Previous Posts: April 2025
NGI Restores and Redisplays Mazzolino
April 24 2025
Video: National Gallery of Ireland
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very slow to news that the National Gallery of Ireland has restored and redisplayed The Crossing of the Red Sea by Ludovico Mazzolino (spotted via @Mweilc). The work was funded in part by the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund and will be on display until 6th July 2025.
Sale of €30m Klimt Falls Through
April 24 2025
Picture: Kinsky
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Austrian press have reported that the sale of Gustav Klimt's Fräulein Lieser, which made €30m at Kinsky in Vienna last April, has fallen through. The article above (which lays out the complicated provenance of the picture) suggests that the sticking point surrounded the winning bidder's desire, seemingly represented by Patti Wong & Associates of Hong Kong, to have 'declarations of indemnity from all heirs of Adolf and Lilly Lieser before the purchase was concluded.' It seems that one heir had refused to sign such an agreement.
Upcoming: Turner - Always Contemporary
April 24 2025
Picture: Walker Art Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool have recently announced a large exhibition this autumn to celebrate the aforementioned 250th anniversary of JMW Turner's birth.
Here's the blurb behind the show's title Turner: Always Contemporary:
Turner: Always Contemporary (25 October 2025 – 22 February 2026) will include National Museums Liverpool's collection of Turner's oil paintings, works on paper and prints, alongside modern and contemporary artworks that delve into themes of travel, landscape, and artistic experimentation. A number of important and influential loaned works will feature.
Offering a fresh perspective on Turner and his legacy, highlighting how he grappled with issues that remain relevant today: climate change, immigration, tourism, and the role of the artist. Alongside Turner's works, visitors will encounter pieces by Claude Monet, Ethel Walker, Bridget Riley and many more, bringing together 250 years of art to examine Turner's timeless appeal.
Wright of Derby Self Portrait coming up at Sloane Street Auctions
April 24 2025
Picture: Sloane Street Auctions
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Regular art watchers might remember the reappearance of this late Self Portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby in 2017, which was discovered and unveiled by Archie Parker at LAPADA that year. The picture is now coming up for sale at Sloane Street Auctions on 2nd May 2025 carrying an estimate of £60,000 - £80,000.
Sargent & Paris at the MET
April 23 2025
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will be opening their latest exhibition on Sunday entitled Sargent & Paris.
According to the museum's website:
Sargent and Paris explores the early career of American painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), from his arrival in Paris in 1874 as a precocious 18-year-old art student through the mid-1880s, when his infamous portrait Madame X was a scandalous success at the Paris Salon. Over the course of one extraordinary decade, Sargent achieved recognition by creating boldly ambitious portraits and figure paintings that pushed the boundaries of conventionality.
Immersed in a cosmopolitan circle of artists, writers, and patrons, Sargent was able to navigate a successful path through the French exhibition system while achieving acclaim and awards. Beyond the portrait studio, he traveled in search of inspiration for his art—finding subjects in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and North Africa. This exhibition gathers Sargent’s diverse works from this period to illuminate his path to becoming an artist, which was indelibly shaped by his experiences in the French capital. These visually stunning works provide a compelling view of the Paris art world of the late 19th century.
The show will run from 27th April until 3rd August 2025.
Rehanging at Castle Howard
April 23 2025
Video: The World of Interiors
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The World of Interiors have published this short interview on Instagram with Nick Howard, the custodian of Castle Howard in Yorkshire. The video provides more details about the recent renovations there including the new hang of pictures in the Long Gallery.
The Luzzetti Collection in Grosseto
April 23 2025
Video: Polo culturale Le Clarisse
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Polo Culturale Le Clarisse in Grosseto, central Italy, has just opened a new exhibition with loans from the Luzzetti collection in Florence. Artists included are Pinturicchio, Amico Aspertini, Giorgio Vasari, Sandro Botticelli and Giovanni Bellini and the show will run until September.
£3m Hans Eworth coming up at Sotheby's London
April 23 2025
Picture: artscouncil.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Returning again to the UK Arts Council's 'Private Treaty Sales' page, the following portrait of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk by Hans Eworth has been announced as part of the Sotheby's London Old Master's Sales in July 2025. The painting, which descended with the Earls of Westmorland until it entered a private collection around the late 19th century, carries a guide price of £3m.
The World of King James VI and I at the SNPG
April 23 2025
Picture: nationalgalleries.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Galleries of Scotland: Portrait will be opening their latest exhibition on Saturday 26th April 2025 entitled The World of King James VI and I.
According to their website:
Marking the 400-year anniversary of King James’s death, this exhibition will chart his remarkable reign through stories of friendship, family, feuds and ambition. Son of Mary, Queen of Scots, successor to Elizabeth I, King James (1566–1625) was the first monarch to rule over Scotland, England and Ireland.
