Previous Posts: May 2025
Christie's Paris Online Sale
May 27 2025
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's Paris have published their upcoming Maîtres Anciens : Peintures - Sculptures, Online sale. Bidding for this online auction opens today and ends on 12th June 2025.
Frans Hals Museum and Mauritshuis jointly acquire Frans Hals pair
May 27 2025
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the Netherlands that the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem and the Mauritshuis in The Hague have jointly acquired Boy, Possibly Frans Hals (II), Playing the Violin; Girl, Possibly Sara Hals, Singing by Frans Hals. The pair were sold at Sotheby's New York last week where they realised $7,980,000 over its $6m -$8m estimate.
$78.8m in New York and a John Vanderbank in Wolverhampton
May 23 2025
Picture: Wolverhampton Art Gallery via. ArtUK
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This was quite a week for the sale of Old Master Paintings. Totting up the recent four big sales in New York shows that $78.86m of art was sold during the past five days. Although less than forecasts had projected, this is still a rather colossal amount for a period which is usually considered 'mid-season' (not to mention the breaking of several artist records also). With lots of exciting announcements made for the July season in London, and surely many more to come, will 2025 be a record year for our small corner of the art world?
In less significant news, I've had the pleasure to spend quite a bit of time in the early-eighteenth century recently (for reasons I'll explain another time). One of the accidental 'finds' on my journey has been this beautifully painted head study by John Vanderbank (1694-1739). The Wolverhampton Art Gallery, where the picture has been since 1887, had catalogued it as by 'an unknown artist'. Vanderbank's vigorous brushwork, which he may have picked up whilst studying at Kneller's academy, is very distinctive along with the rather pointy face pattern he uses. It's quite possible this is a preliminary study for the full-length portrait of James, 2nd Duke of Hamilton, dated 1732, which was sold from Hamilton Palace in 1919 (2). An example, perhaps, that some artists really couldn't rise to the challenge of scaling up sometimes.
Wishing readers of AHN a very good weekend ahead.
Sotheby's Paris Sale
May 23 2025
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's Paris have uploaded their upcoming Tableaux 1400–1900 sale online. The auction will take place on 11th June 2025.
Childhood in the eyes of artists (1790-1850)
May 23 2025
Video: France 3
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very slow to news that the Musée de Tessé in Le Mans opened a show dedicated to Childhood in the eyes of artists (1790-1850) earlier this year. The exhibition, which contains around 100 works, has been supported by the Louvre and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. If you want to go and view the show, you'll only have until the 8th June 2025 to do so!
Riemenschneider acquired by Yale University Art Gallery
May 23 2025
Picture: Sam Fogg
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The London dealers Sam Fogg have announced their sale of Tilman Riemenschneider's The Seebenstein Madonna to the Yale University Art Gallery.
Explosion Damaged Artemisia on Display at the Getty
May 23 2025
Picture: Getty
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles have unveiled the freshly conserved Hercules and Omphale by Artemisia Gentileschi, a painting which was damaged by the 2020 explosion in Beirut. The picture, from the collection of the Sursock Palace, had been restored by the Getty conservators over the past 3 years and is now part of a special display entitled Artemisia’s Strong Women: Rescuing a Masterpiece highlighting the campaign of work undertaken. The show will run from 10th June until 14th September 2025.
Rubens and the Flemish Baroque in Barcelona
May 23 2025
Picture: CaixaForum Barcelona
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The CaixaForum Barcelona will be hosting a temporary exhibition of 60 works on loan from the Prado later this month. The show, dedicated to Rubens and Flemish Baroque Artists, will feature lesser-known works by the likes of Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens and Jan Brueghel and will run from 29th May until 21st September 2025.
The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes in Houston
May 23 2025
Picture: MFA Houston
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very slow to the news that the MFA Houston opened a new temporary exhibition at the beginning of this year dedicated to Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond.
According to their website:
Featuring more than 70 works of art in a variety of media, Picturing Nature: The Stuart Collection of 18th- and 19th-Century British Landscapes and Beyond explores how the genre of landscape evolved during an era of immense transformation in Britain. This diverse collection of watercolors, drawings, prints, and oil sketches traces the shift from topographical and picturesque depictions of the natural world to intensely personal ones that align with Romantic poetry of the period.
The exhibition spotlights the Stuart Collection, built over the past decade in collaboration with Houstonian Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer. This exceptional collection includes standout works by notable artists such as John Constable, John Robert Cozens, Thomas Gainsborough, J.M.W. Turner, and Richard Wilson, whose innovative approaches to watercolor raised its status as an art form and heralded a golden age for the medium.
