Category: Heroes of art history
Recent Release: Scottish Portraiture 1644-1714
February 4 2022

Picture: brepols.net
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Brepols have recently published an enormous two-volume scholarly work entitled Scottish Portraiture 1644-1714: David and John Scougall and Their Contemporaries by Carla van de Puttelaar. The publication seems like a must-have for serious art libraries.
According to the book's blurb:
This book is the first comprehensive publication on Scottish portraiture from the period 1644 to 1714, with an emphasis on the painters David Scougall (1625-1685), and his son John Scougall (1657-1737). It is based on in-depth art historical and archival research. As such, it is an important academic contribution to this thus far little-researched field. Virtually nothing was known about the Scougall portraitists, who also include the somewhat obscure George Scougall (active c. 1690-1737). Thorough archival research has provided substantial biographical information. It has yielded life dates and data on family relations and, also, it has become clear that David Scougall had two parallel careers, as a portrait painter and as a writer (solicitor). The legal community in which the Scougalls were embedded has been defined, as well as an extended group of sitters and their social, economic, and family networks. The book includes a catalogue raisonné of the oeuvre of David Scougall.
The most important contemporaries of the Scougalls were the portraitist L. Schüneman (active c. 1655/60-1667 or slightly later), his successor James Carrudus (active c. 1668-1683 or later), whose work is identified for the first time in this book, David Paton (c. 1650-in or after 1708), Jacob Jacobsz. de Wet (1641/42-1697) and Sir John Baptist Medina (1659-1710). Their lives and work are discussed. An extensive survey of Scottish portraits, with an emphasis on the work of the Scougall painters, is presented for the period 1644 to 1714. Numerous attributions to various artists and sitter identifications have been established or revised. An overview of the next generation is provided, in which the oeuvres and biographical details are highlighted of the principal portrait painters, such as William Aikman (1682-1731), Richard Waitt (1684-1733) and John Alexander (1686-1767). Countless paintings have been photographed anew or for the first time, and have been compared in detail, which had hardly been done before, while information is also included on technical aspects and (original) frames. The resulting data have been complemented by analysing the social and (art-) historical context in which the portraits were made. The works of the portrait painters in Scotland from this period, as this book shows, now form a solid bridge between the portraits painted prior to George Jamesone’s death in 1644, and those by the renowned Scottish painters of the eighteenth century.
As is the ancient custom, due to the fact this publication contains a catalogue raisonné of the oeuvre of David Scougall, Carla van de Puttelaar has earned a place in the much coveted Heroes of Art History section of this blog.
Jonathan Brown (1939-2022)
January 19 2022

Picture: impactolatino
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sad news to report that the art historian Jonathan Brown passed away this week at the age of 82. Brown will be remembered for his scholarship on seventeenth-century paintings and particularly the works of Diego Velázquez. His resume includes many scholarly publications on the likes of Velázquez and Spanish Art, alongside his pioneering exhibitions held at the Frick, Princeton and Prado museums.
For those who can read Spanish, the Prado Museum has shared the first two chapters of a set of essays dedicated to Jonathan Brown's career which were published in 2012.
Julien Dupré Online Catalogue Raisonné
October 13 2021

Picture: juliendupre.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rehs Gallery in New York have published an online Catalogue Raisonné for the artist Julien Dupré (1851-1910). Dupré grew up in Paris and contributed many pictures to the Paris Salon from 1876 onwards.
Explaining more about the history of the project:
During the project's early years, Mr. Howard Rehs [The gallery's owner] received encouragement from Dr. Gabriel P. Weisberg and Yvonne Weisberg, who kindly shared their earlier research on the artist, and recommended several research assistants, including Fleur Levitz and Lynsi Spaulding in the U.S. and Stéphanie Peyrissac in France. Mr. Rehs also met Jérémie Jouan, a descendent of the artist who has generously shared his own research into Dupré's extended family history. As the catalogue raisonné began to take shape, the Weisbergs again played a crucial role in introducing Mr. Rehs to art historian Janet Whitmore, Ph.D., who joined the project full time in 2015.
As AHN welcomes the news of such research, no matter how well-known or obscure the artist, this will earn the Rehs Gallery a place in the highly coveted 'Heroes of Art History' section of this blog.
Ernst van de Wetering (1938 - 2021)
August 15 2021
Video: Toledo Museum of Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sad news to report that the Dutch art historian Ernst van de Wetering (1938 - 2021) passed away last week. Van de Wetering became one of the great modern scholars on Rembrandt. He is most widely known for his association with the Rembrandt Research Project, an endeavour he dedicated 46 years of his life to. The six volumes of the Corpus of Rembrandt's Paintings, begun in 1982 and finished in 2014, will surely remain one of the greatest pieces dedicated to questions of authenticity, connoisseurship and scientific analysis. This is not to mention the other books he has published on the artist, which always made for extremely enjoyable reading in my experience.
Fortunately, there are many of his videos on YouTube to browse through, which give a wonderful sense of his passion for the artist and period.
Jacobus Vrel Catalogue Raisonné
May 25 2021

