BMAG to reopen with Victorian Radicals
December 12 2023
Picture: birminghammuseums.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) has announced that it will be reopening in February 2024 with a big exhibition based around its exquisite collection of 19th century paintings. Victorian Radicals has already been touring the USA whilst the museum has been closed for renovation works.
According to the museum's website:
Three generations of British artists, designers and makers revolutionised the visual arts in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Pre-Raphaelites, William Morris and his circle and the men and women of the Arts and Crafts movement transformed art and design.
Selected from the city of Birmingham's outstanding collection, Victorian Radicals presents vibrant paintings and exquisite drawings alongside jewellery, glass, textiles and metalwork to explore their radical vision for art and society.
Fresh from an award-winning tour of the US, Victorian Radicals is the first comprehensive showing of the city’s Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts collections in Birmingham for over five years. Discover the story of the Pre-Raphaelites themselves and their influence on artists and makers well into the twentieth century – especially in Birmingham itself. Paintings made by artists including Kate Bunce, Joseph Southall and Arthur Gaskin combined the poetry and intensity of the Pre-Raphaelites’ work with a distinctive identity all their own.
The show will open on 10th February 2024.
December Issue of the Burlington Magazine
December 11 2023
Picture: burlington.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
December's issue of the Burlington Magazine is dedicated to the subject of Spanish art.
A list of the articles featured in this month's edition:
Four wooden ceilings from the Torrijos Palace, Toledo - BY ANNA MCSWEENEY,MARIAM ROSSER-OWEN
Alonso Cano’s rediscovered ‘Immaculate Conception’ for San Alberto, Seville - BY BENITO PRIETO NAVARRETE
Goya’s ‘Self-portrait with Dr Arrieta’ - BY MERCEDES CÉRON-PEÑA
Biting satire: notes on Salvador Dalí’s ‘Debris of an automobile’ - BY DAVID LOMAS
Edith Hoffmann’s early years in England, 1934–38 - BY YONNA YAPOU-KROMHOLZ
Eberhard W. Kornfeld (1923–2023) - BY JOHANNES NATHAN
Kavita Singh (1964–2023) - BY SALONI MATHUR
A 'shorter notice' not listed here is a piece by Patricia Manzano Rodriguez which examines an inventory of paintings owned by Catalina del Mazo, which sheds light on some early provenance of pictures by Velazquez and Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo (pictured).
New Catalogue of French and Italian Paintings at the Musées d'Orléans
December 11 2023
Picture: Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News spotted via. @bastianeclercy that the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans have just published a new catalogue of their French and Italian paintings from the 15th to 17th centuries. This includes notes and illustrations on works by artists including Correggio, Annibale Carracci, Claude Deruet, Laurent de La Hyre, Guido Reni, Jacques Blanchard and Le Nain brothers. The 500+ page book contains roughly 420 entries, including works that were destroyed and / or looted during the war.
Jean Nocret's Family of Louis XIV being Conserved
December 11 2023
Picture: 'X' via @MilovanCavor
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre curator Nicolas Milovanovic has shared some stunning photos and videos on 'X' (formerly Twitter) of the ongoing conservation of Jean Nocret's Louis XIV and the royal family. This enormous and iconic painting, which is in the collection of the Château de Versailles, has been languishing underneath a very thick layer of yellowed varnish for decades. Click on the link to compare the images to the painting's previous appearance to see the marvellous transformation!
New Release: The Art of Power
December 11 2023
Picture: waanders.nl
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Dutch readers are in for a treat this month with the newly released book entitled De kunst van de macht (or The Art of Power). This publication by Elmer Kolfin examines the patronage of the De Graeff mayors of Amsterdam, particularly in relation to artists such as Rembrandt, Lievens and Jordaens. Click on the link above to see a free preview of the publication, which appears to be richly illustrated.
Prints and Drawings Internship at the Ashmolean
December 8 2023
Picture: blogs.ashmoleon.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is looking for candidates for their The Rick Mather David Scrase Foundation Internship in Western Art.
