Alba Collection Borrows and Cleans Duke of Pastrana's Painting
October 2 2025
Picture: vanitatis.elconfidencial.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that the Casa de Alba Foundation in Madrid have restored and put on display the Duke of Pastrana's double portrait of María Enríquez de Toledo, the III Duchess of Alba and her husband Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel. It appears that the picture has been catalogued simply as 'Spanish School' for the time being. The display is part of a new collaborative project to highlight paintings from private collections not usually accessible to the public. The Pastrana painting has been placed alongside Rubens' double portrait of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal from the Alba collection.
Stubbs at The National Gallery in 2026
October 2 2025
Picture: National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London announced yesterday that they will be hosting a special temporary exhibition in 2026 entitled Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse. The true headline of the exhibition is that the artist's painting of Scrub, which remains in the collection of the Earls of Halifax, will feature nearby* the gallery's famous painting of Whistlejacket. It appears that the last time they were actually hung next to another was at the Leeds City Art Gallery in 2008.
The free display will run from 12th March until 31st May 2026.
* - The NG have kindly been in touch to let me know that actually 'Scrub will be shown in Room 1 whilst Whistlejacket will remain in Room 34.'
Latest Burlington Magazine
October 2 2025
Picture: burlington.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
October's edition of The Burlington Magazine contains the usual feast of interesting new research and articles.
Here's a list of the main pieces within this month's edition:
Waiting for 'The Three Musicians'. G.F. and Erna Reber's First Picassos - By Ana Jozefacka and Luise Mahler
The Renaissance in the Kingdom of Naples: new perspectives on Sebastianodi Cola da Casentino - By Rossella Monopoli
New proposals about Ingres’s ‘Self-portrait at the age of twenty-four’ - By Sylvain Bédard
Scraps of genius, taste and skill: works by John Constable in the Mason album - By Emma Roodhouse
Discussing John Constable: an interview with Bridget Riley - By Bridget Riley and Amy Concannon
Theodoor van Loon’s sketch of St Anne and her family with angels and St Gertrude - By Sabine Van Sprang
A recently identified Scottish portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie by Katherine Read - By Edward Corp
Louis Finson gifted to Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille
October 1 2025
Picture: Drouot
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from France (spotted via @Gazette_Inter & @Mweilc) that Louis Finson's St Sebastian, which sold earlier in June for 416,000 EUR at Drouot, has been gifted to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille from the JG Foundation.
Städel Museum to conserve Rembrandt's The Blinding of Samson
October 1 2025
Picture: Städel Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news from Frankfurt that the Städel Museum are embarking on a conservation project on Rembrandt's The Blinding of Samson. The latest campaign is expected to take 3 or 4 years and has been funded in part by the Bank of America Art Conservation Project. The article linked above has more details regarding technical examinations undertaken on the picture a few years ago.
To quote the article linked above:
“Our goal is to restore Rembrandt’s painting to its original intensity while ensuring the long-term preservation of the painting’s substance,” Stephan Knobloch, the Städel’s head of art technology and restoration, said in a statement. “Every measure is carefully tailored to the original techniques and materials in order to preserve the work as the artist intended.”
2025 Release: The Miniature Painter Revealed
October 1 2025
Picture: Lyons Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very slow to news that a new book on the miniature painter Amalia Kussner was published earlier this summer. The volume was penned by Kathleen Langone.
Here's the publisher's synopsis:
From simple beginnings, Amalia Kussner rose to fame as a talented and bold artist and ultimately became one of the most sought-after miniature portrait painters of the Gilded Age. At a time when the use of photography was on the rise, many still loved miniatures, which had a feeling and soul to them that photos could not duplicate. Miniatures could be worn as jewelry or carried between winter and summer homes and easily set out on display. Amalia's portraits provided a grandeur that matched how the Gilded Age elite perceived themselves: as royalty.
Yet no female portrait artists had the notoriety or esteemed clientèle that Amalia did. Her subjects included members of the Astor family, Consuelo Vanderbilt, "dollar heiress" Minnie Paget, England's Edward VII, Russia's Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra, and diamond mine magnate Cecil Rhodes. At the height of her career, from the mid-1890s to early 1910, having a Kussner miniature was just as important an accessory as owning fine jewelry or a mansion in Newport. "Famous sitters, drawn to her by the accuracy and skill of her brush, never failed to become life-long friends," read her obituary.
