Previous Posts: articles 2018
One that got away
January 8 2017
Picture: MFA Boston
In 2013 the Church of England sold an important altarpiece by Benjamin West, amid some outcry. It was granted an export licence, having been bought by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The MFA has spent two years restoring the picture and now it has taken pride of place in one of their main galleries. There's a video here of the installation.
'Book of the blog'
January 8 2017
Picture: Thames & Hudson
Regular readers will know that AHN is an admirer of Charles Saumarez Smith's blog. I learnt recently that Thames & Hudson are to publish a book of his photographs and observations on East London, where he lives. Charles is (as well as being Secretary of the Royal Academy and much else) a fine photographer. And all the photos have been taken with his phone. He tells me (and I agree) that these days it's much easier and frankly better than using what we might call a 'proper camera'.
The book will be out in April this year, and you can pre-order it here. It's always heartening to see the daily musings of bloggers like CHarles - each post a small act of creation - amass into a greater whole.
Fakes, fakes everywhere? (ctd.)
January 8 2017
Picture: FT
Speculation continues as to who is behind the formidable series of fakes that have been fooling the Old Master world for the best part of a decade. But I think we can be sure that it isn't the well known British faker and artist John Myatt, who has produced the above 'Mona Lisa' for a film company. She seems to have been at the botox. The film is about the theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911. More here, in an article in the FT about forgery in art.
New Hogarth catalogue
January 8 2017
Picture: Yale
I've been meaning to notice the publication of Elizabeth Einberg's new catalogue raisonnée on William Hogarth. You can buy it here for £85.
'Vigée Le Brun's petitioners'
January 8 2017
Picture: Archives Nationale
Neil Jeffares has a useful new article on his blog about Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun. It explores the petition in her favour signed by 255 artists and French luminaries in 1799 to support her return from exile. She had fled during the French Revolution and as such had her assets forfeit. Neil points out that since the document has never been published before, it proivdes usual evidence of signatures. He also classifies all 255 names. More here.
Re-stocking a stately
January 8 2017
Picture: NT
Croome Court in Worcestershire is one of the National Trust's more recent additions: the management of the house was taken over by them in 2007. The house did not come with a collection, but now around 1200 items, including a number of pictures, have been returned to the house and will be gradually put on display. More here.
Van Haeften gallery closes
January 6 2017
Picture: TAN
I've been meaning to note that the London Old Master dealer Johnny Van Haeften has closed his St James' gallery. Johnny was the leading dealer of his generation, in fact probably of the last half century. He's a nice fellow too, which alas is not always the case in the upper reaches of the dealing world. The decision to leave St James' comes after a hoo-ha about the lease on his gallery, the freehold of which belongs to fellow Old Master dealer Fabrizio Moretti. Moretti, to Johnny's chagrin, wanted to take over the space for his own purposes. So Johnny has decided to now work from his home in South West London.
But what most caught my eye from this interview with him in The Art Newspaper was his decision to no longer exhibit at Tefaf (The European Fine Art Fair) in Maastricht. This year will be his last time at the fair. Ever since I've been going to Tefaf, Johnny's stand has been the busiest and most prominent, and also the main bellweather for how the fair was going. If Johnny was having a good fair, then so was everyone else. In his reasoning he noted the success of the new Tefaf fair in New York:
“With the innovation of Tefaf launching in New York this year, it’s important to encourage a younger generation [of dealers],”
It seems the New York show has, in the minds of many Old Master dealers, convinced them that the Maastricht fair is in some decline. Which to be honest it has been for the last few years, if not longer. A key reason people used to make the hike all the way to Maastricht was that there wasn't a comparable Old Master fair anywhere else in the world, and certainly not in a major city. The opening of the New York fair has altered that element. I think it's a positive development, and good for the health of the Old Master market in general. Having the leading Old Master fair in distant Maastricht was hardly a good way to encourage new collectors. (Though of course I wish it had opened in London.) Some people also feel that Tefaf in Maastricht has been compromised by the recent Old Master fake scandal, and the New York fair is a chance to usher in a new set of galleries with a new way of doing things.
