Mrs Gainsborough sent to Bologna
July 3 2024
Picture: REMAGEN, ARP MUSEUM / COLLECTION RAU FOR UNICEF, INV. NO. GR 1.902
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that the Museo Davia Bargellini in Bologna has been lent Thomas Gainsborough's Portrait of the Artist's Wife from the Collection Rau for UNICEF. Completed in 1777, this marvellous portrait, full of painterly bravura, will be on display in the museum until 6th October 2024.
Kimbell Art Museum acquire Viscount Bolingbroke's Stubbs
July 3 2024
Picture: Kimbell Art Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the USA that the Kimbell Art Museum have acquired George Stubbs' Mares and Foals Belonging to the Second Viscount Bolingbroke. The picture, a purchase made through the London dealers Simon C. Dickinson Ltd., was acquired in memory of Ben J. Fortson, who served on the Foundation’s Board of Directors from 1964 to his passing earlier in May.
According to the press release:
The acquisition, along with that of Thomas Gainsborough’s painting Going to Market, Early Morning (c. 1773), purchased by the Kimbell in 2023, significantly elevates the Kimbell’s holdings of eighteenth-century British paintings, which Velma and Kay Kimbell favored when initially building their collection. The painting will be on view in the Kimbell’s Louis I. Kahn Building beginning June 28, 2024.
“With a mandate to collect only works of major historical and aesthetic importance, the Kimbell is the natural home for this masterpiece,” said Eric Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum. “I am sure that it will become an audience favorite. Visitors to the museum will relish the multidimensional depiction of mares and foals—alive with subtle drama, imbued with tenderness, and fascinating in its expression of the individual personalities of each horse.
Snijders&Rockoxhuis acquire Cornelis Schut sketch
July 3 2024
Picture: @galerie_ldw
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Galerie Lowet de Wotrenge have announced on Instagram that the Snijders&Rockoxhuis in Antwerp have acquired Cornelis Schut's sketch for The Circumcision of Christ. The painting had appeared at Hampel a number of years ago.
Art Gallery of New South Wales acquire Zurbaran Still Life
July 3 2024
Picture: @matthiesengallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Matthiesen Gallery have announced on Instagram that the Art Gallery of New South Wales have acquired a Still Life by Juan de Zurbaran. The gallery had led a successful public appeal to help raise the funds to acquire the work. The painting had sold at auction in Madrid in October 2022 and had recently been on Nicholas Hall's stand at TEFAF 2024.
According to the gallery's website:
In this quintessentially Spanish still life, a pear and a shiny pewter plate containing five life-size apples are presented tantalisingly close to our gaze, as if beckoning us to reach out and hold them. The artist endows these ordinary objects we all know intimately – with an ineluctable sense of presence and mystery that they do not possess in real life.
Tutor Art History at the University of Oxford for £24.13 per hour
July 3 2024
Picture: University of Oxford
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The University of Oxford are hiring a Tutor in Art History.
According to the job description:
We specialise in education to adult learners and we are seeking a part-time tutor to teach on our Undergraduate award-bearing courses in the History of Art, with a specialism of Medieval History of Art on the Certificate modules (First-year undergraduate level (FHEQ level 4)) . These are part-time award-bearing courses. Tutors’ duties include teaching face to face, marking and providing feedback on assessments, and providing supervision. The teaching sessions will take place on Wednesdays from 2pm-4pm in Ewert House, Summertown, Oxford starting 6 November and running for five weeks.
We are specifically seeking candidates who are familiar with the latest developments and debates in the discipline. We especially welcome applications from candidates who demonstrate an ability to teach global approaches to European medieval art history, including visual and material culture more broadly conceived.
The job comes with an hourly rate of £43.41 p/h for lectures and £24.13 p/h for tutorials. Applications must be in by 10th July.
Recent Release: Cecco Bravo
July 3 2024
Picture: editricedarte.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Italian scholar Francesca Baldassari has just published a two volume book on Cecco Bravo (1601-1661). The edition has been produced by Editrice Darte.
According to the publisher's website:
The author has put together seventy-seven autograph paintings, some of which are presented for the first time on this occasion, others already recognized to Cecco by the writer during her long years of study of seventeenth-century Florentine painting, ordering them chronologically by stylistic induction and through comparison with the very notable and more documented production in fresco.
Even more meritorious is the feat of gathering nearly four hundred of the artist’s drawings scattered in major museums around the world and in the most prestigious private collections, reproduced almost entirely in color.
The Spoils - Premiere at Film Fest München
July 3 2024
Video: Key Art + Design
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new documentary film focusing on the Jewish art dealer Max Stern (1904-1987) will be premiering at the Film Fest München tomorrow. The Spoils was directed by Jamie Kastner.
According to the film's website:
Amid the rise of the far-right in Germany, as the spoils of post-WW2 collections hit the world art market afresh, lawyers, curators, politicians, and Jewish groups the world round are duking it out, painting by painting, sketch by sketch, over questions of ownership, history, and morality.
A series of failed attempts by the city of Düsseldorf to honour German-Jewish art dealer Max Stern, who barely escaped the war, settled in Montreal and became Canada’s most successful art dealer, cuts to the heart of the current crisis in Germany and the art world beyond around the restitution of Nazi-looted art.
