Category: Discoveries
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.
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.
€30 - €50m Rediscovered Klimt at Kinsky
January 26 2024
Picture: Kinsky
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news from Vienna that a rediscovered portrait by Gustav Klimt will be offered for sale in April. The Portrait of Fräulein Lieser was photographed as part of a Viennese exhibition in 1925, and its history afterwards remains largely unknown. It is thought the painting had been in the possession of sitter's parents, Adolf and Henriette Lieser, the latter of whom died in a concentration camp in 1942. The painting was acquired six decades ago by an Austrian citizen, and will be sold by its current owners alongside the legal successors of Adolf and Henriette. It will be offered in at Vienna's Kinsky auction house with an estimate of €30m - €50m.
Museo Correr Reattribute Work to Mantegna
December 20 2023
Picture: arte.sky.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museo Correr in Venice has reattributed a painting in their collection to Andrea Mantegna. According to the reports, the painting was re-examined after languishing in the museum's stores for many years. The painting appears to relate to another work attributed to the artist in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and may have been left unfinished. The current research project into the work has been supported by the G. E. Ghirardi Foundation and is still ongoing.
Vancouver Art Gallery Exhibit Fakes
December 15 2023
Picture: vanartgallery.bc.ca
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Vancouver Art Gallery in Canada are opening an exhibition tomorrow dedicated to 10 oil sketches they acquired in 2015 purportedly by the celebrated Canadian 'Group of Seven' artist J.E.H. MacDonald (1873–1932). Alas, it transpired that the oil sketches were all modern fakes. Rather than hide the paintings in a cupboard of regret, the gallery have bravely put on a show to explain how they came to the conclusion that the paintings were 'not right' (as it is said in the art trade).
According to the gallery's website:
In 2015, the Vancouver Art Gallery announced the acquisition of ten previously unknown painted sketches attributed to J.E.H. MacDonald, one of Canada’s most celebrated painters and a founding member of the Group of Seven. Soon after, experts in the wider arts community began to publicly raise questions about the authenticity of the ten works. Experts took sides and the Gallery ultimately postponed a planned exhibition in order to investigate the works further. This included bringing in leading art historians, handwriting experts, and the scientific resources of the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI).
J.E.H. MacDonald? A Tangled Garden will not only provide an answer regarding whether the ten sketches can be attributed to MacDonald, but will also allow visitors a rare and detailed look into how that conclusion was reached. Most notably, the Gallery will be working closely with the CCI to present their soon-to-be published findings. Visitors will be able to assess the key evidence and come to their own conclusions.
The exhibition will run until 12th May 2024.
Rijksmuseum Display Christie's Rembrandt Portraits
December 13 2023
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from the Netherlands that the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam have displayed two rediscovered Rembrandt portraits that appeared in this year's Christie's London Old Master Paintings sale. The works, which had descended into a Scottish noble collection, eventually made £11,235,000 over their £5m - £8m estimate and were acquired by the Holterman family who has generously loaned them to the museum. As you can see, the owners have already done a rather good job of reframing the pair in ebony style frames, which does enhance their appearance greatly I think!
It's Official - the Louvre has bought the Kitchen Cimabue...
November 3 2023
Picture: lesechos.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
After recent speculation, the Louvre has finally announced its acquisition of the Artcurial Cimabue found in a kitchen and which later sold for €24.18m.
Reattributed Titian On Display in Warsaw
October 31 2023
Video: The Royal Castle Warsaw
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Castle in Warsaw have put on a small exhibition dedicated to what they claim is a rediscovered portrait by Titian. The Portrait of a Young Man is on loan from a private collection and is said to have been created before 1515. The website, which gives a list of works it can be compared to, does not list which recognised scholars have supported the reattribution to the Venetian master.
Sell the Bouchardon Bust, says Councillor who Rediscovered it
October 26 2023
Picture: ross-shirejournal.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Interesting news from Scotland that a local Highland councillor, who rediscovered a very fine bust of Sir John Gordon of Invergordon by Bouchardon in the council's stores, has called for it to be sold. The bust was rediscovered in 1998 by Maxine Smith, now a local councillor, and former Highland councillor Andy Anderson when looking for 'missing' robes and chains of office in stores. The bust, which had been purchased by the council for £5 in 1931, had been holding open a door at the time. Since its rediscovery it has been exhibited at the Louvre and its market value has increased too. In the early 2000s it was valued at around £450,000, and the recent reports (linked above) suggest that it is now worth £2.5m.
Miss Smith is now in the process of calling for a public consultation to have the bust sold for funds for 'community projects':
The councillor wants the community to back a plan to sell the bust, and with the proceeds make a replica of the original to keep in a museum.
And with the proceeds of the sale, she wants backing to set up an Invergordon Common Good Fund, putting £125,000 back into community projects each year.
