Previous Posts: articles 2023
Upcoming Release: Imagining the Apocalypse: Art and the End Times
April 7 2022
Picture: Courtauld Institute
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Courtauld Institute of Art in London will be hosting an interesting panel discussion on 27th April 2022 to celebrate the release of the following book. Imagining the Apocalypse: Art and the End Times is the latest publication by Edwin Coomasaru and Theresa Deichert.
According to a section from a brief introduction found on the Courtauld's website:
Armageddon is a cultural framework which has developed a series of conventions over centuries: the promise of rebirth after death or a saviour to turn chaos into order. Artists have long worked with and against such narrative tropes, and this book investigates the tensions between visual culture and political discourse that draw on or disrupt apocalyptic thinking. Grove complains that ‘the conceptual and temporal boundaries of apocalypses are frustrating diffuse’—but such flexibility is exactly why Armageddon has been profoundly generative as a cultural and social metaphor.53 The word ‘apocalypse’ derives from Greek, meaning ‘unveiling’, and this edited collection aims to explore and understand what modern and contemporary images of the end times may tell about the societies that gave rise to them.
The panel discussion will be live streamed (free - but registration required) for those who can't make it to the event in London.
Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans acquire Portrait of Princess Marie d'Orléans
April 7 2022
Picture: @OliviaVoisin
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Olivia Voisin, director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, has announced that the museum have acquired Ary Scheffer's portrait of the sculptress Princess Marie d'Orléans. The Princess was the daughter of King Louis Philippe and a favoured pupil of Scheffer. There is another version of the painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
$30m Michelangelo drawing coming up at Christie's
April 7 2022
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It has been announced that Christie's Paris will be offering a drawing by Michelangelo in their upcoming May sale. The figure is based on the shivering man depicted in Masaccio’s Baptism of the Neophytes fresco at Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. It was last sold in Paris over one hundred years ago where it was catalogued as 'School of Michelangelo'. The work on paper, one of the few by the artist left in private hands, has since been upgraded by scholars.
The drawing will be offered up for sale on 18th May 2022 carrying an estimate within the region of $30m.
New Edition of Jordaens Van Dyck Journal
April 7 2022
Picture: JVDPPP
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The third edition of the Jordaens Van Dyck Journal has just been published online. As always, the journal is free to access online and printed editions can be ordered through the website.
Here's a list of articles featured within:
Justin Davies & Ingrid Moortgat: The punch mark VHB : possible identification as the panel maker’s mark of Hans van Beemen alias Hans van Herentals (died 1624)
Justin Davies: Evidence of a previously unknown set of Van Dyck’s Apostles in Schloss Woyanow, Danzig in the early Twentieth century and an examination of one of the panels
Andrea Seim: Planks from the same oak tree found in different paintings
Justin Davies: Art historical considerations on same tree planks found in different paintings
Joost Vander Auwera: Jacques Jordaens, his panels and panel makers: identifications and patterns
Justin Davies: Van Dyck’s Apostles: introduction, overview and a new document Johannes Edvardsson: Dendrochronological and panel mark results from the Besançon and Konstanjevica na Krki Van Dyck related Apostles
Alexis Merle Du Bourg: The provenance of the sets of contemporary panels of Van Dyck’s Apostles in Besançon and Konstanjevica na Krki
Ingrid Goddeeris: Identifying new avenues for nineteenth-century provenance research through a focus on the Belgian art dealer Léon Gauchez using online museum files and digitised journals
James Innes-Mulraine: To Land upp into the Garden there’: Van Dyck’s lost London studio found at last
In a related note, James Innes-Mulraine's appeared in The Sunday Telegraph last weekend regarding a petition to have a blue plaque placed on the site of Van Dyck's former studio in Blackfriars.
Here's what the site looked like in the past:
Picture: Trustees of the British Museum
And here is what the area looks like now:
Picture:(c) ZC Innes-Mulraine
A worthy project that AHN lends its full support to!
An Announcement
April 5 2022
Picture: Olympia Auctions
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Some sad news to report. This will be my last week posting on AHN. Alas, a new and exciting adventure is calling me away. I'll explain more about what that is exactly in my final post (at some point at the end of the week).