Through a combination of exclusive interviews, actuality captured over a four- year period, and a gold-mine of rarely seen stock footage, The Spoils traces the betimes tragic, often irony-laced strokes in this ongoing battle.
Van Dyck Sketch Reunited with Dendermonde Church Painting
July 3 2024
Picture: left - Wikipedia / right - Phoebus Foundation
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Phoebus Foundation, one of the most active organisations dedicated to Flemish and Netherlandish art in the world right now, have lent their Van Dyck sketch of The Adoration of the Shepherds to the Church of Our Lady in Dendermonde. Most notably, this church contains the artist's finished version of the composition (pictured left).
According to the foundation's website:
As part of the Flemish Masters in Situ art project, various Flemish masterpieces are displayed at their original locations. For example, a bozzetto by Anthony Van Dyck from our collection can be viewed in the Church of Our Lady in Dendermonde. This rare compositional sketch illustrates The Adoration of the Shepherds, which was designed for the church’s chapel.
The bozzetto offers a glimpse into Van Dyck’s initial concepts for the composition. The sketch was likely made to present his design and secure the commission. Most of the sketch is executed in grisaille, with a few color accents. Notable is the difference from the final composition, where various characters have changed in position or appearance, while other figures have remained unchanged.
In addition to the bozzetto and the final work, this summer you also have the chance to take a behind-the-scenes look at the restoration of another Van Dyck masterpiece, namely Christ on the Cross, which can also be seen in the Church of Our Lady.
The loan will continue until 11th October 2024.
Mauritshuis hiring a Junior Curator!
July 3 2024
Picture: Mauritshuis
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Mauritshuis in The Hague are hiring a Junior Curator (advert via CODART).
Based within the Collections and Scientific Departments, the post will cover many aspects of the curatorial needs of the institution including research, publications, exhibitions and events.
Applications for this 2-year role must be in before 5th August 2024 and no salary is indicated.
Good luck if you're applying!
From Christie's London to Getty Museum
July 2 2024
Video: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles have just announced their acquisition of the rediscovered Madonna of the Cherries by Quentin Metsys which sold at Christie's London this evening for £10,660,000 (inc. fees).
According to the museum's press release:
“The tender beauty and accessibility of Metsys’ representation of the familial bond between the Virgin Mary and Christ Child represents a major innovation in early Netherlandish painting that greatly heightens the emotional impact of the image,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “Painted at the height of his career, and preserved today in excellent condition, Madonna of the Cherries is among Metsys’ most appealing and influential compositions. Acknowledged as a masterpiece in its day, the painting became especially famous in the 17th century, after which its whereabouts were lost. I have no doubt that its spiritual and artistic resonance will make it one of the most beloved works in our collection.”
Longleat Titian makes £15m Hammer
July 2 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Christie's London Old Masters Part I sale realised a total of £43,594,800* (including fees) with 83.4% of lots sold / 74.1% including withdrawn lots.
Impressively, the top two lots, the Titian and the rediscovered Quentin Metsys had third-party guarantees. So too did the Master of the Monte Oliveto Madonna and Child and the Bonington Venetian picture.
Here's my live posting of the sale, which includes the hammer prices made by the top lots:
Update - And we're off! It was announced that Lots 18 (Roelant Savery), 19 (Jan Lievens) and 27 (View of Jerusalem) have been withdrawn.
Update 2 - Lot 1 soars to £280,000 over its £100k - $150k estimate. A good start.
Update 3 - All lots have broken their top estimates thus far. Lot 3, the early Portrait of Elizabeth I, hammered down at £720,000 over its £300k - £500k estimate.
Update 4 - Lot 4, the rediscovered Quentin Metsys, hammered down at £9m over its £8m - £12m estimate in the end. Remeber, this picture sold at £254,500 in 2015 as 'Studio of'. The painting sold to a bidder in the room, it seems.
Update 5 - Lot 8, the Longleat Titian, hammered down at £15m over its estimate of £15m - £25m. Bidding opened at £12.5m, rose quickly to £15m and stayed there until the hammer was brought down with Andrew Fletcher on the phone. The total is £17,560,000 with fees.
Update 6 - The first BI (bought in picture) of the sale, Lot 13 the Van der Ast still life.
Update 7 - The Earl of Cowdray's Frans Hals hammers down at £4.7m to Andrew Fletcher on the phone over its £4m - £6m estimate. It appears that there was a bidder in the room giving 'signs' to the auctioneer (Henry Pettifer) that weren't quite understood! A very dirty picture, which will look transformed once cleaned, certainly.
Update 8 - The monumental George Stubbs horses in a landscape failed to reach its reserve and didn't find a winning bid with its £7m - £10m estimate.
__________
* - This total was at £51m last night, I'm not sure why it has been so dramatically reduced in the past 24 hours.
Summer Sale Season is here!