€15m Leonardo drawing discovery (ctd.)
January 6 2017
Picture: Tajan
The newly discovered Leonardo drawing of St Sebastian has been declared 'un trésor national' by the French state, after the auction house Tajan (who discovered the work) applied for an export licence. The official value, which must be raised by any French museum wanting to buy the work, is €15m. The clock has three years to run. (During which time I predict that no museum will attempt to buy it.) More here.
The art market in 2017
January 6 2017
Picture: Apollo
There's a good feature at Apollo on the year ahead for the art market. Various art world high-ups are quoted. But I was glad to see some robust defence of the Old Master market from Jussi Pylkanen of Christie's. Ok, he might be biased, but he makes some solid points in response to Apollo's question:
Your biggest surprise of 2016?
That an Old Master, Rubens’ Lot and His Daughters, came dangerously close to being the most expensive painting sold at auction all year. It was eventually edged into third place by a great Monet and a market-making De Kooning (which was the picture that defined the shift in taste to Post-War a decade ago). However the historic pair of Rembrandts, which sold privately to the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum actually made Christie’s biggest price of the year, so Old Masters came out on top in the end. Moral of the story: The art world is very simple, in any era and in any economic climate, the greatest artworks by the greatest artists generate record prices – forget the period. In 2016, Rembrandt eclipsed Monet, De Kooning and Rubens.
Of course, we won't read anything like this in the New York Times...
The last director? (ctd.)
January 6 2017
Picture: nationalgalleries.org
My story from a few weeks ago about the apparent scrapping of the post of Director at the National Gallery of Scotland has been picked up by The Sunday Times. We now know a little more about the plans: there will be no dedicated director of the National Gallery. Instead, there will be a single Director of Collections and Research for all three Scottish national galleries (Portrait, Modern and the National Gallery). This director of Collections will answer to Sir John Leighton, who in turn is the Director-General of the Scottish National Galleries, which is the umbrella body for the three galleries in Edinburgh
There are two surviving current directors of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art. But these will also (we assume) eventually cease to be, and the new changes effectively herald a demotion for these posts. In turn, the individual curatorial teams are also effectively being demoted a level within the organisation.
This is slightly more than a Scottish-centric story, because it goes to the heart of how major institutions will be run in the future. Essentially, it's a battle between bureaucrats and curators.
The point of these new plans is to, according to Sir John as quoted in The Sunday Times;
[focus] on the collection, rather than the buildings, to raise the NGS profile as a “powerhouse for art and culture in Scotland” in a changed world and boost training and development.
Working as a single collection and a single team “will help us to place even greater emphasis on the collection as a national resource to be used across Scotland, internationally and online”.
In talks with staff over two months there was “quite a lot of enthusiasm”, he said and adamantly denied it was a cost-cutting measure.
First, I don't think anyone has ever accused the National Gallery of Scotland of only being focused on its building. So that's a curious statement to make.
Second, from everyone I've spoken to, or heard from, there is in fact precious little enthusiasm for these changes. I gather something similar was tried seven years ago, but was seen off internally. The retirement of Michael Clarke as director of the National Gallery has evidently been seized as a moment to try again.
Third, I'm trying to imagine anywhere else in the world where 'a collection' is easier to promote and market without being clearly attached to the building which houses it. Yes, online collections are wonderful. But mentally and physically we still visit the building. The Louvre is the Louvre, the Hermitage the Hermitage, and so on. It seems to me (and for what it's worth also the three former national museum directors I have spoken in the last few days) that trying to promote a collection rather than an institution is a very difficult challenge. For what will be, in practice, the new 'home' of the Scottish National Galleries collection; a website? How do you market that? (Incidentally, the SNG website is excellent already).
