Previous Posts: February 2024
Louvre Secures Chardin's Strawberries!
February 29 2024
Video: Louvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre in Paris today have announced their success in raising the final €1.6m required to acquire Chardin's The Basket of Wild Strawberries. Their public appeal resulted in engaging a staggering 10,000 donors with an average donation of €165. If my maths is correct, and the Louvre collections website being correct too, then this painting is the 41st work by Chardin in the museum's holdings.
The painting will be making a mini-tour of some French museums in the summer and autumn before returning to Paris next year it seems.
The University of Warwick are Hiring!
February 29 2024
Picture: warwickartscentre.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The University of Warwick are hiring an Assistant Professor in History of Art.
According to the job description:
We invite applications from candidates whose research and teaching profile can deepen and extend the Department’s existing strengths, and who can offer a specialism in European modern art in the period 1850-1920. We are open to hearing from applicants with expertise in the art of any geographical region of continental Europe or in its global dimensions.
The job comes with an annual salary of £45,585 to £54,395, and applications must be in by 27th March 2024.
Good luck if you're applying!
Carel de Moor Catalogue Raisonné
February 29 2024
Picture: primaverapers.nl
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that a new monograph and catalogue raisonné on Carel de Moor (1655-1738) has been published today. The volume was compiled by Pamela Fowler and Piet Bakker and is published by Primavera Pers.
According to the blurb:
Carel de Moor (1655–1738). His Life and Work, a monograph and œuvre catalogue, is the first scholarly study of one of the most important Dutch portrait painters of his time. The book includes a comprehensive biography, which explores Carel de Moor’s life and multi-faceted career within the context of the economic, political, and social history of the Dutch Republic.
As a result of the authors’ thorough investigation of De Moor’s client networks, several hitherto unknown sitters have now been identified; other sitters have been provided with new identities.
The Catalogue Raisonné, arranged chronologically within the categories of portraits, history, pastoral scenes, genre and still life, allows us to view De Moor’s œuvre in its totality, to compare his work with that of his predecessors and contemporaries, and to evaluate the development of his artistic style.
As is the ancient custom on AHN, Pamela Fowler and Piet Bakker will now feature within the Heroes of Art History section of this blog.
Prado send Velázquez's Sibyl to Lugo
February 28 2024
Picture: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Prado Museum in Madrid are sending Diego Velázquez's Sibyl to the provincial museum in Lugo, Galicia, for the summer. The loan represents the museum's continued initiative (entitled 'Art that Connects') to lend famous works of art to provincial museums around the country in an effort to boost visitor numbers to these museums. The painting will be on display in Lugo from 13th March 2024.
Turner's Last Sketchbook
February 28 2024
Video: YaleBooks
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Yale Center for British Art released their latest publication yesterday. Turner's Last Sketchbook is a facsimile of one of the artist's most vivid late watercolours, and even contains a poem by Tracey Emin focusing on Turner's influence on her.
According to the website blurb:
J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851) seldom left home without a sketchbook. Over the course of his lifetime, he filled more than three hundred, most of them small enough to carry in his pocket. This facsimile represents Turner’s last known intact sketchbook, now in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art. Turner used it on the coast of the English Channel in Kent, in and around Margate, from June to September 1845.
The volume is accompanied by a poem in which Tracey Emin (b. 1963) expresses her personal connection with Turner’s work. Emin grew up in Margate, the seaside town that Turner returned to time and again to draw.
This presentation of Turner’s sketchbook includes generous margins and blank pages to encourage further sketches, in the spirit of the artist.
Edit the Warburg Journal!
February 28 2024
Picture: warburg.sas.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The University of London are hiring a Journals Editorial Manager, which includes looking after the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies and the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.
According to the job description:
The role unusually sits between publishing and academia, liaising between the external publishers of the two journals and their academic editors, authors and colleagues at the Warburg Institute and the Institute of Classical Studies. The role reports to the Head of Publishing at the University of London Press, with the journals published by external publishers (currently Oxford University Press for the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, and Chicago University Press for the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes). The post holder will also contribute towards the wider strategic development of UoL Press, particularly in relation to changes in open access journal publishing and new innovative digital formats.
The part-time role comes with an annual salary of £40,014 and applications must be in by 11th March 2024.
Good luck if you're applying!
Uffizi Restores and Redisplays Bronze
February 28 2024
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Uffizi Gallery in Florence have restored and redisplayed Jacopo Del Duca's bronze of Silenus and the Infant Bacchus. The work took six months to complete and included a readressing of bronze's surfance and base.
The Invention of the Renaissance
February 28 2024
Picture: bnf.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Bibliothèque nationale de France have recently opened an exhibition on The Invention of the Renaissance: The Humanist, the Prince and the Artist. The show brings together 240 works exploring this theme, which includes manuscripts, printed books, prints, drawings, sculptures, objets d'art and coins. It will run until 16th June 2024.
Modern Sales in London
February 27 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The sales of Modern to Contemporary Art are opening in London this week. Christie's sales (branded 20th / 21st Century) open today, and Sotheby's The London Sales open tomorrow for viewing.
As ever, there are some very beautiful and valuable pictures coming up on the block. Christie's sales are led by an 'Estimate upon request' Hockney and a £30m - £50m Magritte. My personal favourite is this hauntingly quiet Monet (pictured), estimated at a mere £12m - £18m. Sotheby's sales are headlined by a £5m - £7m Signac, a £8m - £12m Picasso, and a £5m - £7m Joan Miro. More news in due course!
