Category: Research

Showcasing the deep collection of Constable’s work at the Yale Center for British Art, this lavishly illustrated volume situates the artist within the culture of his time and considers his rich legacy. Constable features engaging essays that chronicle the painter’s life and late-blooming career, explore how the reception of his work evolved across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and reveal the significance of his vision to contemporary discussions on art and climate science.

Building on Koenraad Jonckheere’s seminal monographs from 2007 and 2011, this book offers fresh insights into the works of Willem and Adriaen Thomasz. Key, two prominent 16th-century painters. Through an examination of newly attributed pieces and an analysis of their artistic evolution, it further enhances our understanding of their thriving workshop, a pivotal force in Antwerp’s artistic scene.

The book explores the distinctive stylistic approaches of both artists, from Adriaen Thomasz. Key’s austere yet meticulous portraiture to Willem Key’s diverse body of historical and devotional works. Drawing on extensive provenance research and keen visual analysis.

Featuring around 80 artworks, this catalogue raisonné further positions Willem and Adriaen Thomasz. Key as key masters of their era.

Nearly a century has passed since Dr. Abraham Wassenbergh’s first significant contribution to the field. He defended his dissertation on sixteenth-century Frisian portraiture at the Sorbonne in France in 1934, and published a volume on seventeenth-century Frisian portraits in 1967.

Het Friese Portret aims to build upon Wassenbergh’s important work by creating a comprehensive follow-up publication. Thanks in part to the digitization of artworks, a large number of portraits have been rediscovered in recent years. The foundation’s new standard work will incorporate these newly identified pieces, along with the latest knowledge about painters working in the region. Attention will be paid to numerous aspects, such as the artists, the subjects and their networks, the clothing and jewelry depicted in the portraits, and the social and economic context in which the portraits were created.

The Whitworth is one of the UK’s leading university art galleries, renowned for its national and international programmes and social impact. We are looking for a senior curatorial leader to join our management team and help deliver the gallery’s programme, mission, and strategic priorities. The postholder will play a leading role within our curatorial team, embedding transcultural perspectives across our programmes, contributing to the Whitworth’s strategic priorities to acknowledge the diversity and global interconnectedness of art and their histories. They will lead the development and delivery of specific programme strands, collaborate on shaping collection displays, exhibitions, and their interpretation, shaping research agendas, and helping develop international partnerships. The role will contribute to acquisition and interpretation strategies, curatorial practices, public programmes, and digital initiatives — all through a transcultural lens.

The event will feature a panel of experts who will explore the painting’s restoration within the broader context of Wright’s oeuvre and 17th-century British material culture. This is a rare opportunity to view an important example of Wright’s work, which is not normally on public display.

The British Museum is looking for a visionary leader to join its Collection Directorate as Head of Research, Archives and Libraries. In this critical role, you will shape and deliver the Museum’s vision for research, ensuring the Museum has one of the world’s most researched, accessible and visible collections.

This high-impact role offers the opportunity to shape the Museum’s world-class research, catalysing research across all areas of the Museum at a pivotal time in its history. You will drive improvements across archive and library services, forge meaningful partnerships internally and externally, and champion income-generating initiatives that align with the Museum’s strategic objectives.

RESPONSIBLITIES
-Cataloguing and researching items for the Old Master Paintings Day and Mid-season auctions as well as valuations, encompassing European paintings from the late 13th to early 19th centuries
-Researching and cataloguing of objects to the highest standard according to scheduled deadlines
-Corresponding and establishing relationships with external experts, while also following up and managing outstanding research enquiries
-Assisting with condition reports for the lots on offer
-Being involved in all aspects of our auctions throughout the year, including digital catalogue production, lot order finalisation, proofreading, colour-checking, producing marketing material and editorial content, assisting with exhibition layout and set-up, staffing exhibition, and targeting potential bidders
-Helping with day-to-day client enquiries at the counter, through the online enquiry portal, by email and on the telephone
-Maintaining excellence in client service when responding to estimate enquiries, general correspondence and photo requests
-Assisting with the maintenance of the OMP and 19th Century Paintings libraries and archive systems
-Assisting the Senior Experts with the research of paintings for valuations, proposals and other purposes
-Operating at all times in accordance with the company’s rules on compliance and corporate Governance.

This four-volume publication marks the completion of one of the most ambitious stages in the long-term task of cataloguing sculpture in the Royal Collection.

