Previous Posts: October 2021
National Gallery of Ireland Unveils Conserved Lavinia Fontana
October 31 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin have unveiled Lavinia Fontana's recently restored The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. The work has reappeared after an 18-month conservation and research project funded in-part by The Bank of America. The removal of old varnish has revealed several interesting and overlooked details, including an inscription and 1599 date painted onto the base of a clock.
Furthermore, the work will be included in the gallery's forthcoming exhibition entitled Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker which is set to open in May 2023.
Update - I would recommend heading over to the gallery's YouTube Channel where they have uploaded many fascinating videos featuring the conservation of the painting.
Restituted Pictures head to Christie's
October 31 2021
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Artnews.com have published an article on a set of restituted paintings which will feature in Christie's December Old Master Paintings sale in London. The works, including paintings by the likes of El Greco (pictured) and Emmanuel de Witte are being offered by the heirs of Julius and Camilla Priester, whose collection of paintings were seized by the Nazis in 1944. The recent restitution of the pictures was made possible with assistance from the Commission for Looted Art in Europe (CLAE), who spotted several paintings with various art dealers.
The El Greco Portrait of a Gentleman (pictured) will be offered for sale at Christie's London on 7th December 2021 carrying an estimate of £800k - £1.2m.
New Release: Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings at Wilton House
October 30 2021
Picture: archaeopress.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
If any readers are stuck for Christmas present ideas this year, this recent release looks like catnip to any art lover.
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd have recently published a new Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings at Wilton House. This fabulous looking catalogue has been written by Francis Russell, Deputy Chairman at Christie's and author of several books on art and travel.
To quote the book's blurb:
The collection of pictures at Wilton has been celebrated since the seventeenth century; and its historic arrangement is uniquely well documented in a series of catalogues of which the first, issued in 1731, was the earliest such publication about any private collection in England. Of successive owners of the house, three made significant contributions: William, 4th Earl of Pembroke, who commissioned van Dyck’s monumental portrait of his family that dominates the Double Cube Room he had created; his grandson, Thomas, 8th Earl of Pembroke who assembled what was in some respects a pioneering collection of old master pictures for the house; and his grandson, Henry, 10th Earl of Pembroke, patron of Reynolds and Wilson, among others. Such masterpieces as Lucas van Leyden’s Card Players, Cesare da Sesto’s Leda – long attributed to Leonardo – and Ribera’s Democritus are matched by remarkable portrait drawings by Raphael and Holbein. These are complemented by a substantial deposit of family portraits and other pictures that attest to the tastes and interests of successive generations of the Herbert family.
Cleaning Fragonard's The Swing
October 30 2021
Picture: TAN
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Art Newspaper have published an article on the ongoing conservation treatment of Fragonard's The Swing. This iconic painting from The Wallace Collection in London has been treated by the restorer Martin Wyld, former Director of Conservation at the National Gallery in London.
It will be back on display in the museum on 3rd November 2021 and is set to be featured within a future Fragonard exhibition held by the institution (TBA).
The National Gallery cleans a Frans Hals
October 30 2021
Video: National Gallery London
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery in London have published a rather satisfying video showing the conservation of a Portrait of a Lady by Frans Hals. The video features a full explanation presented by conservator Paul Ackroyd.
I'd also recommend this earlier published video giving a 'first look' at Thomas Lawrence's The Red Boy, a painting acquired by the gallery earlier in the year.
Sleeper Alert!
October 29 2021
Picture: Tajan Auctions
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News on Twitter (via. @auctionradar) that the following drawing of Juno catalogued as 'Florentine School, follower of Rosso Fiorentino' achieved €300,000 over its €500 - €700 estimate at Tajan Auctions in Paris yesterday.
One imagines that the new owner is hoping that this is the original drawing which this print by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio is after.
Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen opens in November
October 29 2021
Video: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It looks like a cultural institution in the Netherlands is about the show-off exactly how the storage of art can be transformed for public access. The topic of getting art out of vast stores and into galleries is one that this blog has been passionate about for a long time now.
The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam is set to open its new publicly accessible art storage facility on 6th November 2021. The Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen claims to be the first of its kind, allowing visitors to not only have unprecedented access to the art in its stores (around 151,000 objects) but also be able to view the activities that go into preserving and caring for such a vast collection.
Let's hope museums and galleries around the world take note.
Alcaraz Restoration Reveals Original Sixteenth Century Paintings
October 29 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that a thorough restoration of an altarpiece has revealed the original paintings by Juan de Borgoña (1470-1535). The eight panels, preserved in the Church of la Santísima Trinidad in Alcaraz, Spain, had been practically hidden under crude overpaint and gilding from later centuries. It had been assumed by some scholars that the original paintings had been lost.
Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia Announces Acquisition
October 26 2021
Picture: ansa.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence have announced their acquisition of an Angel and the Virgin by Giovanni Francesco Toscani (1372-1430).* The two paintings are fragments of a grand altarpiece painted for the Ardinghelli Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Trinita in Florence. Other surviving panels are located in Florence, Baltimore and Philadelphia respectively. The work was purchased by the museum for €400,000.
* - Apologies, my previous post indicated that there was only one painting instead of two.
Conservation in Action at the Queen's House Greenwich
October 26 2021
Picture: Royal Museums Greenwich
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Royal Museums Greenwich have opened a new live exhibit entitled Conservation in Action. Visitors to the Queen's House in Greenwich will have the opportunity to watch conservators working on A Royal Visit to the Fleet in the Thames Estuary by Willem van de Velde the Younger. The painting has not been on display in recent years due to its condition.
Tickets are free but must be booked in advanced. The live exhibit will run until 3rd December 2021.
Frescoed Villa Aurora Up for Sale
October 26 2021
Picture: wantedinrome.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The press has been awash with news that the Villa Aurora in Rome is coming up for sale in January next year. Famously, the building contains unique frescos by the likes of Caravaggio and Guercino and has been in the hands of the Ludovisi family since the sixteenth-century. The asking price for the Villa will be in the region of €471m.
XXL Mattia Preti Removed from Maltese Church for Restoration
October 25 2021
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Malta that a large painting by Mattia Preti (1613-1699) has been removed from the Żurrieq’s Parish Church in preparation for conservation. Curiously, the restoration of Pretti's Saints Roque, Blaise, Dominic and Nicholas of Tolentino interceding for the plague stricken will be financed by the Malta Airport Foundation. The work, under the leadership of conservator Anthony Spagnol, will take until the third quarter of 2022 to complete.
Sleeper Alert!
October 25 2021
Picture: New Orleans Auction Galleries
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News on Twitter over the weekend (via. @Claudia05086940) that the above painting catalogued as 'Italo-Flemish School (16th/ 17th Century)' realised $170,000 over its $2.5k - $4k estimate at the New Orleans Auctions Galleries on Saturday.
Candlelight at the Museum Gouda
October 25 2021
Picture: Museum Gouda
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museum Gouda in the Netherlands will be opening an exhibition dedicated to candlelight paintings in November. This will surely be an interesting show and one wonders exactly how the paintings will be displayed to make the most of these subtle lighting effects.
According to the museum's website (forgive the translation):
Experience a journey through centuries of candlelight in art. Let yourself be transported to an intimate world full of nocturnal tension and drama.
There are few Dutch artists who mastered the play of light and dark as convincingly as Rembrandt van Rijn, Gerard van Honthorst and Godfried Schalcken. They used the candle in many of their paintings as a direct or indirect source of light. Their paintings are still able to enchant the viewer and, as it were, draw them into the performance.
The exhibition will run from 13th November 2021 till 27th March 2022.
Update - A reader has been in touch with the following recommendation:
I might add that December 10, 2021 is Candle Night in Gouda. I have experienced the event many years ago and it was beautiful! My parents are from a small town not far from Gouda and it’s famous candles (they do not drip) and a visit near Christmas was magical for any child.
New Leiden Collection Rembrandt
October 24 2021
Picture: The Leiden Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Leiden Collection have uploaded a full catalogue note for their recently acquired Bust of a Young Bearded Man by Rembrandt.
The painting has a rather interesting history. It was first recorded with the Dukes of Ancaster at Grimsthorpe Castle in the early nineteenth century and was sold at various points during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The work was subsequently 'neglected' in the Rembrandt literature since the 1930s and had previously bore some eighteenth-century additions including a hat and large white collar which have since been removed:
The last time the picture was last sold in 2004 at Sotheby's Olympia, London, where the picture was catalogued as 'Rembrandt School, Seventeenth Century'. It achieved a mere £33,600 in this sale.
Shortly after the sale a detailed restoration and set of scientific analysis was initiated at University College London. However, it was in 2020 when conservator Michel van de Laar took another look at the work identifying several pentimento and techniques suggesting Rembrandt's own hand. This included the application of Rembrandt's signature when the painting was still wet, along with other marks suggesting the artist was working at speed.
The painting had been on loan to the National Trust in recent years. Indeed, someone should probably tell the NT as the painting is still featured on their collections website.
New Release: Painted out of History: Ellen and Rolinda Sharples
October 22 2021
Picture: redcliffepress.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's a new release that might be of interest. Painted out of History: Ellen and Rolinda Sharples is the latest publication of the author Hazel Gower for Redcliffe Press in Bristol.