According to the job description for this paid role:
You will have recently graduated in History of Art or a similar subject, with an interest in works on paper. You will digitise part of the prints and drawings collection bequeathed by the great British antiquarian and museum curator Francis Douce (1757–1834) as well as participate in broader curatorial work across the department. Only limited parts of the Douce Collection have been digitised so far. You will work directly from the prints and drawings, involving lifting and moving of the boxes and you will play an invaluable part in making an important part of our collection accessible online.
This role involves lifting, carrying, and moving objects (with or without adaptations) which on occasion may be heavy. All necessary health and safety training will be provided.
Curatorial training is a key part of this role, and you will collaborate with curators and colleagues in Western Art and across the Museum. Reporting to the Curator of Northern European Art, you will be a core member of a friendly team in a Museum that is committed to equality and values diversity.
Interns will be compensated for their lifting working to the equivalent sum of £22,681-£25,138 per annum. Applications must be in by 3rd January.
Good luck if you're applying!
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Curiously, I found this photograph of the eccentric artist Grayson Perry inspecting Douce's prints on the museum's blog. This seems like the perfect attire for curatorial staff, I think.
Upcoming Release: The Making of Technique in the Arts
December 8 2023
Picture: brepols.net
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The publisher Brepols is due to release this very interesting sounding book before the end of the year. The Making of Technique in the Arts Theories and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century is a collection of essays edited by Sven Dupré and Marieke Hendriksen, focusing on the emergence of the term 'technique'.
Here is the contents of the book, which may be of interest:
2. The Body and Daily Life as Metaphor and Analogy in Technical Language in the Works of Leonardo da Vinci, Vannoccio Biringuccio and Benvenuto Cellini - Andrea Bernardoni
3. Neudörffer's Notebook: Recipes and the Rendering of Calligraphic Technique between Manuscript and Print in Sixteenth-Century Germany - Hannah Murphy
4. Between arte and ingenio. Approaches to Technique in Early Modern Spanish painting - José Ramón Marcaida
5. ‘An old and calm woman, blind and mute’: Finding Words to Describe Technique in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Art Literature - Marije Osnabrugge
6. ‘Have a great care of the shadows’. Perspectives on Carefulness in Historical Recipes for the Restoration of Oil Paintings. - Maartje Stols-Witlox
7. Architecture and Technical Virtuosity in Eighteenth Century France - Valérie Nègre
8. The Debate about Technique in the Kunstwissenschaft around 1900 - Maria Teresa Costa
9. Somatic Language in Artistic Work Practices. An Ethnographic Perspective on Bodies, Materials, Practical Knowledge and Technique in Contemporary Art - Christiane Schürkmann
Rediscovered Fragonard Coming Up in Paris
December 8 2023
Picture: gazette-drouot.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via La Gazette Drouot that an unpublished work by Fragonard will be offered later this month in Paris by the auctioneers Boisgirard - Antonini. The painting of a Young Girl in a Hat, which has just been freshly cleaned by Laurence Baron-Callegari, will be offered on 21st December with an estimate €400,000 - 600,000. As usual with pictures in French collections, the discovery in this case was uncovered by the Cabinet Turquin.
Christie's Results
December 7 2023
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Today's Christie's London Old Master Paintings Part I sale realised a total of £21,906,820 (inc. fees) with 31 out of 40 lots being sold (75.6% sell-through rate).*
The top lot in their sale, a very fine pair of Canalettos, hammered at £8.2m (£9,740,000 inc. fees). Although I was wasn't able to watch the auction as it happened (please correct me if I am wrong), this result appears to suggest that there were at least two bidders involved, and not just the single third-party IB guarantor as per yesterday's result down the road.
Several paintings performed very well against their estimates, including the curious Michael Sweerts which made £1,734,000 over its estimate of £400k - £600k and the Claude de Jongh view of Old London Bridge which realised £233,100 over its £60k - £80k estimate.
______________
It appears that this December both auction houses were rather neck and neck in terms of results, with Christie's securing a victory with a slightly bigger sale helped by a fine set of Rembrandt prints. The fiercely competitive nature of securing consignments, and the behind the doors deals involved in securing such business, means that we'll never have a true picture of which of the houses was more profitable.
