Previous Posts: July 2011
Friday amusement
July 29 2011
Picture: Cartoon Stock
Stolen Lowrys recovered
July 29 2011
Picture: Liverpool Echo
A cache of Lowrys stolen in 2007 during an armed raid on a dealer have been recovered in Liverpool. One of the pictures was Tanker Entering the Tyne, thought to be worth £600,000. Perhaps inevitably, drugs seem to have been involved. It seems there's a fad amongst some drug dealers to use art as 'collateral' when making large deals. Full details here.
How the Leonardo show was put together
July 29 2011
Richard Dorment has the story behind the loan negotiations in The Telegraph.
Met's McQueen exhibition open till midnight
July 28 2011
Picture: Metropolitan Museum
A bit off-beam this one (and a chance to publish a cool photo)... but it's interesting to note that, for the first time ever, the Met Museum has extended their opening hours until midnight. It's for their exhibition on Alexander McQueen's dresses.
Sewell on 'Twombly & Poussin'
July 28 2011
Picture: Dulwich Picture Gallery
Perhaps inevitably, he doesn't like it:
Poussin has nothing in common with this charlatan and is abused by this silly exhibition and the overblown and extended conceit on which it rests
As ever, though, it's worth a read.
New tax concessions for art donations
July 28 2011
The UK government is currently consulting on a plan to give tax concessions for donating works of art to the nation. At the moment, the only tax break you can get for giving your Rembrandt to a museum is when you're dead, under the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) scheme.
Now, you will be able to donate the Rembrandt whilst you're alive, and get a tax concession not on your inheritance tax liability, but on your income tax.
You can take part in the consultation here. The government wants views on:
- who will be eligible to apply for the new scheme;
- how to define pre-eminent and how these objects will qualify for the new scheme;
- how acceptance of offers will work;
- which institutions will be eligible to receive objects;
- how objects should be allocated to institutions;
- what conditions should attach to objects allocated to institutions;
- how the tax reduction should be calculated, including the rate of reduction which should apply per donated object; and
- whether there should be a cap on the amount of tax reduction per object or per donor.
Leonardo's two 'Virgin of the Rocks' to be displayed together
July 27 2011
Picture: Louvre, Paris (left), National Gallery, London (right)
They are rightly calling it a 'historic collaboration': later this year, both versions of Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks will be displayed together in the National Gallery's Leonardo exhibition. This will be the first time this has happened. In return, London's Leonardo 'cartoon' for Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and John the Baptist will be sent to Paris to hang alongside the Louvre's Virgin and Child with Saint Anne.
What a great coup the National has pulled off - many congratulations to the staff there. If you haven't booked your tickets yet, you can do so here.
New acquisitions for the National Trust
July 27 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
Colin Gleadell in the Telegraph has news of two enticing acquisitions by the National Trust. The first is for Montacute House, a fine portrait of James I by John de Critz, bought in the recent Old Master sale at Sotheby's for £199.250.
In the same sale, the Trust also bought the above full-length, for £157,250. Sotheby's had identified her as 'possibly Lady Anne Cecil' (c.1603-1676), and attributed it to Robert Peake. The Trust, however, believe she is Vere Egerton, the grand-daughter of Lord Chancellor Egerton, Lord Brackley, and they have an early inventory reference to prove it. This painting will now be hung at Dunham Massey. (I don't personally see that it is by Peake - it's a little too sophisticated for him. Is it by someone nearer to van Somer?)
It's great news that the Trust is able to buy quality pictures like this.
Oddly enough, this is the second newly identified portrait of Vere Egerton to surface recently. In 2008 we (Philip Mould Ltd) bought the below portrait of three unidentified girls at Christie's. Subsequent research proved that the girls were three grandaughters of Lord Chancellor Egerton, thanks to the discovery of an early 19th Century sale reference. The ages insribed above the sitters' heads also matched the dates of the three Egerton sisters, Elizabeth, Vere and Mary. Vere is on the left.
Jewish Polish painting restituted
July 27 2011
Picture: Auktionshaus Aldag
Here's a rare survival: Jewish Woman Selling Oranges was painted in Warsaw in 1880/1 by the Polish artist Aleksander Gierymski. The picture belonged to the Polish National Museum, but went missing during the war. It surfaced last year at a German auction, and has now been restituted. Old Warsaw can be seen in the background.
Adrian Searle on Freud
July 26 2011
A gently interesting video on Freud's Standing by the Rags, 1989. Worth a click.
Freud - new exhibition at the NPG
July 26 2011
A new exhibition of Freud's portraits will open at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in February 2012. The artist had been working with the gallery ahead of the exhibition.
'Leonardo' drawing case struck out
July 25 2011
The US Appeals court has thrown out a case against Christie's brought by the consignor of the above drawing. It was catalogued as 19th Century German School in a sale in 1998, but some scholars now say it is by Leonardo. Full details in the ATG here.
Wildenstein - 'Je ne sais rien'
July 25 2011
Guy Wildenstein has said he did not know about some 30 missing paintings found in his vaults:
...last week he spent 36 hours in police custody, sleeping two nights in the headquarters of a special art-theft squad outside Paris, where he was formally charged with concealing art that had been reported missing or stolen.
The crime, known officially as a “breach of trust,” carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.
In the course of his questioning Mr. Wildenstein made a surprising claim: He told the police that the institute, which specializes in gathering detailed information about art for scholars, lacked any inventory for a roomy vault where dozens of valuable artworks that it does not own were discovered this year by the police.
