Craft in Art at the Laing Art Gallery
April 30 2025
Picture: Laing Art Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne will be opening an exhibition next month on the subject of craft in paintings, drawings and prints entitled With These Hands.
According to their website:
With These Hands explores the representation of craft in paintings, drawings, and prints. The process of making and mending by hand whether a domestic pastime, rural and semi-industrial labour, or essential war effort, is a persistent theme to which artists return. Yet these artworks are rarely straightforward observations of everyday activity. Instead, the act of making is used to symbolise personal and communal identity, leisure and work, tradition and progress.
Produced in Britain and Europe from the 1750s onwards, these images reflect a society undergoing immense change. The growth of industry, the reorganisation of the methods and places of work, the changing status of women and the conflicts of World War I and II all impacted the value placed on hand skill. Some artists were interested in capturing traditions – their works romanticising crafts they perceived as almost lost – while others were drawn to the atmosphere and activity of the workshop and factory.
The show will run from 17th May until 27th September 2025.
Upcoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin, 1880-1900
April 30 2025
Picture: gilesltd.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art in Notre Dame, Indiana, will be opening an exhibition entitled Homecoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin, 1880–1900 in August 2025.
According to their website:
The exhibition charts Osborne’s trajectory from his student days in Dublin and Antwerp through his sojourn in Brittany and his early practice in England before returning to his native city in 1892 to care for his niece and aging parents following the death of his beloved sister Violet. Through his depictions of Dublin’s streets, parks, public spaces, domestic interiors and gardens, countryside, and most importantly its people, a vision of a vibrant––if divided––Ireland emerges. Osborne’s experiences abroad and his commercial acumen helped establish Dublin’s unique brand of Modern painting rife with the possibility of change. Iconic works by the artist on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland, Hugh Lane Gallery, Hunt Museum in Limerick, Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, and private collectors in Ireland and the United States offer a rich tapestry of life and art in Ireland at the close of the nineteenth century.
The show will run from 19th August until 17th December 2025.
Northern Treasures at Artcurial
April 29 2025
Picture: Artcurial
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very late to the news that Artcurial in Paris will be auctioning off a significant private collection of early works from Northern Europe tomorrow. The sale contains some rather high value lots and includes works by the key figures associated with the artistic produce of this part of the continent.
LACMA acquire Virginia Vezzi Self Portrait
April 29 2025
Picture: lacma.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have announced their acquisition of Virginia Vezzi's (also known as Virginia da Vezzo) Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (spotted via @mweilc). The work was acquired through the New York dealer Robert Simon.
According to their website (which is worth reading in full):
Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria is a rediscovered painting by Virginia Vezzi, also known as Virginia da Vezzo, whose story is a typical one for a female artist in the early years of the 1600s. Despite her success as a painter in Rome and Paris, her reputation was ignored by contemporary chroniclers and then ultimately lost to the writers of art history in the centuries that followed. Only recently have the biographical details of her life been uncovered, and along with them, her artistic accomplishments.
MET acquires Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder
April 28 2025
Picture: @adamwilliamsfineart
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The New York dealers Adam Williams Fine Art have announced on Instagram the sale of this floral still life to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Dating to around 1619-1621, the work made 3,307,800 EUR at Drouot in 2019.
Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis visit Holbeins at Frick Collection
April 28 2025
Video: @ukinnewyork
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The British Consulate General in New York has released the following video of the recent visit of actors Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis visiting the newly renovated Frick Collection. In particular, they are captured admiring Hans Holbein's portraits of characters they played in the popular Tudor series Wolf Hall.
Jacques Blanchard acquired by Musée du Grand Siècle
April 28 2025
Picture: Alexandre Gady via LinkedIn
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the Director of the Musée du Grand Siècle, Alexandre Gady, that the museum has acquired Jacques Blanchard's Diana and Endymion (spotted via @gazette_inter). Painted around 1632, it was executed for the interior of the Hôtel Le Barbier and joins Blanchard's Apollo and Daphne which is also in the museum's collection from the same series.
Southern Netherlandish Art Programme Summer School 2025
April 28 2025
Picture: University of Cambridge & Rubenshuis
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News has arrived that the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge and the Rubenshuis in Antwerp are inviting applications for a Summer School for Southern Netherlandish Art this July.
According to the document supplied (click here for more details):
This is a call for applications to a Summer School in Antwerp/Brussels and Cambridge/London from Tuesday 1st July to Thursday 10th July.