She said: “I’m so excited we played the long game.
“It may be that the community don’t wish to sell it, but to be honest it’s doing nobody any good sitting in the Inverness archive centre which is the only place secure enough to cover the insurance costs.”
Update - The BBC have published the story too earlier today. AHN's Bendor has been quoted giving his own opinion:
"Here is this work of art that has fallen into the lap of Highland Council for no money at all and it seems all they want to do is sell it for a lot of money to someone outside Scotland, when really there is no reason they can't lend it to Inverness Museum or National Galleries of Scotland or National Museum of Scotland."
Louvre Acquires Kitchen Cimabue?
October 24 2023
Picture: oisehebdo.fr
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A French news outlet have published a piece speculating that the Louvre are about to announce their acquisition of the rare Cimabue which was discovered in a French kitchen back in 2019. The work was eventually sold at the Hotel des Ventes de Senlis for €24.18m, where it was reportedly purchased by the American collectors Alvaro Saieh and Ana Guzmán but immediately declared a national treasure by the French State.
More news if and when it appears...
Tate Discover their Devis was Chopped in Half!
October 18 2023
Picture: Tate
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Tate have posted a very fun short video on their Instagram account regarding a fascinating conservation and research project on a painting by Arthur Devis. Conservator Rachel Scott's investigation and treatment of a portrait by Devis in the collection revealed that one of the margins had been added with an old piece of canvas cut from the bottom of the painting, which suggested to her that the work had been cut-down from a much larger composition. With the help of curator Alice Insley, a trip to the Courtauld photograph library managed to find the other missing half (left), which corresponds directly to the Tate's fragment. It appears that the double portrait might have been cut in half at some point during the past, perhaps in an effort to create two paintings to sell instead of one (a common practise centuries ago!).
Perhaps a reader of AHN might know where the other of the painting might be. If so, do get in touch!
Rosalba Carriera Pastel Rediscovered at Tatton Park
October 17 2023
Picture: The National Trust
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A pastel by Rosalba Carriera, formerly dismissed as a copy, has been unearthed at Tatton Park, a property and collection in the care of the National Trust. The reattribution was made by the Frick Collection's deputy director Xavier Salomon.
According to the article linked above:
“The more I started working on her, I realized there was a need for a new catalogue raisonné and biography,” Salomon said in a phone interview. “It’s going to take many years because she has hundreds of pastels all around the world, and I am just trying to see every single one of them.”
To date, the curator has looked at more than 200 Carriera pastels—but he’s also seen plenty, that while attributed to the artist, were actually copies by other artists. Tatton Park was just one of five homes in the U.K.’s National Trust Salomon had on his itinerary, one of which had a suite of five that turned out to be the work of British artists. But he was hopeful about Tatton Park, which, according to the National Trust’s inventory, had owned The Portrait of a Tyrolese Lady, identified as the work of Carriera, since the 18th century.
Florida Museum Rediscovers Katherine Read Portrait in its Collection
October 11 2023
Picture: artnet.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has been in touch with this news story regarding a portrait by Katherine Read rediscovered in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida. The museum had formerly attributed the pastel to Francis Cotes until a recent cataloguing project for an exhibition. The correct attribution was pointed out by the pastels guru Neil Jeffares, who was consulted as part of the process.
Frans Hals at the National Gallery
October 4 2023
Video: The National Gallery, London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery's latest Frans Hals exhibition opened last week. The Guardian's less than favourable review has subsequently been counteracted by others in The Observer and The New York Times respectively. I haven't been to see it yet, however, I have been handed a copy of the exhibition catalogue which looks very promising indeed. Not only is it organised in comprehensive and beautiful way, the publication suggests that the curators have taken a bold approach to attribution (a problem which follows Hals scholarship to the present day). One such example is the inclusion of a portrait which was sold as 'School of Haarlem, circa 1615' at Sotheby's New York in 2021, doubted by both Seymour Slive and Claus Grimm (see Literature in the link), which has now been given to Frans Hals in full.
However, one of the most fascinating pieces of original research is the discovery of 'a hidden monster and skull' in the famous Chatsworth portrait, which appears to have been covered by 'later overpaint'. The gallery have produced the following video which explains the whole story.
Raphael drawing at the Dorotheum
September 29 2023
Picture: dorotheum.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have shared the news that the Dorotheum in Vienna will be offering a rediscovered drawing by Raphael on 25th October. The drawing relates to the Battle of the Milvian Bridge fresco which is in the Vatican’s papal apartments.
According to the article:
On the back of the sheet are drawings by Raphael’s assistant, Polidoro da Caravaggio, which were probably executed later. Dorotheum says that Paul Joannides, an emeritus professor of history of art at Cambridge University, has endorsed the attributions for both Raphael and Polidoro da Caravaggio.
