Charles I collection conference
May 4 2018
Video: Paul Mellon Centre
The conference papers from the conference on the Royal Academy's exhibition of Charles I's art collection have gone online. Above is Justin Davies of the Jordaens Van Dyck Panel Paintings Project. Others can be seen here.
Everett Fahy (1941-2018)
May 2 2018
Picture: New York Times
Sad news that the former Met curator and director of the Frick, Everett Fahy, has died. The New York Times has an obituary here, albeit with an unfortunate misprint at the end, describing an early 16th Century Italian painting (which Fahy had concluded was by Michelangelo) as a work by Velasquez.
The article concludes with a quote art history would do well to remember:
“With attributions, it’s not the number of people who agree with you, it’s the quality of their judgments.”
Missing: a Bernini finger
May 1 2018
Picture: Artemagazine.it
Bernini's sculpture of St Bibiana, which belongs to the Church of St Bibiana in Rome, has lost a finger. Only, nobody knows quite where it was lost, or indeed where it is now. Speculation suggests it may have been in transit from the recent Bernini exhibition at the Galleria Borghese. More here.
Major Raeburn portraits acquired for Scotland
May 1 2018
Picture: Scottish National Galleries
The Scotish National Galleries has acquired a pair of portraits by Henry Raeburn, through the UK government's Acceptance in Lieu scheme (meaning, effectively, that the acquisition has been funded entirely by the taxpayer. The portraits show William Stuart Forbes, elder son of Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo (1802–26) and John Stuart Hepburn Forbes, later 8th Baronet of Monymusk and of Fettercairn and Pitsligo (1804–66).
It's not clear whether the portraits will be part of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street, or the National Gallery on the Mound. More here on the SNG press page.
Update - here's a photo of the pictures hanging at the National Gallery of Scotland on the Mound. Which is all the more puzzling, because in the press release, it was the Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Christopher Baker (seen in the photo), who gave the quotes and welcomed the paintings. Of course, thanks to the recent, misguided management changes at the Scottish National Galleries, there is no 'Director' of the National Gallery of Scotland any more. Christopher Baker is in charge of all things portrait, whether the paintings are part of the National Portrait Gallery, or the National Gallery. Confused? (Not as confused as the poor people who have to work there...)
Image fees (ctd).
May 1 2018
Picture: Wellcome Collection, via ArtUK,
Europeana has an interview with Tom Scott, head of digital engagement at the Wellcome Collection, on why the Wellcome chose to abolish image reproduction fees, and put their images (some 36 million of them) in the public domain:
[...] we wanted to make it as easy as possible for researchers and others to use and reuse the material and because we wanted to reach as many people as possible, not just on our own website but also elsewhere - on Europeana Collections, Wiki Commons, the Internet Archive and elsewhere.
This is the choice museums face: do they want their objects to be seen by as many people as possible, or do they want to control them, for the chance to make a tiny bit of income, if they're lucky? It's as simple as that.
Update - a reader writes, in response to my first choice of image (don't click if you're easily shocked, I just thought it was interesting to show the range of the Wellcome's collection, apologies for any offence caused):
With respect, as I read you every day and share your posts with others, I was disappointed that, of the 36 million images in the Wellcome archive, you selected that particular one to illustrate your post. It is a bit jarring to be scrolling through first thing in the morning and not be forewarned of what is about to appear. If the story headline was about erotic art, or an artist known for such output, I could understand the image's inclusion. However, neither your post nor the linked article in question is about that piece, or even mentions it. If seeing it and being shocked makes me easily offended, so be it, but I am likely not the only one of your many readers who will be so.
Update II - another reader adds:
Regarding the image from the Wellcome Trust collection.
Surely no more shocking to see over breakfast that many other old master images such as Judith with the head of Holofernes?
Another says:
It’s not often that you read a snowflake comment on AHN however this morning, without warning, I was confronted by the reader comment about your choice of image. It’s hardly a jarring image and fortunately most AHN readers are made of sterner stuff!
