Category: Research
Master Drawings Journal - Free Access
July 14 2020
Picture: Master Drawings
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Master Drawings Journal, published by the Master Drawings Association, have made their recent issues free to read online. You'll be able to access interesting articles on the likes of the 'Drawings of Interiors by Thomas Wijck'; 'The Zuccaro Brothers and the Colorito vs. Disegno Debate'; 'Paolo Veronese's Portrait Drawing of Fra' Damiano Grana' and 'Paul Sandby Copying Gainsborough: Sharing, Sociability, and Self-fashioning' (pictured).
Provenance Research Controversy at the Leopold Museum
July 13 2020
Picture: Der Standard
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Some controversy has been brewing in the Austrian Press concerning provenance research in Vienna's Leopold Museum. The museum, which contains significant works by the likes of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, has so far not been able to establish the provenance of just over 90% of its collection. The museum has been subject to protests in the past regarding artworks with murky WWII histories and controversies in restitution (the above picture dates to 2008).
The complicated legal position of the museum's collection, which was established as a semi-private foundation with 5,266 works and a fortune from Rudolf Leopold, means that it has straddled both the public and private spheres. The museum is due to tender a new contract for an inhouse provenance researcher who will now report directly to a Federal Commission and its advisory board.
CFP: Blackness, Immobility, and Visibility in Europe (1600-1800)
June 25 2020
Picture: Journal18
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Journal18, a journal of eighteenth-century art and culture, have published a call for papers in order to create a rather fascinating online resource 'chronicling the representation and regulation of black bodies in Europe, c.1600-1800'.
Interested participants are invited to submit artworks (submitted either as copyright-free digital images or as hyperlinks) that correspond to this theme. The submitted pieces will then be woven into a large digital timeline for researchers, educators and students.
The above painting, posted on the journal's Twitter page, is Hyacinthe Rigaud's Portrait of a Black Archer (c.1697) in Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dunkerque.
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Rijksmuseum Reidentify Isabella
June 18 2020
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rijksmuseum have shared some new research into a portrait by the Dutch Neo-Impressionist Simon Maris (1873-1935) in their collection. For many years the portrait, dated to 1906, was labelled by the museum as 'Young Woman with a Fan'. However, a photograph has been found in the painter's archive which records the young girl's name as Isabella. The museum are still trying to find more details about the family name and life of this young sitter.
CFP: Hidden Gems
June 15 2020
Picture: ICOM
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
As this blog celebrates new research into overlooked works of art, it seems only right that I share this rather interesting call for papers advert.
ICOM, International Committee for Museums and Collections of Decorative Arts and Design, are putting on a conference on the theme 'Hidden Gems'. Accepted papers will be examining objects in decorative arts collections that speakers feel should receive more scholarly and public attention. The conference will be held digitally on 15-16 October 2020.
As their call for papers document explains:
Does your collection have objects that you wish scholars and visitors knew more about? What is the subject on which you have always wanted to present an exhibition or essay, or a small yet significant story that has not yet been highlighted at your institution? If you work with a private collection, what in your holdings would you most like to see made accessible to the wider design community?
The deadline for submissions, consisting of 250-300 word abstracts, is 1st July 2020.
The Curious Tale of Brown University's Philip IV
June 9 2020
Picture: MFA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a curious post on the blog site Lost Art Project detailing the history of a portrait of King Philip IV of Spain by the Circle of John Singer Sargent (pictured).
The painting was the property of Brown University since 1957 but went missing at some point between the years 1983 and 1991. It then appeared in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston after being donated by a former Brown professor. The professor claimed that his mother had purchased the work at a yard sale in south-eastern Massachusetts. What are the chances?
The MFA website explains that the painting was deaccessioned in 2016 and has since been returned to Brown. The painting has been cleaned too by the looks of it.
Mystery of Portrait Donor Solved
May 7 2020
Picture: The Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Godfrey Kneller's portrait of the poet and diplomat Matthew Prior (1664-1721) was one of the highlights of the recent Tate exhibition British Baroque: Power and Illusion. Few painters could capture the confidence and haughtiness of their sitters like Kneller could.
The painting's lender, Trinity College Cambridge, have published a blog about the recent discovery of the painting's donor. The work was presented to the college in 1908 under the strict conditions that the donor should remain anonymous and that the portrait should be hung "anywhere except in the hall".
It transpires that the canvas was a gift from artist and benefactor Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919). The identity of the donor was recently unearthed in a handwritten letter by M.R. James, the then Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and famous writer of ghost stories.
A high-resolution image of the painting, superb painterly flourishes and all, can be found here.
