Previous Posts: articles 2023
Compton Verney Gifted 70 Miniatures
March 4 2021
Picture: Compton Verney
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Warwickshire art gallery Compton Verney have been gifted 70 miniatures from the estate of the late Dowager Lady Grantchester (d.2019). The gift includes works by the likes of Isaac Oliver (1560/5-1617), John Hoskins (c.1595-1664), Richard Cosway (1742-1821), Thomas Day (c.1732-c.1807), George Engleheart (1750-1829) and John Smart (1742-1811). The gift was negotiated through Christie's with the assistance of expert Emma Rutherford. This wide ranging collection will displayed in due course and are in storage at Christie's for the time being.
Burlington Magazine - Current Issue
March 4 2021
Picture: albanyinstitute.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This month's issue of the Burlington Magazine is as usual filled with interesting articles, including pieces on the likes of Velázquez, Hubert Robert, Giovanni Bastianini and Horace Walpole. The magazine also includes an article on the recently rediscovered Study of Saint Jerome by the young Van Dyck (pictured). This piece is by the scholar Susan J Barnes, one of authors of the 2004 catalogue raisonné. This study had appeared at auction and made a mere $600 before being authenticated by Barnes.
Noordbrabants Museum is Hiring!
March 4 2021
Picture: CODART
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Noordbrabants Museum in the Netherlands is looking for a Head of Collections, Exhibitions and Education.
The salary on offer is a maximum of €5,913 per month and applications must be in by 14th March 2021.
Good luck if you're applying!
New Edition of Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art
March 4 2021
Picture: Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art have published their latest edition online. Included within is a very interesting technical study of Rubens's The Conversion of Saint Paul in the Courtauld Collection. Also included are some articles on Joannes Fyt and Paulus Potter. It's wonderful to see that this series is free and available to read online.
The National Art Library at Risk ?
March 4 2021
Picture: vam.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A petition has been started to encourage management of the V&A in London to rethink new proposals that will affect The National Art Library (NAL). The petition claims that proposals have been put forward to cut two thirds of staff who work in the library, amounting to the loss of around 20 jobs. Furthermore, it claims the proposals also include a plan to shut the NAL for twelve months for it to be replaced with an interim online service.
If these proposals are serious, one can imagine the enormous impact this will have on arts researchers. The NAL has an unrivalled collection of specialist books, not to mention their important archive holdings.
These drastic proposals have appeared alongside news that the museum will be making drastic cuts to its curatorial and research departments.
Update - Dr Christina Faraday has written a column for The Telegraph today about director Tristram Hunt's planned changes. It's behind a paywall alas, but I'm sure it's interesting.
MET: A New Look at Old Masters
March 3 2021
Video: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have released this video describing their newly revamped European galleries plus giving a tour of some of the highlights.
Picasso Exporter Looses Appeal
March 3 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The ex-banker Jamie Botin, who attempted to illegally export a Picasso from Spain in 2012-3, has had his second appeal rejected by the Spanish courts.
Botin acquired Head of a Young Woman (1906) in 1977. Subsequently, the Spanish State decided to declare the work a national treasure when he tried to sell the painting through Christie's in 2012. The work was eventually confiscated from his yacht by the Spanish authorities in Corsica in 2015, who had stipulated that the painting may not leave the country.
Due to this latest ruling the former vice president of Santander will now have to serve 18 months in prison and pay a €91.7m fine. Ouch.
Newly Discovered Augustus John Drawing Offered in Yorkshire
March 3 2021
Picture: Tennants
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The auction house Tennants in Yorkshire will be offering a newly discovered drawing by Augustus John in their upcoming March sale. The unrecorded drawing of John's mistress and muse Dorelia was uncovered in a private collection. It will be sold on 20th March 2021 with an estimate of £7,000 - £10,000.
Update - The drawing made £16,000 (hammer price).
Wounded Lebanese Artemisia Gentileschi Arrives in Milan
March 3 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A damaged painting by Artemisia Gentileschi has arrived for the Le Signore dell’Arte exhibition in Milan. Curiously, the Italian press have published images of the Lebanese Sursock Magdalene which was damaged in last summer's Beirut explosion. The article above shows that glass and rubble have in some cases pierced through the canvas itself. The damaged painting will feature in the exhibition in its unrestored state.
Lecture: Conserving Paintings by Nehemiah Partridge
March 3 2021
Picture: Albany Institute
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Albany Institute of History and Art in New York are hosting a special online lecture on the conservation of paintings by the early American artist Nehemiah Partridge (1683-1730).
As their blurb explains:
Maggie Barkovic and Rachel Childers from the Williamstown Art Conservation Center will discuss the conservation of works by Nehemiah Partridge with preliminary insights into his materials and techniques based on technical analysis. This presentation will include the treatment of Ariantje Coeymans Verplanck’s full length portrait in addition to the other portraits attributed to Nehemiah Partridge.
