Previous Posts: articles 2023
Hermitage Musings...
August 13 2021
Picture: AB
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I had the joy of spending a good few hours admiring the French pictures of the State Hermitage Museum this afternoon. Their collection features some rather stunning pictures by the likes of Claude, Poussin, Boucher, Lancret and Lemoyne to name but a few.
Speaking as someone who delights at visiting English Country Houses, whose collections often remain intact over the centuries, I often enjoy investigating whether equivalencies exist abroad. The rich, fascinating and often turbulent history of Russia has affected its collections of art in varying ways. In comparison to the French Revolution, the Russian revolution’s effect on the art world is yet to receive as much attention as it probably deserves.
The French works I encountered in the Hermitage returned my thoughts to another fine building I had visited earlier this week. The Yusopov Palace on the Moika River was formerly the home of one of the greatest private collections in Russia. The impressive State Apartments, decorated in the most exuberant eclectic manner of styles, were captured in a set of watercolours by Andrey Redkovsky during the 1860s. Curators of the Palace have reproductions of these watercolours displayed on big boards in each room. It is hard not to compare these fine illustrations with the rooms as they stand today. They are still grand and impressive, yet, comparatively empty.
The Yusopov Palace used to contain the city’s most enviable collection of French eighteenth century art. Prince Felix Yusopov (1887-1967), who had a hand in the assassination of Rasputin, managed to escape the country with his two Rembrandts to help secure himself financially in exile. Like the Romanov Tsars, the aristocracy and those able to own vast art collections were squeezed for their assets. They were often referred to as Бывшие (former people) whose property was nearly entirely confiscated. Most of the Yusopov French masterpieces were eventually nationalised and spread across the museums of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. This was the fate of many collections which survived the mass looting of 1917, with many being persuaded to deposit their treasures with institutions such as the Russian Museum for ‘safety’.
The fate of these centralised collections was mixed. It was during the late 1920s and early 30s that the value of the Soviet National Art Collections was re-appraised. Great deals of cash was needed for Stalin’s first mass industrial and agricultural Five Year Plan. Reluctant curators of the Hermitage, then called ‘The Palace of Art’, were ordered to reorganise the collection for purposes unknown. Curator Tatiana Chernavina later explained in her 1934 memoir that they were instructed to reorganise the whole collection:
“on the principle of sociological formations…under the guidance of semiliterate, half-baked ‘Marxists’ who could not tell faience from porcelain or Dutch masters from the French or Spanish.”
Celebrated artworks by the likes of Watteau, Lancret and Houdon (alongside works by many top-tier Old Masters such as Raphael and Rembrandt) were secretly sold off to capitalist buyers. This included the likes of petroleum magnate Calouste Gulbenkian and the American businessman and banker Andrew Mellon through dealers such as M. Knoedler & Co. These sales amounted to 1,681 tons of art objects leaving the country, equating to millions of dollars and countless paintings, drawings and objet d’art.
Visiting these stunning places and buildings today evokes all sorts of thoughts concerning our complex relationship with history. The never-ending restoration and protection of the Palaces of Saint Petersburg is impressive. This is especially considering the harsh climate and the damage inherited from catastrophes such as the Siege of Leningrad and post-war period. Modern Russia seems to be very adept in reintegrating both their complicated Imperial and Soviet histories into their national consciousness.
The popularity of these art galleries and buildings with rightfully proud Russian visitors is very evident. Their enthusiasm and willingness to share their treasures with international visitors is equally evident too.
Opie's Reynolds Doubles Low-Estimate
August 13 2021
Picture: Woolley and Wallis
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Auctioneers Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury sold this Laughing Girl by Sir Joshua Reynolds yesterday for £37,000 (hammer price) over its £15k - £20k estimate. The painting was rediscovered by specialists in a private collection, whose owners had thought that the work was a mere copy. Furthermore, they were unaware of the painting's illustrious provenance. Reynolds had created the work for the Polygraphic Society in 1787. It was eventually purchased by the artist John Opie and later came into the collection of the Earls of Lonsdale. The last time the work was displayed in public was in 1937.
Restoring Titian's Europa
August 13 2021
Video: Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has very kindly drawn my attention to this very satisfying video providing an account of the recent restoration of Titian's The Rape of Europa in the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. The removal of thick dirty varnish seems to have been absolutely transformative in this example!
Furthermore, the latest leg of the travelling exhibition Titian: Women, Myth & Power opened yesterday at the museum in Boston. The show will run there until 2nd January 2022.
Update - And here's a review of the exhibiton from The New York Times.