AHRC Funding for Early Career Fellowships
October 1 2025
Picture: ukri.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A quick note that the UK AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) are inviting applications for funding for Early career fellowships in cultural and heritage institutions: 2025. With awards of up to £312,500, the scheme is ideally placed for those seeking to undertake research alongside UK galleries, libraries, archives and museums with independent research organisation status. Click on the link above for the full terms and conditions.
Applications must be in by 10th December 2025.
Recently Opened: Squalor City: William Hogarth's London
September 30 2025
Picture: Pruzan Art Center
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Pruzan Art Center at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, have just opened a temporary exhibition entitled Squalor City: William Hogarth's London (spotted via enfilade18thc.com).
According to their website:
A peerless storyteller with great satirical flourish, William Hogarth (1697–1764) brings spectators into the raucous streets and parlors of Georgian London, at once the center of a mighty empire and, in the artist’s view, a den of grifters, social climbers, cynics, and fools. Though his images teem with references to actual personalities and places of 18th-century London, Hogarth’s concerns were more universal than specific. With a balance of humor and sincerity, his art contends with the quandaries of how to hew to a moral path within a competitive, market-driven society; how to build social institutions that serve their communities faithfully; and fundamentally, what kind of society the people of a given time and place ought to build—all questions that demand our attention in the present. This exhibition draws from the Davison Art Collection’s deep holdings of Hogarth’s prints.
The show will run until 13th December 2025.
Trois Crayons Talks Online
September 30 2025
Picture: Trois Crayons via YouTube
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
For those who weren't able to attend the series of talks organised by the drawings collective Trois Crayons during the London sales this summer, nearly all of the talks have been uploaded for free onto their YouTube channel. Click on the link above to browse through the recordings.
Klaus Hegewisch Collection at Christie's London
September 30 2025
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's London have uploaded their upcoming Spellbound: The Hegewisch Collection, Part I auction online. The sale contains an extensive collection of Prints & Drawings amassed by the late Klaus Hegewisch (d. 2014) and will take place on 16th October 2025.
Digital Reconstruction of Emma Hamilton's Face
September 30 2025
Picture: The Guardian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News broke over the weekend of the latest efforts of French specialists to digitally reconstruct the face of Lady Emma Hamilton from the skull which is purported to have been hers. The remains, which were originally placed in the churchyard of St Pierre’s in Calais, formed the basis of a digital reconstruction allowing us to compare her features to those found in countless paintings by the likes of George Romney, Joshua Reynolds, Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Thomas Lawrence, Vigée Le Brun and others. Click on the link above to see the image for yourself.
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The result? Personally, I would trust (perhaps rather foolishly) the brush of the artists listed above, who truly captured the spirit of Emma a thousand times more convincingly than the odd B&W image produced here...
National Gallery of Ireland acquire Jan Miense Molenaer
September 29 2025
Picture: TEFAF via Facebook
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
TEFAF (The European Fine Art Foundation) have announced that the National Gallery of Ireland have acquired the following Self-portrait of the Artist in his Studio by Jan Miense Molenaer. The picture was acquired from the Koetser Gallery who exhibited the work at the 2025 edition of TEFAF.
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Interestingly, the title of the picture doesn't make it clear that the painter has actually depicted himself being propositioned by a mature lady for many golden coins. A rather fun inversion of the popular 'unequal lovers' theme, which many artists usually present between an older gent and a younger lady.
Simone Martini's St. Louis of Toulouse to be Restored
September 29 2025
Picture: Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte have announced the upcoming conservation of Simone Martini's monumental St. Louis of Toulouse. Dated to around 1317, the painting was last restored in 1966. The new campaign of work will be undertaken by the company Opificio delle Pietre Dure and will last approximately 6 months.
Antonio de Saliba St Sebastian acquired by Museo regionale Accascina Messina
September 29 2025
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Museo regionale Accascina Messina have acquired a St Sebastian by Antonio de Saliba. The work was pre-empted by the Italian state for 100,000 EUR.
Paul Troubetzkoy at the Musée d'Orsay
September 29 2025
Video: Musée d'Orsay
Posted by Adam Busiakeiwicz:
The Musée d'Orsay will be opening an exhibition tomorrow dedicated to the sculptor Paul Troubetzkoy (1866 -1938).