'Memory' at Boughton
May 1 2018
Picture: Boughton House
Regular readers will know that I'm a fan of Boughton House in Northamptonshire, one of the homes of the Duke of Buccleuch. Not only is the house full of treasures, but it's immaculately preserved - you really could be going back into the early 18th Century. It's not often open to the public, but when it is they always put on a new and fascinating exhibition. Last year it was about the Huguenots and this year it's partly about the house during the Second World War, when it was requisitioned by the army. Part of its use was to house German prisoners of war (no wonder none of them tried to escape). A highlight of the exhibition will be a triptych (above) painted for the chapel by one of the - alas unnamed - German POWs. The exhibition runs during August, when the house and gardens are open.
Fakes, fakes everywhere (ctd.)
May 1 2018
Picture: Ville Elne
The Musée Terrus in the South of France is dedicated to the French 19th Century artist Étienne Terrus, and has about 160 works by him. But sadly it appears that half the collection is fake, as many news outlets have reported. The fake works seem to have been bought over the last 20 years, which would suggest that there's an enterprising faker on the loose somewhere in the South of France.
Restitution news (ctd.)
May 1 2018
Picture: Guardian
Last year I mentioned the restitution of a painting by Ochtervelt, which had been identified in the collection of the City of London by Anne Weber, who runs the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. The family to whom the picture was returned have now decided to sell it, and it will feature in Sotheby's Old Master sale in London in July, with an estimate of £1.5m-£2.5m. More here.
Re-discovered: Rubens' portrait of his daughter (ctd.)
May 1 2018
Picture: Christie's
Rubens' portrait sketch of his daughter, Clara Serena, is to be offered by Christie's in London this July, with an estimate of £3m-£5m. Regular readers will remember that the painting was deaccessioned by the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 2013 as a copy, with an estimate of $20k-$30k (it eventually sold for $626k). James Pickford in the FT has the story, but what struck me most was the rather silly response from the Met, who said:
“The attribution of the picture has been debated in the past and we believe it will continue to be debated. Given the strength of our holdings in this area, we stand by the decision to deaccession the work.”
This is a classic example of how politics and egos get in the way in art history. The grown up thing to do would be to admit that the Met made a mistake, and that the picture was now recognised - after cleaning and further research - as a Rubens. But instead, in an attempt to justify their mistake, they attempt to cast doubt on the attribution, and suggest bizarrely that they would have been happy to let a Rubens go for just $20k (the lower estimate). Have a look at their collections site yourself, and judge if the Met is bursting with Rubens head studies (it isn't).
Update - a number of people have wondered if I am the owner of this picture; alas not! Nor am I connected to it or the owners in any way. I hope readers will know that if it were mine, I wouldn't comment on it publicly without saying so. I have championed the picture only because I think it deserved to be championed. For what it's worth, it belongs to private collectors, whom I only met once by chance, long after the picture was authenticated as a Rubens. They just liked the painting, and took a punt on it.
Italian Museums (ctd.)
April 28 2018
From Christina Ruiz in The Art Newspaper, a story that typifies how Italian museums are run: the director of the Galleria Borghese, Anna Coliva, has been charged in court with absenteeism, after being secretly followed during work, and visiting the gym. There seems to be little basis in the charge:
The investigation into Coliva began in 2014, when the ministry of culture received an anonymous letter suggesting that she was frequently absent from her office. As part of the probe, the museum director was secretly followed for two weeks to collect evidence, which allegedly shows that, on occasion, she would punch in to work before leaving to visit the gym. In total, she was absent from the museum for 41 hours over 12 days, according to evidence reviewed in court. At a hearing, Coliva said that the overtime she had worked more than made up for her absences and that when she left the office, it was usually on museum-related business.
According to sources close to the museum, the allegations against Coliva were made by a warder who was disciplined for touting tickets to a popular exhibition at the Galleria Borghese.
More here.
Crowdfunding Picasso
April 28 2018
Fancy owning 1/25,000 of a Picasso? Me neither, but apparently 25,000 people have joined forces on the Swiss auction site QoQa to buy a Picasso for CHF2m. It's now on display in the Museum of Modern Art in Geneva. More here.