Upcoming Release: Emotions, Art, and Christianity in the Transatlantic World
August 13 2021
Picture: Brill Studies on Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Brill Studies on Art will be publishing a new title later this month entitled Emotions, Art, and Christianity in the Transatlantic World, 1450–1800. The collection is edited by Heather Graham and Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank.
According to the book's blurb:
Emotions, Art, and Christianity in the Transatlantic World, 1450–1800 is a collection of studies variously exploring the role of visual and material culture in shaping early modern emotional experiences. The volume’s transatlantic framework moves from The Netherlands, Spain, and Italy to Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and the Philippines, and centers on visual culture as a means to explore how emotions differ in their local and global “contexts” amidst the many shifts occurring c. 1450–1800. These themes are examined through the lens of art informed by religious ideas, especially Catholicism, with each essay probing how religiously inflected art stimulated, molded, and encoded emotions.
Mapping the Provenance of a Vermeer
August 13 2021
Picture: The Frick Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Frick Collection have published a short blog on a map which charts the provenance of Vermeer's Mistress and Maid. They've managed to work out that the painting had travelled at least 8,300 miles during its lifetime.
Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings
August 13 2021
Picture: York Art Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The York Art Gallery have announced a new exhibition which will open on 1st October 2021. Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings will be the first time that the twenty-five drawings recently rediscovered in the Royal Collection will be on display.
According to the gallery's website:
They will be presented alongside paintings and works on paper borrowed from collections across the UK and Ireland, including the National Gallery’s recently conserved masterpiece Cornard Wood (1748). Together, they will shed new light on Gainsborough’s early landscape practice and the techniques which made him one of the country’s most significant and influential artists.
The show will run until 13th February 2022.
A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750
August 12 2021
Picture: NGA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. will be opening their latest exhibition next month. A Superb Baroque: Art in Genoa, 1600–1750 was due to open last year, although, the ongoing virus crises resulted in a delay.
According to their website:
A Superb Baroque presents the grandeur of 17th-century Genoa on a scope and scale unprecedented in the United States. Five centuries ago trade and banking transformed the Mediterranean port city of Genoa into a cosmopolitan center of wealth and culture. The newly rich, eager to display their prosperity, invested in constructing and decorating churches, chapels, and palaces. Attracted by lucrative commissions, Rubens, Van Dyck, and other leading painters across Europe swarmed to Genoa. There, they joined local artists in utilizing the opulent baroque style to create the splendid paintings, sculptures, and works on paper seen in this exhibition.
The catalogue is already published and available for purchase.
The show will run from 26 September 2021 - 9 January 2022 and will then move to Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, in March.
Update - Extremely sad news to report, the exhibition has had to be cancelled due to the ongoing virus crisis.
The New Courtauld Galleries
August 12 2021
Video: Courtauld Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Courtauld Gallery in London has uploaded a video providing a short tour of the gallery's newly refurbished rooms.
There seems to be a lot of white surfaces, which confused my eyes a little when trying to admire the architectural quality of the space. It will be very exciting to see them once art has been reintroduced!
The British Art Network's New Website
August 12 2021
Picture: britishartnetwork.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The British Art Network, managed by staff at the Paul Mellon Centre and Tate, have launched a brand-new website. This online resource looks to be a must for anyone wanting to share their research on British Art within academic and professional spheres. The 'current research groups' seem to represent several themes that have become rather popular in recent times amongst scholars within the discipline.
The National Gallery Open-Air
August 12 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London have decided to hang some of their masterpieces outside in the open-air on Trafalgar Square. Worry not, they're only 'reproductions' and are part of Westminster Council's Inside Out Festival to bring visitors back into the capital.
Considering that we are living in an age where technology is increasingly attempting to replace the physical original with the virtual, let's hope these copies have the desired effect and lead people within the gallery's doors!
The British Library are Hiring!
August 12 2021
Picture: BL
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The British Library in London are looking for a Curator of Prints and Drawings.
According to the job description:
The British Library is looking to recruit a full-time Curator with a specialist interest in 16th-18th century prints. This post is supported by a grant from the Getty Foundation as part of its Paper Project initiative. It offers an exceptional scholarly and professional development opportunity to an emerging works-on-paper curator who will create records for prints in our national collection which have remained hidden and under-studied, categorised to date as books, maps, manuscripts or music. They will be a fully integrated member of the curatorial staff of the Printed Heritage department and supported by colleagues across the Library.
The salary on offer is £26,000 per annum* and the deadline for applications is 12th September 2021.
Good luck if you're applying!
* - As a side note, here's an equivalent position at the Rijksmuseum that was advertised last month. The salaries are not so equivalent, as you'll be able to see...