Picture: Hirmer
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news today regarding the publication of a new monograph and catalogue raisonné dedicated to the elusive Dutch Golden Age painter Jacobus Vrel (fl. 1654-1662). The publication has been edited by scholars Bernd Ebert, Cécile Tainturier and Quentin Buvelot and was originally planned to coincide with an exhibition which has been pushed back to 2023.
According to the write up from CODART:
His pictures look rather odd, his figures introverted and his street scenes curiously stage-like. Jacobus Vrel appears to record everyday life in the Dutch Republic during the 17th century, yet creates miraculous worlds at the same time. The painter himself is like a phantom. In spite of years of research, the mystery surrounding his identity remains unsolved. We only know his name from a single contemporary inventory and from the signatures on his 50-surviving works, which can scarcely be compared with those of his contemporaries. Vrel was a pioneer in his field. In their austerity and sometimes oppressive silence, his paintings seem unexpectedly modern, and it is for that reason that they are compared with the work of Vilhelm Hammershøi.
With detective-like investigations from the authors, and extensive technical examinations of the paintings, this monograph explores the enigmatic pictures of an artist whose works were once thought to have been created by Vermeer. The volume’s three editors, Bernd Ebert, Cécile Tainturier and Quentin Buvelot (all CODART members) present a monograph-cum-catalogue raisonné that examines Vrel’s oeuvre from different angles and contributes significantly to our understanding of this elusive painter. The present publication is the result of an international research project that brought together the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in Munich, the Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection in Paris and the Mauritshuis in The Hague, working in close cooperation with numerous international specialists from a variety of disciplines.
As is the custom on AHN, the publication of a new catalogue raisonné will earn Ebert, Tainturier and Buvelot a place in the highly coveted Heroes of Art History section of this blog.
New Release: Mattia Preti, Life and Works
April 11 2021

Picture: midseabooks.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Professor Keith Sciberras of the University of Malta, and writer on all things regarding the Baroque in Malta, has a new book out entitled Mattia Preti, Life and Works.
The volume also includes a full catalogue of the artist's works, which will earn Prof. Sciberras a place amongst the highly coveted Heroes of Art History section of this blog.
The title is available for pre-order through the publisher.
Giacomo Farelli (1629-1706) Catalogue Raisonné
March 4 2021

Picture: Il Giornale dell'Arte
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Neapolitan painter Giacomo Farelli (1629-1706) has been treated to his first ever catalogue raisonné. The new publication Vita ed opere di Giacomo Farelli (1629-1706). Artista e gentiluomo nell’Italia Barocca has been penned by the art historians Riccardo Lattuada and Laura Raucci.
As is the custom on AHN, Lattuada and Raucci will now both inhabit the highly coveted 'Heroes of art history' section of this blog.
Jan van Mieris Monograph and Catalogue Raisonné
February 17 2021

Picture: CODART
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (The International curators network of Dutch and Flemish Art) have drawn attention to this new monograph and catalogue raisonné on the artist Jan van Mieris (1660-1690) by Margreet van der Hut.
To quote the website's brief biography of the painter:
Jan van Mieris was the oldest son and pupil of the famous Leiden painter Frans van Mieris I (1635-1681), who in turn had studied under Gerard Dou (1613-1675) and Abraham van den Tempel (1622-1672). Jan and his brother Willem (1622-1647) followed in the footsteps of their father by working in his manner. This is why their works are often difficult to distinguish from one another and nearly every painting of Jan van Mieris has been attributed to Frans I, Willem or even Willem’s son Frans II (1689-1763) at some point. Jan was not only a painter but a poet as well. Some five poems and a lyrical version of the play Aminta by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) have been preserved in a manuscript at the University Leiden.
As AHN likes to promote such stellar work, Margreet van der Hut will now feature in the prestigious Heroes of Art History section of this blog.
Gainsborough catalogue raisonné
February 17 2019

