Previous Posts: articles 2018
Rejuvenating Jouvenet
October 21 2011
Picture: The Louvre
The Louvre has restored Jean Jouvenet's 1699 L'Hiver. Full story here (in French).
Another reason to go to the Gainsborough Study Day
October 21 2011
Picture: Holburne Museum
The organisers have been in touch to say that Rica Jones will also be speaking at the Study Day (14th Nov), on 'Insights into the production of Gainsborough's landscapes in the Sudbury-Ipswich period'. Jones, of the Tate conservation department, has made a hugely valuable conribution to Gainsborough studies with her technical analysis of Gainsborough's work, in particular his use of glazes.
See you all there!
Going to Ottawa?
October 21 2011
Picture: National Gallery of Canada
Then the above exhibition looks like it's worth a visit. For those that can't go, here's a selection of the exhibits.
Why you shouldn't trust an auction house condition report
October 21 2011
This was the condition report on a head and shoulders portrait of a gentleman, which we recently bought from a prominent regional UK auctioneer:
Fine craqueleure in areas, several deep scratches to lower half that require retouching, some old restoration, would benefit from a clean.
You wouldn't guess from this that the scratches (actually rips in the canvas) were in the face, the most important part of any portrait. And not least because the face was in the top half of the painting!
'The First Actresses' exhibition
October 20 2011
Picture: National Portrait Gallery, London
I saw the National Portrait Gallery's new 'First Actresses' exhibition yesterday. It's well worth a visit; a nicely set out show of celebrated actresses from the 17th and 18th Centuries, from Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons. The exhibition's curators have selected some fine works. The highlights for me were two of Gainsborough's finest full-lengths, Madame Baccelli (Tate) and Elizabeth Linley, on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The NPG have also rebuilt their temporary exhibition space, with great success.
The catalogue has some informative contributions, and sets out actress's (sometimes precarious) place in society with clarity and panache. However, if you're interested in the portraits themselves - say, their provenance or the circumstances surrounding their creation - then you'll be disappointed. I looked in vain for any information on the newly discovered portrait of Nell Gwyn. Both catalogue and exhibition are devoid of any meaningful research on the artist's role in the portraits. And surely it was thanks in part to the artists that the actresses achieved their fame (not least when it came to popular engravings). Some might say this is worrying in the National Portrait Gallery, and perhaps tellingly two portraits are exhibited with tentative attributions (and there's at least one attribution I have great trouble believing). Where have all the portrait experts gone?
Before I start ranting about connoisseurship again (and it really doesn't detract from this splendid exhibition), let me turn to condition. The two Gainsborough full-lengths here are in excellent preservation, and hung low so you can really look into them - a great treat. Likewise, George Romney's Emma Hamilton on loan from Kenwood House is, in its uncleaned but readable state, a glowing endorsement of what is called 'country house condition'. Sadly, the same can't be said of Verelst's daring and beautiful portrait of the naked Nell Gwyn. This has been cleaned for the exhibition, and, as can be glimpsed from the photo above, has lost something of its original delicacy. Verelst is known for his porcelaineous finish and crisp drawing, as can be seen in Nell's hand. But while the picture may have been succesfully cleaned, its restoration, the process of repairing the damaged and missing areas of original paint, leaves something to be desired. For example, there are too many missing glazes, such that the curls in her hair and the shadows around her face don't read as they should. Even the purple drapery looks overly bruised and damaged.
Succesful conservation is about so much more than technical skill - it requires a degree of artistry, and a sense of art history, that not all conservators are blessed with. Those restorers who lack that artistic feel often make a conscious decision to leave damage exposed - and call this approach 'minimal intervention'. But, while nobody likes an over-restored picture, there is a middle ground, which involves the careful re-introduction of retouching medium in the manner the artist would have intended.
The most succesful conservation is often a collaboration between restorer and expert, rather like a talented violinist under the guidance of a veteran conductor. The conductor may not be able to play the violin themselves, but in having spent their whole life studying, say, Beethoven, knows better than the violinist how the bare notes on a page should translate into a characterful performance. In Nell Gwyn's case, therefore, a quick refresher course in Verelst might reveal where the picture would benefit from judicious intervention - a retouch here, and a glaze there, and suddenly a picture can be transformed.
