Previous Posts: articles 2023
Apologies...
September 23 2021
Picture: AB
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Apologies for the slow service this week. I have been rather busy preparing for some lectures I'll be presenting at a history festival next week. I hope to post some stories as and when I can.
Nature in Image: Austrian Baroque landscapes
September 17 2021
Picture: domquartier.at
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Residenzgalerie in Salzburg, Austria, opened a rather interesting exhibition over the summer. Nature in Image: Austrian Baroque landscapes examines Austrian landscape paintings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
According to their website:
Nature as fine art. Landscape as motif. Trees bowed by the wind, the play of colours through the leaves of forests bathed in light, an approaching storm, the hazardous path over a mountain pass, the hunting party resting in a secluded spot, the cheerful bustle of a country fair set in a landscape – Austrian baroque painters between 1600 and 1800 captured all this and much more on canvas, copper plates and wood panels. The formats ranged from postcard-sized cabinet pieces to canvases more than 2m wide. 18th-century collectors from aristocratic, ecclesiastical and bourgeois circles were great admirers of these diverse renderings. The presentation is rounded off by a comparison with Dutch, Italian and French models, and examples of the change in style around 1800.
The first comprehensive exhibition of Austrian baroque landscapes takes into account the increased interest in the subject shown in recent years.
The exhibition will run until 31st January 2022.
Rembrandt in Print in Cork
September 17 2021
Picture: Crawford Art Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland, have recently opened their latest exhibition Rembrandt in Print.
According to their website:
Rembrandt in Print presents 50 of the finest works from the Ashmolean’s world-class collection of over 200 etchings and drypoints by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).
Widely hailed as the greatest painter of the Dutch Golden Age, Rembrandt was also one of the most innovative and experimental printmakers of the seventeenth century. This touring exhibition will present Rembrandt as an unrivalled storyteller through a selection of fifty outstanding prints ranging from 1630 until the late 1650s. These works demonstrate Rembrandt’s inventive techniques and extraordinary skills. They are displayed together for the first time.
Rembrandt in Print is accompanied by a special Print Studio in collaboration with Cork Printmakers.
The exhibition will run from 17th September 2021 till 9th January 2022.
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While you're there, make sure you go and take a glance at this brilliant unfinished George Romney. It was hanging by the staircase the last time I visited the gallery.
The Rijksmuseum Twenthe are Hiring!
September 17 2021
Picture: pietheineek.nl
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede, the Netherlands, are hiring a Curator (specialisation in Old Masters or Modern Art). The role will have a particular emphasis on exhibitions and 'imagination'.
This 36 hour per-week role comes with a salary around €3,718 per month (pay scale 10) and applications must be in by 1st October 2021.
Good luck if you're applying!
Rediscovered Van Gogh Study on Display in Amsterdam
September 17 2021
Video: Bloomsberg
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A rediscovered study by Van Gogh has gone on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The pencil study for Worn Out was created in 1882 and had been preserved in a private collection.
According to the BBC report:
"This one has never been seen before anywhere. It's the first time that this drawing is out in the open," said Teio Meedendorp, senior researcher at the Van Gogh Museum.
Van Gogh appeared to have used the drawing as the basis for a slightly different version of the drawing shortly afterwards, which he preferred, and which is currently in the museum's collection under the title Worn Out.
The artist made Study for Worn Out when he was living in the Hague and still learning to draw at around the age of 29. Experts say it offers an exceptional insight into Van Gogh's working process at the time.
Update - The Burlington Magazine have made their article on the discovery, written by Teio Meedendorp, accessible online for a limited amount of time. Read it while you can!
Feigen Sale at Sotheby's NY
September 17 2021
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's New York have uploaded their upcoming sale Collector, Dealer, Connoisseur: The Vision of Richard L. Feigen online. The sale will be held on 18th October 2021.
As to be expected, there are many fine pictures on offer. The top lot is Richard Parkes Bonington's The Palazzi Manolesso-Ferro, Contarini-Fasan and Venier-Contarini on the Grand Canal, Venice, estimated at $2m - $3m; followed by a Lorenzo Monaco of the Prophet Jeremiah estimate at $600k - $800k; an Annibale Carracci Landscape estimated at $400k - $600k; and a Holy Family with St John the Baptist, retitled the 'Feigen Adoration', by Beccafumi estimated at $300k - $500k.