It has been the greatest joy and pleasure to co-edit this blog. Thank you to all of you who have been in touch with stories, suggestions and comments. They do make the blog what it is. I'm eternally grateful to Bendor too, who really does deserve all the thanks for keeping this whole project going.
As ever, please do feel free to send across any stories or exhibitions that might be of interest for the site, before I sign off!
________________
As another aside, the image here is featured in an upcoming picture sale held by Olympia Auctions in West London. This auction contains one of the most interesting collections of paintings featuring musicians I've ever seen. In this picture we see a rather serious gentleman playing a so-called Apollo Lyre. This curious looking thing is similar to a Harp-Lute, a type of instrument that became rather popular in the Regency period. Here's a recording of one of those, in case you might be interested to hear more.
Update - I'm very touched by those of you who have sent kind messages, apologies that time hasn't yet allowed me to reply to them in full. I'll be working on posting as much as I can before Monday.
Temporary Export Bar on £11m Bellotto
April 5 2022
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The UK Government has placed a temporary export bar on Bernado Bellotto's View of Verona with the Ponte delle Navi. The picture was sold at Christie's last year, and any interested institution will have to find £11m to keep the work in the country.
According to Committee Member Christopher Baker:
Bernardo Bellotto was one of the greatest vedute (view) painters of the eighteenth century and this ambitious work is among the towering achievements of his early career.
A native of Venice and nephew of Canaletto, Bellotto sought novel subjects beyond his home and here created, when in his early twenties, a remarkably mature study of the heart of Verona, notable for its bold composition, unifying silvery light and architectural interest, as well as its lively anecdotal details. Painted for an as yet unidentified British patron, View of Verona with the Ponte delle Navi’ is first recorded in London in 1771 when it was consigned to auction.
It was conceived as one of a pair of pictures (pendants); its companion explores a complementary view of the river Adige, looking in the opposite direction, and hangs in the collection of Powis Castle (National Trust). Because of the aesthetic pre-eminence of Bellotto’s work and its fascination in terms of future research around such paintings and their patronage, it would be highly desirable if this wonderful picture could find a permanent home in a British public collection.
____________________
Regular readers will know that there are quite a few pictures with temporary export bars on them at the moment. There is a £50m Reynolds, a £10m Cezanne, a £6m De Heem, a £1.5m pair of Kauffmans, all waiting for interested institutions to raise the money to keep them in the country.
I'm yet to hear if any institution stepped in to save this most interesting seventeenth century double portrait, whose export ban expired in March 2022. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the aforementioned £7.5m Sargent too has slipped through the net too.
Quite a few of you often get in touch after I post such stories, pointing out how few of these paintings are eventually saved. As I posted last year, it seems that the UK export scheme is not particularly efficient in actually saving high value paintings.
One reader has recently contributed his own personal view:
Nothing about this scheme works. It may once have been to protect the nation's heritage, but its only purpose today is to allow the government to pretend it cares about the Nation's heritage - it would be better simply to abolish it.
The US has generous tax incentives that result in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art being donated annually and museums with billions in endowments. France and Holland fund their museums to but great artworks (150 million Euros for a Rembrandt this year - 180 million Euros between them for two others a few years ago). Most other countries - including Italy, Greece and Spain simply ban the export of important heritage items so that they remain in those countries even if they can't be purchased for public collections.
If our Country has become so impoverished that adding anything approaching great art to our national collections is simply beyond our means, would it not be better just to do away with our wholly discredited heritage export scheme, and just ban the export of important items as many other countries do?
I suppose we might need to wait and see what happens with the current list of artworks at risk. If all are lost, then it might be a good time for the scheme to be reformed in some way (as has been suggested many times before).
The Burlington - Current Issue
April 5 2022
Picture: The Burlington
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Burlington Magazine's April edition is dedicated to the subject of Collectors and Collections.