The display will run until 6th July 2025.
Catherine Lusurier Soars
May 23 2025
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
One of the highlights of the Private Collection - No Reserve sale at Christie's New York last week was this Portrait of a Young Artist by Catherine Lusurier which realised $478,800 over its $60k - $80k estimate.
To quote the catalouge note in full:
Very little is known about Catherine Lusurier, who lived to be just 28 years old. She was the niece of Hubert Drouais (1699-1767), under whom she was apprenticed until his death. In his workshop she likely would have worked closely with Drouais’ son, Francois-Hubert Drouais (1727-1775), a leading portraitist of the time. The Drouais's stylistic influences are clearly seen in the present painting as well as her other works, primarily depicting portraits of children and artists. Although only a few signed paintings by Lusurier have survived – most notably the Portrait of Jean-Germain Drouais, the son of Francois-Hubert, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (fig. 1.; inv. no. 6406) – scholars such as Helen Ashmore have used these to reconstruct her small corpus of works (see H. Ashmore, 'Catherine Lusurier (1752-81): A woman painter in eighteenth-century Paris', Apollo, May 2001, pp. 34-40).
Update - A reader has been in touch with the following interesting observation:
I think your readers might be interested to see -- notable for the shifts in the market and desire for women artists -- for that re: the high-priced Lusurier that it actually fits what have always been considered works by Nicolas Bernard Lépicié. Compare to this, for example.
Prado Clean Charles I's Workshop of Veronese
May 23 2025
Picture: Prado
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain (via. @Boro_PR) that the Prado Museum in Madrid have cleaned their version of The Wedding at Cana by the Workshop of Veronese. Interestingly, the picture had once been in King Charles I's collection until it was acquired after the dispersal of his collection by Count of Fuensaldaña for 700 florins.
The conservation was presumably undertaken for the Prado's upcoming Paolo Veronese exhibition which opens on 27th May 2025.
New York Sales
May 22 2025
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The recent Old Masters sales in New York yielded $4,206,748 for Sotheby's and $6,887,412 at Christie's.*
Standouts from the Christie's sale included a fragment of Galatea by Artemisia Gentileschi (pictured) which realised $428,400 over its $50k - $60k estimate, a very curious Agasse of Androcles and the Lion which reached $567,000 $100k - $150k estimate and a Lorenzo Veneziano gold ground which achieved $352,800 over its $80k - $120k estimate.
Highlights from the Sotheby's sale included a playful Francisca Rodero y Gregory composition which realised $215,900 over its $20k - $30k estimate, a nice early Titian copy which realised $104,140 over its $20k - $30k estimate and a Jan Olis interior with still life that made $107,950 over its $40k - $60k estimate.
* - This doesn't take into account yesterday's Saunders Collection sale.
Tipu Sultan Picture makes £2.1m
May 22 2025
Picture: Bonhams
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The market for Indian scenes by western artists seems stronger than ever at present. The aforementioned picture by Henry Singleton, an artist who never went to India yet painted the capture of Tipu Sultan's sons after the capitulation of Seringapatam in 1799, realised £2,105,400 (including commission) over its £200k - £300k estimate at Bonhams today.
Chardin Melon ends up in Kimbell Art Museum
May 21 2025
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News has broken this evening that Chardin's Le Melon entamé, which sold for €26.73m (including fees) at Christie's Paris last June - although the winning bidder failed to pay, has been acquired post-sale by the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. It transpires that they had been the underbidder and are apparently thrilled to have had a second chance to acquire it.
According to the article linked above:
In an interview with ARTnews, museum director Eric Lee called the painting and Basket of Wild Strawberries the “two most important Chardin still lifes that were still in private hands.”
“In my opinion, The Cut Melon is absolutely as wonderful as [Basket of Wild Strawberries]. I just could not be more thrilled to be able to acquire it,” Lee said. “I was so sad when we lost the painting at auction and when this came back around it was almot like a miracle. The painting is so right for the collection. It looks like it’s always been here and it seems impossible to think of the Kimbell without this painting.”
Recently Opened: Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits
May 21 2025
Picture: English Heritage
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Kenwood House, run by English Heritage, have just opened a new exhibition entitled Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits.
According to their website:
Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits will reveal the real stories behind the fascinating American women who crossed the Atlantic to marry British aristocrats in an exchange of money for titles. These women include a war-time nurse and the first sitting female MP.