The focus will be Southern Netherlandish Art, 1500-1700. The summer school is organised by the History of Art Department and Trinity Hall, the University of Cambridge, and the Rubenshuis, Antwerp. The programme is kindly funded by the Government of Flanders. [...]
The programme aims to bring together 12 promising emerging researchers to explore Southern Netherlandish Art through lectures by experts in the field and guided tours of museum collections, churches, and private collections in stately homes. The summer course will present a unique opportunity to expand the participants' networks in Belgium and England.
Applications must be in by 12th May 2025.
The World of Johan de Witt in Dordrecht
April 28 2025
Video: RTV Dordrecht
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Dordrecht Museums have just opened a new exhibition celebrating the life of Johan de Witt, a key patron and figure in the Dutch Republic. The show is supported by loans from across the Netherlands, including the Allegory of War (1664) by Jan Lievens and Allegory of Peace (1669) by Adriaen Hanneman commissioned by de Witt for the Senate at the Binnenhof.
The museum have also taken the opportunity of restoring a group portrait featuring de Witt's sister Maria by Caspar Netscher. The museum have posted this photo of what her face looked like pre-retouching:
Can you imagine having to tackle that? Thank goodness there was a copy of the painting to help reconstruct what her face looked like before. Click on the link above to see how the painting appears now.
New York Court tells Art Institute of Chicago to Surrender Schiele
April 25 2025
Picture: Art Institute of Chicago
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A court in New York has ruled in favour of the claimants of Egon Schiele's Russian War Prisoner, which has been at the centre of a legal battle with its current owners the Art Institute of Chicago.
According to the article above:
Drysdale ruled the museum failed to adequately scrutinize the drawing’s provenance, relying on now-discredited records from Swiss dealer Eberhard Kornfeld, who claimed to have bought the work from Grünbaum’s sister-in-law. Authorities overseeing the dispute presented evidence that Kornfeld forged documents in order to sell the works discretely.
Dutch Town Hall Bins Warhol Print
April 25 2025
Picture: BBC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The BBC have reported on news that the town hall in Uden, part of the Maashorst municipality in the Netherlands, had accidentally binned an Andy Warhol print of the former Dutch queen worth about €15,000.
According to the report:
A statement by the municipality on Thursday said the artworks were put into storage during work on a town hall in Uden - which is being incorporated into the neighbouring municipality of Landerd to form the Maashorst municipality.
"It's most likely that the artworks were accidentally taken away with the trash," they said.
Bührle Foundation reaches confidential settlement with heirs of Jewish Collector over Manet
April 25 2025
Picture: wikipedia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Switzerland that the Bührle Foundation, which has placed most of its works on loan to the Kunsthaus in Zurich, has reached a confidential settlement regarding Edouard Manet's La Sultane. The settlement was organised with the heirs of the Jewish industrialist collector, Max Silberberg, who claimed the work was sold due to Nazi persecution (click on the link above to read more).
National Trust conserve Upton House Tintoretto
April 25 2025
Picture: The National Trust, Upton House
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Trust have shared news that Jacopo Tintoretto's The Wise and Foolish Virgins, in the collection of Upton House in Warwickshire, has been conserved. The work was subjected to a conservation project that began in 2022 and has apparently revealed all sorts of intriguing details. The restored painting is part of a new display in the house drawing attention to the recent campaign of research, analysis and cleaning.
Worcester Art Museum acquires Heemskerck at TEFAF
April 25 2025
Picture: Worcester Art Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Worcester Art Museum have announced their acquisition of Maerten van Heemskerck's Entombment. Visitors to TEFAF would have spotted the work on Caretto & Occhinegro's stand this year on offer for a reported €500,000. The two wings that were originally attached to the painting were already on long-term loan to the museum from a private collection.
According to the museum's press release:
“Discoveries of Old Master works, along with new attributions, are still being made today—though rarely at this level of quality,” said Matthias Waschek, Jean and Myles McDonough Director. “It takes intuition and detective work by connoisseurs, with specialists authenticating the attribution and conservators revealing hidden details beneath centuries of grime. We are grateful for Van Heemskerck expert Peter van den Brink, who recognized the connection between the donor panels on long-term loan at the Museum and this newly acquired central panel. Thanks to the gallerists’ commitment to placing the work in a museum and Claire Whitner’s initiative, we can reunite this triptych after many years, possibly centuries —a remarkable moment that enriches our art historical narrative.”
