Sandby Landscapes Acquired by National Museum Wales
September 16 2020
Picture: @Sothebys
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz
The National Museum in Wales has acquired 21 Welsh landscapes by Paul Sandby (1731-1809). The group features iconic views in Snowdonia, Caernaforn, Harlech Castle, Bala and Llangollen. In total, the set were acquired for £240,000 from the Douglas and Angus Estates with Sotheby's acting as agents. The works were acquired with support from Art Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and a private donor.
Andrew Renton Keeper of Art at the Museum has said:
These views played a ground-breaking role in popularising Wales as a tourist destination, presenting it as an economically active, ‘picturesque’ and ‘sublime’ country rather than the impoverished and barbarous region of earlier prejudicial stereotypes.
It would be very exciting if these paintings could return to the area they depict, and we’re hoping to be able to display them in venues in north Wales as soon as we can.
Watercolourworld.org has a fantastic selection of Sandby's works that are free to browse at leisure.
450 Works Donated to Uffizi
September 16 2020
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a story that broke earlier this summer. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence has been bequeathed 450 paintings and drawings collected by the late art historian Carlo Del Bravo (d.2017). Del Bravo's career was connected with many of Italy's most well known painters and institutions. With works spanning five centuries, the highlight from the Old Masters point of view is Rosso Fiorentino's The Infant St John the Baptist (on the left in the image above).
Uffizi director Eike Schmidt has hailed the gift as:
...one of the most important and substantial donations to the museums of Florence since the Second World War.
Christie's Paris Results
September 15 2020
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's recent Old Master Paintings & Sculpture sale in Paris realised a respectable €5,739,000 (all prices quoted inc. premium) today with roughly 79.6% of lots sold.
The two pictures that flew past their estimates were the ones that were appearing absolutely everywhere on social media. This fine 'Follower of Sofonisba Anguissola' realised €110,000 over its €25k - €35k estimate; and this attractive headstudy of a boy given to the 'Workshop of Rubens' made €137,500 over its €60k - €80k estimate; and this Lucretia by the 'Master of the Female Half Lengths' made €430,000 over its €80 - €120k estimate.
Equally interesting was this 'School of Antwerp - Follower of Rubens' which soared to €274,000 over an estimate of €12k - €18k. Did optimistic bidders spot something that the cataloguers had neglected?
Update - I forgot to mention that this very fine hatted lady by Nicholas Largillière made €1,570,000 over its €600k - €1m estimate in the Christie's Paris sale of Paul-Louis Weiller.
Art Zoom: Google Arts & Culture
September 15 2020
Video: Google Arts & Culture
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Google Arts & Culture have begun a very intriguing series entitled Art Zoom on their YouTube channel. Essential, it contains annotated videos featuring relatively successful contemporary musicians giving their views on works of art. As ever with the Google platform, the detailed images they supply with the videos are unmatched.
The video above features the English Singer Songwriter FKA Twigs* giving her own impressions of Artemisia Gentileschi's The Magdalene in Ecstasy. If such videos attract new and younger audiences into galleries and museums then it's played its part!
Here is another video where the Canadian musician 'Grimes' gives her impression of Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Fall of the Rebel Angels.
I'm particularly fond of Grimes's description of Bruegel's picture:
This painting is such a nightmare, like, God, it's like so horrific. Wow.
...
This is like a deeply emotional piece. He must have been having a really bad day.
* - Unless they played the lute, I'm completely clueless when it comes to contemporary music I must admit.
Lecture: Women Dealers and Collectors of Japanese Art
September 15 2020
Picture: Society of the History of Collecting
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a fascinating sounding lecture. The Society for the History of Collecting are broadcasting a lecture by Professor Elizabeth Emery on the subject of Women Dealers and Collectors of Japanese Art in Nineteenth-Century Paris.
As their blurb explains:
Museums, libraries, and web sites celebrate the names of Philippe Sichel, Siegfried Bing, and Hayashi Tadamasa as “great dealers of Japanese art” and present them as the pioneers of the nascent Japan trade in France. In contrast, the names of Louise Chopin Desoye, Marie Antoinette Schlotterer Malinet, and Florine Ebstein Langweil have been largely lost to history, even when they informed and complemented the work of these better-known men. This lecture uses newly discovered archival material to emphasize the participation of women in the nineteenth-century Paris market for Japanese antiquities. It will raise questions about the socio-economic structures and stereotypes that have led to their disappearance and strategies for recovering their histories.
The lecture will be broadcast on Monday 21st September 2020 at 5.30pm (BST).
The society's website explains that 'all are welcome' to the lecture (registration required), but non-members will not be able to participate in the AGM afterwards.
