Category: Exhibitions
Gainsborough goes to China
February 28 2011
Is this a first? Gainsborough's 'The Marsham Children' will go on display in Beijing as part of 'Art of the Enlightenment' from 2nd April 2011 to 31st March 2012. The exhibition will be in the National Museum of China, and is made up of loans from a trio of German museums. Exhibition website here.
All Hail Maryan Ainsworth
February 26 2011
Of the many positive reviews of the excellent ‘Jan Gossaert’s Renaissance’ at the National Gallery (Guardian, Telegraph, Independent), none mention the driving force behind the show, Met Museum curator Maryan Ainsworth. I am in awe of what she has achieved. [More below]
The Return of the Double Hang
February 21 2011
As an art dealer I'm always extolling the virtues of a double hang - more space to fill.
But I'm delighted to see that the National Gallery is increasingly double hanging in some of their larger rooms. The pictures on the top row are not of the first rank, but the overall effect is so much more exciting than the sparsely hung rooms of old. More please, and congratulations to whoever decided on the new approach.
More on Caravaggio
February 21 2011
Here's a short video of the new Caravaggio exhibition, in which you can see the freshly restored portrait of Pope Paul V.
Some of the new facts on Caravaggio are:
- He was born 29th September 1571 in Milan (not the nearby town of Caravaggio).
- He arrived in Rome at the age of 25 (not 20, as previously thought).
- The fight in which Caravaggio famously killed a man seems to have been planed in advance, and was probably over a gambling debt.
- He died in a hospital at Porto Ercole in July 1610 (not on a beach).
You can download the full documentation at the bottom of this page (in Italian).
"Watercolour" at Tate
February 19 2011
Picture: Barber Institute (detail of A Coastal Landscape by Van Dyck)
I loved this exhibition. Any show that begins with a watercolour by Van Dyck is a Good Thing. It's well worth a visit. Congratulations to Alison Smith and her colleagues.
I can't think why Richard Dorment disliked it so much. He said it was 'close' to being a 'disaster', and gave it two stars. He didn't like the inclusion of many of the artists or the subjects (such as the series of war scenes), and especially disliked the end rooms, which feature modern art's take on watercolour.
[More below]
Caravaggio didn't like cooked artichokes
February 18 2011
A new exhibition in Rome has uncovered some fascinating archival evidence about Caravaggio. We now know for sure where and when he was born (Milan, not Caravaggio) and died (in a hospital bed).
One document reports a fight over a plate of artichokes;
Statement to police by Pietro Antonio de Fosaccia, waiter, 26 April 1604:
About 17 o'clock [lunchtime] the accused, together with two other people, was eating in the Moor's restaurant at La Maddalena, where I work as a waiter. I brought them eight cooked artichokes, four cooked in butter and four fried in oil. The accused asked me which were cooked in butter and which fried in oil, and I told him to smell them, which would easily enable him to tell the difference.
He got angry and without saying anything more, grabbed an earthenware dish and hit me on the cheek at the level of my moustache, injuring me slightly... and then he got up and grabbed his friend's sword which was lying on the table, intending perhaps to strike me with it, but I got up and came here to the police station to make a formal complaint...
Full story in English here. Exhibition website, in Italian, here.
Tate's new 'Watercolour' exhibition
February 15 2011
Picture: 'Scarlet Sunset' by Turner, Tate Britain.
Richard Dorment doesn't like it:
"Watercolour isn't a complete disaster, but it's a close call."
Matilda Battersby in The Independent is more enthusiastic.
I haven't seen it yet, but so far I hear good reports, and can't wait to go.
New pictures at Hampton Court
February 14 2011
Two rarely seen Royal Collection portraits are now on display at Hampton Court Palace. They've been up for a while, but I've only just got round to seeing them. Both are well worth the trip, and well done to the curators at Historic Royal Palaces for securing their loan.
On the left is John Michael Wright's magnificent portrait of the freshly restored Charles II, painted in about 1661. It is one of the finest royal portraits of the seventeenth century, by one of my favourite artists. Wright is often overlooked, being squeezed between Van Dyck and Lely. At his best, however, he comes close to the former, and beats the latter.
On the right is the Giant Porter, painted in 1580. I posted on this earlier, but it's difficult to get a sense of its scale unless you actually see it - it's enormous. To a Tudor viewer it/he must have been terrifying.
On the Royal Collection website you can zoom in on Charles II here, and the Giant here.
Titians on Tour - Jangling the Tin?
February 8 2011
Picture: National Gallery of Scotland
The LA Times wonders whether The National Gallery of Scotland's decision to send Titian's Diana & Actaeon and Diana & Callisto to America is part of a fund-raising trip;
It’s perhaps no coincidence that a U.K. institution has decided to send some of its choicest goods to America at this moment: private philanthropy dominates our arts economy, and the Brits are starting to get used to the fact that their own economically pressed government is pulling back the kind of public support that has long made American arts institutions jealous.