Here is a rundown of the articles featured within this month's edition:
The provenance of ‘Het Steen’ and ‘The rainbow landscape’ by Rubens BY LUCY DAVIS,NATALIA MUÑOZ-ROJAS
Richard Vickris Pryor in the art market of Napoleonic Europe BY LUCIA BONAZZI
From Paris to New York: French paintings from the collection of Eliza Jumel BY MARGARET OPPENHEIMER
Aby Warburg and the Volksheim exhibitions of 1902 and 1905 BY ECKART MARCHAND
Medieval and Renaissance enamels and other works of art in the Wyvern Collection BY HILTRUD WESTERMANN-ANGERHAUSEN
The Italian Renaissance altarpiece BY NICHOLAS PENNY
Obituary: Jonathan Brown (1939–2022) BY PETER CHERRY
Smell this Brueghel at the Prado
April 5 2022
Picture: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado in Madrid is the latest museum to explore the subject of smell in paintings. In particular, the museum will be bringing to life Peter Brueghel the Elder's (in collaboration with Rubens) Sense of Smell (pictured) in a small exhibition entitled The Essence of a Painting. An Olfactory Exhibition.
According to the website:
On display until 3 July in Room 83 of the Villanueva Building, The Sense of Smell, a painting by Jan Brueghel and Rubens, is the focus of The Essence of a Painting. An Olfactory Exhibition, curated by Alejandro Vergara, Chief Curator of Flemish Painting and the Northern Schools at the Museo Nacional del Prado, and Gregorio Sola, Senior Perfumer at Puig and an academician of the Perfume Academy, who has created ten fragrances associated with elements in the painting.
Brueghel’s work, which evokes the garden of rare trees and plants belonging to Isabel Clara Eugenia and her husband in early 17th-century Brussels, depicts more than 80 species of plants and flowers, as well as various animals associated with the sense of smell, such as the scent hound and civet, and a range of objects relating to the world of perfume, including scented gloves, vessels holding fragrant substances, a perfume burner warmed in a sumptuous brazier, and vessels for distilling essences.
The show will run until 3rd July 2022.
Botticelli on a Bra
April 5 2022
Picture: Peach John
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Regular readers will know that Old Masters can be found on all sorts of clothing these days, including jumpers, shorts, socks and shoes. It was only a matter of time before a lingerie brand decided to stitch them onto women's underwear. Here we can see Peach John's latest Botticelli bra, which will set you back a mere 4,378 yen (the equivalent of £29.34).
According to the article linked above:
These pieces are part of the Peach John line of lingerie called “Kyosho no Bra”, or “Master’s Bras”, which include lingerie embroidered with other famous works of art like Monet, Alphonse Mucha, Pieter Bruegel, Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, and even Hokusai. We’re looking forward to finding out what work of art they’re going to recreate next.
Christina, Queen of Sweden's Titian Coming up for Sale
April 5 2022
Picture: Dorotheum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Dorotheum auction house in Vienna have announced that they will be offering a rediscovered Titian later in May. The painting of The Penitent Magdalen, of which many versions are known, was in the collection of Christina (1626-1689), Queen of Sweden during the seventeenth century. The provenance of the work is rather intriguing, as it later passed into the collections of Pierre Crozat and later Philippe II Duke of Orleans. It finally arrived in Britain during the 1790s. The attribution has been supported by Professor Paul Joannides and the exact provenance was researched and established by Dr Carlo Corsato.
The painting will be offered for sale on 11th May 2022 carrying an estimate of €1m - €1.5m.
Oh, and a pair of Kauffmans too!
April 1 2022
Picture: gov.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
They are coming thick and fast these days! Apologies, I forgot to spot last week's announcement that a pair of group portraits by Angelica Kauffman have also been subject to a temporary export bar by the UK Government.
The pair of Group Portraits of Mr and Mrs Joseph May and their Children have been valued at £1.5m. They were sold several times during the nineteenth-century and have descended with various families during the twentieth.