Sargent was one of the most sought-after artists of the Gilded Age and was ‘the artist’ to depict these intriguing women. On the centenary of his death, the exhibition will be a salute to John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), the most admired and sought-after portraitist of the Gilded Age on both sides of the Atlantic. These portraits represent some of his most glamorous and powerful works. In addition to full-length oil paintings, masterful charcoal portraits will also feature, depicting their subjects in a candid and perceptive light.
The show will run until 5th October 2025.
Help with Research at Tate
May 21 2025
Picture: Tate
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Tate are looking to hire a Research Assistant (part time).
According to their website:
We are looking for a detail-oriented individual with excellent organisational skills to support the Managing Editor with the delivery of Tate’s peer-reviewed online journal, Tate Papers. Demonstrating excellent written and verbal communication skills as well as a broad knowledge of digital platforms, you will fact-check and copy-edit research texts and upload them to the Tate website.
You will also be responsible for updating the Tate Research webpages and supporting the Managing Editor to create and deliver content for social media and newsletters.
This role requires a meticulous individual who can effectively manage deadlines and is passionate about art, its history and sharing research online.
This part-time role comes with a salary of £15,764 per annum (FTE £31,527) and applications must be in by 27th May 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Saunders Collection Results
May 21 2025
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Sotheby's New York Elegance & Wonder: Masterpieces from the Collection of Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III auction totalled $64,663,350 (including commission) this afternoon with a sell-through rate of 60.98% / 58.14% if withdrawn lots are included.
The best performing lots where the De Heem (pictured), Luis Meléndez, Sassoferrato, Frans Post and beautifully executed and preserved Frans Hals pair. Lots which didn't find bidders included the Lawrence portrait, the Bosschaert the Elder Still Life, a Pierre Subleyras portrait, and a pair of Guardis.
More coverage of the various owners sales from Christie's and Sotheby's tomorrow.
Update - Here's coverage of the sale from The Art Newspaper and ArtNet.
Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze gets the Disney Treatment
May 20 2025
Video: XtraCult
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze, home of Michelangelo's David, has welcomed the creators of Disney's new film Lilo & Stitch into their galleries for a special promotional video. As you'll see above, the video shows the film's UFO Stitch causing chaos culminating in the creation of a Self Portrait in Marble inspired by Michelangelo's iconic statue. In fact, the Accademia have kept the prop in the museum on display for visitors until 20th June (in case any readers might want to see this piece of spraypainted foam in the flesh).
V&A Doctoral Placements
May 20 2025
Picture: V&A
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London are advertising 14 doctoral placements which start in the autumn. According to their website 'V&A Doctoral Placements are only open to students currently studying on a funded PhD.'
Here are a list of the projects available:
-Cataloguing a Contemporary Music Archive
-Cataloguing Printed Scores and Libretti in the Bunnett Muir Musical Theatre Trust Archive
-Craft and Natural Materials in Exhibition Design
-Developing a Digital Research Repository for the V&A
-Developing Frameworks for Born-Digital and Hybrid Collections
-Henry Cole’s travel diaries: knowledge, acquisitions and networks
-Investigating Functional and Multi-Sensory Objects in the Young V&A Collection
-Ludwig Gruner: Art Advisor to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Cataloguing and contextualising a collection of drawings and photographs
-Methodologies of audience-led collections research with children, young people and families
-Provenance Research on Ethiopian Objects
-Provenance Research on Southeast Asian Art Collections at the V&A
-Provenance Research on the NAL’s Acquisition of German Books During the Nazi Era
-Surveying and Cataloguing Roger Fenton’s Photography Collection
-Zero Waste Approaches to Exhibition Making
Reminder: Burlington Prize for Southern Netherlandish Art 1400-1800
May 20 2025
Picture: Burlington
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reminder that the application deadline for the Burlington Magazine and the University of Cambridge's new Prize for Research on Southern Netherlandish Art 1400-1800 will be upon us soon.
A reminder of the details:
Established to inspire the development and publication of innovative object-based scholarship, the winning entrant will receive a prize of £1,000, with publication in The Burlington Magazine’s annual issue dedicated to Northern European Art, plus a one year print and digital subscription.
We seek previously unpublished essays of 1000–1500 words from early career scholars worldwide.
This is defined as within 15 years of their most recent post-graduate degree. Submissions should be in English and should include candidate’s CV, all as a single PDF.
Applications must be in by 1st September 2025.