Ultimately, the relative size of these sales to previous years may point towards how thin the market is currently, where London is concerned at least. This might mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things in the world of Old Masters though. With the New York sales fast approaching, and several big ticket pictures already announced, all eyes will be turned towards the next sale season at the end of January!
I'll post an update tomorrow regarding some intriguing results in the day sales, which can be equally fascinating in their own right!
* - As I included the single Rembrandt print in the Sotheby's total, I thought I would keep the several Rembrandt prints in this total also.
National Museum of Wales Artworks Under Threat from Rain
December 7 2023
Picture: walesonline.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Cardiff in Wales that the National Museum of Wales' chief executive Jane Richardson has called for emergency help to fix the building's leaky roof problem. The museum, which houses a significant collection of Old Masters and Impressionist works, is said to have staff called on standby every time it rains.
According to the article linked above:
In a damning statement to the Senedd's culture committee, Jane Richardson told Senedd members: "When we are expecting a storm or heavy rain, we have to put the staff on standby so they can come into the building in the middle of the night to take paintings off the wall. I’m not exaggerating there, that is what our staff do. We never, ever compromise the safety of the works … but that is the reality of my colleagues’ working life at the moment.”
An estimated £25m is required to put the museum's premises into a good state of repair and comes in the context of increasing threats of cuts to the budgets for cultural institutions.
The Getty Acquire Three Old Masters
December 7 2023
Picture: Getty Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles have announced their acquisition of three Old Master Paintings. This includes a portrait of Prince of Saxony Friedrich Christian by Anton Raphael Mengs (pictured), which sold at Christie's in 2022 and was subsequently cleaned and sold to the museum via Agnew's. Other works include a Holy Family and Gerard David and a Floral Still Life by Ludger tom Ring the Younger.
Sotheby's Results
December 7 2023
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Yesterday's Sotheby's London Old Master Paintings Evening Sale realised a total of £19,423,500 (inc. fees), with 20 out of the 27 lots being sold (74% sell-through rate).
The auction's top lot, Rembrandt's Adoration of the Kings, hammered down to one bidder at £9.5m. We will presume this to be the third-party who placed the Irrevocable Bid indicated by the auction house in their catalogue and website. This is of course quite the transformation of a painting which sold as 'Circle of Rembrandt' for 860,000 euros back in 2021.
The majority of paintings which sold seemed to have performed well against their estimates.* The only painting to soar past its estimate was Francesco Renaldi's Portrait of a Mughal Lady, which realised £825,500 over its £300k - 500k estimate. The market for paintings of Indian subjects by foreign artists appears to be increasingly bouyant at the moment, both for landscapes and portraits (click here to see a particularly impressive price for a Thomas Daniell which sold at the beginning of this year). This certainly seems to be an area of the market to watch.
All eyes on the sale at Christie's which opens for bidding this afternoon!
_______________________
* - I should of course reiterate and disclose my affiliation with Sotheby's as a consultant.
Apologies for the slow service...
December 6 2023
Picture: AB via Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Apologies for the slow service these past few days, I have been rather busy with having a good look at the auction previews in London, alongside other lecturing commitments. There are a fair few fine paintings and drawings on display to enjoy, including quite a few exciting highlights from the upcoming sales in New York.
Tonight will see Sotheby's offering their £10 - 15m Rembrandt, a painting which has technically already received a selling bid in the form of an Irrevocable Bid or IB. Tomorrow afternoon it will be the pair of exquisite £8 - 12m Canalettos at Christie's, which do look absolutely wonderful in the flesh I must say.
New Release: Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science
December 4 2023
Picture: AUP
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Another new release from Amsterdam University Press is the following publication entitled Gender and Self-Fashioning at the Intersection of Art and Science: Agnes Block, Botany, and Networks in the Dutch 17th Century. This new book by Catherine Powell-Warren examines the life of an understudied female botanist and patron from the Dutch Golden Age.