According to Committee Member Professor Mark Hallett:
Angelica Kauffman was one of the most important painters working in late eighteenth-century Britain and this is an especially interesting example of her output. Though the artist is justly celebrated for her subject pictures, Kauffman’s portraits are equivalently complex and ambitious in character. This double portrait of the May family, in which Mary May is pictured with her daughters, and Joseph May with his sons, is extremely unusual in splitting up its male and female subjects in such a direct way. At the same time, Kauffman’s adept handling of composition ensures that the two pictures elegantly complement each other. As well as having a powerful aesthetic appeal, the paintings offer a sensitive pictorial meditation on parental and sibling relationships, and on the different stages of childhood. For all these reasons, they make a powerful contribution to our understanding of Georgian portraiture.
Any interested institutions will have until 24th July 2022 to find £1.5m to keep the works in the country.
Temporary Export Bar on £10m Courtauld Cézanne
April 1 2022
Picture: gov.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The UK Goverment has placed a temporary export bar on a £10m Cézanne. The painting of Ferme Normande, Été (Hattenville) (1882) was acquired by Samuel Courtauld in 1937 for £2,500 and was later bequeathed to Christabel McLaren, Lady Aberconway. It seems that the work had been on loan to the gallery since the 1990s.
According to Committee Member Christopher Baker:
“Paul Cézanne’s (1839-1906) status as a bridge between the traditions of 19th-century painting and modernism is unrivalled. In his delightful ‘Farm in Normandy, Summer (Hattenville)’ the artist employed intense, free brushstrokes to evoke the dappled light, shadows and myriad green hues of trees and a meadow, anticipating later, key developments in his artistic evolution, when the abstract structures underpinning nature were gradually given greater prominence. The picture is also significant in the context of the artist’s career, as the farm depicted was acquired in the year Cézanne painted it by Victor Chocquet (1821-1891), his first important patron and a key champion of impressionism.
In addition to these themes, it forms part of the very important story of British taste for international art in the 20th century. Cézanne’s landscape was purchased in 1937 by Samuel Courtauld (1876-1947), as the last of a remarkable group of twelve paintings by the artist Courtauld acquired: he played a seminal role in establishing an enthusiasm for impressionist and post-impressionist painting in Britain both through his own collecting and generous funding of major pictures secured for the National Gallery in the 1920s.
Because of its beauty, significance in the artist’s career, and role in the wider appreciation of such artistic achievements, it would be a profound misfortune if this beguiling work could not be retained in this country.”
Any interested institution will have until 31st July 2022 to find the £10m to keep it in the country.
Louvre swoops in to block Chardin Sale
April 1 2022
Picture: Artcurial
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The curious pre-emption system in France has once again swooped in to block the sale of a valuable work of art. The Art Newspaper has published news that the aforementioned €24.4m Chardin, purchased by New York dealer Adam Williams on behalf of an unknown client, has been blocked by a pre-emption from the Louvre. The French museum now has two and a half years to try and find the money to keep the painting in the country.
As it happens, the Louvre already has fourty paintings by the artist in its collection. A quick collections search shows that all of them, apart from four, are currently on public display. This is a most impressive statistic.
Rembrandt, not Flinck
April 1 2022
Picture: Gemäldegalerie
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin have announced that their Landscape with Arched Bridge is by Rembrandt after all. A reassessment of the picture, instigated by a David Hockney exhibition it seems, has concluded that the work is by Rembrandt's own hand. The picture had been given to Govaert Flinck for many years until recent technical analysis has proven otherwise.
According to the article linked above:
X-rays showing changes and corrections that had been made to the work helped confirm Rembrandt as its creator. [Berlin curator Katja] Kleinert said experts were unanimous in their verdict.
Comparisons were made with a very similar composition by Rembrandt, called Landscape with Stone Bridge at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which the Gemäldegalerie’s director, Dagmar Hirschfeld – herself a Rembrandt expert – said shared hallmarks typical for him.
“You quite often get pairs of paintings, where you have the impression he is trying to do the same again, but in another style of painting or to optimise what he has already achieved,” she said. Analysis of the painting in Berlin, which the gallery acquired in 1924, showed how Rembrandt had made radical changes to the work during its creation, including shifting the position of a storm cloud, reducing the size of a hill and making changes to a group of trees. These processes in turn made the painting more compact and dense.