The drawing will be offered with an estimate of €400,000 to €600,000.
The Royal Collection rediscovers a lost Artemisia
September 28 2023
Video: The Royal Collection Trust
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Collection have been sweeping the internet recently with the exciting news that they have rediscovered an important work by Artemisia Gentileschi. The work, which was misattributed several centuries ago, was created during the 1630s when Artemisia was working alongside her father Orazio in London for King Charles I.
This recently conserved painting will be on view at Windsor Castle in a special display focusing on its rediscovery alongside other works by the artist and her father in the Royal Collection.
Mary Beale Sleeper! and less significant news...
September 28 2023
Picture: the-saleroom.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Lisbon that the following Portrait of a Gentleman with a Hat realised an impressive 37,000 euros on Monday over its 1,500 estimate. Catalogued as ‘Flemish School, 17th century’, the bidders for this sleeper knew that this was in fact a beautiful head study by Mary Beale (1633-1699), one of England’s most accomplished female artists of the seventeenth-century. There is little doubt that it depicts Mary’s husband Charles, and relates to another fur-hat portrait which is in the McMaster Museum of Art in Ontario, Canada. Beale’s head studies of her family remain the most sensitive and highly regarded in her oeuvre, and this example looks right up there in terms of quality and beauty.
It just so happens that I spotted this painting in an old sales catalogue back in April, and had posted it on my Instagram account as one of those lost treasures I hoped would reappear one day. Curiously, the portrait was sold at Christie’s New York in 1989 as a portrait by Jacob van Oost in full, a period when very few in the art world were thinking about what a Mary Beale looked like. It seems that coincidences do happen, and browsing through old sales catalogues for misattributions is always a fruitful and educational experience. I’m sure the painting will reappear somewhere interesting in due course.
Of less notable news is that I am very happily returning to my post as co-editor of this fine blog. I’ve had the great honour the past year and a half of cataloguing paintings in the Old Master Department at Sotheby’s, but have recently decided to return to this varied life where I can devote more time to enthusing for our corner of the art world. I’ll be continuing as a consultant at the auction house, which will give me the freedom to write here (open and honestly) and pursue projects elsewhere. It seems that an awful lot has been happening over the past few months, so it’s about time I got going!
As ever, all comments and suggestions are most welcome!
Canova virtual tour
June 23 2022
Picture: Christie's
Christie's have made a virtual tour of one of their star lots in the forthcoming Old Master sales, a lost Recumbant Magdalene by Antonia Canova. You can zoom around it here. The statue will be auctioned on 7th July, estimated at £5m-£7m. It was discovered in 2002 in a garden statuary sale, for about £5,000. Literally, a sleeping sleeper!
Christina, Queen of Sweden's Titian Coming up for Sale
April 5 2022
Picture: Dorotheum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Dorotheum auction house in Vienna have announced that they will be offering a rediscovered Titian later in May. The painting of The Penitent Magdalen, of which many versions are known, was in the collection of Christina (1626-1689), Queen of Sweden during the seventeenth century. The provenance of the work is rather intriguing, as it later passed into the collections of Pierre Crozat and later Philippe II Duke of Orleans. It finally arrived in Britain during the 1790s. The attribution has been supported by Professor Paul Joannides and the exact provenance was researched and established by Dr Carlo Corsato.
The painting will be offered for sale on 11th May 2022 carrying an estimate of €1m - €1.5m.
Rembrandt, not Flinck
April 1 2022
Picture: Gemäldegalerie
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin have announced that their Landscape with Arched Bridge is by Rembrandt after all. A reassessment of the picture, instigated by a David Hockney exhibition it seems, has concluded that the work is by Rembrandt's own hand. The picture had been given to Govaert Flinck for many years until recent technical analysis has proven otherwise.
According to the article linked above:
X-rays showing changes and corrections that had been made to the work helped confirm Rembrandt as its creator. [Berlin curator Katja] Kleinert said experts were unanimous in their verdict.
Comparisons were made with a very similar composition by Rembrandt, called Landscape with Stone Bridge at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which the Gemäldegalerie’s director, Dagmar Hirschfeld – herself a Rembrandt expert – said shared hallmarks typical for him.
“You quite often get pairs of paintings, where you have the impression he is trying to do the same again, but in another style of painting or to optimise what he has already achieved,” she said. Analysis of the painting in Berlin, which the gallery acquired in 1924, showed how Rembrandt had made radical changes to the work during its creation, including shifting the position of a storm cloud, reducing the size of a hill and making changes to a group of trees. These processes in turn made the painting more compact and dense.
The landscape will be featured in the gallery's latest exhibition David Hockney – Landscapes in Dialogue.