Drawing on themes with contemporary relevance including national identity, queer history, belief and spirituality, The World of King James VI and I is an enriching journey through the complex life of a King who changed the shape of the United Kingdom. Over 140 objects will be on display, including ornate paintings, dazzling jewels, lavish designs and important loans from galleries across the UK, celebrating craft and visual art from the 16th and 17th centuries.
The show will run until 14th September 2025 and the exhibition catalogue is already available for purchase here.
Master I.S. – From Lost to Almost Found
April 23 2025
Picture: Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, Mänttä
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (the international network of curators of Dutch and Flemish art) have just published an interesting article by Janneke van Asperen and Tomi Moisio on the elusive painter known as Master I.S. The piece delves into questions regarding defining this master's style and characteristics, drawing on new research and examination of pictures in collections such as the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation in Finland. Click on the link to read more.
Upcoming: Turner's Vision at Petworth
April 23 2025
Picture: nationaltrust.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Trust and Petworth House will be putting on an exhibition in June to mark the 250th anniversary of JMW Turner's birth.
According to their website:
For the first time in 20 years, a wide range of JMW Turner’s artistic studies of the Petworth landscape will be exhibited in the very place that inspired him. Visitors will be able to discover more about his approach, and the impact of Petworth’s extraordinary landscape on Britain’s most celebrated artist.
Turner’s Vision at Petworth will include 10 views of the Petworth landscape, including oil paintings and works on paper on loan from Tate, that give a unique insight into his methods and artistic inspiration. They tell the story of Turner’s connection with the landscape, and with George O’Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) who collected many of his works. This exhibition is a celebration of an extraordinary landscape seen through the eyes of a master painter.
The show will run from 21st June until 16th November 2025.
Sleeper alert! (ctd.)
April 22 2025
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Bendor Grosvenor
In de Volkskrant, Dutch journalist Tjerk Gualtherie van Weezel reports on a court case about a possible Rembrandt sleeper first covered on AHN in October 2021. Back then, a small Adoration of the Magi panel was sold at Christie's in Amsterdam as 'Circle of Rembrandt' for €860,000. The estimate having been €10-15,000. Two years later it emerged at Sotheby's in London as 'Rembrandt', and sold for £10.9m.
As de Volkskrant reports, the consignor of the picture to Christie's Amsterdam sued Christie's for negligence. In her view, the picture was a Rembrandt, and Christie's were negligent for failing to identify it as such. The painting had been accepted as Rembrandt in the earlier 20th century, but fell out of favour by the 1980s. But Christie's won the case.
The judges did not have to adjudicate on whether the painting was indeed by Rembrandt, but whether Christie's had undertaken reasonable steps to be sure, in their view, that it was not. What emerges from the case is who saw the painting, and that none of them agreed it was by Rembrandt. From de Volkskrant (via Google Translate):
Christie's itself consulted five experts and its own team that examines old masters in 2020, the ruling shows. They were all dismissive. "The way in which the figures in the painting are composed is atypical for Rembrandt," wrote the late Rembrandt expert Ernst van de Wetering, adding that he had decided to no longer make attributions.
Other scholars who shared Ernst van de Wetering's view include Gregor Weber, then head of visual arts at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, David de Witt of the Rembrandt House in Amsterdam, Christiaan Vogelaar of Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, and the art historian Jaco Rutgers.
Vogelaar was cited in the Christie's catalogue, mentioning the name Jan Adriaensz. van Staveren:
[...] it reminds of the oeuvre of the Leiden painter Jan Adriaensz. van Staveren (1613/14- 1669) who is thought to have trained with Gerrit Dou. Vogelaar points out that the similarity is especially strong with Van Staveren's Circumcision of circa 1640 [...] and Esther before Ahasuerus in The Leiden Collection, New York [...]
Here is the van Staveren Esther before Ahasuerus. I see little similarity with the putative Rembrandt Adoration. Van Staveren, being a pupil of Dou paints with a much more precise technique than we see in the Adoration. But that in a sense is beside the point - to show that they didn't let the consignor down, Christie's had only to demonstrate they consulted enough of the right kind of experts. Generally, these negligence cases are hard to win, partly because consignment agreements these days don't give you much to fall back on. You have to prove an auction house really screwed up. Christie's evidently did not.
So, given the painting then made over £10m, who did? It seems strange to say, but nobody, really. When the picture was offered by Sotheby's it had the endorsement of Professor Volker Manuth, a Rembrandt scholar of long standing. They also presented new technical evidence to support an attribution to Rembrandt. You can read Sotheby's extensive catalogue note for the painting here. Sotheby's were entitled to offer it as a Rembrandt, just as Christie's were entitled to sell it as not by Rembrandt.