BMAG Appoints Two CEOs
September 15 2020
Picture: BMAG
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Trust (BMAG) has announced that it has appointed two CEOs to share the responsibility over the city's galleries and museums. Sara Wajid (left) arrives from Head of Engagement at the Museum of London, whilst Zak Mensah (right) arrives from his role as Head of Transformation: Culture & Creative Industries at Bristol Museum.
As Niels de Vos, Chair of the BMAG Trust, explains:
This appointment is a transformational moment for Birmingham Museums Trust and allows us to plan confidently for the future after what has been a very turbulent few months. Sara and Zak’s experience, proven past results and their openness to experiment and push boundaries is what made them standout candidates.
The sector needs to diversify from the top if there is to be a real shift in how museums operate and how their collections are presented. Sara and Zak are trailblazers and they reflect the character of this city, young, futuristic and diverse. Their dynamic partnership will mark a very exciting new chapter for Birmingham Museums Trust and for the city.
AHN wishes both CEOs the best of luck to navigate these uncertain times for Museums and Galleries around the globe. As BMAG contains one of the nation's most enviable collections of Old Masters and Pre Raphaelites, we look forward to any developments in these areas.
Palazzo Grimani Acquires Ancestor
September 14 2020
Picture: Palazzo Grimani
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo di Palazzo Grimani in Venice has acquired a portrait of one of its most important ancestors. The painting of Giovanni Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia, is attributed to Tintoretto. The Palazzo has been involved in a very interesting conservation project over the past few years, which has culminated in an exhibition celebrating the return of the Grimani family's classical statutes. The purchase was made by the Venetian Heritage Foundation with support from private donors.
Van Meegeren's Blues
September 14 2020
Picture: The Art Newspaper
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have posted this interesting article regarding recently released police documents relating to the notorious forger Han Van Meegeren (1889-1947). The Metropolitan Police's Special Branch made several enquiries into exactly where the forger sourced his pigments from. It appears that the artist purchased large quantities of the precious lapis lazuli from the British paint suppliers Windsor & Newton. In 1931 he is recorded having purchased 13 ounces of lapis from the company, a shocking amount considering the suppliers would usually only sell 1 or 2 ounces of ultramarine a year.
We might presume that modern forgers still use historic pigment merchants to help create their fakes...
George Stubbs Conference Online
September 14 2020
Picture: @PaulMellonCentr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Paul Mellon Centre have published videos of papers given at the conference entitled George Stubbs: All done from nature. This conference took place at the beginning of the year in collaboration with the Paul Mellon Centre and the MK Gallery, Milton Keynes. The subjects discussed are wide ranging and definitely worth a look.
MET Conservation Reveals Background
September 14 2020
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have shared another fabulous set of images from a recent conservation project on their Instagram Account. The image on the left is a religious painting ascribed to the fourteenth century Master of Vyšší Brod, which appeared at Cortot, Dijon, 2019. An x-ray image suggested that the blue stary background was in fact a nineteenth century addition to the picture, and that something else was lurking underneath. The painstaking work of removing the overpaint with a scalpel was begun. Conservators at the museum eventually reveal the remarkable and original architectural setting for the scene. What a transformation!
French Cultural Sector Receives Another €2bn
September 10 2020
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The French Government has announced that it has pledged a further €2bn towards the cultural sector during this period of crisis. It is estimated that attendance in museums has been down anywhere between 40 to 80 percent. This fund in addition to the €1bn it had given to the sector earlier in the pandemic. €614m has been specifically earmarked for institutions such as the Louvre, the Palace of Versailles, Musée d'Orsay and the Centre Pompidou.
The Fitzwilliam Museum is Hiring!
September 10 2020
Picture: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is hiring a Deputy Director (Masterplan, Exhibitions & Major Displays Projects). The role seems to have a very strong emphasis of displays and developing their masterplan strategy.
The museum has also stated its primary aims in the advert above:
to provide a place, physical and virtual, which gives all audiences the space to think and create
to promote open and honest conversations around works of art and material culture
to explore and develop our collections collaboratively and inclusively to build, preserve and document its outstanding collections
This fixed term postition carries a salary of between £60,905 - £70,579. The closing date for applications is 4th October 2020.
Sotheby's Mid-Season Sale
September 9 2020
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's mid-season old master paintings sale has been published. The London sale, which will be conducted online, will run from 18 - 23 September 2020.
One is immediately struck by the temptingly low estimates, many of which hover around a few thousand pounds. Can anyone resist a good bargain? As to be expected, several pictures have appeared in previous sales. Overally, this approach might be a very good tactic to encourage all of those who saved up by not going abroad this summer to buy something beautiful for their home.