According to their website:
The exhibition traces the life of this artist, born in Italy and a Parisian by adoption, who also had a brilliant career in the United States. A highly talented portraitist, he was much sought-after by a cosmopolitan elite, celebrities, the Parisian smart set and the first American film stars. His life was marked by decisive encounters and friendships with men of letters, such as Tolstoy in Russia and George Bernard Shaw in Paris, with whom he shared a vegetarian lifestyle, somewhat unusual for the era. In addition to the portraits that made his name, the exhibition also highlights his animal sculptures along with his work on behalf of animal rights, of which he was an ardent advocate well ahead of his time.
The show will run until 11th January 2026.
Caravaggio gets the AI Treatment
September 29 2025
Picture: The Guardian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Guardian have run another AI story over the weekend regarding claims from Swiss Art Authentication Specialists 'Art Recognition' that a copy of Caravaggio's famous Lute Player is exactly 85.7% by the artist himself. The painting, which was sold at auction in 2001 as 'Circle of Caravaggio', is currently owned by British art historian and gallerist Clovis Whitfield who has decided to go down the AI route of connoisseurship.
To quote a section of the article:
Whitfield made his purchase with Alfred Bader, a collector who died in 2016, to whom [Keith] Christiansen [former European Paintings Curator at the MET in New York] wrote in 2007: “No one – certainly no modern scholar – has ever or ever would entertain the idea that your painting could be painted by Caravaggio.”
Whitfield said Christiansen and some Italian scholars were “a bit stuck in the traditional mud” in refusing to accept the attribution, even though other experts support it. “The AI result knocks Mr Christiansen off his perch,” he said.
Art Recognition’s analysis also concluded that the Wildenstein [which has a much better claim to be by Caravaggio, according to Christiansen] was “not an authentic work”. Popovici said: “Our AI returned a negative result.”
Well, there we have it.
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As it happens, I decided to test out the connoisseurship of 'Grok' the other week, the AI arm of the social media platform 'X' (formerly known as Twitter). I decided to feed it with an unattributed head study in the V&A, which I have a feeling may be by Henry Fuseli. Here's the thread if you want to read how that went.
Despite the best efforts of AI, it seems strange that it failed to spot any connection it may have to Fuseli's The Oath on the Grütli, which was my best guess having spent a good deal of time surfing through the relevant literature on the artist before hand (just to make sure I can still do it, just about...). It's a good job another AI Art APP called 'Bendor Grokvenor' also pipped in with their thoughts.
Royal Collection Clean Giulio Romano
September 29 2025
Video: Royal Collection Trust via Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakeiwicz:
The Royal Collection Trust have published the following video showing the results of conservation on Giulio Romano's The Nurture of Jupiter. The painting is now on display at Windsor Castle, the first time it has been in 60 years apparently.
Sleeper Alert!
September 27 2025
Picture: JSFineArt
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Oxfordshire (via. @RohanGreyFA) that the following 'Italian old master. The Virgin Madonna and Child' realised £685,000 (hammer price) over its starting bid of £200 at JSFineArt auctioneers today.
Another reader also kindly got in touch separately regarding another picture in the sale catalogued as 'Flemish School, 'La Boine Denemarque', a portrait of a Tudor lady' which made £20,000 (hammer price) presumably also with a low starting bid. Might this painting relate to the Christian II in the Society of Antiquaries? More news as and when it appears...
Update - The picture has since been removed from the auction house website. The two names connected with the picture on social media accounts are Perugino and Lo Spagna.
Direct Collections and Research at the National Museum Wales
September 26 2025
Picture: National Museum Wales via ArtUK
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Museum Wales (Amgueddfa Cymru) are hiring a Director of Collections and Research.
According to the job description:
The Director of Collections and Research will play a central role in this transformation, leading a division of around 200 colleagues across collections, research, exhibitions, and conservation. Reporting to the Chief Executive, and working as part of the Senior Leadership Team, the Director will provide intellectual, strategic, and compassionate leadership to ensure the care, accessibility, and interpretation of the national collections. They will shape and deliver an ambitious exhibitions strategy, champion research excellence, and act as a visible ambassador for Amgueddfa Cymru across Wales and internationally.
Applications must be in by 30th September 2025 and no salary has been indicated.
Good luck if you're applying!
Titian sent to Brianza
September 26 2025
Picture: Villa Cusani Confalonieri
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Villa Cusani Confalonieri in Brianza is borrowing the Borghese Gallery's Titian of Venus Blindfolding Love for a special exhibition that opens on 17th October 2025. The loan is supported by various Italian organisations and institutions with the goal of disseminating great art into galleries outside of the city centres.
