the atmosphere and activity of the workshop and factory.
The show will run from 17th May until 27th September 2025.
Upcoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin, 1880-1900
April 30 2025

Picture: gilesltd.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art in Notre Dame, Indiana, will be opening an exhibition entitled Homecoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin, 1880–1900 in August 2025.
According to their website:
The exhibition charts Osborne’s trajectory from his student days in Dublin and Antwerp through his sojourn in Brittany and his early practice in England before returning to his native city in 1892 to care for his niece and aging parents following the death of his beloved sister Violet. Through his depictions of Dublin’s streets, parks, public spaces, domestic interiors and gardens, countryside, and most importantly its people, a vision of a vibrant––if divided––Ireland emerges. Osborne’s experiences abroad and his commercial acumen helped establish Dublin’s unique brand of Modern painting rife with the possibility of change. Iconic works by the artist on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland, Hugh Lane Gallery, Hunt Museum in Limerick, Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, and private collectors in Ireland and the United States offer a rich tapestry of life and art in Ireland at the close of the nineteenth century.
The show will run from 19th August until 17th December 2025.
Upcoming: Turner - Always Contemporary
April 24 2025

Picture: Walker Art Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool have recently announced a large exhibition this autumn to celebrate the aforementioned 250th anniversary of JMW Turner's birth.
Here's the blurb behind the show's title Turner: Always Contemporary:
Turner: Always Contemporary (25 October 2025 – 22 February 2026) will include National Museums Liverpool's collection of Turner's oil paintings, works on paper and prints, alongside modern and contemporary artworks that delve into themes of travel, landscape, and artistic experimentation. A number of important and influential loaned works will feature.
Offering a fresh perspective on Turner and his legacy, highlighting how he grappled with issues that remain relevant today: climate change, immigration, tourism, and the role of the artist. Alongside Turner's works, visitors will encounter pieces by Claude Monet, Ethel Walker, Bridget Riley and many more, bringing together 250 years of art to examine Turner's timeless appeal.
Sargent & Paris at the MET
April 23 2025

Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will be opening their latest exhibition on Sunday entitled Sargent & Paris.
According to the museum's website:
Sargent and Paris explores the early career of American painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), from his arrival in Paris in 1874 as a precocious 18-year-old art student through the mid-1880s, when his infamous portrait Madame X was a scandalous success at the Paris Salon. Over the course of one extraordinary decade, Sargent achieved recognition by creating boldly ambitious portraits and figure paintings that pushed the boundaries of conventionality.
Immersed in a cosmopolitan circle of artists, writers, and patrons, Sargent was able to navigate a successful path through the French exhibition system while achieving acclaim and awards. Beyond the portrait studio, he traveled in search of inspiration for his art—finding subjects in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and North Africa. This exhibition gathers Sargent’s diverse works from this period to illuminate his path to becoming an artist, which was indelibly shaped by his experiences in the French capital. These visually stunning works provide a compelling view of the Paris art world of the late 19th century.
The show will run from 27th April until 3rd August 2025.
Upcoming: Turner's Vision at Petworth
April 23 2025

Picture: nationaltrust.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Trust and Petworth House will be putting on an exhibition in June to mark the 250th anniversary of JMW Turner's birth.
According to their website:
For the first time in 20 years, a wide range of JMW Turner’s artistic studies of the Petworth landscape will be exhibited in the very place that inspired him. Visitors will be able to discover more about his approach, and the impact of Petworth’s extraordinary landscape on Britain’s most celebrated artist.
Turner’s Vision at Petworth will include 10 views of the Petworth landscape, including oil paintings and works on paper on loan from Tate, that give a unique insight into his methods and artistic inspiration. They tell the story of Turner’s connection with the landscape, and with George O’Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) who collected many of his works. This exhibition is a celebration of an extraordinary landscape seen through the eyes of a master painter.
The show will run from 21st June until 16th November 2025.
$30m - $50m Monet coming up at Christie's New York
April 18 2025

Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's New York will be offering a $30m -$50m painting by Claude Monet in their upcoming sales next month. Interestingly, Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule (1891) will be unveiled to the public by the auction house in Taipei, Taiwan, tomorrow.
According to the artnews.com article linked above:
“Taipei, in particular, has really had strong interest in classic Impressionism,” Fusco said. “We have seen strong bidding coming from clients in that region for Monet and Impressionist pictures. And we expect that we’ll see a lot of the Western clients having the opportunity to view the work in person.”
Eugène Boudin at the Musée Marmottan Monet
April 11 2025
Video: Musée Marmottan Monet
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musée Marmottan Monet have just this week opened a new exhibition dedicated to Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) drawn in-part from a single private collection.
According to their website:
Collector Yann Guyonwarc’h has assembled a collection of works by Eugène Boudin (1824 – 1898) that is unrivalled in any museum in the world. Every facet of the artist’s career is represented, from his first paintings in Le Havre to his final trip to Venice; from private sketches to paintings for the Salon (including one of the two largest beach scenes ever painted by Boudin). The works in this prestigious collection are matched with the holdings of the Musée Marmottan Monet, to highlight the dialogue between Boudin and his main pupil, Claude Monet. Thanks to the participation of the Durand-Ruel archives, the relationship between the two artists and their main dealer is also explored.
Royal Collection Conserves Leighton
April 10 2025

