Holbein at the Tudor Court
October 9 2023
Picture: Royal Collection Trust
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
One of the most anticipated exhibitions for Tudor fanatics will be opening at The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace next month. Holbein at the Tudor Court looks to be an extravaganza of the Royal Collection's most important Tudor works of art, including the famous Holbein drawings amongst other important paintings and portraits.
According to the Trust's website:
Hans Holbein was one of the most talented artists of the 16th century. From his arrival in England in search of work he rose to royal favour, chosen to paint the portraits of Henry VIII, his family and leading figures, among them Anne Boleyn and Sir Thomas More. By his death, Holbein’s work was as admired by his contemporaries as it is today. His portraits inspired the next generation of artists in their depictions of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
This exhibition showcases one of the most important surviving collections of his work, and includes drawings, paintings, miniatures and book illustrations. Celebrating Holbein’s artistic skill, it explores the career of the artist and the lives of those who commissioned portraits from him, bringing us face-to-face with some of the most famous people of 16th-century England.
I would also draw attention to the scheduled events, which also look very very compelling (book soon to avoid disappointment, I would say!).
The show will run from 10th November 2023 until 14th April 2024.
Catalogue Chinese Export Paintings at the Fitzwilliam
October 9 2023
Picture: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge are hiring a Research Associate: Chinese Export Paintings (Fixed Term).
According to the job description:
The role holder will document and research our collection of export paintings from China, authoring catalogue records and research publications, and supporting wider public engagement with the collection. They will also seek to build collaborations with colleagues in the University and beyond.
The post-holder will be knowledgeable about, and have experience working with, 18th and 19th century Chinese paintings, particularly export arts, an understanding of the wider historical and cultural context, and be committed to developing new inclusive and diverse perspectives on these collections.
Applications must be in by 22nd October and the salary range is between £36,024 - 44,263.
Good luck if you're applying to this fascinating sounding role!
Free Events - London Art Week - 'Art History in Focus'
October 9 2023
Picture: LAW
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This October London Art Week have organised a new series of free events entitled Art History in Focus. The online talks are as varied as ever, ranging from Old Masters to contemporary art. Tonight's talk is on the Artemisia Gentileschi recently discovered in the Royal Collection.
All the events are free but registration is required.
Baroque Allegories at the Château de Sceaux
October 9 2023
Picture: domaine-de-sceaux.hauts-de-seine.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musée du Domaine départemental de Sceaux at the Château de Sceaux, close to Paris, has just opened an exhibition dedicated to Allegory in the age of the Baroque. Using loans from private collections and various regional museums, the exhibition will use sources by Cesare Ripa and later translators like Jean Baudoin to help visitors uncover the various representations and meanings employed by artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The exhibition will run until 14th January 2024.
Reynolds at the Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio
October 9 2023
Picture: @southeastNT
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio, a National Trust property which allows visitors to see the conservation of historic works of art in action, has been busy restoring several paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds this year. To celebrate the 300th birthday of the artist, a special project of conservation was begun in 2023 to transform several paintings of his in the NT's collection. This included his portrait of the Hon. Theresa Parker from Saltram House (pictured below), which is included in the The Box in Plymouth's Reframing Reynolds: A Celebration exhibition (which will run until 29th October).
In October the conservation studio will be placing a spotlight on the conservation of Reynolds' portrait of the 3rd Duke of Dorset (pictured above), which will be on display until 19th October.
Fashioned by Sargent - in Boston
October 6 2023
Video: MFA Boston
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's an exhibition which is bound to be popular. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will be opening their latest fashion exhibition on Sunday dedicated to the clothing in the portraits of John Singer Sargent.
According to the museum's website:
In portraits by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), sitters assume elegant stances, the fabric of their dress richly depicted in broad, sensuous strokes of paint. Sargent brought his subjects to life, but he did much more than simply record what appeared before him. He often chose what his sitters wore and, even if they arrived in his studio dressed in the latest fashions, he frequently simplified and altered the details. Exploiting dress was an integral part of his artistry.
Organized with Tate Britain, “Fashioned by Sargent” explores the artist’s complex relationship with his often-affluent clients and their clothes. The exhibition reveals Sargent’s power over his sitters’ images by considering the liberties he took with sartorial choices to express distinctive personalities, social positions, professions, gender identities, and nationalities. Alongside about 50 paintings by Sargent, over a dozen period garments and accessories shed new light on the relationship between fashion and this beloved artist’s creative practice.