The scope of the catalogue – covering sculpture in all materials from the fifteenth to the late twentieth century – is unprecedented. Incorporating countless new attributions and identifications and the results of conservation and scientific examination, the catalogue will be an indispensable work of reference for all students of post-medieval sculpture, impressive not only in the quality of its scholarship but also for the extent and depth of the documentation. Highlights include an exceptional group of bronze busts from the Italian and Northern Renaissance, the first bronze casts of ancient sculpture to be made in Britain, the best ensemble of French seventeenth- and eighteenth-century bronzes outside France, unrivalled examples of English portrait sculpture from the seventeenth century onwards and the most complete surviving collection of Victorian sculpture.

With an introductory survey covering the relationships between British monarchs and sculptors since the seventeenth century and the impact of sculpture in the interiors of the royal palaces over the same period, the admirably clear and engaging text is essential reading for students of royal collecting. It is accompanied by almost 2,000 illustrations, most of which have been commissioned for this book.

In this unique and beautiful book, Christina Faraday uses art – paintings, sculpture, prints, tapestries, embroideries, clothes, jewels and household objects – to investigate every facet of the period. Beside dissecting familiar portraits of Tudor kings, queens and nobles, Faraday casts a forensic eye across a dynamic array of artefacts, giving the reader a vivid and detailed feel for the political, social, economic and cultural texture of sixteenth-century England.

A Botticelli fragment in Mexico City - By Christopher Daly

An early maiolica dish by Nicola da Urbino: attribution and provenance - By Celia Curnow

Reconstructing Luca Signorelli’s Matelica altarpiece - By Tom Henry

An unpublished drawing of the Fonseca Chapel: a ‘destroyed’ idea by Gian Lorenzo Bernini - By Marco Coppolaro

Canaletto’s use of drawings of Venetian buildings by Antonio Visentini -By Gregorio Astengo, Philip Steadman

Luca Signorelli in Cortona - By Serena Nocentini

- Lucy Hughes-Hallett, author of The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham;
- Dr Megan Shaw, University of Auckland, on Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham;
- Professor Karen Hearn, UCL, on the early portraits of George Villiers, including the little-known Melton Carnegie portrait of c.1619;
- Jon Sleigh, Learning Curator & Alison Clague, Senior Curator, Culture Leicestershire, on Villiers Revealed;
- Professor Maria Hayward, University of Southampton, on George Villiers’s clothing in the context of the Jacobean court.

Adjacent to the galleries, on the second floor of the new building, visitors will encounter the conservation vestibule, a space where conservation-related installations will be displayed. Visitors will also be able to catch a glimpse of the conservators at work through the two windows in the double doors to the studios. The 2,000-square-foot space behind the doors will house both paper and objects conservation. Each area will have ample room and highly specialized equipment to carry out day-to-day treatment and research activities.

Fay Blanchard and Anthony Spira (editors) - Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour

Rosie Broadley (editor) - Francis Bacon: Human Presence

Bruce Boucher - John Soane’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Reflections on an Architect and his Collection

Esther Chadwick - The Radical Print: Art and Politics in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain

Bryony Coombs - Visual Arts and the Auld Alliance: Scotland, France and National Identity c.1420-1550

Paul Gough - Gilbert Spencer: The Life and Work of a Very English Artist

Bendor Grosvenor - The Invention of British Art 

Elain Harwood and Alan Powers (editors) - Ernö Goldfinger

Mark Laird - The Dominion of Flowers: Botanical Art & Global Plant Relations

Cristina S. Martinez and Cynthia E. Roman - Female Printmakers, Printsellers and Publishers in the Eighteenth Century: The Imprint of Women 1735-1830

Nicholas Olsberg - The Master Builder: William Butterfield and His Times

Madeleine Pelling - Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Eleonora Pistis - Architecture of Knowledge: Hawksmoor and Oxford

Dorothy Price, Esther Chadwick, Cora Gilroy-Ware and Sarah Lea - Entangled Pasts, 1768-now: Art, Colonialism and Change

Natalie Prizel - Victorian Ethical Optics: Innocent Eyes and Aberrant Bodies

Jeff Rosen - Julia Margaret Cameron: The Colonial Shadows of Victorian Photography

Fiona Smyth - Pistols in St Paul’s: Science, music, and architecture in the twentieth century

Gavin Stamp - Interwar British Architecture 1919-39

The forum provides a space for curators and institutions to share lesser-seen and lesser-studied works from their collections—so-called ‘problem’ drawings—raising unresolved questions of attribution, sitter identity, dating, subject matter, and provenance. By opening these discussions to the global community of experts and enthusiasts, the platform enhances visibility and invites fresh perspectives on drawings that might otherwise remain in obscurity.

This free-to-use digital resource will harness the power of collective research and community collaboration, encouraging knowledge exchange and innovative approaches to longstanding art-historical challenges. Through crowd-sourced insights and collaborative scholarship, the Trois Crayons Museum Forum aims to deepen our understanding of Pre-Modern drawings and deepen public engagement with institutional collections.