The Royal Hospital 'Greate Peece'
April 7 2020
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
In December last year, during this blog's hiatus, the Jordaens Van Dyck Panel Paintings Project (JVDPPP) uploaded a very interesting video detailing new research and visual analysis of a painting in the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
This picture was long believed to be 'an important copy' of Van Dyck's group portrait of Charles I and his family in the Royal Collection, more widely known as the 'Greate Peece'. However, questions have always remained, is it or is it not good enough to be by Van Dyck himself?
The lecture is delivered by the project's co-founder Justin Davies and researcher James Innes-Mulraine.
Burlington releases current issue online
April 2 2020
Picture: The Burlington Magazine
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz
Wonderful news that during the world’s current crisis The Burlington Magazine has made its current issue free to read online. You can click here to read the current issue.
This will come as welcome news, as the majority of the world is now confined to four walls. A good way to find future new subscribers, alongside the joy of reading the magazine’s contents for free during these troubling times. Furthermore, this month’s editorial is dedicated to the pertinent theme of Art and Illness. Spurred on from new research undertaken by the University of California at Berkley, leading psychologists have been able to verify the notion that ‘Art can make you feel better’. This, as the editorial points out, has been a long held view by readers of the Burlington and generations of Art Lovers across the globe.
A large number of online journal resources are following suit, with JSTOR having announced that open access content can now be read without having the faff of signing up for an account.
'Bright Souls'
June 14 2019
Picture: Lyon & Turnbull
Please accept my further apologies for the lack of news. I've been tied up finishing the latest series of 'Britain's Lost Masterpieces', and writing the catalogue for a new exhibition I'm curating on the first female British artists. They are Joan Carlile, Mary Beale and Anne Killigrew.
The exhibition is called 'Bright Souls; the Forgotten Story of Britain's First Female Artists', and will be at Lyon & Turnbull's London gallery (on Connaught Street) from 24th June to 6th July. It would be great to see some of you there. It's the first time anyone has shown works by these three artists together, and the first exhibition to look more broadly at Joan Carlile and Anne Killigrew. We'll have a catalogue, and some newly discovered paintings. More details here.
The title comes from John Dryden's Ode to Anne Killigrew after her death in 1685 at the age of 25;
Thus nothing to her Genius was deny'd,
But like a Ball of Fire the further thrown,
Still with a greater Blaze she shone,
And her bright Soul broke out on ev'ry side.
Elizabethan Miniatures
April 17 2019
Secrets and symbols part 1 from National Portrait Gallery on Vimeo.
Video: National Portrait Gallery
It's all go for Elizabethan portrait miniatures at the moment; an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London (till 19th May), and a new biography of Nicholas Hilliard by Elizabeth Goldring. In Apollo, Christina Faraday examines their purpose and appeal:
Above all else, it was limning’s ability to capture a likeness directly and vividly that made it ‘the perfection of art’ for so many Elizabethans. This derived partly from the way in which a miniature was made. Unlike large-scale oil paintings, which were often painted over the course of several months from preparatory sketches or face-patterns, limnings were made almost entirely in the presence of the sitter. In his Treatise, Hilliard suggests ways to make the sitting as enjoyable and comfortable as possible: ‘sweet odours comfort the brain and open the understanding, augmenting the delight in limning, discreet talk or reading, quiet mirth or music offend not, but shorten the time, and quicken the spirit both in the drawer, and he which is drawn’. Hilliard does not explicitly say how many sittings were needed, but the later miniaturist Edward Norgate, who knew Hilliard’s methods, recommends three sittings of several hours each, with jewels and costumes finished in between, in the artist’s own time. The presence of the sitter was vital to the finished miniature’s vividness, because it allowed the artist to ‘catch those lovely graces, witty smilings, and those stolen glances which suddenly like lightning pass and another Countenance takes place’, as Hilliard writes in the Treatise. He stresses the speed at which the artist had to work, to ‘catch’ an expression which passed ‘like lightning’, demonstrating the immediate transfer of the person’s appearance to vellum, carrying with it the power of their presence.
Not Malevich, but Maria Dzhagubova
April 8 2019
Picture: Guardian
Here's a fascinating story from The Guardian; a portrait recently exhibited at Tate in London as by Malevich is in fact by his pupil, Maria Dzhagubova. Research by Andrey Vasiliev in Russia has shown that the above portrait of Elizaveta Yakovleva (above) is recorded in Soviet archives as a work by Dzhagubova, but at some point in recent decades it has acquired a 'Malevich' signature.
The picture was praised as an important work by Malevich when it was exhibited in London:
So, though the portrait was praised during the Tate show by Nicholas Cullinan, now director of the National Portrait Gallery, as a work in which Malevich used colour to rebel by “tacitly alluding to the innovations he had pioneered”, it seems it can no longer be regarded as an exciting addition to the figurative output of Malevich, an artist best known for his minimalist 1913 work, Black Square. Cullinan told the Observer he remembers his praise for the work, but had no comment on doubts about its attribution.