“I didn’t inspect the vault,” Mr. Wildenstein said, according to internal court records of his questioning by an investigative judge while in custody. “We have never had an inventory of the vault.”
Full story in the New York Times here.
Freud - pre-superstardom
July 25 2011
Picture: New York Times, Self-Portrait etching.
In The Art Newspaper, Anna Somers Cocks has a good piece on Freud's critical reception as recently as 20 years ago:
Some very high prices have been paid for Freud's work in recent years, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, 1995, selling for $33.6m in May 2008 at Christie's New York, a new record for a living artist. The short memory of the conformist, fickle art world has led many to forget, however, that only 20 years earlier he was considered a curious, late, insular British manifestation of expressionism and so of no serious interest. His first Paris retrospective, by the unorthodox curator Jean Clair at the Centre Pompidou in 1987, was widely denounced for being unworthy of an institution dedicated to the avant-garde. That same exhibition could not find a top venue in the US prepared to take it so it ended up at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC, the same year.
Freud - the Studio Sale?
July 25 2011
Pure speculation, but if there is to be a Freud studio sale, it will surely be an epic. Are Sotheby's and Christie's already scrambling for the honours? Or was it all arranged a long time ago? Will Sotheby's' accidental shredding of a Freud drawing in 2000 count against them?
Freud - death of the portrait?
July 25 2011
Picture: Telegraph
Mark Lawson has a fine piece in The Guardian today, arguing that the death of Lucian Freud marks the death of the painted portrait. His point is that Freud was the last redoubt of the portrait painter in his battle with the photographer. He concludes:
For decades, Freud succeeded in a fight that is now unwinnable. With his passing, the art of the portrait has passed from the canvas to the screen.
Nowhere is Lawson's point more obviously made than the soul-destroying photo-realist portraits one finds in the BP Portrait Award. Personally, I can't see how painting a photograph of someone is any more skilfull than photographing a painting of someone. But they seem to be all the rage these days. And the wider question is not just, was Freud the last great British portraitist, but was he the last great British painter?
Poussin attack - Leonardo exhibition at risk?
July 25 2011
Interesting story in the Independent yesterday about the Poussin attack at the National Gallery - now there are concerns that the loan of Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine could be at risk. The Czartoryski Trust, which owns the picture, is in negotiations with the gallery:
Olga Jaros, who took over as chairman of the foundation, confirmed that a decision had yet to be made, and that a contract has yet to be signed with the National Gallery. "In the light of what happened last weekend at the National Gallery, I have informed the foundation what has happened. We are still in negotiations."
Even before Saturday's attack, concerns had been voiced over the painting's hectic schedule. It is at present on loan to the Palacio Real in Madrid for an exhibition of Polish art treasures. It is then scheduled to visit Berlin before travelling to London.
Obviously, there's a significant difference in risk between a Leonardo in a reinforced glass box, and an un-glazed Poussin. So I hope the Leonardo lenders don't overreact.
The most worrying aspect, however, is the news that buget cuts have led to a reduction in security guards at the National Gallery, with some having to monitor two rooms. This, if true, is cause for concern - really the protection of the paintings is the National Gallery's number one duty. But I'm afraid that, having seen some of the guards at work, and the ease with which the Poussin was vandalised, a more thorough security overhaul is required.
David Packwood at Art History Today also discusses the problem here.
Jonathan Jones - charge for museum entry
July 25 2011
Picture: H M Bateman, detail from 'the man who' series.
In response to budget cuts, and the recent Poussin attack, Jonathan Jones says in the Guardian that museums should re-introduce museum fees:
Britons have realised how precious our great collections are. The world shares the passion, and if you visit the British Museum this summer the sheer crowd numbers startle. How about turning that popularity into money? We can't let recent progress in our galleries and museums be destroyed by a cost-cutting mentality that first freezes, then rolls back, everything that has been achieved.
I think free museums are a great British tradition, but I don't want these museums to decay. Charging for entry is a better remedy than selling paintings, closing galleries or sacking staff. Might it even give visitors a keener sense of the value of some of the greatest experiences it is possible to have?
It's hard to argue against these points. For those who go to galleries all the time, an annual national museum pass, like that for the National Trust, would be easy to administer - say £30? And as Jones says, a fee of sorts would generate a sense of ownership for our museums and galleries. It would also allow us to charge foreign visitors, who make up, for example, over half of the British Museum's visitors. Please don't lets pretend that tourists come to Britiain just because they can get into galleries for free, nor that we can make up the revenue through the gift shop and cafes.
For reasons I have never understood, museum charges are seen as some ghastly taboo. If museums want to be free, they should be. If they want to charge, they should be allowed to. Here's a paradox for you: in Paris, you pay to get into the Louvre, but not Notre Dame. In London, you pay to get into Westminster Abbey, but not the National Gallery. Which is right?
It's worth noting that the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which recently increased its entry charge to $25, has this year had a record 5.68 million visitors, the highest in 40 years. That's more than the National Gallery...
New Acquisitions at Philadelphia
July 25 2011
Picture: Philadelphia Museum of Art
Works by Monet, Sisley and Pissarro have been acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The works are all gifts from donors, and can be seen here. The highlight is Monet's Path on the Island of Saint MArtin, Vetheuil, 1881, above.
Lucian Freud 1922-2011
July 22 2011
Picture: Sotheby's. 'Self-Portrait' by Lucian Freud, 1952.
The Guardian has a good 'life in pictures' slideshow here.
The Daily Telegraph has '10 things you didn't know about his paintings' here.
A reader writes:
He stopped in the street once to admire my dog, but of course I was far too shy to say anything.