There are a nice selection of British paintings too, including a Gainsborough Portrait, a Gainsborough Landscape, a rare Landscape by Thomas Lawrence, and an Italian landscape by Richard Wilson. However, it is the Boningtons that seem to steal the show where British works are concerned.
I should also mention that there are a few paintings by Max Beckman included within the sale, the top lot being A Portrait of a Turk estimated at $2m - $3m.
Bert Watteeuw New Director of Rubenshuis
September 16 2021
Picture: rubenshuis
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Curator Bert Watteeuw has been named as the incoming Director of the Rubenshuis in Antwerp.
According to the CODART post linked above:
Dr. Bert Watteeuw (b. 1981) studied art history and social and cultural anthropology at the Catholic University of Leuven. After a PhD fellowship from the Research Foundation Flanders, his job took him to Antwerp where he joined the Rubenianum as a researcher in 2011. Since 2015, he has also been working for the Rubens House, combining scientific research with museum work. In 2018, he was appointed project coordinator of the architectural master plan for the Rubens House site.
He has published extensively on Flemish art of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, in addition to contributing to Belgian and international exhibitions. His main interests are the cultural history of the human body, archival research on Rubens and ‘the little things’ or ‘the other’ in the works of the great masters of Antwerp art. He wrote a dissertation titled Capita Selecta. Interdisciplinary perspectives on the culture of portraiture in early modern Flanders.
Venetian Drawings at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan
September 16 2021
Picture: lamilano.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new exhibition of Venetian drawings from the eighteenth century has opened in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. The exhibition contains 48 works by the likes of Giovanni Battista and Giandomenico Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Antonio Canaletto and Bernardo Bellotto. The works have been drawn from the city's collection of works, many of which were initially assembled in Milanese aristocratic collections.
US Friends of the Uffizi Donate Painting
September 16 2021
Picture: theflorentine.net
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The US organisation Friends of the Uffizi Gallery have donated a painting by Donato Mascagni to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The oil on canvas, dating to 1611, depicts Il Conte Ugolino from Dante's Inferno.
Just in case you'd like to know more about the work's curious subject matter:
The canvas is associated with one of the most famous sections of the 'Divine Comedy', described in Canto 33 of the Inferno. Count Ugolino Della Gherardesca takes centre stage, guilty of having betrayed his homeland, one of the worst sins in Dante’s worldview, which sees the count languishing in the deepest ninth circle of hell. History books inform us that the Pisan nobleman was imprisoned with his children in the Torre della Muda and sentenced to death by starvation. Dante remembers how Ugolino’s desperation resulted in cannibalism. The artist chose not to depict this atrocity, instead preferring to paint the count’s final moments of agony: come un poco di raggio si fu messo / nel doloroso carcere, e io scorsi / per quattro visi il mio aspetto stesso (As now a little glimmer made its way / Into the dolorous prison, and I saw / Upon four faces my own very aspect).
Stolen Marco d'Oggiono returns to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
September 16 2021
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has pointed out this story of a stolen Madonna and Child that has been returned to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. The painting by Marco d'Oggiono was stolen seventy years ago and had recently resurfaced with a Milanese art dealer. It seems that the work had been acquired from the private collection of a Milanese Lady, however, its history prior to this is currently unknown.
Christophe Leribault new Director of Musée d'Orsay
September 15 2021
Picture: lemonde.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The French Government have announced the nomination of Christophe Leribault to become the next Director of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
His career has been a rather interesting one it seems, beginning as Curator of Heritage at the Carnavalet Museum (Paris) where he was in charge of paintings and drawings for fifteen years. In 2006 he became a curator in the department of Graphic Arts in the Louvre. A year later he took over the management of the Musée national Eugène-Delacroix (Paris), until his 2012 appointment as director of the Petit Palais.
Leribault will begin his five-year term in early October.
Oppenheimer Collection Soars
September 15 2021
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It seems that there were some extremely promising results for the decorative arts market yesterday. Sotheby's New York's Oppenheimer sale of Important Meissen soared past its pre-sale estimates to achieve $15,039,540 (inc. fees). Many of the lots doubled, tripled or quadrupled their estimates in this 'white-glove' sale.
'Missing' Dandini Found in US Church
September 15 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a rather curious story. A painting by Cesare Dandini, reportedly recorded as 'missing', has been discovered in a church in New Rochelle, New York. It was rediscovered by the New York college professor Tom Ruggio who started looking into the work's attribution and history. It seems that no one is exactly sure how the painting ended up in New Rochelle, with some suggestions it was purchased in London during the 1960s. The canvas will be on loan to Iona College in New Rochelle for the next three months.
