Previous Posts: entries 2018
Van Dyck discovered in Spain
March 18 2011
This is exciting - a lost painting by Van Dyck appears to have been found in the stores of a Spanish Museum. The Virgin and Child Adored by Penitent Sinners is in the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid.
The news reports are sketchy and describe the painting as 'previously unknown'. I see from the 2004 catalogue raisonne, however, that there was a reference to a similarly titled work in the Spanish Royal Collection in 1681, so perhaps this is it. There is another version in the Louvre (below), in which the central penitent figure holds a different position. In 2004, Horst Vey described the Louvre version as being in bad condition. Perhaps the newly discovered version is in better shape - certainly, the hands and face of the central figure are more compelling than in the Louvre version.
I've asked the Academy of San Fernando for a better photo - I'll put it up here if I get it.
Gainsborough 'improved' by Reynolds?
March 18 2011
National Trust curators are investigating evidence that a portrait by Gainsborough of Susannah Trevelyan (x-rayed above) was repainted by Joshua Reynolds. More here.
Some gems amongst the crowds at Maastricht
March 18 2011
It was a mistake to go to the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht on the opening day - too many people. If you happened upon a swarm of freeloaders around a canape tray, it actually became impossible to move.
Still, there were some fine pictures on display. Jack Kilgore had what I thought was the discovery of the fair, a work by the young Rubens. [More below]
Get out the jet - it's Maastricht
March 16 2011
Excitement is building ahead of The European Fine Art Fair, which opens tomorrow in Maastricht. Last year, 171 private jets landed at the local airport. The event is a major showcase for Old Master dealers - but can they withstand the pressure from major auction houses?
Scott Reyburn of Bloomberg has highlighted the growing battle between dealers and auction houses: [More below]
Things to look forward to in New York
March 16 2011
The Metropolitan Museum has released dates of their forthcoming exhibitions.
Highlights include: 'Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century' (5 April-4 July); 'Pastel Portraits: Images of 18th Century Europe' (17 May-14 August); and 'Frans Hals in the Metropolitan Museum' (26 July-10 October). More here.
Recession? What recession?
March 15 2011
Picture: Cleveland Museum of Art
Hats off to the Cleveland Museum of Art for a really impressive piece of acquisitioning; they've just bought the above cabinet miniature by Isaac Oliver. Possibly painted for Anne of Denmark, it is one of very few large scale miniatures by Oliver to survive.
It's not only a good buy, but a canny one. The picture was offered at Sotheby's in New York in January with an estimate of $200 - 300,000, which I felt was too high. However, it failed to sell, and presumably the museum were able to secure it for a good price post-sale. [More below]
Five Star Watteau
March 15 2011
Picture: Royal Academy. Detail of Nude Man Kneeling, c.1715/16, Louvre.
The Royal Academy's new exhibition of Watteau's drawings has been given five stars by Alastair Sooke in the Daily Telegraph.
The RA has a selection of the drawings in high-res here.
The one third acquisition policy
March 15 2011
A legal dispute between the contemporary art dealer Larry Gagosian and one of his clients has revealed a potentially novel approach to museum acquisitions. The collector Robert Wylde thought he was buying all of Mark Tansey's 1981 painitng The Innocent Eye Test in 2009, for $2.5m, only to find out later that the Met Museum in New York owns 1/3 of it.
More here.
Optimism
March 14 2011
Here's a strange one - a full-length portrait has gone on display at a museum in Florida because;
'...the owners have spent more than 20 frustrating years unable to sell it for what they think it is worth. By placing it at the Lightner [Museum], they hope to inspire new interest.'
The owners, one of whom is Mr Paul Partel, believe their portrait of Louis XVIII by Antoine-Francois Callet is 'worth millions'. However, it was offered at auction by Christie's in 1991 with an estimate of $60-80,000, before being withdrawn by Mr Partel because; [More below]
Museum of London new exhibition
March 14 2011
Picture: Museum of London. Detail from 'Buy a Rat or a Mouse Trap?' by Rowlandson.
This looks like it's worth a visit; a new exhibition at the Museum of London of rarely seen paintings, drawings and prints showing how London's poor were depicted from the 17th to the 19th century. Exhibition curator Francis Marshall said;
'The Museum of London’s extensive art collection contains many items which are rarely displayed for conservation reasons. This show offers the chance to see some of our gems: delicate watercolours and prints depicting gritty London subject matter.'
Entry is free, and the show runs from 25th March to 31st July 2011.
Koons to set new record?