Picture: via Amazon
Tremendous news that Hugh Belsey's long-awaited two volume Thomas Gainsborough catalogue raisonné has been published, by the Paul Mellon Centre). It follows in august footsteps; to the famed names of Ellis Waterhouse and John Hayes (previous authors of Gainsborough catalogues) we can now add Hugh's name. As is customary for catalogue raisonné writers, AHN creates him a Hero of Art History.
I've ordered my copy via the dreaded Amazon (for £121) here.
Update - a reader writes:
I hate to do this to you, but Books Etc are selling the book for £90.33. British company, usually cheaper than Amazon (or anyone else), free postage on all books, usually send books more securely packed than Amazon do, I use them almost all the time. And Books Etc prices on Amazon Marketplace are usually higher than on the Books Etc website because of the fee paid to Amazon, so going direct is the best option. Of course, I understand that if you get a small payment for everyone who clicks through from AHN to Amazon and makes a purchase there is a reason for having the link (I don't know if this is the case, but I remember reading about this when I was thinking of having my own blog), but you might want to consider Books Etc for your own purchases. I have no connection with Books Etc apart from being a very satisfied customer.
For the record, I get no payment from Amazon, or indeed anyone else, for any links or content on this blog.
Finding Michaelina
August 15 2018

Picture: KHM, via Apollo
Here's a fascinating article in Apollo from the art historian Katlijne Van der Stighelen on her research into Michaelina Wautiers, the mid-17th Century Flemish artist, who is the star of a major exhibition now on in Antwerp:
I discovered Michaelina Wautier back in 1993, when attending a symposium at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. I’d wanted to view a portrait attributed to Van Dyck that was in storage. A curator led me down long corridors in which ‘second class’ Flemish paintings were stored. As I was leaving the stores, my eye fell upon a monumental piece I wasn’t familiar with. Looking closer, I saw that it was an enormous Triumph of Bacchus [above], executed in a style I didn’t immediately associate with the 17th-century Antwerp School. I learned that the work had been recorded in 1659 in an inventory commissioned by the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, of paintings he had acquired in Brussels, where Wautier lived. The curator noted that it had been painted by a woman: ‘Jungfrau Magdalena Wautier’. While the Triumph of Bacchus is Wautier’s greatest work, it is by no means her only one. Very soon a small body of work had been assembled – the 15 fully signed paintings that had survived served as the basis for attributing 10 more works to her.
It's all very well art historians like me claiming to make the occasional discovery of a painting. But to discover an actual artist, forgotten about for centuries, is a major undertaking, and an extraordinary contribution to art history. AHN hereby adds Prof. Katlijne Van der Stighelen to the list of 'heroes of art history'!
Katlijne's exhibition is on until 2nd September.
Weenix catalogue raisonné
July 20 2018
Video: Spy Newspapers of Maryland
Did you know that there's a new two volume catalogue raisonné on the works of the father and son artists, Jan Baptist Weenix & Jan Weenix? It's written by Dr Anke Van Wagenberg, who is also Chief Curator at the Academy Art Museum in Maryland, and in the video above she is talking a little about the Weenixs' career. Says the publisher:
This book fills a gap in art history and throws new light on the appreciation of Dutch art. Since 2004, hundreds of paintings have been documented as either Weenix I or Weenix II. For centuries, attributions had been confused because of the two artists’ similar subject choices and (at least for a time) similar style. Following the death of his father (and teacher), Jan gradually changed his style to conform to the more courtly taste of the late 17th and early 18th century.
This first ever published monograph on Jan Baptist Weenix and his son Jan Weenix includes over 500 paintings.
You can order the book here, or on Amazon here. It looks to be well worth it for the very reasonable price of €95, or £85. Normally these catalogues can cost hundreds of pounds.
Of course, anyone who writes such a fantastic resource as a catalogue raisonné is automatically enrolled as an AHN 'Hero of Art History'; bravo Anke!
Francis Towne online catalogue raisonné
March 30 2018

Picture: Paul Mellon Centre
Feast your eyes on this - an online catalogue raisonné of the work of the British 18th Century artist Francist Towne (1739-1816). There are over 1,000 works, of which some 800 are shown in high resolution. The catalogue was written by Dr Richard Stephens, who regular readers will know is the force behind another wonderful online resource, The Art World in Britain 1660-1735.
Bill Jordan
January 25 2018

