Previous Posts: articles 2023
Van Gogh in bloom
May 26 2011
Picture: National Gallery
How about this for idea of the year - the National Gallery is planting a 'living wall' on its facade in the form of Van Gogh's A Wheatfield.
The wall will comprise of over 8,000 living plants, and will stay in place until October:
The living painting has been constructed by specialist horticulture and design company ANS using over 8,000 plants of more than 26 different varieties. To create the artwork, each plant was selected for its unique colour to match the tones of the original painting. It was then hand-planted into its location in one of three modules according to a numbered drawing which replicated the image. The modules were then grown vertically at the nursery ready for installation.
A Wheatfield, with Cypresses was painted in September 1889, when Van Gogh was in the St-Rémy mental asylum, near Arles, where he was a patient from May 1889 until May 1890. Writing to his brother Theo early in September, Van Gogh promised to send his brother ‘twelve size 30 canvases’ and it seems likely that A Wheatfield, with Cypresses was one of them.
Restoring Rogier van der Weyden
May 25 2011
Picture: Museo Prado
The Prado is to restore Rogier van der Weyden's c.1460 The Crucifixion. The process is expected to take two years:
The study and subsequent restoration of Van der Weyden’s Crucifixion will be undertaken by the Museo del Prado’s restoration team in collaboration with restorers from Patrimonio Nacional, to whom the Museum will be making available its technical resources and experience acquired through the restoration of other works on panel in recent decades, including The Descent from the Cross by the same artist, which was restored in 1993. The lengthy procedure envisaged will involve a detailed and complete study of the panel in order to decide on the most appropriate procedures for its conservation and restoration.
Full details here.
Romney sketchbook published
May 24 2011
The Romney Society has published a facsimile of George Romney's Kendal Sketchbook, 1763-71. There are 104 pages of Romney drawings, and a fine catalogue written by Dr Yvonne Romney Dixon.
It's a really impressive publication, and well worth having - order a copy here.
Armageddon outta here, take 2
May 24 2011
Harold Camping says the world is still going to end on October 21st - he just got the date of Judgement Day a bit wrong (he said 21st May).
So, just for fun, here's another guide from art history of what we're all in for, this time from Hans Memling, in a detail from his Last Judgement triptych, in the Muzeum Narodowe, Gdansk.
Or, you could take a more optimistic line, like Thomas Gainsborough, who, on his deathbed, is reported to have said: 'We're all going to heaven, and Van Dyck is of the company'. Now, that would be cool, not least because I have a few questions for old Anthony, like: where is the quadruple portrait of you and your wife with Charles I and Henrietta Maria, which belonged to Cesare Scaglia; and, did you really paint this?
Restoring a Van Gogh
May 24 2011
Here's an excellent idea - the Cincinnati Art Museum is to restore Van Gogh's Undergrowth with Two Figures in public. The 1890 painting was re-lined in the 1970s, and the wax applied to the back of the canvas is now affecting the paint layers. Now, the wax is being removed, and visitors to the museum can watch via a giant screen.
I regularly encounter damage caused by these wax re-linings. They were all the rage at one point, but now we look back on the process and shudder. Usually, a hot iron was used to melt the wax and so glue the new canvas onto the back of the old. Sadly, this often had the effect of flattening the paint layers - not entirely surprising if you iron a painting - and so the texture and impasto of a painting was lost forever.
I wonder what conservation treatments we use these days that will have to be undone by the next generation of restorers
Another happy ending
May 24 2011
A triptych stolen from Italy and bought by the Speed Museum in Kentucky in 1973, has been returned to its owners.
The picture, thought to be by Jacopo da Casentino (d.1358), was one of 14 works of art stolen in a raid on an Italian Villa, now thought to be worth $33m. The Speed Museum paid $38,000 for it, unwittingly, and has no insurance to cover the loss.
A happy ending
May 23 2011
Picture: Antiques Trade Gazette
This bust, of Elisabeth Borrett by Sir Henry Cheere, was stolen in January from the church of St Peter & St Paul, Shoreham, West Sussex. It has now been returned, after a photograph was published in the indispensable Antiques Trade Gazette.
The bust was bought, unwittingly, by a dealer, who then consigned it to Sotheby's. He saw the picture in the ATG, and pulled it from the sale. See the pair, of John Borrett, here.