March 14 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
A sculpture by Jeff Koons, Pink Panther, is set to sell for up to $30m at Sotheby's Spring Contemporary auction in New York. Sotheby's press release said:
'Representing the highest tier of Jeff Koons' artistic achievement, Pink Panther is immediately identifiable as a masterpiece not only of the artist's historical canon, but also of the epoch of recent Contemporary Art...
In Pink Panther, the display of the woman's semi-naked body is sensual. However, with the bizarrely incongruous cuddly Pink Panther toy clinging to the literal embodiment of carnal desire, Koons strikes an outrageous contrast between the competing powers of adult and childhood associations.
The artist's painstaking selection of media is central to the conceptual project, contributing directly to the importance of the work. The terms of its execution are flawless: the contrasting textures of the porcelain surfaces are rendered in dazzlingly vivid colours that reinforce the object's artificiality, while the transparent glazes simultaneously evoke the fragility of thin glass and the ethereal nature of a reflective liquid.'
I rather like it. But if it's still worth $30m in 50 years time, I'll eat my trousers.
Friday amusement
March 11 2011
Picture: Spike Milligan
More Caravaggio in Rome
March 11 2011
If you're a Caravaggio fan, it's a good time to go to Rome. Not only is there the exhibition of Caravaggio documents in the State Archives, but now a new exhibition at the Museo Diocesano brings together sixty masterpieces by Caravaggio and his contemporaries. It opens today, until 3rd July.
Fraudulent dealer's 'Mission from God'
March 11 2011
More details are emerging about Lawrence Salander, of the Salander O'Reilly gallery in New York, better known as the Bernie Madoff of the art world. He had a habit of selling multiple half shares in paintings, and then never telling the owners when he had sold them. He pleaded guilty last year and was jailed, but by doing so avoided a full trial. Now, in the trial of his staff, the full workings of his business are starting to emerge.
The £100m/£20k Leonardo - its implications for auction attributions
March 10 2011
There’s an interesting piece by Simon Hewitt in this week’s Antiques Trade Gazette on the Leonardo/not Leonardo drawing, above. The article isn’t online, so I can’t link to it.
Christie’s sold the drawing for $19,000 in 1998, but recently Martin Kemp, a leading Leonardo scholar, said it was by the great master. If it’s ‘right’, some say the drawing would be worth £100m. If it isn’t, then the original valuation is probably right. There’s nothing in between.
The picture is now the subject of a lawsuit between a previous owner, Jeanne Marchig, and Christie’s. Mrs Marchig claims that Christie’s were negligent in selling the drawing as ‘German School, 19th Century’, when in fact it was by Leonardo. However, Christie’s are sticking to their guns, and say that although Martin Kemp believes it is a Leonardo, many other scholars do not, and neither do they. [More below]
Landseer in the Highlands
March 10 2011
Picture: Mallams
This small and rare landscape sketch by Landseer, estimated at £8-12,000, sold for £70,000 yesterday.
Update 20.3.11: it isn't the highlands, it's Devon apparently. I saw the picture at Maastricht.
Rodin nicked
March 10 2011
Picture: AP
A bronze statue of Balzac has been stolen from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The work, cast in 1892, was taken during renovations three months ago. The theft has only now been made public, which is perhaps rather late. Like the Henry Moores stolen in England recently, I suspect it has already been melted down. Who knows, bits of it may already be in the circuitry of your new mobile phone.
Important Turners donated to Abbotsford
March 9 2011
Picture: Art Fund. Left, Abbotsford, right, Newark Castle.
Two watercolours by JMW Turner have been donated to Abbotsford, Walter Scott's home. They were painted in 1831 to illustrate the 1833 edition of Scott's poems. The donor, Phoebe Barrow, chose to donate them through the Art Fund so that they were safeguarded in perpetuity - a smart move in this world of increasing deaccessions. More here.
'The man who said museums should charge for entry.'
March 9 2011
Tristram Hunt has re-opened the debate on entrance fees for museums. He says that in an age of arts cuts, particularly for regional museums, it is unfair that London-based museums such as Tate get funds for free entry, but not the Potteries Museum in his own Stoke constituency. [More below]
Unsettling sculpture of the week
March 9 2011
Meet Petra, a life-size sculpture of a female German riot officer. Petra is squatting and urinating. The piece has caused a stir in Germany, but has also won a prestigious prize from the Lienneman Foundation. Its creator, Marcel Walldorf, said;
'The public response has been overwhelmingly positive, and I don't understand why people are attacking Petra. She even contains a special mechanism by which a liquid can be made to flow out of her genitals. But to avoid damaging the gallery's floor, I have substituted a puddle of simulated urine made from gelatine for this exhibition.'