The show will run in Boston until 15th January 2024 and will then open at Tate from 22nd February until 7th July 2024.
The MET are seeking a 'Conservator in Charge'
October 6 2023
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are hiring a 'Conservator in Charge' for Painting Conservation.
According to the job description:
The Conservator in Charge of the Department of Paintings Conservation, one of the museum’s five conservation departments (Objects, Paper, Photographs, Textile) has the academic and administrative responsibility for the conservation and preservation of paintings throughout the Museum in accordance with the highest standards of the profession and leads a team (currently) of twelve staff members. You should have deep experience in the treatment and technical examination of paintings, and a distinguished record and reputation in the field. You will work closely with all curatorial departments that house paintings (the American Wing, European Paintings and Modern and Contemporary are the principal departments, but numerous others house collections), to identify the conservation needs of their collections, to establish priorities for treatment, preservation, and the technical study of objects. In addition, you will organize and oversee the examination of paintings that enter the museum through acquisition, gift, and loan, including loan exhibitions. You will be involved in decisions relating to the Museum environment, installations, capital projects, exhibitions and storage that involve paintings. Importantly, they will supervise efforts regarding the movement, storage, and treatment of paintings as part of the capital plan to build the Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary art over the next years.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this job is that it comes with an annual salary of $220,000 - $270,000 per annum (!)*
Applications must be in by 1st December 2023.
Good luck if you're applying!
* - UK institutions, take note!
Guercino and his Pupils - in Bologna
October 6 2023
Picture: Collezioni Comunali d'Arte
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This Sunday a new exhibition will be opening in Bologna dedicated to Guercino. Guercino and his pupils. From "heads of character" to portraits (a translation taken from the museum) will focus on the workshop practises of the artist and will include works by the Gennari brothers who both worked alongside the master.
The exhibition will run at the Collezioni Comunali d'Arte in Bologna from 8th October until 26th November 2023.
Lorenzetti's Crucifixion Returns from Restoration
October 6 2023
Picture: pinacotecanazionalesiena.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena has just redisplayed a restored Crucifixion by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1290-1348). Dated to around 1328-1330, the delicate conservation work was undertaken by Stefano Casciu and funded with a generous donation from the Friends of Florence. The gallery will be displayed the restored work in a small exhibition which runs from today until 8th January 2024.
More on the Christie's Canalettos
October 6 2023
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Telegraph have published a story regarding the aforementioned pair of Canalettos which are coming up in the Christie's London Old Master Paintings Evening Sale.
For those who can't get behind the paywall, and thanks to the ATG for republishing, here is the fascinating account of the provenance research into the pair:
The two works are believed to have been painted for an English patron for whom Joseph Smith, the merchant, collector and later consul in Venice, acted as agent.
Records survive of the payments John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, made between 1734-6 to Smith’s brother and London agent, John Smith, for the celebrated Canaletto series at Woburn.
It has been suggested by London dealer and Canaletto expert Charles Beddington that the current pictures were components of a set of four canvases commissioned in 1733 by the Duke of Bedford’s sister, Elizabeth Countess of Essex and dispatched by Smith the following year. Her husband, William Capel 3rd Earl of Essex, was appointed ambassador at Turin in 1732.
The choice of subjects suggests that Lady Essex may well have seen the two related works already ordered by her brother while these were still in Venice.
By 1939, the pictures were owned by Douglas Glass (1881-1944), the only son of James George Henry Glass (1843-1911), a distinguished engineer and a director of the Bengal Nagpur Railway Company, whose interest in Italy is reflected in the fact that he died in Naples rather than in his English residence.
Upcoming Release: Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini
October 6 2023
Picture: gilesltd.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director of the Frick Collection, has a new book coming out next month. Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini is the latest in the series of publications organised in association with the Frick Collection, which explores a theme in relation to one of the collection's masterpieces and accompanies a display which will open on 9th November 2023.
