National Gallery sued for return of Matisse
September 12 2016
Picture: National Gallery
The heirs of the sitter in a portrait by Matisse are suing the National Gallery in London for its return. They claim the sitter, Greta Moll, gave the portrait to someone for safekeeping in 1947, and that it was subsequently sold illegally. The National Gallery bought it in 1979.
The National Gallery is refusing to return the work and notes that there is at the moment no proof of an alleged theft. They also claim that they are forbidden by UK law from transferring the title to any of their paintings. The case is being brought in a New York court; quite why I'm not sure, for no US court can compel a British museum to return a painting. Perhaps the aim is to rack up legal fees in the hope of cutting a deal.
More, including a full statement from the National Gallery, here.
'Art History for Everyone'
September 12 2016
Picture: Wallace Collection
Roll up: if you're a state school student here in the UK a free AS-level art history course is being offered at the Wallace Collection in London. It takes place on Saturday mornings for 2/5 hours each week. Here's more:
Enrol for a free-fast-track AS History of Art course on Saturday mornings, based at the Wallace Collection from 24.9.16, and using other museum and gallery collections as appropriate. The course is an independent development of a successful pilot scheme trialled at two London state schools in 2014-16 with excellent outcomes and 100% pass rate. The course followed is AQA AS History of Art and is taught by a qualified and experienced specialist teacher with a track record of excellent results. Study materials, exam entrance fees and administration included.
Benefits to students include:
- an additional AS qualification
- additional UCAS points and strengthened FE/HE applications
- career development
- CV building opportunities
- developing analytical and communication skills
- Gaining as understanding of great works of art in the capital’s public collections.
This excellent initiative is being organised by Art History Link-Up.
Rare Titian child portrait for sale
September 12 2016
Picture: ACE
The Arts Council's 'Notification of Intention to Sell' page (whereby museums are notified in advance if tax exempt paintings are to be sold) tells us that the above Portrait of Two Children by Titian is to be sold at Sotheby's in London in December. No estimate is provided. It is described as 'Titian and Workshop'.
Good luck to any museums hoping to acquire the picture - a fine addition to any collection.
An art dealer's nightmare
September 12 2016
Picture: via Wikipedia. Courbet's "Desperate Man" self-portrait.
There are few things more boring than other people's dreams. But last night I dreamt a shocker. I'd bid £20m on an unattributed painting of a teddy bear in an online auction, believing it to be a priceless, lost, life portrait of Winnie the Pooh. It turned out not to be, of course, and I was ruined. As I've often said, optimism is the art dealer's worst enemy.
Update - a reader writes:
Horrified by the nightmarish purchase, the deputy editor [my daughter] seizes the portrait of Winnie the Pooh, takes a night flight to Peru and sells it to Paddington Bear for £25m.
Saved!
Another reader writes:
I liked your dream about Winnie the Pooh his portrait; at least someone else thought it was worth £19M.
Clearly the subject - a teddy bear - and the inflated price show a repressed desire to collect the work of Jeff Koons.
The Old Master market is not dead (ctd.)
September 8 2016
Picture: The Economist
Regular readers will know that I've been fighting a running battle with some art market writers, mainly from the New York Times, over the state of the Old Master market. The most recent salvo from the NYT came in a piece that used an inaccurate statistic to try and say that Old Master 'values' were down by a third. As Disraeli allegedly said, 'There are three kinds of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics'.
But wait, here (in The Economist magazine) is another set of statistics that appears to prove what I've been saying all along about the Old Master market - that there are parts of it that are doing well, and parts that aren't (and that overall it's doing better than many believe). This is, fairly obviously, because the Old Master category covers such a broad range of art and tastes, from 18th Century Italian religious pictures to 17th Dutch lanscapes. Therefore, drawing a comparison between five centuries of art and post-war modern art, as many market commentators like to do, is hardly fair.
The graph above shows that some sectors of the Old Master market are doing really quite well. Happily, it fits in with my experience of watching the market. For example, Flemish Old Masters are apparently out-performing strongly, and are some way ahead of the relative benchmark of the S&P500. It seems to me that there's something of a buzz around interesting and rare works by the likes of Rubens, Jordaens and Van Dyck.
By contrast, Italian Old Masters are not doing so well - too 'Catholic', perhaps - and neither is British painting 17th-19thCentury. That said, I believe that within those categories there are other more subtle changes. British 16th and early 17thC pictures are doing quite well at the moment. But for much of the 19thCentury British market, it appears to be game over - at least for now. As ever, tastes change, and values ebb and flow accordingly.
I haven't had time to go into the analysis in some detail, so we must treat all this with some caution. But I think we can already guess what are the chances of it being picked up by the New York Times...