The plans were criticised in the Sunday Times by the former director of the Portrait Gallery, Dr Duncan Thomson, who said the changes were:
a “misguided attempt” to treat three different institutions as one.
And I agree with him. The immediate danger in the National Gallery, now that the curators there have been removed from the building itself pending relication to another permanent facility, is that it will become a sort of cultural Marie-Celeste. I think it's a shame that Scotland's national gallery will have neither a director leading it or curators in it.
But if you like to see these things as businesses to be managed, then I can just about see the logic of treating the 'Scottish National Collection' as a single entity. It will look neater on a managerial flow chart. But that in effect was what was happening already under the overall leadership of a Director-General, to whom the three existing directors answered.
Instead, the new changes seek to pretend that the three distinctive national galleries in Edinburgh are mere geographic sites. The plans ignore, for example, the fact that the Portrait Gallery, which was the world's first purpose built portrait gallery, has its own traditions, collection and collecting ethos. I understand that the current director of the Portrait Gallery, Christopher Baker, will become 'Director of Portraits' for the National Galleries of Scotland collection - that is, anything that happens to have a face in it. If true, this move rather misunderstands the point of a National Portrait Gallery.
As I said in the Sunday Times, it seems to me that galleries flourish when directors and curators have more autonomy, not less. Introducing another layer of bureaucracy will diminish curatorial independence and, in the long term, lead to less innovative and exciting institutions. I can't personally see the point of squeezing everything into one entity. Would the Tate, and London's National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery ever agree to be merge as one institution? The last two are so close together they share a roof.
Here's a small but interesting demonstration of how the single entity approach doesn't always work; on Twitter, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery doesn't have its own account, but operates under the combined National Galleries Scotland Twitter account (yes I know, all these Scottish national galleries are very confusing). In order to emphasise what it actually is, the Portrait Gallery has to include in all its tweets a separate hashtag, '#ScotPortrait'. The same goes for the Modern gallery and the National Gallery. It would be better, surely, for these institutions to have their own Twitter account. And perhaps even their own directors.
Doubtless I'm being a reactionary stick in-the-mud. I'd be interested to hear your views.
Update - a reader writes:
well done for commenting so eloquently on the misplaced restructuring of the three Scottish National Galleries. This plan is typical of the current Scottish Government's "collectivisation" mania - a blatant cost cutting exercise obfuscated by use of glib management language, all designed to eliminate vestiges of professional autonomy and leadership. Please continue to offer your influential voice in commenting on this disastrous plan which as you suggest will greatly reduce the identities of these valued institutions.
Update II - they're looking for a new chair of trustees at the National Galleries. The deadline is 31st January if you're interested in launching a coup. Apply here.
Update III - a former museum director writes:
[...] without dedicated directors how can the galleries speak as equals to their counterparts in other countries, something which is so important? [...] As merely a part of some management structure one could in no way carry the same weight.
Five UK shows to see this spring
January 6 2017
Video: Art Fund
Here's Jacky Klein on some good exhibitions coming up this spring.
Bowes Museum acquires rare Bouts (ctd.)
January 6 2017
Video: National Gallery
Last year, the Bowes Museum in the UK acquired a panel painting by Dieric Bouts the Elder and his Workshop. In the above video, Rachel Billinge of the National Gallery's conservation department gives the painting a thorough technical assessment to find out how it was made.
Leiden Collection goes to Paris
January 6 2017
Picture: Louvre/Leiden Collection
I'm looking forward to seeing this - the Leiden Collection (of Dutch Golden Age works put together over the last decade or so by the US financier, Tom Kaplan) is sending many of its treasures to the Louvre. Above is a portrait of a boy by Jan Lievens. The collection (numbering some 200 works) also includes pictures by the likes of Dou and Vermeer, and is the world's largest private collection of works by Rembrandt. Remember that when people grumble about the 'lack of supply' in the Old Master market these days.