University of St Andrews are Hiring!
September 14 2021
Picture: st-andrews.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The University of St Andrews in Scotland are hiring a Lecturer in Art History.
According to the job description:
We are seeking to appoint a full-time lecturer in global early modern art (1400-1750). This is a full time, five-year, fixed term post replacing a permanent member of staff on research leave. Applications are invited from candidates whose research interests lie in any field of early modern art, architecture, urbanism or visual culture, regardless of geographical focus. We encourage applications from candidates whose research and teaching focuses on issues including environment, race, gender, sexuality and politics and / or whose work takes a transnational, cross-cultural or multidisciplinary approach.
The position comes with a salary of between £42,149 to £46,042 per annum and applications must be in by 1st October 2021.
Good luck if you're applying!
Hansken: Rembrandt's Elephant - Film on Vimeo
September 14 2021
Picture: Vimeo
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
For those of us who missed the Rembrandthuis's summer exhibition on Hansken Rembrandt's Elephant, the museum have published a short documentary on the exhibition to Vimeo. The video will cost €4,99 to watch.
Carracci. The Herrera Chapel - Scheduled for March 2022
September 14 2021
Picture: museunacional.cat
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado Museum's exhibition Carracci: The Herrara Chapel has been rescheduled to open during March 2022. The 2020 exhibition was delayed due to the ongoing covid crisis.
The exhibition will focus on the history of a set of frescos painted by Annibale Carracci for the noble Spanish banker Juan Enríquez de Herrera's chapel in Rome. The frescos were removed during the 1830s, transferred to canvas and sent back to Spain where they were split up.
The rescheduled exhibition will be at the Prado Museum in Madrid between 8th March 2022 - 12 June 2022.
Richard Feigen's Old Masters at Sotheby's
September 13 2021
Picture: artnews.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's New York have announced that they will be offering a sale of Old Master Paintings from the collection of the late dealer Richard L Feigen in October. The sale will consist of more than 50 paintings and works on paper and in total carries a pre-sale estimate of between $11.5 million–$17 million.
According to the article linked above:
Highlights from the collection include Richard Parkes Bonington’s painting of the Grand Canal in Venice, The Palazzo Manolesso, which is expected to fetch $2 million–$3 million. Annibale Carracci’s biblical scene The Return From The Flight Into Egypt is estimated at $400,000–$600,000.
Works by Italian artists Domencio Beccafumi, Lorenzo Monaco, Allegretto Nuzi, and Spinello Aretino will also be offered. Beccafumi will be represented in the sale by an arched canvas from the 14th century depicting the Madonna and Saint Joseph with Jesus as an infant. It is estimated at $300,00–$500,000.
Art History Festival 2021
September 13 2021
Picture: forarthistory.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Association for Art History are running an Art History Festival next week featuring a good many fascinating talks and lectures with art historians, curators and specialists.
Here are just a brief selection of the many free online talks available between 20th - 23rd September:
Whose Histories? Art in the Historic House
The Medieval World with the Women Written Back In
Art and Anatomy: An Audience with Dr William Hunter
Art and Medicine in Conversation: Eleanor Crook at the Science Museum
The British Museum as a Resource for Art History
Worlds of Art: Artists, Buyers and Markets
Rarely Seen Black South African Modernists: Has Art History Afforded Them Adequate Recognition?
Artist as Activists: From the Quiet to the Outspoken
Framing the Body: Life Drawing from the Wallace Collection
There will also be live events at the National Gallery in London between Friday 24th and Saturday 25th September.
500 Fake Francis Bacons Seized in Italy
September 13 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Italian police have reportedly seized 500 fake works of art purporting to be by Francis Bacon. The haul of fakes, including paintings and drawings, were seized with other counterfeits, collectables and cash worth €3m. Five people have been arrested in connection to the seizure with the main suspect being described as "a collector from Bologna."
NPG Treasures on Tour
September 13 2021
Picture: NPG
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Portrait Gallery in London (NPG) have announced a series of touring exhibitions while their main site is closed for refurbishment.
According to reports:
The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics will open at The Holburne Museum in Bath in January 2022.
It will showcase 25 of the gallery's most famous Tudor portraits, including the five monarchs, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, as well as other significant figures such as Sir Thomas More.
An expanded exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool will then take place the following May, featuring 68 works.
A touring exhibition of paintings by the Bloomsbury Group will open in the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, during November. It will then travel to York in March 2022.