Update - a dealing reader writes:
Thank you for putting up a fight against the negativity of many around the Old Master market.
What you say about the picture market is echoed in the Old Master Sculpture market. Some aspects of the market, such as early religious wood sculpture and Rococo art, are doing worse than previously, but other areas, such as the top end of the market for Renaissance bronzes are flying, and medieval sculpture has been doing increasingly well for a while. The last two years have seen the two highest prices ever made in the market, the Adriaen De Vries bronze sold to the Rijksmuseum at Christie's and Bernini's marble bust of Pope Paul V privately sold to the Getty. Tastes have changed quite radically, but there are artworks out there that cater to these changes in taste.
Part of lost Magritte found
September 8 2016
Picture: Guardian
Investigation of a painting by Magritte at the Norwich Castle Museum has revealed that it was painted over part of his 'Enchanted Pose' (above), which has been missing since the early 20th Century. Magritte, for reasons unknown, chopped the canvas up after its exhibition in 1927 and used it for other pictures. Two bits have previously been found, and now the Norwich discovery - underneath Magritte's The Human Condition - of the bottom right hand corner (as seen in an X-ray below) makes a third. There's one quarter left to find, apparently.
The discovery was made by a sharp-eyed conservator, reports The Guardian:
The Norwich Castle discovery came to light while Alice Tavares da Silva, a conservator who also works for the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge, was studying the picture before its loan to the major Magritte retrospective at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, which opens this month.
Once the picture’s frame had been removed, she noticed the edges had been painted over and round the stretcher in a way that was unrelated to the composition on the front. There were details, she later discovered, such as “a little bit of the blue sky”.
Further research led her to a report by conservators at MoMA. The painting was then transferred to the Hamilton Kerr Institute to be x-rayed and studied further. The results confirmed initial suspicions. She describes the discovery as “hugely exciting”.
Connoisseurship and Rubens
September 8 2016
Alejandro Vergara - CODART NEGENTIEN Madrid 2016 from CODART on Vimeo.
Video: Codart
Here's another great video from the Codart conference on connoisseurship. Prado curator Alejandro Vergara discusses the tricky issue of attributing works to Rubens, given the widespread involvement of his studio assistants.
Job Opportunity!
September 8 2016
Picture: Tate
Sir Nicholas Serota is leaving Tate, after an extroardinary 30 years as Director. Has anyone transformed a UK arts institution to such an extent? He's going to become Chairman of Arts Council England. More here.
So, who's next?
Prof. Christopher Brown on connoisseurship
September 7 2016
Christopher Brown - CODART NEGENTIEN Madrid 2016 from CODART on Vimeo.
Video: Codart
Earlier this year Codart, the organisation for curators of Dutch and Flemish art, held a conference on the subject of connoisseurship. In the video above, the former Director of the Ashmolean museum, Prof. Christopher Brown, gives what I think is the best defence of connoisseurship I've yet heard. Well worth a watch.
Update - you can see the other talks from the conference here. I'll be posting more of them soon.
Finaldi tour of the National Gallery
September 7 2016
Picture: Facebook/National Gallery
On Facebook last night the new National Gallery director Dr Gabriele Finaldi gave a 'live' tour of some of the Gallery's highlights. It's well worth a watch, as Dr Finaldi is a great and natural communicator - we need to get him on the telly pronto.
As of this afternoon, an astonishing 117,000 people have watched it.
New light on Titian's studio
September 7 2016
Picture: National Gallery
I've seen some tantalising tweets from The Burlington Magazine on an article on Titian's workshop practice in their new September edition:
In our new issue, a previously unpublished 16th century treatise sheds new light on Titian's studio.
The treatise reveals both the techniques used by Venetian artists & the interests of collectors at that time.
Read more about the treatise in 'A visit to Titian's studio' by Michel Hochmann.
That's about it; there's no further information on the magazine's site. You need to either buy the single article here, for a whopping £15, or the magazine itself, for £25.
Now, as a free marketeer I'm relaxed about publications charging for content. But £15 for a single, academic art historical article strikes me as almost ridiculous. First, Especially when you consider that The Burlington Magazine is actually operated as a charity, by The Burlington Magazine Foundation, and describes itself as:
The Burlington Magazine is a charitable, non-profit-making scholarly magazine.
I can't immediately see how - in this age of expected free access - charging so much for a single article really helps art historical scholarship. Indeed, the fee inhibits The Burlington's central mission. Also, The Burlington website stresses on its page for contributors (for whom, as far as I can see, payment is not obviously offered) that museums should supply illustrations for free, because the magazine is charitible and scholarly.
Surely the magazine should trial a different charging model - whether it be increased online advertisting revenue from free access, or a lower pricing structure. Perhaps if they charged just £1 an article they'd sell more than 15 times the amount they do now.