Portraiture in 18th Century Europe - Symposium
February 27 2024
Picture: dfk-paris.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Some readers might be interested in the upcoming Symposium in March on the subject of Portraiture in 18th Century Europe: Artwork – social practice – circulation. Organised by the German Center for Art History in Paris, the conference will be bringing together vast amounts of scholars who will share new research and perspectives on the topic.
According to the blurb on the website:
Whether a manifestation of political power, expression of intimate feelings, an embellishing masquerade or a faithful likeness, the art of portraiture in the Age of Enlightenment was marked by exceptional diversity throughout Europe. Between the apogee of absolutism and the political, social and intellectual upheavals of the revolutionary era, it became a mirror of a society in full mutation. The aim of the symposium is to study portraiture from a multifaceted perspective, tracing its social, theoretical, artistic and material conditions. Focusing on its development during the Enlightenment in the French context, we also wish to open the discussions up to a European perspective.
Hairstyles, Women and Power in the Renaissance
February 27 2024
Video: 7GoldTelePadova
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I failed to spot the opening of this rather interesting sounding exhibition which opened at the Gallerie d'Italia in Vicenza at the end of last year. Faustina's Braids: Hairstyles, women and power in the Renaissance promises to examine the complex history of the world of hair in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Of course, the displays rely heavily on works of art from the period, including vast amounts of paintings and sculpture.
The show will run until 7th April 2024.
Conservation at Woburn Abbey
February 27 2024
Picture: Woburn Abbey via. Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Woburn Abbey, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Bedford, have started populating their Instagram account with interesting details regarding the conservation of the building and historic collection. The historic site is currently undergoing a large-scale restoration project which is expected to last until 2026. Their most recent post details the cleaning and retouching of a portrait of Queen Victoria which usually hangs in the State Bedroom there (pictured).
Jacob Rothschild 1936 - 2024
February 27 2024
Video: Bloomberg Television
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Many tributes have been published honouring the life of Jacob Rothschild who died at the age of 87 yesterday. Rothschild was a considerable supporter of the arts, alongside many other philanthropic projects, and will be remembered (amongst many other roles) as the chairman of the trustees of London’s National Gallery from 1985 to 1991. The video above details Jacob's family history, alongside his work at Waddesdon Manor and the Rothchild estates.
Louvre Recreated in Grimsby Public Toilet
February 26 2024
Picture: BBC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Despite the fact that we are a few weeks away from 1st April, the BBC have reported on news that a public toilet in Grimsby has been recreated into the Louvre museum. Toilets at the The Great Escape at the Port of Grimsby were redesigned by the Creative Start project and include reproductions of famous masterpieces.
According to the piece:
Sam Delaney, director of Creative Start in Grimsby, said: "It's the whole point of the building. We give a lot of creative freedom to people and when you're allowed to do that, good things can happen." [...]
"I've had to do a bit of research. That's the bit I enjoy doing," Mr Delaney said about shopping for replicas and prints that can be found at the real Louvre in Paris.
Mr Delaney said that when visitors use the Louvre for the first, they "can't believe it, they don't expect it".
He added: "We call it Grimsby's best kept secret."
Chicago Acquire Jean Baptiste Debret Drawing
February 26 2024
Picture: Art Institute of Chicago
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Institute of Chicago's curator Emerson Bowyer has announced on his Instagram account of the acquisition of Jean Baptiste Debret drawing after Jacques Louis David's Hands of Horatius from The Oath of the Horatii. The work, acquired in 2023, was purchased with assistance from the Margaret Day Blake Endowment Fund.
The British Museum conserve Michelangelo's Epifania
February 26 2024
Picture: The Telegraph
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Telegraph have published news that The British Museum have finished a six-year conservation project on Michelangelo's Epifania. The two-metre-tall cartoon consists of no less than 26 sheets that are glued together.
The project was undertaken in anticipation of the museum's Michelangelo: The Last Decades exhibition which will run from 2nd May 2024 until 28th July 2024.
Maestras at the Arp Museum
February 26 2024
Picture: arpmuseum.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The aforementioned Women Masters exhibition has reopened in the Arp Museum in Remagen, German, yesterday. 51 female artists are represented in the show, including important works by Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemisia Gentileschi, Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun and Mary Cassatt. It will run there until 16th June 2024.
Rare Hercules Segers at Koller
February 26 2024
Picture: Koller
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Several accounts on 'X' (formerly Twitter) have pointed out this rare landscape by Hercules Seghers that it coming up at Koller in Switzerland. The painting, which was rediscovered and first published in the major Rijksmuseum exhibition in 2016-17, will be offered on 22nd March 2024 carrying an estimate of 350,000 - 500,000 CHF.
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe are Hiring!
February 23 2024
Picture: Flickr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (international network for curators of art from the Low Countries) have shared news that the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe are hiring a Curator of Old Master Paintings. The job description, which is in German, explains that the curator will be involved in temporary displays in interim locations whilst the museum's galleries undergoing a prolonged renovation project set to conclude in 2029 (!)
No salary is indicated and applications must be in by 2nd March 2024.
Good luck if you're applying!
China's First Caravaggio Exhibition
February 23 2024
Video: Yit
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Interesting news from China that the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai opened the country's first-ever Caravaggio exhibition at the end of last year. The exhibition is a collaboration between the museum and the Galleria Borghese in Rome and contains no fewer than six works by the artist (although the video above says 16) on show supplemented by sixty works by other contemporaries. The show runs until 12th April 2024.