According to the book's blurb on the publisher's website:
The Three Philosophers by Giorgione (Italian, 1477–1510) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1424/35–1516) in The Frick Collection are two of the most celebrated paintings of the Venetian Renaissance. Documentation exists to suggest that, between at least 1525 and 1556, the two paintings were displayed together in the same house in Venice, the palazzo of Taddeo Contarini (ca. 1466–1540), a member of one of Venice’s wealthiest patrician families. For the first time in more than four hundred years these two masterpieces will be reunited. Accompanying their display at the Frick, this book explores the origins of the paintings and re-evaluates their histories in the collection of Taddeo Contarini.
Last Few Weeks: Seeing the Light - Turner’s discovery of Italy in 1819
October 5 2023
Picture: turnershouse.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It's the last chance to see the Turner House's latest exhibition Seeing the Light - Turner’s discovery of Italy in 1819. The brilliance of having a house museum dedicated to a single artist is that focused subjects such as these can be explored in a such a comprehensive fashion.
According to the blurb on their website:
In the summer of 1819, the landscape artist J.M.W. Turner set off on a journey to Italy that would have a profound impact on his life and work. Visitors to Turner’s House this summer will be able to enjoy an exhibition of evocative watercolours capturing some of Turner’s first impressions of the place he was to later call the ‘land of all bliss’, and which provided inspiration for the rest of his career.
Seeing the Light represents an exciting opportunity for the public to see some of Italy’s most well known and loved sites – Venice, Rome, Naples – through Turner’s eyes, in the unique setting of his then rural retreat in Twickenham. Visitors to this tightly-focussed exhibition will also be able to appreciate Turner’s evolving use of colour and light before and after 1819, thanks to generous loans from Tate, the Guildhall Art Gallery and a private collection.
The show will close on Sunday 29th October 2023.
Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum are hiring!
October 5 2023
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum are hiring a Curator.
According to the job description:
The Collections & Engagement Team is particularly focused on using the collections to tell new and different stories about Leamington. You will contribute to the development, care and management of the council’s art collection, and work with colleagues to devise ways to engage our visitors and communities with them, through exhibitions, events and digital technologies.
You will have at least one year’s curatorial experience in a museum or art gallery, including mounting exhibitions and collections management. There is a strong public facing element to this role, and you will possess good verbal and written communication skills in order to liaise with a variety of stakeholders, visitors and external partners. The Art Curator will contribute to fundraising for the service and will have experience of managing budgets.
The salary on offer is between £25,878 – £28,371 pro rata.*
Good luck if you're applying!
* - I just spotted that the council were hiring an 'Arts Manager' in earlier in July with a salary of £47,573 - £49,590 per annum. Quite a difference.
New Release: Ick soeck en vind – De schilderijen van Adriaen van de Venne
October 5 2023
Picture: waanders.nl
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Holland that a new volume on the important Dutch artist Adriaen van de Venne (1589–1662) has been published. Ick soeck en vind – De schilderijen van Adriaen van de Venne is the latest book by Edwin Buijsen, and promises to investigate the painter's entire oeuvre aided by vast amounts of illustrations [very good!].
Moreover, the publication compliments an extensive exhibition on the artist, curated by Buijsen, which has just opened at the Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg. The Inverted World of Adriaen van de Venne will run until 21 April 2024.
Sotheby's to offer £10m Rembrandt in December
October 5 2023
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's London will be offering a rediscovered Rembrandt in their upcoming December Old Master Paintings Evening Sale. The Adoration of the Kings, now dated to circa 1628, is the same that was highlighted on this blog back in October 2021, when the picture sold at Christie's Amsterdam for a staggering 860,000 euros over its estimate of 10,000 - 15,000 euros. In 2021 the painting was catalogued as 'Circle of Rembrandt', but, research presented to various scholars has convinced them of its attribution to the master in full.
According to the article in the FT:
Its buyer [after the 2021 sale] subsequently contacted Sotheby’s and the auction house has spent 18 months researching the work, including detailed infrared imaging. The conclusion is that it is “not just by Rembrandt, but is a really significant Rembrandt”, says George Gordon, Sotheby’s co-chair of Old Master paintings and drawings. Leading scholars, including Volker Manuth, who co-wrote the 2019 catalogue raisonné of Rembrandt’s paintings, support the auction house’s views.
The research has revealed changes that Rembrandt made while painting, including moving the protagonists’ heads towards the holy family, to create a more pronounced focal point. “We can see how his mind was working,” Gordon says. He also highlights the artist’s command of reflected light from two sources — a warm, interior one and the cooler Star of Bethlehem.