The most recent accounts, to the end of 2014, show that the Foundation had an income of £165,000.
Update - a reader writes:
Of course just because it’s a charity doesn’t mean it doesn’t need revenues.
I don’t know if they still do, but the Burlington used to pay contributors £50 for an article (which, as a percentage of the minimum hourly wage, is only just higher than the 0 most of us receive), which I and no doubt others waived. But this seems much less objectionable than the terms of the contributors’ contract which was introduced several years ago and which is the reason why I no longer contribute: it transfers all the risk for copyright, defamation etc. (nontrivial in this age in which so many experts now refuse to authenticate valuable art) onto the contributor. I could go into a huge amount of detail on this [...], but in short and in my opinion the value transfer between contributor and magazine through these indemnities far exceeds any fees.
Both Shone and Spalding [the current and previous editors] dug their heels in over this. No doubt they felt that the Magazine shouldn’t run the risk of bankruptcy over a contributor’s opinion. But the legal risks (however remote) may well be far more than the contributor can pay, so they are on the hook anyway with secondary liability, and if they are serious they should insure (which contributors mostly can’t).
Let’s hope the new editor takes a more enlightened view.
'Cols Rouges' sentenced in Paris
September 7 2016
Picture: Lesechos.fr
A long-running case over theft and corruption at the Paris auction centre, Drouot, has concluded with jail sentences for the ringleaders of the Cols Rouges thieves. The Cols Rouges were the porters at the Drouot, and were marked out by their red collars. The had a monopoly on who could handle art for the various auctions that took place there. It turns out that items would regularly 'get lost' from sales, and that some of the Cols Rouges were casually helping themselves to goodies, including in one case a painting by Gustave Courbet. More here.
'Beyond Caravaggio'
September 6 2016
Video: National Gallery
The National Gallery's new show 'Beyond Caravaggio' opens on 12th October. More details here.
If you can't wait till then, you can see a very similar show at the Thyssen collection in Madrid till 18th September. I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of this during installation, and thought it was excellent.
This is not Shakespeare (ctd.)
September 6 2016
Picture: BBC
A reader alerts me to the above story on the BBC website, about the mis-attribution of Shakespeare's phrases. Shame they've used the wrong portrait...
Update - someone seems to have told the BBC, since the story is now illustrated with the Droeshout engraving. One tiny victory...
Who'll buy £30m Pontormo portrait? (ctd.)
September 6 2016
Picture: DCMS
Martin Bailey in The Art Newspaper reports that the National Gallery is currelntly trying to buy the £30m export-stopped Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap by Pontormo. The painting was subject to an export bar earlier this year after it was suddenly sold to an overseas buyer - despite being on the walls of the National Gallery, where it was on loan. Such goings on are rightly frowned upon.
Making matters more complicated in this instance, and also more frown-able, is the fact that the owners of the painting paid the inheritance tax that was due on the picture at the point of the sale. Under the UK government's Acceptance in Lieu scheme, inheritance tax can be foregone if a museum decides to intercept an exported painting and attempt to buy it. So in the case of the Pontormo, the price to a UK museum would have been substantially less (one imagines 40% less) than the full £30m sale price. It was suspected that the owner's decision to pay the tax was done deliberately, to make life more difficult for any UK museum wanting to 'save' the picture, and thus to help expedite the sale to the overseas buyer by making it more likely that the painting would not be export-barred.
Therefore, the National Gallery is in discussions with the government about rescinding the inheritance tax already paid - so that the Gallery can still buy the painting at the discounted price. Obviously, it would be good in this case if a deal can be reached. And it would set a useful precedent for the future.
The painting was only re-discovered in 2008, by the great art sleuth and Renaissance scholar Francis Russell of Christie's. Bailey reports that it belongs to the Earls of Caledon.
Recreating John Constable's 'Haywain'
September 6 2016
Picture: ITV News
Two artists from New Zealand have travelled to Flatford Mill in Suffolk to try and recreate John Constable's 'Haywain'. You can see the results here. While we must award them an A for effort, the fact that the horse drawn cart wasn't able to actually enter the water (too muddy, they said) makes the whole thing seem something of a waste of time.
Job Opportunity!
September 6 2016
Picture: Guardian
Martin Roth has resigned as director of the V&A after five years. Reports yesterday said the move was in response to the UK's Brexit vote. Today, it was claimed by the chairman of the V&A that it was down to family reasons.
'Britain's Lost Masterpieces'
September 2 2016
Picture: BG
There's been a last-minute scheduling change - my new series, 'Britain's Lost Masterpieces', will now start on Wednesday 28th September on BBC4. This is welcome news, as it gives us a little more time to finish the series, which is still being made.
