Category: Research

In comparison with his portraits in oil, John Singer Sargent’s charcoal portraits are relatively little known. In this authoritative new volume, Richard Ormond documents the nearly 700 drawings that make up this distinct strand of Sargent’s oeuvre. These portraits capture the essence of British and American high society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, portraying an elite clientele that includes aristocracy, royalty, politicians, artists, writers, actors, financiers, and philanthropists. Among Sargent’s subjects are such prominent figures as the Astors, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Du Ponts, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Ethel Barrymore, W. B. Yeats, and Winston Churchill.

Though renowned for his paintings of women, these charcoal portraits also reveal Sargent’s interest in depicting athletes across a variety of sports, from cricket and fencing to football and polo. This shift in subject matter from prewar to postwar, along with a sparser style characteristic of his charcoal work, casts new light on Sargent’s depictions of the period’s social landscape.

Veiled in precious cloth: a seal bag from Westminster Abbey and its connections with Charlemagne’s shrine in Aachen - By Corinne Mühlemann, Matthew Payne, Helen Wyld

A crazy cook: Menander’s ‘Fake Herakles’ on a Roman gem - By Ittai Gradel

Unclogging the eye: Matisse, the ‘Joy of life’ and ‘Japonisme’ - By Nicole M. Holland

New evidence concerning the original version of Robert Delaunay’s ‘The runners’ - By Anne Greeley

Georg Himmelheber (1929–2024) - By Simon Jervis

This revelatory book explores how the visual culture of members of the East India Company prompted significant structural change, nimbly traversing the complex world of post-colonial scholarship. for a modern audience. It explores fresh material from a compelling new angle, charting the ways in which new artistic forms and practices presaged shifts in the governance of the Company and its relationship with the people it governed. 

Focusing on artist interactions between London, Brussels and other key loci of exchange, including in the art press and art criticism, this study’s key aim is to shed light on why and how interconnecting, transnational artistic visions and practices stimulated cultural arenas for new projections of modernity. A first area of consideration for this PhD is to explore expanded contexts of art reception between key British and Belgian cultural sites; this may include international responses to Pre-Raphaelite circles, and to John Ruskin’s writings. Second, will be to consider interactions between these networks and gender in creating opportunities for women as artists, designers and craftswomen, operating within and beyond perceived constructs of ‘separate spheres’ of male and female artistic activity. A third, related key area of enquiry will be to examine the significance and porous identities of cultural spaces in expanding circles of artistic exchange, and in their uses by artists across geo-cultural borders as sites of cultural memory, gender and identity-construction. As well as through exhibitions and other public spaces of display – notably museums and art galleries, this study will develop understanding of an expanded range of sites of art via private collections, intimate spaces of ateliers, workshops, artists’ homes or indeed, in letters, diaries and journals. Taken together, this PhD will open insights into pivotal artistic and geo-cultural ecologies between Britain and Belgium as arenas of artistic innovation and exchange to shape cross-cultural sites of modernity, gender and artistic agency.

This publication is the result of a collaborative project between The Nivaagaard Collection and the RKD, conducted from 2022 to 2024 by Jørgen Wadum and RKD curator Angela Jager. Using the latest expertise and techniques, they examined the collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings. Their research yielded new attributions, more accurate datings, extensive provenance information, and identifications of subjects. [...]

The 384-page book includes two essays and 57 catalogue entries. In the first essay, Angela Jager and Jesper Svenningsen examine the history of the collection, originally assembled as a private collection by Johannes Hage (1842-1923). Together with his best friend, Hage traveled across Europe acquiring artworks, guided by advice from experts such as Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. In the second essay, Jørgen Wadum discusses the restoration history of the paintings, highlighting Hage’s collaboration with renowned German restorer Alois Hauser, who played a crucial role in preserving the collection. 

An annual PMC MA/MPhil Studentship will be awarded to a UK-based student who qualifies for home student status embarking on Masters-level studies in the field of British art or architectural history or British visual culture. The studentship is part of the New Narratives set of funding opportunities designed to increase the diversity of perspectives among scholars within this field.

The studentship is an award of £32,000, and is designed to cover university fees and living costs.

As well as funding, recipients of the studentship will benefit from mentorship and guidance from Centre staff, and from the Doctoral Scholars and Early Careers Fellows elected under the same scheme.

The New Narratives scheme particularly welcomes applications from those who are under-represented within the academic field of the humanities in the UK.

A new annual prize of £1,000 will be awarded, with publication in The Burlington Magazine’s annual issue dedicated to Northern European Art, plus a subscription to The Burlington Magazine.

We seek previously unpublished essays of 1000–1500 words from early career scholars worldwide. Preference will be given to object-related scholarship such as is published in The Burlington Magazine.

Recognized for her sophisticated approach to color, composition, and technique, Blanche Hoschedé-Monet (1865–1947) was part of a successful network of artists in Giverny, Rouen, and Paris during the first half of the twentieth century, although she is most often recognized for her relation to Claude Monet, her stepfather and one of France’s most famous painters. Having come of age at the center of the Impressionist movement, Hoschedé-Monet grew up surrounded by the modern masterpieces in the collection of her father, Ernest Hoschedé, who was a patron of such renowned artists as Édouard Manet, Monet, and Auguste Renoir. Her family’s move to Giverny in 1883 prompted her to take up painting in earnest. With Monet as her mentor, she developed a distinct style that favored carefully framed points of view and landscapes painted en plein air. As the first monographic exhibition of her work in the United States, Blanche Hoschedé-Monet in the Light brings together over forty paintings which attest to Hoschedé-Monet’s unique vision and ambitions as an artist in her own right. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue, with contributions by Nicolas Bondenet, Nancy Mowll Mathews, Galina Olmsted, Haley Pierce, and Philippe Piguet, constitute a definitive account of Hoschedé-Monet’s life and art.