The reason paintings like the Adoration can be in a state of Rembrandt purgatory is that in 2023, as now, there was no consensus in either the art market or the art historical community as to who had the most authoritative opinion on Rembrandt. So it will be possible to have some experts who say 'yes' and some who say 'no'. Of course, this would not have been possible when the late, great Rembrandt scholar Ernst van de Wetering was alive. His voice was considered definitive. But he died in 2021. Had he been alive in 2023, I doubt Sotheby's could have sold the painting as 'Rembrandt'.
And that for me is the most interesting element of this case; how the art market awards and then removes 'authority'. It seems strange that sometimes we are happy to rely on a single voice of authority, even for major artists like Rembrandt, on whom there will always be multiple scholars working at any one time. It is stranger still that when that single voice dies, we begin a kind of reset, almost as if they never existed.
I think I prefer a consensus approach, getting as many views as possible, even if that means there is less certainty. One of my little crusades is to get people, be they art lovers, auction specialists, buyers, or sellers to form their own view, rather than outsourcing it to people we assume have authority, often because they wrote a book on a particular artist. Writing and looking are different skills.
Only die-hard AHNers will care what I think about the attribution, but for what it's worth I thought (when the picture was at Sotheby's) that it probably was mostly by Rembrandt. The main caveat I had was that with Rembrandt's earliest work, which is what the Adoration would be, one sometimes gets glimpses of early Jan Lievens, with whom he shared a studio in Leiden.
As ever, let us know what you think!
Happy Easter!
April 18 2025
Picture: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Wishing all the readers of AHN a Happy Easter!
9 works by Evaristo Baschenis donated to Museo Diocesano Bernareggi
April 18 2025
Picture: santalessandro.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little late to news that the recently reopened Museo Diocesano Bernareggi in Bergamo has received a generous donation of 9 paintings by Evaristo Baschenis (spotted via @Mweilc). The gift was made by the collectors Guido Crippa and his wife Carmen Oberti and will be displayed in an entire room dedicated to the artist's work.
Siena and the Renaissance at Christie's
April 18 2025
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little slow to the news that Christie's have organised and put on a Selling Exhibition entitled Siena and the Renaissance. Their display will be in London until 28th April and will move through New York, Paris and back to London throughout the spring and early summer.
Temporary Export Ban on Agostino Brunias Pair
April 18 2025
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The UK Government has placed a temporary export ban on two paintings by Agostino Brunias. The pair were sold at Sotheby's London last July and made £240,000 and £180,000 respectively (inc. commission). Any interested UK institution has until 15th July 2025 to make a pitch to keep them in the country.
Getty acquires Luis de Morales
April 18 2025
Picture: Getty
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Getty in Los Angeles has announced its acqusiton of Luis de Morales's Christ Carrying the Cross.
As The Art Newspaper has pointed out, the work appeared as a 'sleeper' at Nagel back in 2021 where it was catalogued as 'Morales or Studio (Attributed to)' and went on to make 1,180,000 EUR over its 10,000 EUR estimate. The acquisition was made through the Daniel Katz Gallery.
According to their press release:
After an extensive conservation treatment, the painting will go on view May 1, 2025 in the Getty Center Museum’s North Pavilion gallery 205.
“Referred to as ‘El Divino’ by early sources, Luis de Morales’s devotional paintings are the most intense expression of the salvational trauma that religious paintings were intended to convey,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “The exquisite detailing of Christ’s features, hair, tears, and bloodstained forehead commend this as a major masterpiece of 16th-century Spanish painting, and a powerful proclamation of the Catholic faith as espoused by the great Spanish mystics.”
NGA acquires Louise Moillon Still Life
April 18 2025
Picture: NGA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. (NGA) has acquired Louise Moillon's 1636 Still Life with a Basket of Peaches and Grapes (spotted via. @Mweilc). The work was offered at Christie's Paris back in 2021 but failed to sell with its estimate of 300,000 - 500,000 EUR. The work was eventually acquired by the NGA through the London dealers Ben Elwes Fine Art in 2024.
From Botticelli to Mucha: Beauty, Nature, Seduction, a Journey through Beauty
April 18 2025
Video: Il Sole 24 ORE
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musei Reali Torino has just opened a new exhibition examining and following representations of beauty from the age to Botticelli to Mucha. Drawing on 100 works, many borrowed from Italian institutions, artists represented in the show include works by Canova, Leonardo, Botticelli, Lorenzo di Credi, Lambert Sustris and others.
It will run until 27th July 2025.
Baroque in Slovenia
April 18 2025
Picture: Narodna galerija
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has kindly been in touch with news that the Narodna galerija in Ljubljana, Slovenia, has just opened a large exhibition dedicated to Baroque in Slovenia. With a display that features no fewer than 170 works, the show will concentrate on works created in and for present-day Slovenia in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The exhibition will run until 11th September 2025.