'Civilisations - The Vital Spark'
April 26 2018
Video: BBC
The final episode of Civilisations is on BBC2 tonight at 9pm; well worth a watch, a powerful conclusion to an excellent series.
Sotheby's $150m Modigliani
April 26 2018
Video: Sotheby's
Here's the launch video for Nu Couché by Modigliani, which will be offered by Sotheby's in their May 14th New York Impressionist and Modern Art sale. At $150m, it's the highest estimated artwork at auction in history. The picture has been guaranteed, so will certainly sell on the night. But the real question is, will it take off, and make another mega price, like that seen for Leonardo's Salvator Mundi? I suspect so.
The video above is fascinating for what it says about the art market these days; the picture was launched in Hong Kong, and introduced by bothEnglish and Chinese speaking specialists. The money for art these days comes as much - if not mostly - from Asia. But what's so fascinating, and in many ways unexpected, is that Asian collectors are focused as much on Western art as on Asian art. And while much of the focus has been on modern and contemporary work, there's also no doubt (though it is less reported) that Asian collectors are interested in 'old' Western art too. In its scale and potential it's similar to the US buying rush for European 18th Century art in the early 20th Century.
All of this is great from dealers' and auctioneers' point of view. But it should also be good news for educators and museums. I don't see, unfortunately, many signs yet that museums in Europe have recognised the potential growth in their audience, both online and in person, from Asian visitors. British museums, in particular, are hopeless at offering more than one language option for online visitors. If we're to build on Asian interest for Western art, and embrace the possibilities in turn that can come from increasing our understanding of Eastern art, we need to follow the likes of Sotheby's in making our art more accessible to Asian audiences. Will museums follow where the market leads?
New acquisitions at the National Gallery
April 25 2018
Picture: National Gallery
The National Gallery in London has acquired two new pictures, a still-life by Juan de Zurburan (the first work by him in their collection) and an early outdoors scene, 'Wineglasses', by John Singer Sargent. The Sargent was allocated to the Gallery under the UK government's Acceptance in Lieu scheme, and so represents a wholly taxpayer funded acquisition. Here's the NG press release.
My enthusiasm for bringing this news to you (and showing only the small thumbnail image above) is because of the ridiculous terms and conditions the Gallery asks people like me to sign up to, before downloading higher resolution image from the NG press site. A sample of these terms are:
The Board of Trustees of the National Gallery or the Lender owns the copyright in all Images. Reproduction of any kind (analogue or digital) is strictly forbidden except by the User in connection with the exhibition specified by the National Gallery Press Office.
If, like most legal opinion in this area, you believe that there is in fact no copyright in faithful reproductions of out of copyright artworks, then the National Gallery here is engaged in copyfraud.
Two more clauses:
The User acknowledges that digital images are the subject of copyright protection and hereby assigns to the National Gallery any copyright and similar rights throughout the world created by or for the User in the Images for the full term of such copyright and similar rights including extensions and renewals.
Duplication, storage or transmission in any form (analogue or digital) of any Image is strictly forbidden unless by separate written permission except where such is incidentally and wholly necessary to the reproduction process. At the conclusion of such reproduction all intermediate copies of the Image must be destroyed.
I don't agree to any of this, obviously.
And, most odiously of all:
14. Indemnification
The User agrees to indemnify the Image copyright holder (see 7) in respect of any claims or damages or any loss or costs arising in any manner from the reproduction of Images unless granted under the terms of these Terms and Conditions.
What a waste of everyone's time and money - all to protect the National Gallery's non-existent income from selling image licences.
I'm reproducing the above photo anyway, because it was sent to me in an email from the National Gallery, soliciting me to publish it.
'Heni Talks'
April 25 2018
Jacky Klein - Cézanne: The Father of Modern Art from HENI Talks on Vimeo.