Duke of Rutland's Poussin Ends Up in Louvre Abu Dhabi
April 25 2025
Picture: The Art Newspaper
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper has shared news that Nicolas Poussin's Confirmation, which failed to find a UK institution willing to stump up the £19m required to keep it in the country when the Duke of Rutland sold it in 2022, has ended up in the collection of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The picture has gone on display alongside Poussin's Self Portrait on loan from the Louvre in Paris in a special display. The unveiling of this news is part of the Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism's plan to make more of their recent acquisitions public in the coming year.
Free Lecture: Places of the Mind, Portraits of the Soul: Drawings by Jonathan Richardson and John Constable
April 25 2025
Picture: YCBA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News has arrived that this year's Milein Cosman Lecture at the Slade School of Fine Art in London will be entitled Places of the Mind, Portraits of the Soul: Drawings by Jonathan Richardson and John Constable. The free-to-attend talk will be presented by the art historian and scholar Dr Susan Owens.
According to the talk's blurb:
Born a little over a hundred years apart, Jonathan Richardson (1667-1745) and John Constable (1776-1837) both used drawing to pursue projects of intense introspection. Richardson made a sequence of self-portraits in which he explored the process of his own ageing with pathos and wit, while Constable parted from his family home in Suffolk with a series of intensely emotional drawings of significant places. In this lecture, Dr Owens will look at drawing’s role in soul-searching and taking stock.
The talk will take place in London on 6th May 2025 and more booking details can be found through the link above.
Upcoming: Pieter Claesz Still Lifes at the KHM
April 24 2025
Picture: khm.at
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the Kunsthistoriches Musuem in Vienna that they'll be opening an exhibition in June on Still Lifes by Pieter Claesz (an oddly sunny season for such a contemplative show, I think).
According to their website:
From 17 June 2025, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, in cooperation with the Kaiserschild-Stiftung, will present a special exhibition on the Dutch Baroque painter Pieter Claesz (1597/98–1660) as part of the Kaiserschild Art Defined project. Claesz is considered one of the most important still life painters of the seventeenth century.
In collaboration with the Alte Galerie of the Universalmuseum Joanneum Graz and the Kunst Museum Winterthur, three atmospherically rich still life paintings by Pieter Claesz will be on display, showcasing his masterful use of light and his refined handling of materiality. The presentation is complemented by high-resolution digital reproductions that invite interactive engagement with the artworks. Visitors can explore intricate details and delve deeper into the Baroque visual language of the so-called Golden Age.
NGI Restores and Redisplays Mazzolino
April 24 2025
Video: National Gallery of Ireland
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very slow to news that the National Gallery of Ireland has restored and redisplayed The Crossing of the Red Sea by Ludovico Mazzolino (spotted via @Mweilc). The work was funded in part by the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund and will be on display until 6th July 2025.
Sale of €30m Klimt Falls Through
April 24 2025
Picture: Kinsky
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Austrian press have reported that the sale of Gustav Klimt's Fräulein Lieser, which made €30m at Kinsky in Vienna last April, has fallen through. The article above (which lays out the complicated provenance of the picture) suggests that the sticking point surrounded the winning bidder's desire, seemingly represented by Patti Wong & Associates of Hong Kong, to have 'declarations of indemnity from all heirs of Adolf and Lilly Lieser before the purchase was concluded.' It seems that one heir had refused to sign such an agreement.
Upcoming: Turner - Always Contemporary
April 24 2025
Picture: Walker Art Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool have recently announced a large exhibition this autumn to celebrate the aforementioned 250th anniversary of JMW Turner's birth.
Here's the blurb behind the show's title Turner: Always Contemporary:
Turner: Always Contemporary (25 October 2025 – 22 February 2026) will include National Museums Liverpool's collection of Turner's oil paintings, works on paper and prints, alongside modern and contemporary artworks that delve into themes of travel, landscape, and artistic experimentation. A number of important and influential loaned works will feature.
Offering a fresh perspective on Turner and his legacy, highlighting how he grappled with issues that remain relevant today: climate change, immigration, tourism, and the role of the artist. Alongside Turner's works, visitors will encounter pieces by Claude Monet, Ethel Walker, Bridget Riley and many more, bringing together 250 years of art to examine Turner's timeless appeal.