Picture: Dallas News
I was very sad to hear of the death of Bill Jordan, the renowned scholar of Spanish 17th Century art. He was most recently an independent scholar, but his last post was as Deputy Director of the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas. I only met him once, but we communicated by email quite a bit - he was one of the most generous art historians I've encountered. And an astonishingly good connoisseur. One of his most important discoveries, a Velazquez of Philip III, he gave to the Prado Museum. There's an article on his life here, in The Dallas Morning News.
A new museum for Basra
September 29 2016
Video: You Tube/Ruptly
Some good cultural news from Iraq; a new museum in Basra has been opened. Much of the funding and expertise has come via the British Museum, and in particular Dr John Curtis, a former Keeper at the British Museum, reports the Art Newspaper:
The city’s old museum, in Basra’s historic centre, was looted during the first Gulf War in 1991 and damaged during the 2003 invasion. Fortunately, much of the collection had already been evacuated to Baghdad. The museum’s former director, Mudhar Abd Alhay, was shot dead amid communal violence in 2005.
Three years later, Alhay’s successor, Qahtan Alabeed, took up the dream of re-establishing a museum in Basra. The British Army and the British Museum agreed to help create a new museum with proper security, climate control, regular opening hours and modern displays. The plan was to take over the 1990 Lakeside Palace, which had been used by the British Army after the overthrow of Saddam.
Progress has been slow, largely because of fundraising problems in Iraq. At an early stage, the Basra Provincial Council promised a $3m contribution but, because of budgetary problems, the funds were never provided. Most of the funding has been supplied by the UK-based Friends of Basrah Museum. The charity, founded by John Curtis, a former keeper at the British Museum, has raised nearly £500,000, largely through contributions from the oil company BP.
The museum still lacks the funds to open fully. Alabeed has decided instead to launch the project piecemeal, beginning with a gallery dedicated to the history of the Basra region from around BC300 to the 19th century. The remaining three spaces—which cover Sumer, Babylon and Assyria—are expected to open in the next few years. The museum estimates the project will cost an additional £450,000 to complete. A grant under consideration by the UK’s Cultural Protection Fund would provide the necessary funds; a decision is expected in late November.
Bravo Dr. Curtis - you deserve a knighthood. In the meantime, AHN declares you a "Hero of Art History".
New Francis Towne catalogue raisonné
May 20 2016

Picture: Paul Mellon Centre, 'Old Walton Bridge', 1785. Francis Towne, Oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art
The Paul Mellon Centre has published another excellent online catalogue raisonné, this time on the British artist Francis Towne. Their most recent one was on Richard Wilson. The Towne catalogue was written by Richard Stephens, who will be known to AHN readers through his invaluable database on the Art World in Britain from 1660-1735. Says the PMC website:
The catalogue identifies 1080 works by Towne and his circle, doubling previously-described totals. Based on the author’s PhD thesis, it makes extensive use of the papers of Paul Oppé (1878-1957) whose pioneering researches established the artist’s reputation in the 1920s, after a century of neglect. Oppé had discovered the contents of Towne's own studio in the possession of the Merivale family of Barton Place near Exeter. Using the archives of Thomas Agnew & Sons, the Fine Art Society, Colnaghi and elsewhere, Stephens gives detailed provenances for hundreds of the Merivales' Townes that have circulated on the London art market. Towne's biography is established in greater detail than before, using much original research. Resources published alongside the catalogue include an edition of Towne's correspondence and a transcription of Oppé's Barton Place catalogue.
More than 800 works are illustrated with high-quality images, much of it specially commissioned by the Paul Mellon Centre. Towne's sketching tours in Wales, Italy, Switzerland, Savoy, the Lake District and around England are reconstructed with new clarity and detail.
Francis Towne at the British Museum
January 21 2016

Picture: British Museum
A new exhibition opens today at the British Museum on the work of watercolourist Francis Towne. Says the BM website:
Come and experience 18th-century Rome through an astonishing series of watercolours not displayed together since 1805.
British artist Francis Towne (1739–1816) made a remarkable group of watercolours during a visit to Rome in 1780–1781. They include famous monuments such as the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, ancient baths and temples, and the Forum. These watercolours were Towne’s way of delivering a moral warning to 18th-century Britain not to make the same mistakes – and suffer the same fate – as ancient Rome. 2016 marks the 200th anniversary of their bequest to the British Museum.
Towne’s 52 views of Rome are among the great creative landmarks in the use of watercolour within British art. They played a central role both in Towne’s career, and in the revival of his reputation in the 20th century. They were his main claim for recognition in the London art world and he continued to revise and work on them throughout his life. The views of Rome were the centrepiece of Towne’s one-man retrospective exhibition in London in 1805, and have not been displayed together since. When Towne bequeathed them to the Museum in 1816, they became his permanent public legacy. In addition to the views of Rome, the exhibition will feature further views of Italy by Towne and other works on paper by his contemporaries in Rome, including the important recent acquisition A Panoramic view of Rome by Giovanni Battista Lusieri (1755–1821).
As a landscape painter based in Exeter, Towne’s work was not well known in London during his lifetime, and he failed to be elected to the Royal Academy on several occasions. The Victorians had written off 18th-century watercolours as unambitious and limited, but in the early 20th century, the flat planes and spare, angular designs of Towne’s long-ignored drawings seemed unexpectedly fresh and elegant to modern eyes.
The exhibition has been organised by Richard Stephens, who is writing a catalogue raisonné of Towne's work, to be published online by the Paul Mellon Centre in London. Richard will also be giving a talk on Towne at the BM on Tuesday 26th January at 1.15pm.
Regular readers will know Richard for his invaluable online resource, The Art World in Britain 1660-1735. I think it's high time AHN designated him a Hero of Art History.
Update - the show gets five stars from today's Guardian.
Everything you need to know about 18th Century pastels
September 8 2015