The show opens on February 22nd and runs until May 22nd. After that it goes to the Long Museum in Shanghai, then the National Museum in Beijing, and then finally to the Louvre Abu Dhabi. How wonderful that such important Old Masters are being shown to new audiences in China. We need more of this. It's telling that it's taken a private collector to do it first.
Selfies galore
January 6 2017
Picture: BG
I was in London yesterday, and visited the excellent mini exhibition on British 17th Century self-portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery. There, Van Dyck and Dobson's self-portraits have been re-united for the first time since the Tate's Van Dyck in Britain show in 2009. It closes after this weekend.
Of course, I couldn't resist taking a selfie. If you go, send me yours.
Louvre's $10m loss
January 6 2017
Picture: Artnet news
Torrid times for the Louvre; the museum has announced a fall of 15% in visitors and a consequent $10m loss, after the terrible terrorist attacks last year dissuaded many people from visiting. More here.
When my wife and I were in Paris in September on business, we made sure to sign up as annual patrons. You can do so here if you like.
Brexit and the Art Market (ctd.)
January 6 2017
Picture: Bloomberg
As predicted by AHN in the immediate aftermath of the UK's Brexit vote, the London art market has benefited from the sustained fall in the pound. According to this article in Bloomberg, the weak pound helped London buck the trend of contracting overall global auction sales.
Art History toys (ctd.)
January 6 2017
Picture: Sarah Vowles on Twitter
The British Museum's curator of French and Italian drawings, Sarah Vowles, alers me to perhaps the best art history toy I've yet seen; a poseable model of Leonardo's Vitruvian Man. In the photo below, she has artfully posed him beside a classical bust.
On this site, someone has made Vitruvian Man perform some rather athletic poses.
Has the Czartoryski Raphael been found?
January 5 2017
Picture: Wikipedia
Probably not. But further to the news (below) that the Polish government has acquired the Czartoryski Collection, the director of the National Museum in Krakow, Andrzej Betlej, has said that he believes the famous missing Raphael portrait can be traced to a specific private collection. The portrait, once thought to be a self-portrait, was looted from the Czartoryski collection by the Nazis, and not seen after 1945, when it was taken to Germany by Hans Frank. Betlej has not said which collection it is in, or indeed even in which country. But it seems he has some evidence to suggest that painting is still alive and well, somewhere.
The timing of the disclosure is interesting in that under the terms of the Polish state's acquisition of the Czartoryski collection, it now assumes ownership of any missing works, should they be recovered. So the €100m purchase could yet turn out to be even more of a bargain than thought. The Raphael, were it to ever be sold, must surely be worth in excess of €100m, perhaps even twice that. Assuming, of course, that it's in good condition.
More here (in Polish).
How much is Leonardo's 'Lady with an Ermine' worth? (ctd.)
January 5 2017
Picture: Czartoryski Foundation
Well, we'll never know, because the Czartoryski collection - of which Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine forms a part - has been signed over to the Polish state in its entirety for €100m. Prince Adam Czartoryski declared that he 'felt like making a donation', and agreed to sell his family collection - which includes works by Rembrandt and many others - to the Polish government. The Czartoryski Foundation's board has resigned in protest. More here.
The €100m figure is of course a fraction of what the collection is worth on the international market. But arguably Prince Adam Czartoryski was unlikely to ever realise anything like the collection's full value, if indeed a sale had ever been contemplated. The Polish government could have made the question of exporting works such as the Leonardo almost impossible, thus confining any sale to within Poland itself. Although theoretically there is an interesting test case waiting to be taken to the EU courts on whether individual member states can stop someone exporting a work of art under the European Convention on Human Rights (the main one being the freedom to enjoy one's possessions).
Happy New Year!
January 4 2017
Picture: BG
AHN wishes you all a happy new year. I hope you've all had a good break. Thanks for your patience while we've been away. The Deputy Editor's connoisseurial training proceeded apace over the holidays. We have now graduated to spotting animals in paintings, with great excitement. Here we are in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