According to the book's blurb:
Daughter of a Lancashire blacksmith, Ellen Sharples was the driving force behind a remarkable family of artists. Based in Bath and Bristol, she sailed to America twice, was imprisoned during the French Revolution and painted the first five US presidents. She supported the family financially, educated her daughter Rolinda and trained her to become a painter of contemporary events. Though her life and her legacy are little known, Ellen was a Georgian era pioneer. She created one of the early Academies of Art, where for the first time women could study on equal terms with men.
Author Hazel Gower quotes from Ellen’s journal to explore this unusual mother daughter relationship, presenting an inspiring portrait of the pair. Chronicling their passion, commitment and resourcefulness, this is the forgotten story of two women artists and their adventurous lives on both sides of the Atlantic.
New Munch Museum in Oslo
October 22 2021
Video: FRANCE 24 English
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new museum to dedicated Edvard Munch has opened today in Oslo, Norway. The museum proports to be the largest museum dedicated to one single artist.
According to the press bumf:
Whatever your opinion of the exterior, the inside is an undeniably impressive space. 11 exhibition halls in all shapes and sizes sit one on top of the other, showcasing far more of Munch’s work than was ever possible before. Research and conservation facilities are open to the public, while studio space will host all manner of public performances and workshops. The 13th-floor restaurant is sure to be a hit for the views across the Oslofjord alone.
Gilded Figures: Wood and Clay Made Flesh
October 22 2021
Picture: Time Out
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York have recently opened a rather brilliant sounding exhibition entitled Gilded Figures: Wood and Clay Made Flesh.
According to their website:
This splendid exhibition will offer a rare glimpse of a major art form from the Hispanic World 1500–1800: polychrome sculpture. Building on the legacy which Archer M. Huntington left the museum, the institution has added to its holdings of this material so that today the HSM&L boasts the finest collection of these works outside Spain. Until recently, this vivid sculpture went largely unnoticed, but now it elicits enthusiastic responses. Even so, Gilded Figures is the first event in New York to feature this art form in the last 20 years. The over 20 sculptures exhibited will not only attest to the high level of artistic production, but they will also include major works by women artists and show how the stylistic conventions of Spain were adapted in the New World.
The exhibition will be accompanied by some rather interesting lectures and events and ultimately will run until 9th January 2022.
Landseer Spotted in St James's Palace
October 22 2021
Picture: The Royal Family via. Facebook
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has been in touch regarding a photograph of HRH The Price of Wales (pictured above). It was published yesterday as part of an awards ceremony for the Prince's Trust. However, it seems that it is the painting by Sir Edwin Landseer that has attracted all the attention online.
A reader writes:
I am not the only art history geek who was struck by the lively painting seen prominently behind HRH Prince Charles in this news-photo yesterday. A tantalising glimpse of paintings on display in the secret chambers of St James’s Palace, that are not credited by location on the excellent and exemplary Royal Collections website, unlike for other royal residences and loans, including Brighton Pavilion.
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Do let me know if you ever come across any interesting paintings found in the back of otherwise unexciting press photographs.
I must admit, I became rather fixated on find out the origins of a painting found hanging in a press photograph of the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg a few years ago. It shows a version of William Dobson's portrait of Charles II in armour kept at Windsor Castle. Early copies of Dobson's portraits are extremely rare, generally speaking. I wonder if anything is known about this example.
Update - Two readers have kindly been in touch with information that the aforementioned Conservative MP is in fact married to the daughter of the heir of the Wentworth Fitzwilliam paintings collection, which may explain the appearance of this painting. Most intriguing!
Half-cleaned Vasari on Display at Palazzo Barberini
October 22 2021
Picture: @BarberiniCorsin
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palazzo Barberini in Rome have shared an interesting image on Twitter of a half-cleaned painting on display within their galleries. The Allegory of the Immaculate Conception by Giogio Vasari is in the progress of being cleaned. The various stages of dirt removal and varnishing are now very obvious to the eye.
The work will be on display for a few weeks until it heads back for conservation until is completion in April 2022.
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I was wondering whether this was a brilliant idea or not. Obviously, it is a wonderful chance to show the public the various stages of conservation treatment. However, it is also somewhat visually frustrating to see something not quite there. The equivalent would be displaying a half-cleaned car in a forecourt, perhaps. Maybe readers of AHN have some interesting opinions on the matter.
Update - A reader has been in touch to remind me of the current exhibition Facelifts & Make-overs at the Mauritshuis. Amongst presenting a survey of recent conservation projects the exhibition also features an 'in-progress' conserved picture by Pieter de Hooch. Well worth visiting by the looks of it!
Update 2 - A reader has forwarded a photograph of a detail of the aforementioned Vasari. As you can see, the conservators have used white dashes to indicate the cleaned areas:
