Philip de László (1869–1937): Master of Elegance at Gainsborough's House
February 2 2024
Picture: gainsborough.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Gainsborough's House in Sudbury will be opening a new exhibition next month dedicated to Philip de László (1869–1937): Master of Elegance.
According to the exhibition blurb:
De László was already one of the most famous portrait painters in Europe when he decided to settle in England in 1907. His relentless energy, charisma and pursuit of perfection in his art saw his circle of patronage widen from Budapest, the city of his birth, via the princely houses of Europe. London attracted him as a city immersed in a golden age and the work he produced there during the next thirty years was bursting with vitality and virtuosity. The period is brought to life through portraiture and landscapes and features a section on his experiences during the First World War.
The exhibition will feature rarely-seen loans from private collections as well as important works from the Royal Collection, including a childhood portrait of Queen Elizabeth II when Princess of York.
The show will run from 23rd March 2024 until 23rd June 2024.
Conserving Petr Brandl in Prague
February 2 2024
Video: Národní galerie Praha
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Národní galerie Praha have produced the following video showing the enormous task of conserving Petr Brandl's Joseph Receives his Brothers in Egypt. This enormous canvas was taken from the castle of Jindřichův Hradec and conserved especially for the gallery's current Brandl exhibition.
Sotheby's Results
February 1 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Sotheby's New York Part I Old Master Paintings sale realised $21,022,110 today with 30 out of 53 lots being sold (sell-through rate of 61.2% / or 56.6% inc. withdrawn lots).*
As per yesterday, the auction got off to a rather good start with an early panel by the Master of the Agilolphus Altar realising $1,143,000 (all results inc. fees) over and estimate of $300k - $500k and a Swabian School religious panel making $406,500 over its estimate of $150k - $250k. Later on, a Portrait of the Earl of Buckinghamshire by Gainsborough realised $304,800 over its $100k - $150k estimate, a beautifully preserved Scipio Pulzone portrait realised $406,400 over its $200k - $300k estimate and a handsome Batoni portrait realised $381,000 over $150 - $250k. The top Old Master of the sale (excluding a $3.4m 19th century view of The Western Wall, which was a bit of an outlier) was Van Dyck's Self Portrait sold to a single bidder at $2m hammer (making $2,430,000 inc. fees).
Amongst the top lots that failed to sell was the rediscovered Self Portrait by Rubens, alongside a Murillo, Orazio Gentileschi, Coypel and a withdrawn Baschenis.
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Overall, the results were rather mixed for the 2024 New York season. The relatively large amounts of unsold lots for both auction houses is suggestive that a realignment for values and estimates is probably due on works from certain categories. As ever, paintings that are fresh to the market and in tip-top condition still tend to do best. It seems clear that with the continued rather squeezed supply of fresh and desirable pictures, the competition between the auction houses will be fiercer than ever in order to secure top consignments which can make all the difference (inc. the awaited sale of the $35m Velazquez).
There are still many signs to be hopeful, though! I haven't mentioned the successful A Scholar Collects: The Joseph Baillio Collection sale yesterday, which realised some very impressive prices for works by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. In particular, her Self Portrait made a staggering $3,085,000 over its estimate of $700k - $1m. The Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco has already announced its acquisition of Vigée Le Brun's very intimate The Little Eugène de Montesquiou-Fézensac Asleep which made $215,900 over its $40k - $60k estimate. It seems that works by women artists continue to soar ever higher, a feature of both the Sotheby's and Christie's sales.
* - 4 lots were withdrawn from the sale.
Buy Constable's Home for £4.9m
February 1 2024
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news for fans of John Constable. The artist's former London home is currently up for sale. Constable's Georgian house on Wells Walk near Hampstead Heath, where the artist lived between 1827 and 1837, is being offered for sale with Marcus Parfitt for £4.9m.
According to the report above:
“It’s a little step back in time,” says agent Marcus Parfitt. “The back of the house faces due south and overlooks Gainsborough Gardens, which is the only private garden in the middle of Hampstead village.
"You’re elevated from the upper floors straight over town. The light is wonderful. It feels warm – it ticks so many boxes for a lovely village home.”
I'm sold.
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As an aside, Constable's Old Hall, East Bergholt performed rather well in Christie's New York's Part II sale yesterday, having realised $264,600 (inc. fees) over its estimate of $80k - $120k. Perhaps the buyer might like to buy his old house too?
Dutch Art at the Château de Chantilly
February 1 2024
Picture: Château de Chantilly
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (International network for curators of art from the Low Countries) have published an interesting feature on Dutch Art in the Château de Chantilly. The article, penned by the curator Baptiste Roelly, examines the history of the collection alongside some beautiful illustrations of its most famous works. Here's a fine Willem van de Velde the Younger (pictured) in a typical Demidov collection frame...keep or throw away (the frame, that is)?
Drawing on Blue at the Getty Center
February 1 2024
Picture: The Getty
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Getty Center in Los Angeles opened their latest Old Master Drawings exhibition two days ago entitled Drawing on Blue.
According to the exhibition's blurb:
Blue paper has been a popular artist material since the fifteenth century. Crafted from blue rags formed into sheets, this humble material that required expert knowledge to produce and had a profound impact on early modern European artistic production. As a middle tone, the material allowed artists to easily model forms in light and dark, while also proving to be well suited for working in colored chalks. Through new technical examination of drawings in the Getty’s collection, this exhibition offers fresh insight into the physical properties of blue paper, and its unique contribution to artistic practice from the 15th through 18th centuries.
The show will run until 28th April 2024.
Chicago acquires Antonio d’Este Self Portrait
February 1 2024
Picture: Libson & Yarker
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Institute of Chicago's curator Emerson Bowyer (@emersonbowyer) has announced the organisation's acquisition of Antonio d'Este's Self Portrait. The artist was Canova's most important collaborator and disciple, and this particular example is signed and dated 1810. The work had formerly been with Libson & Yarker (click here to read their catalogue note) and the acquisition was made possible due to the generosity of Jonathan and Ute Kagan.
Christie's Results
January 31 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's New York's Old Masters sale this afternoon realised $12,350,620 with 41 out of 78 lots sold (sell-through rate of 58.4% / or 52.6% inc. withdrawn lots).*
The sale got off to a good start, however, stalled a little in the middle with a collection of Italian pictures all with fairly recent provenance. The painting which soared past its estimate was Artemisia Gentileschi's Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness (pictured) which realised $982,800 (inc. fees) past its estimate of $400k - $600k. The other picture to soar past its estimate was Sir Thomas Lawrence's Portrait of William Baker, which realised $604,800 (inc. fees) over its estimate of $200k - $300k.
The total wasn't helped by the withdrawal of several top lots, including a Pieter Brueghel II, Anne Vallayer-Coster, a pair of Michele Marieschis and a set of early Italian pictures showing the Passion of Christ.
All eyes on the Sotheby's New York sale tomorrow afternoon.
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* - 7 lots were withdrawn from sale.
Rembrandt and His Peers in Toronto
January 31 2024
Picture: ago.ca
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto will be hosting a Rembrandt exhibition next month, supplemented by paintings on loan the Bader Collection at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston. Painted Presence: Rembrandt and His Peers will see the gallery's own Rembrandtian works hung alongside masterpieces from the Bader collection, which includes Rembrandt's Portrait of a man with arms akimbo, a painting which made £20.2m at Christie's in 2009. I wonder how much it would make now?
To quote the museum's website:
From the Bader Collection at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the AGO welcomes a remarkable selection of seventeenth century Dutch paintings. Shown in dialogue with paintings from the AGO’s European Collection of Art, at the centre of this focused installation are seven artworks attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), shown together for the first time. Featuring intensely observed still life paintings, detailed interiors and mesmerizing portraits, these striking artworks offer a rare glimpse of Dutch artistry at work. This exhibition is co-curated by Adam Harris Levine, AGO Associate Curator European Art and Suzanne van de Meerendonk, Bader Curator of European Art, Agnes Etherington Art Centre.
The show will open on 17th February 2024.
The Fondation Bemberg Reopening in February
January 31 2024
Picture: claudinecolin.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from France (spotted via. @LaforeAlexandre) that the The Fondation Bemberg will be reopening its museum located in the Hôtel d'Assézat in Toulouse on 2nd February 2024. The foundation, which preserves the art collections and legacy of Georges Bemberg (1915-2011), has spent the last three years renovating the building and exhibition spaces. For the full press release, which gives an idea of the extent of the works and many of the highlights within the collection, click here.
Unicorn at Perth Museum
January 31 2024
Picture: artnews.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Perth Museum in Scotland will be opening a new exhibition dedicated to the iconographic and cultural history of the Unicorn in March. Here's an article published by artnet which explains a little more about the prize exhibits on display, which includes a treasure trove of historic artworks.
According to the museum's website:
Unicorn is the first major UK exhibition to explore the cultural history of Scotland’s national animal from antiquity to the present day. Through the material culture of this mythical beast the exhibition will explore themes such as Scottish Royalty and national symbolism that also relate to the objects and stories on display in the new permanent galleries, including the Stone of Destiny.
The exhibition will open on 30th March 2024.
Oligarch buys expensive art (ctd.)
January 31 2024
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Dmitry Rybolovlev has lost his recent court case in the ongoing series of legal action regarding the building of his art collection in decades past. A US Federal Court ruled in favour of Sotheby's, against recent allegations that the auction house helped to defraud the collector out of millions by conspiring with the art dealer Yves Bouvier.
Guercino Enters Rothschild Collection
January 30 2024
Video: Moretti Fine Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper has shared news that the Rothschild Foundation have acquired Guercino's Moses. The painting had been a sleeper in a minor Parisian sale in 2022, where is achieved €590,000 over an estimate of €5,000 - €6,000 and was acquired by the dealers Moretti Fine Art. It is reported that the asking price of the painting was around €2m.
The work will be unveiled at the upcoming Waddesdon Manor exhibition entitled Guercino at Waddesdon: King David and the Wise Women, which will run from 20th March 2024 until 27th October 2024.
Here's Moretti's video of the painting, which includes some rather dramatic music and lots of 'zoom in' shots.
Hidden Faces at the MET
January 30 2024
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will be opening their latest Old Master exhibition in April. Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance will be examining why some portraits hide or conceal the faces of their sitters.
According to the blurb on the museum's website:
This exhibition is the first to examine an intriguing but largely unknown side—in the literal sense—of Renaissance painting: multisided portraits in which the sitter’s likeness was concealed by a hinged or sliding cover, within a box, or by a dual-faced format. The covers and reverses of these small, private portraits were adorned with puzzlelike emblems, epigrams, allegories, and mythologies that celebrated the sitter’s character, and they represent some of the most inventive and unique secular imagery of the Renaissance. The viewer had to decode the meaning of the symbolic portrait before lifting, sliding, or turning the image over to unmask the face below.
This widespread tradition in Italy and Northern Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries will be explored through approximately 60 double-sided and covered portraits from The Met collection and other American and European institutions, including the reunion of several portraits and their covers that had been split and made part of separate collections. Painted by artists such as Hans Memling, Lucas Cranach, Lorenzo Lotto, and Titian, the works range from portraits intended as portable propaganda to those designed to conceal a lover's identity. These varied three-dimensional, hand-held ensembles shed significant light upon the intimate and personal nature of portraits designed as interactive objects.
The show will run from 2nd April 2024 until 7th July 2024.
Removal Man Accused of Paintings Theft
January 30 2024
Picture: boston.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has very kindly been in touch with this rather curious story that has been published by The Boston Globe. A 'Junk-Removal Contractor' has appeared in court accused of removing over 100 paintings from the collection of Sam (late) and Sheila Robbins. The family had over the decades amassed a serious collection of American works, 80 of which were gifted to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem in 2016. The reports explain that a friend began noticing that parts of their collection had been appearing at local auction houses without the family's knowledge. It transpired that the works had allegedly been taken by a Junk Removal contractor, who had been previously tasked with removing some damaged property from the house.
According to the report:
“He didn’t have intent to steal anything; he was disposing of damaged property,” said McMahon, who compared Campbell’s business to 1-800-GOT-JUNK. “The contract had a provision that allowed Mr. Campbell, without prior authorization, to remove any items that were water-damaged.”
The Robbinses dispute that claim.
“If you’re implying my mother authorized someone to take away 100 valuable artworks, I would ask you to seek medical help,” said Jonathan Robbins, who estimated they paid Campbell around $30,000 for the entire job. “It was basically a basement clean-out and an attic clean-out. It wasn’t supposed to be anything of value.”
Louvre Conserves Lubin Baugin
January 30 2024
Picture: @milovanovic_nicolas
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre curator Nicolas Milovanovic (@milovanovic_nicolas) has shared a striking photo on Instagram of the ongoing restoration project of Lubin Baugin's Adam and Eve Mourning the Death of Abel. The painting, covered in a particularly dirty varnish, was pre-empted by the Louvre at an auction in Toulouse last March (see link above for more details).
Turner Watercolour Rediscovered
January 30 2024
Picture: BBC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the West Midlands that a forgotten watercolour of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, by JMW Turner has been rediscovered in a private collection. The picture was discovered in a file with other prints and later works by an expert from an auction house during a valuation. The work will come up for sale at Minster Auctions in March carrying an estimate of £30,000 - £50,000.
Rubens vs. Van Dyck at Sotheby's New York
January 29 2024
Video: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's New York have created the following video battling out Rubens and Van Dyck's Self Portraits. The battle is presented by International Head of Old Masters Division, Christopher Apostle, and Head of NY Old Masters Department, David Pollack.
Well, I know which out of the two paintings I would pick....
Waldemar on Mannerism
January 29 2024
Video: ZCZ Films
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Waldemar Januszczak's new series on Mannerism begins tomorrow at 8pm (GMT) on Sky Arts! (Freeview Channel 36) This new series will examine the weird and the wonderful during 'Art's Wildest Movement'.
Will AI Replace Art Historians?
January 29 2024
Picture: hyperallergic
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The website Hyperallergic have published a short review of Amanda Wasielewski's 2023 book entitled Computational Formalism: Art History and Machine Learning published by MIT Press. The thrust of the book (as I understand it) is examining whether AI will one day become an important tool for Art Historians, and what methods might be developed to make progress in areas of authentication etc. (yes, that increasingly occurring new and often controversial 'tool' which press are enjoying putting into the news these days).
To quote the final paragraph of the review:
In more straightforward cases of known attribution and singular styles, AI can sort images efficiently. But can it interpret art? The answer is a fairly straightforward “no.” AI lacks human researchers’ ability to engage in primary study of techniques, and the capacity to contextualize an artwork within history. Quite simply: AI cannot reason why artworks look the way they do. Her thesis that AI is not suited for a humanistic pursuit of art history comes through strongly, but it could have been supplemented by further information in the form of more case studies.
Ok... we might be safe for now.