A lost Leonardo sculpture in London?
March 11 2019
Video: via You Tube
Research for a new exhibition on Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence has raised the fascinating possibility that a small terracotta sculpture in the V&A previously attributed to Antonio Rossellino is in fact by Leonardo da Vinci. If so, it would be the only known, surviving sculpture by him. The attribution has been proposed by Francesco Caglioti, and is supported by Carmen Bambach of the Met.
A video preview of the exhibition is above, with the terracotta appearing about halfway through. More on the attribution here. A link to the exhibition is here. The V&A's online catalogue still gives the attribution as Rossellino (readers of my Art Newspaper column may know that the V&A doesn't always leap enthusiastically on new attributions, if they are proposed by outsiders - though to be fair this is common in major museums, which can get very territorial). If you click on the download button and promise not to be naughty with the V&A's images, you can access a number of high resolution photos. Let's hope that the V&A are preparing to capitalise on the news by putting the sculpture on display as soon as it gets back from Florence in July.
Online Bosch course
March 7 2019
Video: Prado
The Prado has launched an online course all about Hieronymous Bosch. You'll need to speak Spanish, but it looks like fun. More here.
Gainsborough catalogue raisonné
February 17 2019
Picture: via Amazon
Tremendous news that Hugh Belsey's long-awaited two volume Thomas Gainsborough catalogue raisonné has been published, by the Paul Mellon Centre). It follows in august footsteps; to the famed names of Ellis Waterhouse and John Hayes (previous authors of Gainsborough catalogues) we can now add Hugh's name. As is customary for catalogue raisonné writers, AHN creates him a Hero of Art History.
I've ordered my copy via the dreaded Amazon (for £121) here.
Update - a reader writes:
I hate to do this to you, but Books Etc are selling the book for £90.33. British company, usually cheaper than Amazon (or anyone else), free postage on all books, usually send books more securely packed than Amazon do, I use them almost all the time. And Books Etc prices on Amazon Marketplace are usually higher than on the Books Etc website because of the fee paid to Amazon, so going direct is the best option. Of course, I understand that if you get a small payment for everyone who clicks through from AHN to Amazon and makes a purchase there is a reason for having the link (I don't know if this is the case, but I remember reading about this when I was thinking of having my own blog), but you might want to consider Books Etc for your own purchases. I have no connection with Books Etc apart from being a very satisfied customer.
For the record, I get no payment from Amazon, or indeed anyone else, for any links or content on this blog.
JHNA online
September 22 2018
Picture: JHNA
The latest Journal of the Historians of Netherlandish Art is online, and it's free and in high-res. How about that? There are articles on Metsys and the miniaturist Bernard Lens, amongst others.
Van Gogh's gardener identified
September 22 2018
Picture: Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome
I've been meaning to tell you about the new book by the Van Gogh scholar, Martin Bailey; 'Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum', which is available here. To help publicise it, Martin has started a weekly Van Gogh blog, which is here at The Art Newspaper. The latest revelation is that Martin has identified the sitter in Van Gogh's 'Portrait of a Gardener' (above) as Jean Barral (1861-1942). The portrait was painted while the artist was at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole.
'Art and Suffrage'
September 6 2018
Picture: Francis Boutle
Leading the fight against relocating the Emmeline Pankhurst statue (see below) has been the writer Elizabeth Crawford. She has a new book out, Art and Suffrage, which:
[...] discusses the lives and work of over 100 artists, each of whom made a positive contribution to the women’s suffrage campaign. Most, but not all, the artists were women, many belonging to the two suffrage artists’ societies – the Artists’ Suffrage League and the Suffrage Atelier. Working in a variety of media – producing cartoons, posters, banners, postcards, china, and jewellery – the artists promoted the suffrage message in such a way as to make the campaign the most visual of all those conducted by contemporary pressure groups.
You can order a copy here.
New provenance for the Salvator Mundi?
September 3 2018
Picture: Christie's
There's an interesting story from Alison Cole in The Art Newspaper on some possible new, early provenance for Leonardo's Salvator Mundi; it may have been in the collection of the Duke of Hamilton before it was acquired by Charles I. It all sounds quite plausible. More here.
John Constable; not miserable
July 24 2018
Picture: V&A
Here's a clever bit of research; the V&A's senior curator of paintings, Dr Mark Evans, has been able to prove that some of John Constable's most dramatic watercolour landscapes of Hampstead are faithful depictions of the weather at the time. It had been thought that the moody skies were perhaps a reflection of Constable's mood at the time. But Dr Evans was able to trace weather records by one of Constable's neighbours, and matched these to the exact time and date inscribed by the artist on the back of the paintings. More here.