This online lecture will be broadcast on 11th March 2021 at 7pm (New York Time), with a suggested donation of $10.
New Book on Doge Monuments in Venice
March 2 2021
Picture: Il Giornale dell'Arte
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Il Giornale dell'Arte have published an article on a new book by the Italian restorer Toto Bergamo Rossi. I monumenti dei dogi. Sei secoli di scultura a Venezia is the first to gather beautiful images (pictured) and historical details of the monuments and tombs of Venice's Doges. The publication is part of Rossi's wider directorial role in the International Venetian Heritage Foundation, which supports the preservation and research into the city's cultural history.
Another £408m for the Arts Sector
March 2 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The UK Government is expected to announce another £408m for the Arts Sector in tomorrow's Budget. This is ontop of the £1.57bn Culture Recovery fund announced last year.
Where exactly will the money be going? Well, the culture secretary Oliver Dowden made this comment on his Twitter page this morning:
Can confirm tmw's #Budget will include £400m for the arts on top of £1.5bn already announced It's a relief we can look ahead now so this funding is not just about survival, but planning & preparing for reopening of theatres, galleries and gigs
An Undiscovered Titian (?) Found in Parish Church
March 2 2021
Picture: BBC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The BBC have published news that a undiscovered Last Supper by Titian (?) has been uncovered in a parish church in Ledbury, Herefordshire. The claims of this discovery have been made by the art historian Ronald Moore, who was approached by the church to undertake research into the work three years ago.
The painting was gifted to St Michael and All Angels in 1909 and has been undergoing conservation in recent months. Another article by the Daily Mail suggests that the painting was acquired by the collector John Skippe from a Venetian convent in the eighteenth century.
Amongst the most interesting pieces of evidence is a faded signature which has been compared to Titian's:
Crucially, the article doesn't contain any information whether Moore's attribution has been supported by any Titian scholar.
Dresden Kunstkammer is looking for a new Director
February 26 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden are looking for a new Director for their famous Green Vault Museum and Kunstkammer.
Applications must be in by 31st March 2021.
Good luck if you're applying!
National Gallery Remove Frame from Botticelli
February 26 2021
Video: The National Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London have released this video from 2019 showing what conservators found when they removed the frame from Botticelli and Filippino's Adoration of the Kings. The video features Restorer Jill Dunkerton and Conservator Britta New.
New Deal for Hugh Lane Bequest
February 26 2021
Picture: The National Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have published an article on the new deal reached between The National Gallery in London and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. Both galleries have agreed to continue sharing 8 of the masterpieces of the bequest, including the likes of Manet's Music in the Tuileries Gardens (pictured), on five year cycles. Two other paintings have been added to the list of shared works, including Daumier’s Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (1855), and Corot’s Avignon from the West (1836). New agreements have also been struck in regards to collection care and conservation.
Job Cuts at the V&A
February 26 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Guardian have reported on the worrying news that 'vast cuts' that are coming to staffing in the next few days.
They have quoted 'an insider' who has explained:
We're expecting curatorial redundancies to be announced in the next few days. The conservators are already being restructured. Conservation departments are in negotiation. The museum has already done a scheme for applications for voluntary redundancy and retirement.
It also appears that the museum have left a few positions empty, including the position of Specialist for European Paintings.
The museum have replied by saying they are looking into ways to save £10m due to the ongoing covid crisis, and that restructuring talks with staff (including curatorial teams) are ongoing.
Caravaggio sent to Turin
February 25 2021
Picture: Musei Reali di Torino
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new exhibition opened today in the Galleria Sabauda in the Musei Reali di Torino. The highlight of the show is Caravaggio's San Giovanni Battista on loan from the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica in Rome. The gallery will be showing this masterpiece alongside its own collection of Caravaggist paintings by the likes of Giovanni Baglione, Valentin, Vignon, Ribera and Serodine.
The exhibition will run till 30th May 2021.
Rediscovered Painting by Carl Moll Breaks Record
February 25 2021
Video: Freeman's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A recently rediscovered painting by the Viennese Secessionist Carl Moll (1861-1945) has broken the previous record for the artist at auction. White Interior (1905) had featured in several important exhibitions at the beginning of the century, and was even exhibited alongside Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. The work brought in a record breaking $4.75m over its $300k - $500k estimate at Freeman's in Philadelphia.
Bernini Drawing up for Sale in France
February 25 2021
Picture: @ActeonSenlis
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The French auction house Acteon Senlis will be auctioning off a drawing by the Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini next month. The academic study of a man has been linked to several surviving examples in the Uffizi and other collections. In addition to this, the composition too has been compared with the allegorical beings representing the rivers of the world in his famous fountains on the Piazza Navona in Rome.
The drawing will be offered for sale on 20th March 2021 with an estimate of €30k - €50k.