Video: Heni
The publisher Heni has launched a new series of short educational videos on art and artists, called Heni Talks. The model is TED talks, but focused more on art history. Full list of the first 25 or so videos on Vimeo here, including Jacky Klein on Cezanne above, and Prof. Martin Kemp on the Mona Lisa.
Update - just seen that Heni's privacy settings don't allow me to embed any of their films. Which is not what TED does.
Update II - I've been told of the reason I can't embed and share the videos with you; image copyright and licensing of course! How daft of institutions participating in this admirable project, which only wants to help spread the word about museums' collections, to then limit Heni's ability to do so on the basis of a false assertion of copyright. Another instance of museums shooting themselves in the foot.
Update III - the settings have been changed, just for you AHNers! A senior figure from the project writes:
We are learning all the time about the minefield of copyright and I believe this is one of the reasons why more art history films aren’t being created for online audiences. Many people are scared off even trying to make sense of it.
Update IV - more on the inspiration of the talks here, from the driver the project Munira Mirza in The Art Newspaper. I should perhaps add that I will be doing one of these talks, it's just a question of finding the time!
'The Last Van Vianen'
April 24 2018
Picture: Christie's
A Dutch silver ewer by Adam van Vianen, thought to be the last example of his work in private hands, has been sold at Christie's in New York for $5.3m. More photos and the catalogue note here.
Prince Albert Papers to go online
April 24 2018
Picture: Royal Collection
Did you know that Prince Albert was a keen art historian, and was especially devoted to the study of Raphael? A new Royal Collection project will digitise and make available his papers, including his collection of over 5000 prints and photographs of works after Raphael. The project will take two years to complete. More here.
Image fees - your stories
April 24 2018
Picture: Louvre
One of the things that has spurred us on to campaign for the abolition of museum image reproduction fees here in the UK is individual stories from art historians. They're probably more powerful than any arguments I and my colleagues make, so I'm going to start publishing more of them here on AHN. So if you've had to pay an outrageous fee for images, or have had work rendered unpublishable because of fees, please get in touch.
Here's one story from a recent Cambridge University PhD graduate:
"I've been told that my thesis (which is essentially a visual dictionary of men's fashionable dress in the restoration period, including the many variations of each garment and numerous details in close-up) deserves to be published, but the the copyright fees demanded by many of the museums involved - let alone individual owners - will be considerable if all the illustrations are included - and omitting them rather defeats the whole purpose of providing scholars with an easily accessible work of reference.
Quite apart from inhibiting general publication, whether in print or online, potential liability for such fees also resulted in my greatly delayed graduation. Without consulting anyone, the powers that be in this great university suddenly imposed a requirement that all theses should be presented not only in the standard printed and bound form, but also in a digital version. While a fair usage provision allows the traditional printed thesis to be lodged in the University Library without liability for copyright fees, this provision does not apply if the material is produced in another medium, which then counts as publication, and complying with the new regulation would have put me at risk of being sued under copyright legislation [...]. This was a risk I was not prepared to take, but persuading the University to back down was a long and extremely stressful process. I might also add that the very idea that owners of paintings produced several hundred years ago still have copyright in that material is questionable to say the least. Altogether the whole subject is a minefield which desperately needs to be addressed."
No other academic discipline faces this problem.
Sir Nicholas Penny on visitor numbers
April 23 2018
Picture: Apollo
There's an interesting piece in Apollo on visitor numbers; are they good or bad? Sir Nicholas Penny, the former director of the National Gallery in London seems to be no great fan of them, but accepts that they're necessary. He makes many good points, including:
Even if attendance figures were not presented as a league table, comparisons between different institutions would be inevitable. Trustees and directors are gripped by the vivid and simplified drama of the contest. They find it difficult not to see their institution in a competition with the others, as if it were a football club. It becomes surprisingly hard to recognise that there should be nothing worrying about the number of visitors to a different institution edging ahead because, for example, it has mounted an exhibition of the work of David Hockney.
Picasso - the Box Set
April 23 2018
Video: National Geographic
Here's a curious bit of casting - Antonia Banderas will star as Picasso in a new biopic on National Geographic, starting this week.