Picture: © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2025 | Royal Collection Trust.
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Collection Trust have shared news of the conservation of Lord Frederic Leighton's Nanna (Pavonia) in preparation for their upcoming exhibition The Edwardians: Age of Elegance which opens at The King's Gallery tomorrow (Friday 11th April 2025).
According to the RCT's press release:
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The conservation resulted in:
-Details were made clearer, including Leighton’s ‘L’ monogram with the date ‘59 – cleaning brought out its calligraphic quality and brick red colour.
-The variety of textures in the paint – cleaning revealed that Leighton had carefully used his brush to create fine, wispy trails to the feathers in the fan, to give just one example.
-The 'sensuous' green, violet, and russet tones of the peacock feathers of the fan came out, helping the conservator Nicola Christie realise that these colours echo the colours of the fruit.
-The intricacy of the sitter’s braided hairstyle and the subtleties in the tones of her dark hair were revealed – the conservator could now pick out shades of aubergine and deep blue in her dark hair.
-It brought out the clarity of the pearls in her hair, and how they are reflecting light – Nicola’s convinced they reflect the windows of Leighton’s studio – and their very smooth texture.
{/box}
Middle Eastern Works by David Roberts coming up at Sotheby's
April 4 2025

Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A large and rare collection of Middle Eastern views by David Roberts, R.A. will be coming up for sale at Sotheby's London on 29th April 2025. The 35 works on paper on offer include views of Petra, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Sidon and Baalbec, amongst other studies.
AI to Reimagine Lost Delacroix Frescoes?
April 4 2025
Video: via Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Scientists and Art Historians in France may have finally come across a genuinely interesting way to employ AI in the field of art historical research. A new research project entitled Digital Delacroix has joined figures from the Sorbonne and AI geeks from Schmidt Sciences in order to recreate lost Delacroix frescoes that were destroyed by fire at the Hôtel de Ville in 1871. AI will apparently be bringing together and process surviving studies and archival material to digitally recreate these lost works. Click on the link above to read more.
Let's hope Delacroix's figures won't end up having 6 fingers and three arms (which often happens with lots of AI generated images these days)...
Marie-Guillemine Benoist coming up in France
April 4 2025

Picture: Thierry-Lannon
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A portrait by Marie-Guillemine Benoist, rediscovered with the help of the art agents Turquin, is coming up for sale at Thierry-Lannon in France next week. Signed and dated 1806, the portrait depicts the playwright and administrator Jean-Louis Brousse-Desfaucherets, who had many works performed during the revolutionary period in France. The painting will be offered with an estimate of 120,000 - 150,000 EUR.
Venetian Turner View for €38m in Vienna
April 2 2025

Picture: wien.orf.at
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Artnews.com have shared news (alongside the Austrian broadcaster ORF) that a Viennese gallery are offering a Venetian view by JWM Turner for €38m. The picture has been backed by a study which features contributions from curators at the Belvedere and members of Institute for Science and Technology in Art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
To quote the article above:
In the study published by Artziwna, researchers said that they believe their findings confirm Turner is the work’s creator. But they also wrote that they weren’t successful in attracting other international experts to peer-review their findings.
“We were unable to win other established Turner experts for our research,” the gallery’s director, George Ziwna, said in a foreword included in the publication. All inquiries to the Tate museum network in London to discuss the work went unanswered, he said.
Stolen George Washington Portrait Found in Vacated Hotel Room
April 2 2025
Video: CBSNews
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Colorado that a portrait of George Washington, which was stolen from a storage facility in 2024, has been recovered. The picture was apparently found in a vacated hotel room.
Constable, Stubbs and more coming up at Christie's London
April 2 2025

Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Eagle eye watchers of the Art Council Private Treaty Sales page will spot that several paintings from the upcoming Christie's London Part I sale have been published online.
Some of the more exciting lots are John Constable's The Ferry (pictured), a picture which has been on long-term loan at Tate and will be offered with a guide price around £2m. Additionally, the list features a rather fine George Stubbs of a Prancing Horse in a Landscape with Two Dogs estimated at around £1.2m.
Other intriguing lots include this rather interesting painting of King Charles I by Cornelis Johnson signed and dated 1622, which carries an estimate of around £200,000.
Click on the link above for more details regarding these pictures and other upcoming lots.
$12 Renoir?
April 1 2025
Video: ABC News
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the US that a potential drawing by Renoir, purchased for $12 at a regional auction house in Montgomery county, is currently sitting with the Wildenstein Plattner Institute waiting for a verdict on its authenticity. Click on the link above to read The Guardian's coverage of the story.