June 28 2024
Picture: Philip Mould & Co. via AB
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Summer Sale Season and London Art Week is finally here! Forgive me if I've been a little quiet these past days but now is the prime opportunity to attend all the exciting views and events this next week and a bit has to offer. Both auction houses will be opening their views today, and London Art Week has pulled together some of the city's top dealers many of which are running exhibitions (Click here to see the full list of those involved). This is not to mention the aforementioned The Treasure House Fair (above is a picture I took yesterday from PM's stand) and side-exhibitions like Trois Crayons. If you can't attend, then lots of information and catalogue notes can be found online via the links above.
I'll resume next week with more pictures and thoughts as and when they appear.
Seminar of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
June 27 2024
Picture: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in Belgium have released details for their upcoming 23rd Art History Seminar. This year's topic will be The Archduchess Isabella (1566-1633): Artistic Agency between Madrid and the Southern Netherlands and features 2 days' worth of talks from scholars and workshops on the subject. The seminar will take place on 12th & 13th September 2024.
Can Sound Damage Art?
June 26 2024
Picture: iiconservation.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Can sound damage art? Well, scientists from The National Gallery in London have been exploring this question and are 'still working through the data acquired and hope to share the results in a journal article in the near future'. If you'd like to read about the tests carried out, so have a look at the article written by Catherine Higgitt, Tomasz Galikowski, David Trew and others in the latest News in Conservation journal (free to access).
Addiction and Recovery through Art History
June 26 2024
Picture: hyperallergic.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The website Hyperallergic.com have published a review of Kikan Massara’s new book entitled The 12 Steps: Symbols, Myths, and Archetypes of Recovery. In particular, the article focuses on how explorations of artworks are used within the book.
To quote a section:
The core of this parlance is, of course, the eponymous 12 steps in the book’s title. A section of the book breaks down each step into its core principle, and then illustrates it through works of art and literature. Step One, summarized as “Admit Powerlessness,” is paired with “Despair” (1894) by Edvard Munch, “Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth” (1842) by J. M. W. Turner, “Sueño” (1992) by Kiki Smith, and even a Ptolemaic relief dating to 332 BCE from the Temple of Haroeris and Sobek in the Nile Valley of Egypt. Each captures the devastation, confusion, and tumult of a losing battle with alcoholism and other related diseases — one that drives millions of people to reach out for help.
Click on the link above to read more.
Recent Release: The Radical Print
June 26 2024
Picture: Yale Books
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Paul Mellon Centre has released a new book today. The Radical Print is the latest title from the Courtauld scholar Esther Chadwick.
According to the blurb:
The Radical Print argues for printmaking in Britain as the most exciting, innovative, and critically engaged field of artistic production in the late eighteenth century. Moving the print from the margins to the centre of the study of art history, this new critical study demonstrates how print responded to the acceleration of historical events, the polarisation of public discourse, and the sense of a world turned upside down in ways that traditional artistic media could not.
Across five chapters, this book brings printmakers James Barry, John Hamilton Mortimer, James Gillray, Thomas Bewick, and William Blake together as artists of the “Paper Age” for the first time. From Barry’s experiments in aquatint at the time of the American Revolution to Blake’s visionary engravings of the post-Napoleonic period, Chadwick shows how the print medium provided artists with special purchase on the major political issues of their age.
CFP: Women Collectors
June 26 2024
Picture: The Wallace Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Wallace Collection in London have issued a call for papers on the subject of Women Collectors. This is in preparation for a Study Day on 1st November 2024 on the subject as part of their Collection Past and Present series.
Abstracts need to be in by 2nd August 2024 and you can read the full CFP poster here.
Conserving Kauffman's Frame
June 25 2024
Picture: icon.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
ICON (The Institute of Conservation) have published a short article on the recent restoration of the original frame belonging to Angelica Kauffman's Diomedes and Cressida. The work was undertaken by Sophie Reddington and Jonida Mecani and features within the recently opened display at Petworth which delves into the complete restoration of Kauffman's painting.
First known portrait commissioned by an American born into slavery on display in Baltimore
June 25 2024
Picture: The Washington Post
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Washington Post have reported on news that the first known portrait commissioned by an American born into slavery will be going on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art this week. The painting, attributed to the artist James Alexander Simpson, is believed to depict Mary Ann Tritt Cassell, a woman of mixed race whose mother was enslaved on Stratford Hall plantation in Westmoreland County, Va. The article explains the research which has gone into uncovering the life of the sitter and her family.
Horse in Majesty at Versailles
June 25 2024
Picture: chateauversailles.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Horse lovers will have yet another opportunity to bask in the beauty of historic depicts of these majestic animals in France this year (see the previous post on Géricault's Horses at the Le Musée de la Vie romantique). The Palace of Versailles will be opening a new show dedicated to the Horse in Majesty on 2nd July 2024 and have created this rather snazzy poster to help promote the show (pictured).
According to the palace's website:
To coincide with the equestrian events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, to be hosted on the Versailles estate, the Château is holding a major exhibition dedicated to horses and equestrian civilisation in Europe – the first exhibition on this theme to be presented on such a scale. [...]
Nearly 300 works will highlight the roles and uses of horses in civil and military society, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, up to the eve of the First World War, which marked the end of horse-drawn civilisation and the relegation of horses to the realm of leisure.
The show will gallop along until 3rd November 2024.