Today my co-presenter, Jacky Klein, and I recorded the voiceover for programme 1. It takes about an hour or so, and you sit in a little booth (above) with a microphone and two screens. You watch the relevant clip, then when a little red light comes on, you read from the script. The trick is not to be too distracted by the shocking sight of seeing your mug on the telly, and somehow get the words out.
Test your tattoo connoisseurship
August 31 2016
Picture: Dr Matt Loder
The great Dr Matt Loder, art historian at the University of Essex and a master of all things tattoo, would like to know if any AHNers recognise the composition on the above tattoo. I'm afraid I'm stumped, but I guess it must be some European painting or illustration of the late 19th Century. Matt tells us that the design was available to be tattooed in London before 1900, and that the tattooist is also known to have copied designs by Faleros and Bougereau. All thoughts gratefully received...
'Can Old Masters be relevant again?' (ctd.)
August 31 2016
Picture: Guardian
Regular readers may wonder why I get so exercised about articles in places like the New York Times that make up statistics to suggest that the Old Master is in dramatic decline. But on the Guardian website today we see how the view of a respected paper like the New York Times can quickly gain momentum, and even get exagerated. Here's Jonathan Jones' response to the Times piece:
I see a depressing feature in the New York Times claims that “old master” art has lost all relevance, is no longer of much interest to collectors, and may even cease to be sold by major auction houses.
Actually, the Times didn't say anything like that about auction houses ceasing to sell Old Masters - but you can see how easily rumours and sentiment spread. Jones (I presume) has mis-read a quote in the Times piece from Phillips auction house, which doesn't sell Old Masters (and of course has an interest in publicising its modern and contemporary wares over those of Old Masters).
But anyway, Jones then gives us his own somewhat curious diagnosis on why Old Masters have fallen so far from favour:
The reported crisis in the old master market is the inevitable result of the snobbery and elitism that has suffocated paintings for far too long. The very term “old master” is a horrible, destructive piece of pretension – what does it even mean? The custodians of oil paintings often seem to revel in the obscurity of their taste, putting on exhibitions that flaunt erudite connoisseurship and have little to say to the general public.
Ironically, the Guardian website illustrates this piece with an image of a painting (Lady in a Fur Wrap from Pollok House in Glasgow, above) captioned as El Greco, which is of course now viewed by El Greco scholars as not being by El Greco.* But let's not flaunt our snobbish connoisseurship, for Jones has his own remedy for our Old Master woes:
This autumn’s exhibition Beyond Caravaggio at the National Gallery in London is exactly the kind of show museums need to put on. It starts with Caravaggio, a late Renaissance artist of huge modern appeal, and shows how his art influenced his time – in other words it uses him as a key to unlock art by painters many visitors won’t have heard of. Too much of the time, curators repress the universal appeal of great art by focusing on side issues and snobby footnotes.
If the National Gallery explored the most attractive artists in its collection with more big shows on Bruegel, Bosch, Caravaggio and their like, it could sell out [...]
At this point, we wonder quite where Jones has been for the last decade or so. Exhibitions like Beyond Caravaggio have been the staple of museums for years. I don't know of any curators who obsess about footnotes over putting on a good show. All the ones I know want passionately to get new audiences into see Old Masters.
And the thing is, they're really good at it. Look at the Bosch show selling out in the Prado, and the Rembrandt show that sold out in London, like the Leonardo show in 2012. Look at the Royal Collection's highly successful tour of ten Leonardo drawings to regional museums in Britain. There are better ways to encourage people to see Old Masters than ranting against imagined snobby curators.
Finally, Jones thinks he can see a good side to the alleged collapse of Old Master values - which is what the New York Times falsely claimed was happening:
And there’s another reason to shrug off the art market’s philistinism. If great paintings are going cheap that’s good for museums. They could actually buy a few. Meanwhile owners of great works from earlier centuries will be less likely to cash them in on the art market, which will help to keep them in places like Britain that still have a lot of old art stashed away in stately homes.
In fact, the reason more great pictures are leaving Britain than for many years (e.g. the Rosebery Turners, the newly discovered Rembrandt self-portrait, and so on) is because the best Old Master paintings are fetching sums never seen before. Many doubted that Rubens' sumptuous but challenging scene of Lot being seduced by his daughters would break its £20m reserve, but it soared to £45m, with six bidders, including three Chinese collectors. These are facts that the Guardian and the New York Times ignore. Because writing a 'new art beats old art' story is just easier.
*I was very kindly shown this picture recently by Glasgow Museums, and for what it's worth I certainly didn't see El Greco's hand in it at all. This makes it no less of an interesting and beautiful picture, one of the finest in Scottish public collections. I suspect it's closer to Sanchez Coello.