Despite the happy ending, there is something profoundly sad about someone wanting to make a few quid (probably literally) by stealing a marble bust from a church.
Pablo who?
May 23 2011
Picture: China Guardian Auctions
Another record price in China seems to confirm the direction of the art market: a work by Qi Baishi (1864-1957) was sold in Beijing yesterday for $65m (or 425.m yuan). Eagle Standing on a Pine Tree, 1946, sets a new record for a modern Chinese painting.
According to Art Price, Qi's work raised $70m worldwide in 2009 - the only artists ranked higher were Warhol and Picasso.
The auction house was China Guardian Auctions.
Art of the New Deal
May 23 2011
Picture: Smithsonian American Art Museum
A fascinating new exhibition opens this week at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art - 1934: A New Deal for Artists.
The show will have 56 works that emerged from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Public Works of Art Project. Under the scheme artists were encouraged to depict various aspects of 'the American Scene'.
Above is Lily Furedi's 'Subway', 1934. See more examples here and here.
The project lasted just six months, but led to 15,663 paintings at a cost of $1.3m. Should we something similar for the Great Recession?
Lady with an Ermine vs Mona Lisa
May 23 2011
Might The Lady with an Ermine one day trump the Mona Lisa as the most popular Leonardo painting? Sam Leith, in the Guardian, investigates ahead of the National Gallery's Leonardo blockbuster.
National museums 'lack vital expertise'
May 22 2011
Complaints in Scotland about the lack of academic expertise on museum boards.
Titians make it to Houston
May 22 2011
Picture: National Gallery of Scotland
Titian's Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto, currently on a loan tour of the US, have now made it to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. They will be there until August 14th.
If you see them, please leave a few bucks - we're trying to buy them and are about £50m short.
Armageddon outta here
May 21 2011
Picture: 'The Last Judgement', Museo di San Marco, Florence
Some people are convinced that the world will end today.
Who knows? But here is Fra Angelico's view of what will happen if it does: good guys on the left, bad guys on the right. It'll be more fun on the left.
Update 22.5.11: it didn't happen.
Illuminating Fashion
May 20 2011
Picture: The Morgan Library & Museum
A new exhibition of medieval illuminated manuscripts has opened at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. There's a nifty online exhibition here.
The exhibition closes on 4th September.
Vote for the Art Fund Prize 2011.
May 20 2011
The Art Fund has announced its shortlist for the Art Fund Prize 2011: the British Museum, The Polar Museum, Cambridge, The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, and the Roman Baths Museum. Well done to all four.
You can vote here. The prize will be announced on 15th June.
New Frick director
May 20 2011
Congratulations to Ian Wardropper, who has been appointed the new director of the Frick Collection in New York. He takes over from Anne Poulet.
Letting 'the nest egg hatch'
May 20 2011
Picture: The Parish of St Michael and All Angels
A church in Withyham, East Sussex has been given permission to sell four paintings by Niccolo Di Pietro Gerini. They are expected to fetch up to £1.5m when sold at Sotheby's in the summer.
The church has been unable to pay for the insurance since 1995, and the pictures have been at Leeds Castle ever since. Probably, selling them is the right decision: as the Chancellor of Chichester Diocese put it, 'The nest egg must be allowed to hatch.'
You've been Sewelled
May 20 2011
Trecy Emin gets the Brian Sewell treatment. Worth reading, for whether you agree with him or not, there's no doubting that Sewell is a brilliant writer.
Bill & Melinda
May 19 2011
Picture: Smithsonian Institute
A new portrait of Bill & Melinda Gates has been unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington. The artist is Jon Friedman. News reports say that it was based on a photograph.
New Walpole Society Volume
May 19 2011
Picture: National Gallery
Splendid news - the latest Walpole Society publication contains the travel notebooks of Charles Eastlake (1793-1865), artist and the first 'Keeper' of the National Gallery. His notebooks contain details of the pictures he saw in Europe. You could say they are the 19th C equivalent of George Vertue's notebooks.
Happily, this publication comes equipped with a full index. The 2009 issue, with the account books of Joseph Wright of Derby, had no index - the art historical equivalent of a car with no steering wheel.
Congratulations to Dr Susannah Avery-Quash, who has edited the notebooks and written detailed introductions. Buy a copy here.