Look! Zippy new search function added
October 20 2011
Under the logo, right.
Leonardo as homosexual
October 20 2011
Picture: Wikipedia
It's started - just when you thought the art world had covered every Leonardo angle in the run up to the National Gallery show, now the 'he was gay' headlines. From Jonathan Jones in The Guardian:
The idea that Leonardo could be aroused by a woman at all is a bit of a surprise. This is not the image of him that has come down to us. Ever since Renaissance witnesses recorded that he loved to surround himself with beautiful young men, his homosexuality has been an open secret. As a youth, he was twice accused of sodomy, though never prosecuted (apparently because the young men who were charged with him came from powerful and wealthy families). Yet Leonardo, as Vasari's account of his life and the artist's own notebooks confirm, went on to live openly with a household of youths led by Salai, his handsome, thieving apprentice – to whom he eventually left the Mona Lisa.
Jones makes much of Sigmund Freud's analysis of Leonardo's sexuality. Since Freud's theory was built partly on the nutty notion of finding hidden symbols (a vulture, above) in Leonardo's Virgin and Child with St Anne, I can't give it much time. Jones goes onto identify the central problem with the gay Leonardo theory - why is his (known) output dominated by so many portraits of beautiful women? Indeed:
The artist had a theory about art and sex [...] In his notebooks, he argues that painting is the greatest of all the arts because it can set a picture of your lover before you. A pastoral painting can remind you, in winter, of summer in the country with your beloved. He goes further, into blasphemy. He boasts that he once painted a Madonna so beautiful that the man who bought it was haunted by unseemly thoughts. Even after it was altered, perhaps with the addition of crosses and saintly symbols (as was done in Leonardo's second version of The Virgin of the Rocks), it still gave him an erection when he tried to pray. So in the end he returned the painting to Leonardo, who delighted in this pornographic triumph.
In which case, where are the similarly erotic paintings of boys? Now, I'm not at all trying to argue that Leonardo either was or wasn't gay. He probably liked a little of both, so to speak, and, well, why not? But it will be a shame if the coming crescendo of Leonardo coverage is dominated by ill-informed speculation over his sexuality. He was a genius first, and epic artist second. Shagger probably comes some way down the list.
Update: It's spreading - check out the 'phallic animal' caption here.
Warhol authentication board shuts down
October 20 2011
The body that authenticated Andy Warhol's work is to shut down - because it kept getting sued. From the Wall Street Journal:
How can you tell if an Andy Warhol silkscreen is the real thing or a fake? Even the Pop master's own art foundation has given up trying to tell the difference.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts said Wednesday that in coming months it plans to shut down its authentication board—the only independent arbiter of the legitimacy of Warhol works that turn up on the art market. [...]
Mr. Straus said a recent string of costly legal disputes with collectors contesting the board's findings influenced the board's decision to give up its role as the "final word" on the late artist's creative output.
One of the highest-profile disputes involved a London filmmaker, Joe Simon, who sued the board four years ago after it refused to vouch for his purported Warhol "Self-Portrait." [above]
I've never entirely understood the concept of the Warhol authentication board. How can you authenticate something the artist admitted never making in the first place?
Artist exposes fake at auction in China
October 20 2011
Picture: China Daily
One of China's hottest contemporary artists, Zhang Xiaogang, has exposed a fake of his work that was about to be sold at auction. From China Daily:
The portrait of a young girl was among the modern and contemporary artworks that Beijing Tranthy International Auction Co Ltd had gathered for its autumn auction.
On Tuesday, a Sina micro blogger asked Zhang to authenticate the painting. He replied on the website: "It's a bad fake at first sight. Poorly done. How dare someone put it up for auction." [...]
Tranthy Auction has withdrawn the piece Zhang identified as fake from the auction and apologized to him. A source with Tranthy who refused to be named said that on June 2 the painting sold for 1.8 million yuan (then almost $278,000) at Beijing Yinqianshan International Auction House.
I suspect this happens all the time. I'm often told that one of the reasons people prefer to buy contemporay art instead of old masters is that they can be certain about the attribution. But these days that just isn't the case. There are fakes everywhere (and of course, some might say that many of these contemporary works aren't hard to fake). The added problem in China is that the country's auction houses are exempted, by law, from giving any guarantee or authentification of the works they sell.