Picture: Neil Jeffares
Neil Jeffares has posted an extremely useful, free and interesting guide to all things pastel in the 18th Century on his website. It's a PDF - yours to download and keep - and is meant as a form of introduction to his invaluable online dictionary of pastellists (above). He says:
The book aims to answer the questions that used to (or in some cases still do) baffle me, such as
- why did some pastellists also work in oil – and which sitters opted for pastel?
- why did pastel disappear from fashion with the French revolution, returning a century later, but vanishing just as abruptly?
- why does the word have such negative connotations?
- was the Académie de Saint-Luc just a virtual concept, or was there a building?
- how many pastellists were there?
- how can you physically safeguard your pastels for a few pence each?
- how were and are pastels displayed?
Neil calls it a 'prolegomena', but it's in PDF form partly because, as he points out:
I’m aware that not everyone enjoys browsing websites. There’s something about riffling the pages of a book that the internet, tablets etc. haven’t been able to replicate. And it’s in the nature of reference books that one doesn’t sit down to read them in a linear fashion.
And this means it's easy to navigate and use.
On a seperate post on his blog, Neil also looks at the wider question of publishing online, and its various shortcomings. For him, a particular bugbear is authors often not citing proper references. My bugbear is that for some writers online is a licence to go on meandering endlessly, for paragraph after paragraph, with no beginning, middle or end. Print and paper may have been expensive, but they encouraged brevity and discipline.
Perronneau mystery solved
August 19 2015

Picture: Neil Jeffares
Neil Jeffares has solved an intriguing mystery in the life of the gifted french pastellist, Jean Baptiste Perronneau. There has always been a gap in Perronneau's biography, when, between 1773 and 1777, nobody knew where he was. But now Neil has established that he was in Madrid, thanks to finding the above pastel in Lisbon in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, which has a dated inscription on the reverse placing Perronneau in Madrid in 1776.
A full, if characteristically modest description, is on Neil's blog here.
Update - of course Neil should be duly appointed a Hero of Art History for his online Dictionary of Pastellists. Though I have already appointed him 'King of all Things Pastel', so I'm not sure which honour is better.
Artists in Britain 1500-1640
August 19 2015

Picture: NPG, 1554 Self-Portrait by Gerlach Flicke, a German artist at work in England in the 16th Century.
The American art historian Prof. Robert Tittler has published online an extroardinary database of artists working in Britain in the 16th and early 17th Centuries. There are some 2,578 names.
Here's the abstract of the paper:
This resource identifies all those men and women who have been identified as painters of any sort working in England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland between the years 1500 and 1640. At this posting, it includes 2,578 such entries. It includes those who were native to the British Isles and also those aliens who came and worked there at any time during this era. It also includes those whom contemporary occupational descriptions refer to as pursuing any specialty within the general category of 'painter' including, e.g., 'limner', 'picture-painter', 'glass-painter', 'herald painter', 'manuscript illuminator', etc. Each entry indicates, wherever possible, the places of origin and of residence, contemporary occupational description, dates of life and of activity, details of training, known works, and general biographical information. Each name is also accompanied by a list of sources, and by the identity of those who researched that name.
I think this great effort, which reflects years of dedicated research, qualifies Prof. Tittler for my new award: 'Hero of Art History'. Future nominations are most welcome. To qualify, I think art historians must have done something to which we're all indebted, but which nobody else has ever done. A founder recipient - I was thinking today as I thumbed through one of his many tomes - must be Algernon Graves, whose indexing of things like loan exhibitions in the 18th and 19th Centuries is invaluable.
Update: a reader writes to nominate Frits Lugt - agreed!