This online conference on the history and conservation of frames was co-organized by the museum’s curatorial and conservation departments to promote inter- and multi-disciplinary dialogue. The AGO is home to an important collection of historic frames, and a project is currently underway at AGO to catalogue and conserve this collection to make the collection more accessible for study and use. In light of this project, the symposium presented current research that contextualizes frames in their many incarnations, including research on frame makers, framing traditions, frames’ afterlives, frame collections, pairings of frames to paintings, artists’ frames, the commercial history of framing, and related topics.

One of the greatest Netherlandish painters of the sixteenth century, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525−1569) is best known for his landscapes and peasant scenes. One of only three signed works by Bruegel in the United States, The Three Soldiers was once in the celebrated collection of Charles I of England. The small panel in grisaille (shades of gray) represents a trio of Landsknechte, the mercenary foot soldiers whose flamboyant costumes and poses were a popular subject for printmakers of the period. This volume considers the artistic and political environment of the time and investigates how a colorful subject is transformed by its translation into monochrome.

Designed to foster critical engagement and interest specialist and non-specialist alike, each book in this series illuminates a single work in the Frick's rich collection with an essay by an art historian paired with a contribution from a contemporary artist or writer.

We are offering a maximum of six fellowships for the 2025-2026 academic year, across four fields of research. For more information about each of the fellowships, please see below:

-Mellon Fellowship for research in art and cultural history, particularly object-oriented research

-Dr. Anton C. R. Dreesmann Fellowship art history research specifically conducted by PhD candidates from the University of Pennsylvania

-Johan Huizinga Fellowship historical research on objects from the Rijksmuseum collection

-Migelien Gerritzen Fellowship conservation and scientific research on works of art and historical artifacts.

The restoration process brought a surprise to light: the painting was left unfinished by Walker, raising significant questions. Why would Cromwell’s preferred artist abandon such an important commission? Painted during a period when Cromwell was facing military challenges in Scotland and Ireland and unrest at home, the sudden abandonment of the project by Walker indicates that it fell victim to the changing fates of the period.  

“Seeing this masterpiece come to life through restoration was a revelation,” says Simon Dickinson, Chairman of Dickinson Gallery. “This isn’t just a painting; it’s a statement of Cromwell’s character and ambitions. We are thrilled to invite the public to experience the power and enigma of this unfinished portrait and the historical era it represents.” 

Women Pioneers of the Arts & Crafts Movement is a celebration of the work and ambition of the women who were at the heart of the most influential art and design movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It shines a light on the vital contribution of figures such as May Morris, Gertrude Jekyll, Annie Garnett, and many others, and describes the Arts and Crafts Movement from the perspective of these women who worked against the odds as artists, makers, teachers, authors, and entrepreneurs.

Women of the era took part in, and often led, the founding of exhibitions, societies, art schools, and small craft industries. Some were activists and social disruptors while using their skills and talents to make a living. This book highlights the versatility and range of these talented women, who worked across a host of disciplines, including textile design, embroidery, bookbinding, illustration, painting, enameling, stained glass, metalwork, furniture design, and architecture. It is richly illustrated with a wide array of their work, much of it previously unpublished. Featuring objects from the V&A’s renowned Arts and Crafts collection, the book also includes key pieces from other museums and private collections across the UK.

Portraiture, supposedly a sijd-wegh der consten, was paved into a central avenue of inquiry in Van der Stighelen’s work. Her approach to the genre made it into a pathway for the introduction of women artists. What was a sijd-wegh became a zij-weg. From seminal publications on Anna-Maria van Schurman to revelatory exhibitions on Michaelina Wautier, Van der Stighelen’s particular brand of feminism has impacted scholarship as deeply as it has touched the museum-going public.

Women and portraiture are the core themes of the essays assembled in this book. The resulting group portrait is crowded and rambunctious and reflects the varied subject matter that has attracted Van der Stighelen’s professional attention. It also paints a partial portrait of the community of scholars that she has so generously fostered. In trying to summarize the motivations of authors to contribute to this volume or the gratitude of generations of art historians trained by her, it is best to quote the title of the first exhibition on women artists in Belgium and The Netherlands, which Van der Stighelen curated in 1999: Elck zijn waerom.

Steven Brindle, Architecture in Britain and Ireland 1530-1830 (Paul Mellon Centre)

Alicia Foster, Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris (Thames & Hudson)

Laura Freeman, Ways of Life: Jim Ede and the Kettle’s Yard Artists (Penguin, Jonathan Cape)

Alun Graves, Studio Ceramics (Thames & Hudson / V&A)

Tom Young, Unmaking the East India Company: British Art and Political Reform in Colonial India, c.1813-58 (Paul Mellon Centre)

‘Une pièce fort singulière’: the rediscovery of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s ‘Andromeda and the sea monster’ - By Maichol Clemente

Michelangelo’s Bruges Madonna: its patron, material and meaning - By Paula Nuttall

Fragments of a Ferrarese sketch by Donatello - By Marco Scansani

The foundation of the Society of Female Artists - By Amy Lim

Collecting modern Italian sculpture in Britain: Charles Meek and Medardo Rosso - By Sharon Hecker