Finally, I love the defence put up by one of the auctioneers:
He went on to challenge the painter: "Does Zhang remember clearly how many paintings he has done through his life?"
Leonardo as natural scientist and philosopher?
October 19 2011
Picture: Royal Collection
Amble on over to Art History Today for a splendidly informative post on Leonardo's fascination with nature:
...it should never be forgotten that Leonardo was primarily a painter; it would therefore be wrong to regard him as a dry scientist recording the natural world with cold detachment. Kenneth Clark puts it best: “the direction of his scientific researches was established by his aesthetic attitudes. He loved certain forms, he wanted to draw them, and while drawing them he began to ask questions, why were they that shape and what were the laws of their growth?” Out of Leonardo’s delight in drawing and painting natural things emerged his scientific urge and insatiable curiosity which powered it.
Feast your eyes on...
October 19 2011
Picture: Christie's
...this, at $25-35m, a cast of Petite danseuse de quatorze ans by Degas in the 1st Nov Impressionist sale in New York. From Christie's catalogue:
Petite danseuse de quatorze ans is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and important sculptures of the modern era. A candid depiction of a young dancer at two-thirds life-size, the Petite danseuse is the largest, most technically ambitious, and most iconographically complex of Degas's sculptures, and the only one that he ever exhibited during his lifetime. It therefore stands apart from the remainder of Degas's sculptural output, which numbered more than a hundred and fifty extant figures or fragments at his death, and represents the pinnacle of his achievement in this medium, to which he devoted a great deal of time and energy over the course of his career.
This is one of 38 casts. The ex-Sir John Madejski cast sold at Sotheby's in 2009 for £13.25m.
Banned 'Bloody Sunday' painting back in Belfast
October 19 2011
Picture: Conrad Atkinson (b.1940) 'Silver Liberties', 1978.
The above painting by Conrad Atkinson will go on display for the first time in Northern Ireland since it was refused to be hung by porters at Ulster Museum back in 1978. The first panel shows photos of the 13 people killed on Bloody Sunday and a blood-stained banner carried on the day of the march. The work was originally commissioned by Nicholas Serota, former curator of the Tate. The artist says:
"I wanted to tell the English about the situation in Northern Ireland, and how civil liberties were being eroded in Great Britain as a whole"
The curator of the exhibition titled 'Tears in Rain' is the politician and publisher Mairtin O Muilleoir. He says:
I hope they'll appreciate it as a show about peace rather than politics"
The exhibition, which features other important works by well-known Irish artists, is being held at the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast and will there until the 3rd December. Details here.
By LH
An Auctioneer's Dream
October 19 2011
Picture: Clarke NY
An important work by the American post-impressionist painter Maurice Prendergast (1858 – 1924) has recently been discovered in a box of dusty oil paintings consigned to Clarke Auctioneers in New York.
After being confirmed by the experts it has been given pride of place in the artist's catalogue raisonne and will be auctioned 'as seen' on 23rd October with an estimate of $40,000- $60,000.
I reckon it will triple that, everyone loves a lost'n found.
More details here.
Fortune Favours the Cold
October 19 2011
Picture: National Portrait Gallery. Simon Verelst, 'Portrait of Nell Gwyn', Private Collection.
The National Portrait Gallery's new exhibition The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons is to feature a newly discovered portrait of actress and royal mistress Nell Gwyn (some of you Londoners may have seen it advertised on the tube this morning).
The portrait has been in the ownership of the same family since the 1940's when it was purchased for its decorative frame, the sitter's identity only realized after it was cleaned.
Gwyn's seductive appearance was clearly too much for the kill-joy Victorian viewer and at some point during the nineteenth century her open blouse and bare chest were painted over and replaced by something more 'acceptable'. Unfortunately no images exist of its previous appearance. At the gallery we have encountered these censoring campaigns on a number of occasions, including another of Gwyn here.