Prado & Hermitage swap-shop
February 7 2011
The Prado and The Hermitage are to temporarily exchange a slew of works for an exhibition. AFP reports:
About 66 works from the Spanish museum will be put on display at the Hermitage between February 25 and May 29 as part of the "Prado at the Hermitage" exhibit.
In return 170 works from the Hermitage will be put on display at the Prado between November 8 and March 26, 2012.
The best exhibition advert you'll ever see?
February 3 2011
Check out the Hollywood-style trailer for a new exhibition at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, 'Vatican Splendors: A Journey through Faith and Art'. (I dare someone at the National Gallery to do a similar video for 'Leonardo'...)
There's an interesting ticketing system too;
'The Parish Advantage' offers discounts and premiums to Parishioners and members of the Church.'
When is a Holbein not a Holbein?
January 27 2011
When the museum label next to it says 'Netherlandish Painter, 1569'.
One of the joys of viewing the Old Master sales in New York over a weekend is being able to go to the Met early on Sunday morning - it opens at 9.30am, perfect for the jet-lagged. I was amused to see one of my favourite Holbein's demoted, and tried to tell the museum staff. They must get hundreds of people trying to tell them 'your label is wrong', so I don't blame them for not taking me seriously.
You can see a better photo of the portrait, properly catalogued, here.
Brueghel bought
January 7 2011
Picture: National Trust
Splendid news; ‘The Procession to Calvary’ by Pieter Brueghel the Younger at Nostell Priory has been bought for the nation after a campaign to raise £2.7m. The National Heritage Memorial Fund contributed £1m, and the Art Fund £500,000.
Public donations amounted to an impressive £680,000. The picture is a religious scene, by the younger Brueghel, and can in no way be described as specifically British. But that it still generated such a strong public response is testament to the appetite for good acquisitions.
Given the strong prices for anything Brueghel these days, I think £2.7m was a bit of a bargain. Well done to everybody involved.
More baffling Contemporaryartspeak
December 28 2010
From artdaily.com, describing a new exhibition (featuring Turner Prize Winner Simon Starling) at the Camden Arts Centre:
"It aims to create a temporal cacaphony by orchestrating a series of collissions between spatially and historically remote works, that themselves push and pull at an understanding of linear time."
Courtauld defeats Jewish heirs to keep Rubens
December 20 2010
In a strange ruling, the UK’s Spoliation Advisory Panel has concluded that the heirs of a Jewish banker cannot claim ownership of a Rubens sketch sold under the Nazis. Herbert Gutmann sold the picture at Graupe auction house in 1934, a year after Hitler assumed full control of Germany. Austrian authorities, on the other hand, have previously decided that Gutmann’s paintings sold at Graupe should be returned to his heirs.
The case revolved around whether Gutmann sold the Rubens at its market value because of debts he was obliged to repay legitimately, or whether he was forced to sell the picture because of anti-semitism.
The basic facts of the case are these:
Louvre secures Cranach
December 17 2010
Picture: Louvre
The Louvre has raised a million euros towards the EUR4M it needs to buy Cranach’s Three Graces. Amazingly, in these straitened times, the million boost came from 5,000 individual donors via the Louvre’s appeal website. "It's a magnificent Christmas present," the museum's director Loyrette said.
Looks like a bargain too. The picture was listed as a French National Treasure, meaning it could never be sold outside France. I fancy that if the picture was to appear in a Christie’s catalogue in London or New York, it would have a far higher estimate.
New Napoleon Exhibition
December 17 2010
In Bonn till 25th April 2011, then at Les Invalides in Paris.
"Moving the Lady with an Ermine is absolutely crazy."
December 13 2010
So says Michael Daley of ArtWatchUK, ahead of the picture’s loan to the National Gallery’s Leonardo da Vinci exhibition in London, scheduled for November 2011 – February 2012. A group of Polish art historians is also anxious about moving the picture.
There's been a growing neurosis about moving, or occasionally even looking at, old paintings over the last decade. But the Lady will be fine. As long as the National Gallery doesn’t drop any more pictures, that is…
Lucknow at LACMA
December 12 2010
Picture: Philip Mould Ltd
A new exhibition on the court art of 18th and 19th Century Lucknow in India (then known as Oudh) has opened at LACMA. It runs until February 27th, when it departs for the Musee Guimet in Paris.
I'm pleased to say that our newly discovered portrait of Ghazi-ud-din Haidar, King of Oudh, by Robert Home will be joining the exhibition in Paris.