Uffizi Director offers to send Art Works to Mars
August 11 2021
Picture: Uffizi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Italian Press have been sharing news of Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk's visit to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence today (pictured). Musk and his partner Grimes were said to have been particularly taken with works by Paulo Uccello, Beato Angelico and Piero della Francesca.
In addition, Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt has been quoted (a rough translation) offering to send artworks to Mars as part of his plans to decentralise the Uffizi:
When you install a space station on Mars, we'd like to bring you some works for our project of the Diffusi Uffizi.
SMK Update Online Collections Website
August 11 2021
Picture: open.smk.dk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst) have revamped their online collections database on their website. It seems that one is now able to search through and to zoom into many of their beautiful works of art with ease. Furthermore, a great deal of their collection is in the Public Domain - a significant bonus for art historians!
Upcoming Release: Everyday Rococo
August 11 2021
Picture: Unicorn Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's an upcoming release that might be of interest. Dame Rosalind Savill's new book Everyday Rococo: Madame de Pompadour & Sèvres Porcelain will be published by Unicorn Press later in October. To celebrate, the French Porcelain Society will be holding a what will surely be a fascinating two-day symposium on the subject at The Wallace Collection in December.
The Grey Horse on display in Munnings Museum
August 10 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Alfred Munnings' famous painting The Grey Horse, Ned Osborne on Grey Tick has gone on display in the Munnings Museum in Dedham, Essex. Despite this picture being one of the artist's most iconic works the painting is rarely seen due to it remaining in a private collection. The article above provides more details about the horse and sitter, whose story is being celebrated during this temporary loan.
Carving Grinling Gibbons' Cravat
August 10 2021
Video: V&A
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London have published this rather excellent video showing the processes behind Grinling Gibbons' superb carved wooden laced cravat. The video features the work of woodcarver Clunnie Fretton, who provides some lovely insights into the way Gibbons would have worked.
The original lace cravat, owned by the V&A, is currently on display in the free Gibbons exhibition being held at Bonhams in London. This leg of the exhibition will continue until 27th August 2021 until it moves to Compton Verney in late September.
Meadows Museum acquires Spanish Portrait
August 10 2021
Picture: Meadows Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News has emerged (via. @Mweilc and arsmagazine.com) that the Meadows Museum in Dallas has acquired a Portrait of a Lady by Bartolomé González Serrano (1564-1627). The painting was acquired in part to celebrate the 15 years Mark Roglán has been head of the institution, alongside providing a vital gap between the works of Antonis Mor, Pantoja de la Cruz and Velázquez. It was purchased from Christie's in December 2020 and has since been restored.
New Series of 'Fake or Fortune?'
August 9 2021
Picture: BBC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Apologies, in my absence I forgot to mention that the BBC has begun broadcasting a new series of Fake or Fortune? Both Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould have already investigated two potential works by Henry Moore and Jean-Léon Gérôme. The next episode, which airs on Wednesday at 9pm, will examine a work that may or may not be by the famous painter of animals, Sir Edwin Landseer.
The NGA Acquires Sustris Drawing
August 9 2021
Picture: NGA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in Washington D.C. has acquired a drawing by Friedrich Sustris (c.1540-1599).
According to their press release:
Of Netherlandish origin but born in Padua, Italy, Sustris trained with his father, Lambert, a painter in Titian’s circle. He worked briefly in Rome and went on to spent four years in the painter Giorgio Vasari’s studio in Florence. His first decorative project was in the Fugger Palace (1568–1573) for a powerful banking family in Augsburg, Germany.
One of the very few studies that can be directly connected to that project, the drawing depicts Euterpe, the muse of music, holding a lyre and organ pipes. Sustris combined Italianate iconography with a technique reminiscent of Vasari and an extreme refinement of form found in works by Parmigianino. This drawing provides evidence of the original appearance and rare beauty of the fresco cycle, which was badly damaged in World War II.
Regis University are Hiring!
August 9 2021
Picture: Regis University
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Regis University in Colorado are hiring an Assistant Professor in Art History.
According to the job description:
This position will be the sole full time Art Historian within a Fine Arts Department of eight full time faculty members (four in Visual Art and four in Music). As a result, our Art Historian position will have a great deal of autonomy in shaping the Art History program. The search is open to all specializations within Art History, but we would particularly welcome a candidate with a dual background in Western and Non-Western Art History (desirable areas of specialization/research include, but are not limited to Indigenous, African, Latin-American, Non-Western art history), who would feel comfortable teaching Non-Western upper division courses. This position will suit an art historian who identifies as a generalist and is excited to teach a wide variety of classes.
The salary on offer is $58,000 per annum and applications must be in by 15th November 2021.
Good luck if you're applying!