The work will be offered at auction on 6 December carrying an estimate of £10,000,000 - 15,000,000. Sotheby's has also stated that the painting is subject to a third-party guarantee [ie. that it already has a selling bid].
Elizabethan 'Cuckold' Portrait Realises £400,000
October 4 2023
Picture: Drewaetts
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the auction house Drewaetts this morning that the following Elizabethan portrait realised a substantial £400,000 hammer over its £10,000 - 15,000 estimate in the Robert Kime (Day 1) sale. Although this is a particularly beautiful and evocative image, which has been interpreted as depicting the son of or of a cuckhold (read the catalogue note for more), this is quite an impressive price for a portrait of its kind, not to mention of an unknown sitter by an unknown artist.*
* Maybe there are plans afoot to identify both in due course!
Delacroix's 'The Death of Sardanapalus' Restored
October 4 2023
Picture: Louvre, Paris
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The European press, and many devotees to art and beauty on social media, have been sharing the news and details of the Louvre's freshly restored The Death of Sardanapalus by Delacroix. It seems that the transformation of this has been particularly striking (click here to compare the image above to its previous state), with many beautifully preserved painterly details found throughout.
Of particular excitement is news that the artist's iconic Liberty Leading the People will be the next large scale work to undergo conservation, a process which is excepted to be completed in Spring 2024.
Frans Hals at the National Gallery
October 4 2023
Video: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery's latest Frans Hals exhibition opened last week. The Guardian's less than favourable review has subsequently been counteracted by others in The Observer and The New York Times respectively. I haven't been to see it yet, however, I have been handed a copy of the exhibition catalogue which looks very promising indeed. Not only is it organised in comprehensive and beautiful way, the publication suggests that the curators have taken a bold approach to attribution (a problem which follows Hals scholarship to the present day). One such example is the inclusion of a portrait which was sold as 'School of Haarlem, circa 1615' at Sotheby's New York in 2021, doubted by both Seymour Slive and Claus Grimm (see Literature in the link), which has now been given to Frans Hals in full.
However, one of the most fascinating pieces of original research is the discovery of 'a hidden monster and skull' in the famous Chatsworth portrait, which appears to have been covered by 'later overpaint'. The gallery have produced the following video which explains the whole story.
Free Online Talk: The Van de Veldes at the Queen’s House, Greenwich
October 4 2023
Picture: warburg.sas.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Warburg Institute in London and the Association for Art History are hosting a free online talk later this month. Curatorial Conversation - The Van de Veldes at the Queen’s House, Greenwich will feature a ronudtable disucssion with curators Allison Goudie and Imogen Tedbury in conversation with Bill Sherman (Warburg Institute Director) and Gregory Perry (CEO, Association for Art History).
According to the blurb on the institute's website:
For almost 20 years in the late 17th century the Queen’s House at Greenwich was the studio address of the marine painters Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son, Willem the Younger. Although the building itself bears little trace of the Van de Veldes’ presence, in the 20th century the Queen’s House once again became a home for their work, as the dedicated art gallery of the National Maritime Museum, custodian of the world’s largest collection of works by the Van de Veldes. Spanning scores of oil and pen paintings, a tapestry and some 1,500 drawings, the collection is unique in what it can tell us about how a 17th-century artist’s studio functioned. The physical evidence provided by this collection proved invaluable for the evocation of the Van de Velde studio that forms a centrepiece of the current exhibition, The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea, marking 350 years since the Van de Veldes moved to England from the Dutch Republic. Showcasing major conservation projects on important works in the Greenwich collection that have their origin point in the Queen’s House studio, and notwithstanding a select number very generous loans, the exhibition was also a pragmatic solution to some of the challenges facing museums as they emerged from Covid: how to make an event out of a permanent collection.
This online event will take place on Zoom on 17th October 2024. Attendance is free, although registration is required.
£10m pair of Canalettos coming up at Christie's in December
October 3 2023
Picture: artscouncil.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Eagle eyed watchers of the Arts Council's Items for Sale page (a must for any follower of the big Old Master auctions) might have spotted this very beautiful pair of Canalettos which have been announced for sale at Christie's London in December 2023. The pair, which have been in a private collection since 1939, will carry an impressive estimate of £10,000,000.
More news regarding the other items on the Art Council's website in due course.