According to the blurb:
At once collector, botanist, reader, artist, and patron, Agnes Block is best described as a cultural producer. A member of an influential network in her lifetime, today she remains a largely obscure figure. The socioeconomic and political barriers faced by early modern women, together with a male-dominated tradition in art history, have meant that too few stories of women’s roles in the creation, production, and consumption of art have reached us. This book seeks to write Block and her contributions into the art and cultural history of the seventeenth-century Netherlands, highlighting the need for and advantages of a multifaceted approach to research on early modern women. Examining Block’s achievements, relationships, and objects reveals a woman who was independent, knowledgeable, self-aware, and not above self-promotion. Though her gender brought few opportunities and many barriers, Agnes Block succeeded in fashioning herself as Flora Batava, a liefhebber at the intersection of art and science.
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Uploads Collection Online
December 4 2023
Picture: collections.monticello.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Monticello, Virginia, the former home of Thomas Jefferson, that it has created a new online database for its historic collection of art, artefacts and documents.
According to the newly launched website:
Over the last 100 years, we have worked to locate and acquire approximately 5,000 objects in the collection, many of which are displayed in the house, wings, outbuildings, and museum galleries. The process is ongoing and involves a combination of documentary and provenance research and connoisseurship.
King Charles Reappoints a 'Surveyor of The King's Pictures'
December 4 2023
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via. Linkedin (only because I haven't seen this important news published anywhere else yet) that the curator Anna Reynolds has been appointed Surveyor of The King's Pictures. Anna joined the Royal Collection Trust in 2008 and has played key roles in many of its exhibitions ever since, most notably those dealing with the history of fashion and dress. Anna will be the first woman to occupy the post since it was established in 1625.
Regular readers will remember that back in December 2020 the Royal Collection Trust had taken steps to abolish the post, along with Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art. It's good to see that this historic role has been revived, although, it seems that Anna has been serving as Deputy for at least a year or so beforehand.
Congratulations to Anna.
Arundel Soars!
December 1 2023
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's London's Omberlsey Court sale produced some rather strong results the other day. By far the most intriguing was the following Portrait of Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, given to the Studio of Daniel Mytens, which made £189,000 over its estimate of £8,000 – £12,000. The head looks rather nicely painted, perhaps someone has worked out its early provenance which might make it a far more interesting picture!
Two Rediscovered Works by Pietro Lorenzetti Coming up for Sale
December 1 2023
Picture: news.artnet.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Artnet that two rediscovered works by Pietro Lorenzetti are coming up for at Tajan, Paris, on 13th December 2023. The pair were rediscovered by Eric Turquin, master and gatekeeper of French private collections it seems, and appear to have been in a private collection since they were acquired in around 1860. Saint Sylvester will carry an estimate of €1.5m to €2m and Saint Helena €400,000–600,000.
Stijn Alsteens Announced as New Fondation Custodia Director
December 1 2023
Picture: @FondationCustodia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fondation Custodia in Paris have announced that its board have appointed Stijn Alsteens as the new Director of the institution. The following article on CODART gives a history of his career, which included being a curator there between 2001 and 2006, and more recently as head of the department of Old Master Drawings at Christie’s.
Tim Clayton's Gillray Book wins William MB Berger Prize 2023
December 1 2023
Picture: Yale University Press
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Robin Simon, the British Art Journal's outgoing editor, that Tim Clayton's biography James Gillray: A Revolution in Satire has won this year's William MB Berger Prize 2023.
Here's the book's blurb from its publisher Yale University Press:
James Gillray (1756–1815) was late Georgian Britain’s funniest, most inventive and most celebrated graphic satirist and continues to influence cartoonists today. His exceptional drawing, matched by his flair for clever dialogue and amusing titles, won him unprecedented fame; his sophisticated designs often parodied artists such as William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds and Henry Fuseli, while he borrowed and wittily redeployed celebrated passages from William Shakespeare and John Milton to send up politicians in an age – as now – where society was fast changing, anxieties abounded, truth was sometimes scarce, and public opinion mattered.
Tim Clayton’s definitive biography explores Gillray’s life and work through his friends, publishers – the most important being women – and collaborators, aiming to identify those involved in inventing satirical prints and the people who bought them. Clayton thoughtfully explores the tensions between artistic independence, financial necessity and the conflicting demands of patrons and self-appointed censors in a time of political and social turmoil.