A few brief highlights include the above Salvator Mundi by Charles Mellin estimate at £6k - £8k; a 14th century 'Florentine School' triptych from the Downside Abbey Trust estimated at £40k - £60k; a 'Workshop of El Greco' of Saint Peter estimated at £8k - £12k; an atmospheric Gerrit Berckheyde of St Bavo Cathedral in Haarlem estimated at £6k - £8k; or equally this very pleasing 18th century 'Irish School' landscape estimated at £5k - £7k. There's also this rather fun 19th century artist's folding easle and chair, once said to be owned by John Constable, estimated at £3k - £5k.
On a personal note, I'm delighted to see this fun portrait by John Westbrooke Chandler, an obscure and chameleon-like artist on whom I contributed an article for the British Art Journal last year.
Gower Makes 8x Low Estimate
September 8 2020
Picture: Woolley & Wallis
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The above portrait by George Gower of Thomas Arundell, later 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour, made 8x its low estimate of £10k - £15k to achieve £82,000 (hammer) at Woolley & Wallis today. This portrait of a fascinating figure from history, with Rothschild Provenance, was always going to do well. It had been the subject of an interesting article in The Art Newspaper this week too.
My favourite lot in the sale was this 'Circle of Thomas Lawrence' pencil drawing on (or mounted to) canvas, which made £9,800 (hammer) over its £200-£300 estimate.
Miro Posted to Wrong Address
September 8 2020
Picture: olivepress.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This curious story has emerged the other day. Spanish authorities have tracked down a €10,000 artwork by Joan Miro that was sent from Spain by post to the wrong address in London. A Spanish collector had sent the work to another collector in London only for the package not to arrive. The authorities managed to track down the recipient who claimed they had returned it to sender. The work was finally tracked down in an unnamed London auction house.
One wonders whether the work was properly insured and exactly which method of postage was used for this valuable work on paper. I'm sure there must some stories out there of old master drawings that have been shipped this way in the past?
Bellotto goes to Sunderland
September 8 2020
Picture: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sunderland Museum has just opened a free exhibition entitled Castles: Paintings from the National Gallery. Amongst the loans from the nation's art gallery in London include the fairly recently acquired Bellotto The Fortress of Königstein from the North (pictured). This work, alongside five other old masters on loan from the gallery, will hang with the Sunderland Museum's own views of castles by the likes of Lowry and Clarkson Stanfield.
The exhibition, in a different form, was in Cardiff earlier this year and will head to Norwich in November.
Lely Study Conserved
September 5 2020
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recently announced that they have conserved a head study by Sir Peter Lely (pictured). The study has been linked to the actress Nell Gwyn in the past, but this remains unproven.
The difference is very subtle but striking. With the yellowed varnish and overpainting removed, the beautiful hues of the skin tones are once again allowed to sing as Lely had intended. I recommend clicking on the link to head over to the MET's website to zoom in on the beautiful details and brushstrokes.
Free Lecture: Titian, the 'Raphael' of Venice
September 5 2020
Picture: Alinari
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz
The Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto is hosting a free online lecture as part of a series celebrating the 500th year anniversary since the death of Raphael. On Tuesday 8th September 2020 at 3pm (EDT) Giorgio Tagliaferro, Associate Professor in Renaissance Art at the University of Warwick, will be giving a lecture entitled Titian, the 'Raphael' of Venice, examining and comparing the different lives and works these artists produced.
As the blurb explains:
The similarities between Titian and Raphael have been largely underestimated, despite the fact that the two painters were revered as paradigms of artistic perfection until well into the nineteenth century. In today’s perception, the two artists are hardly, if any, conceived of in parallel terms, inasmuch as sixteenth-century Venice and Rome are seen as separate historical entities.
The lecture is free to attend but registration is required.
Chatsworth Drawings in Sheffield
September 4 2020
Picture: Chatsworth
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Millennium Gallery in Sheffield is reopening to the public on 12th September. This means that visitors will once again be able to visit their fabulous sounding free exhibition Lines of Beauty: Master Drawings from Chatsworth. As the title suggests, the Duke of Devonshire has loaned out 50 highlights from his family's old master drawings collection, including works by Claude (pictured), Rubens, Van Dyck, Poussin, Carpaccio and more.
The exhibition runs until 1st November 2020, and visiting hours are quite restricted, so visit this exhibition while you can!
Works on Copper Video
September 4 2020
Video: The National Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London have published this very interesting video exploring why and how artists painted on copper. The talk is given by art historian and curator Letizia Treves.