Professor Gill Perry, curator of the exhibition says:
'Images such as this rarely seen portrait have contributed to the idea of Nell Gwyn as an early celebrity, whose life story and appearance are known through biographies and salacious gossip. But she was a shrewd manipulator of her own public image, known not just for her affairs and outspoken views, but also for her acting abilities and famous wit'.
Her wit was indeed observed by social commentators of the day including Samuel Pepys who first encountered 'Pretty Witty Nell' at the Dukes Theatre in Lincolns Inn Fields in April 1665.
The portrait was painted by Simon Verelst (1644-c.1721) between 1680-5. Verelst came to England in 1669 already having an established reputation as a flower painter - an element he frequently incorporated into his portraiture. Gwyn was a consistent patron of Verelst and the NPG already has on display a more formal half-length on display in the Wolfson Gallery.
Information and tickets for the exhibiton can be seen here.
By LH
View from the Artist no.5 - answer
October 19 2011
Well done to those who got the correct answer, it was of course Canaletto's view of Northumberland House painted in 1752.
After sales to British tourists nosedived in the 1740's following the War of the Austrian Succession, Canaletto decided to move closer to his market, arriving in London in 1746 and remaining here until 1755.
AHN points to the lucky few.
Today
October 19 2011
I'm off to deliver a painting. So today's dose of AHN will be brought to you by our first guest editor, my colleague Lawrence Hendra. Enjoy!
View from the Artist no.5
October 18 2011
Time for another round of your favourite art history quiz, 'View from the Artist'. Can you guess the location? No prizes, it's just for fun. Immense AHN respec' to the first correct answer (giving artist, location, date).
Update - got the first correct answer within half an hour! Very impressive. Tho' I fear it might have been a little too easy. I'll leave it up a while longer for the rest of you to test yourself...
Note to 'Borgias' picture researchers
October 18 2011
Picture: Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti
We loved the opening credits to 'The Borgias', and even had a go at naming the pictures. But a reader writes:
From your story on the Borgias film it appears that Hollywood has left out the most striking image of Cesare Borgia by the unjustly forgotten Altobello Melone [above] in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo.
It does seem, though, that there is some uncertainty over the sitter. Anybody have further views on this?
The V&A goes to India
October 18 2011
Picture: V&A
Interesting to see that one of the first major acts of the V&A's new director, Martin Roth, is to open a loan exhibition of the museum's paintings in India. His personal presence at the opening is an excellent move, and further proof that the UK's heritage can act as an unbeatable diplomatic, cultural and economic asset. The museum has also created a new India 'hub' on its website. From ZeeNews:
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London is carrying the cultural pact signed between India and Britain in July 2010 to the next level, with a series of art initiatives involving Indian cultural heritage. "The V&A Museum has a collection of 45,000 Indian art and objects of arts and it is natural that we should work on the collections together," Martin Roth, director of Victoria & Albert Museum, said here.
"We have also created a new India website to attract tourists and art lovers to the museum. India is a such a huge country and the tourism is growing," the director of the museum said. The museum, which opened a showcase of 100 Kalighat paintings at the Victoria Museum in Kolkata Saturday, has two more exhibitions on its roster to promote Indian heritage.
Kalighat paintings were devotional works offered at the Kalighat Temple in Kolkata, and depict Hindu religious figures. They were first painted in the 19th Century, and were a by-product of the European style of painting introduced to India by the British. you can see more examples from the V&A's collection here.
Later this year, another Indian exhibition will open at the V&A: 'Rabindranath Tagore: Poet and Painter' will assemble some fifty works by the artist (1861-1941) to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. Opens December 11th till March 4th.
London's latest arts venue
October 18 2011
Picture: Two Temple Place
This is a must visit - a new exhibition space in central London. Two Temple Place was built as the home of Viscount Astor in 1895, and is on the Embankment between The Temple and Somerset House. Now, it has an exciting new role as a venue to display the best publicly owned art from UK regional collections.
The Public Catalogue Foundation has recently highlighted just how rich and varied the UK's 'national collection' of art is. But so much of it is hidden away, either in storage or the attic offices of local authority offices. So this new venue, housing temporary themed exhibitions, will be a great treat for us perpetual gallleryists.
The inaugural exhibition is William Morris: Story, Memory, Myth, with exhibits drawn from the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, and opens on 28th October till 29th January.