The landscape will be featured in the gallery's latest exhibition David Hockney – Landscapes in Dialogue.
The Art Newspaper is Hiring!
April 1 2022
Picture: TAN
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper's London office are looking for an Editorial Assistant.
According to the job advert:
The Art Newspaper looking for an Editorial Assistant who is full of ideas, energy and a passion for visual art to support our editorial teams in London and New York. They will work closely with the digital team to help source and publish daily news as well as assist with administrative tasks for the monthly print newspaper and additional supplements. Developing and publishing social media content will be a key task. Time management and organisational skills are essential to this busy role as is a basic understanding of both art history and the art industry.
Applications and CVs (accompanied by your own salary expectations) must be in by 6th April 2022.
Good luck if you're applying!
Religious Artworks Restored at the Museo de la Semana Santa de Cuenca
April 1 2022
Picture: Museo de la Semana Santa de Cuenca
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo de la Semana Santa de Cuenca (The Museum of Holy Week) in Spain have just opened an exhibition dedicated to a set of restored religious works of art. Jewels of the Passion features five works from various parishes that have been brought back to life through a vast conservation project.
Click here for an online catalogue (in Spanish) of the exhibition, which features quite a few interesting photos during the various stages of conservation.
The show will run from 31st March 2022 until 22nd May 2022.
I think this 'before and after' of a set of three anonymous sixteenth-century panels is rather striking! If only the revealed picture was of better quality:
Royal Albert Hall joins NFT bandwagon
April 1 2022
Picture: Royal Albert Hall
Posted by Bendor
The Royal Albert Hall has decided to enter the NFT market. The disturbing news was revealed on their website today:
“Think MySpace squared,” said the Hall’s chief executive, Craig O’Follipar. “We’re talking Yahoo! in five dimensions. Our ultimate goal is to build a framework of millennial policy hardware featuring synchronised matrix approaches, in collaboration with the world’s leading performers. We’ve already got two of G4 on board, and the other two are interested.
”The NFTs depict a dozen unforgettable moments in the venue’s storied history, including on-stage appearances from the likes of Queen Victoria, Adele and Matt Goss.
Problematic Dave, who has previously worked with brands like Iowa Special Meat and Iowa Dog Track, said the chance to collaborate with one of the world’s most renowned venues was a dream come true. “Yeah, it’s been alright,” he said.
More here.
Update - this was of course an April Fools. But just day's later, the actual Treasury here in the UK has said it really is getting in on the NFT craze. Crazy. More here.
Raphael at the National Gallery
March 30 2022
Video: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London will be opening their long-awaited Raphael exhibition next week. Here's a short trailer which provides an idea of which masterpieces visitors will encounter.
_________________
Speaking as someone who is rather sensitive to music, I'm surprised why no exquisite and dramatic sixteenth-century Italian polyphony was employed within this video (!)
The Prado are Asking for a Hand...
March 30 2022
Picture: @museodelprado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
In case any readers have a little spare time on their hands, The Prado in Madrid are looking for some help in picking images for new posters that will decorate the entrances of the museum. Click through the link above to cast your vote.
Online Lecture: Big-Bellied Women: Portraying Pregnancy in 16th and 17th Century England
March 30 2022
Picture: The MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Ontario Canada, will be hosting an interesting in-person and live-streamed lecture next month. Professor Karen Hearn will be presenting Queen's University's Isabel and Alfred Bader Lecture in European Art on the subject of Big-Bellied Women: Portraying Pregnancy in 16th and 17th-Century England.
According to the talk's blurb:
Join celebrated art historian and curator Karen Hearn for “Big-Bellied Women: Portraying Pregnancy in 16th and 17th-Century England,” an exploration of early modern depictions of pregnancy in British art. Hearn, a former curator at Tate Britain and honorary professor at University College London, argues many early modern works depicted pregnancy overtly, contrary to previous thought, for a variety of reasons and motivations.
This free talk will be streamed online on 14th April 2022 from 6pm - 8pm (EDT). Click on the link above for more details.
