New €18m Fra Angelico acquisition for the Prado
January 25 2016
Picture: TAN
The Museo Prado has acquired the above c.1426 panel by Fran Angelico for €18m from the Duke of Alba. The Duke has also donated another newly attributed work by Fra Angelico, showing St Anthony Abbot's death. More here in The Art Newspaper.
Metalpoint drawings
January 25 2016
Video: NGA Washington
I've come to this National Gallery of Art in Washington's video a little late I'm afraid, and long after the exhibition has closed - but it's a great primer on what metalpoint drawing is.
Delacroix at the National Gallery
January 25 2016
Video: National Gallery
The National Gallery in London's new show (opening 17th February) is Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art. In the video above, curator Chris Riopelle sets out what the exhibition is about.
More here.
Italian Museums (ctd.)
January 25 2016
The new reforming Italian government's measures to shake up the country's museum sector are continuing, with a slew of new directors parachuted into position now beginning to make changes. But - wowee - look at this piece in The Telegraph on James Bradburne (now running the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan) to see just how bad things have become:
"The system here is paralysed and doesn’t function,” said Mr Bradburne. “The fact that Italian museums open their doors every day is a miracle.” [...]
Despite boasting some of the finest paintings in the world by great masters such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael, Italy’s museums are undervisited. Not one features on the list of the world’s top 10 most visited museums.
Many have a poor presence online. The website of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, one of the country’s top tourist attractions, is difficult to find and is put to shame by sites of rival galleries abroad such as the Tate or the Getty.
Moreover, a system where by no Italian museum was allowed control of their own finances has sapped the motivation of many past directors. Revenue from ticket sales, venue hire or bookshops had to be paid to Rome, which then redistributed it at their discretion.
Similarly, donors wanting to help a specific museum had to send it via the capital, which would eventually return it – sometimes years later. The 20 new appointees will take charge of their own finances for the first time.
Antoon!
January 22 2016
Picture: Dulwich Picture Gallery
Many thanks to those readers who came to the Van Dyck lecture last night at Dulwich Picture Gallery. It was a good turn out - and a great honour to talk about Antoon in such surroundings. What an amazing collection they have there - well worth a visit. And the new display around the NPG's Van Dyck self-portrait is fascinating.
Henrietta Maria, patron and collector
January 22 2016
Picture: Yale
There's a fascinating new book out on the role of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, as a collector and patron of the arts. It's by Erin Griffey, who probably knows more about Henrietta Maria than anyone else alive, having published a number of books and articles on her already. Says the publisher Yale:
In the early modern period, rulers demonstrated their power and influence through carefully curated “display”—their presence in court ceremonies, their palaces and their contents, and their portraits. Henrietta Maria of France (1609–1669), queen consort of King Charles I of England, embraced these opportunities for display with particular flair. This richly illustrated book follows Henrietta Maria through and beyond the Bourbon and Stuart courts to chart her patronage and engagement with the visual arts, building works, and the luxury trade. It develops a powerful picture not just of the images, fashions, interiors, and buildings shaped by the queen’s directorial influence but also of the political and religious factors that governed her choices and policies of court display. Her cultural patronage in particular emphasized her family honor, dynastic clout, Catholic piety, feminine virtue, and discerning taste. Erin Griffey analyzes the full spectacle of the queen’s represented image, not only through the well-known portraits by Sir Anthony van Dyck but also through her rich bed ensembles, tapestries, jewelry, clothing, and devotional goods—the objects that embodied and conveyed her royal power.
More here.
Francis Towne at the British Museum
January 21 2016
Picture: British Museum
A new exhibition opens today at the British Museum on the work of watercolourist Francis Towne. Says the BM website:
Come and experience 18th-century Rome through an astonishing series of watercolours not displayed together since 1805.
British artist Francis Towne (1739–1816) made a remarkable group of watercolours during a visit to Rome in 1780–1781. They include famous monuments such as the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, ancient baths and temples, and the Forum. These watercolours were Towne’s way of delivering a moral warning to 18th-century Britain not to make the same mistakes – and suffer the same fate – as ancient Rome. 2016 marks the 200th anniversary of their bequest to the British Museum.
Towne’s 52 views of Rome are among the great creative landmarks in the use of watercolour within British art. They played a central role both in Towne’s career, and in the revival of his reputation in the 20th century. They were his main claim for recognition in the London art world and he continued to revise and work on them throughout his life. The views of Rome were the centrepiece of Towne’s one-man retrospective exhibition in London in 1805, and have not been displayed together since. When Towne bequeathed them to the Museum in 1816, they became his permanent public legacy. In addition to the views of Rome, the exhibition will feature further views of Italy by Towne and other works on paper by his contemporaries in Rome, including the important recent acquisition A Panoramic view of Rome by Giovanni Battista Lusieri (1755–1821).
As a landscape painter based in Exeter, Towne’s work was not well known in London during his lifetime, and he failed to be elected to the Royal Academy on several occasions. The Victorians had written off 18th-century watercolours as unambitious and limited, but in the early 20th century, the flat planes and spare, angular designs of Towne’s long-ignored drawings seemed unexpectedly fresh and elegant to modern eyes.
The exhibition has been organised by Richard Stephens, who is writing a catalogue raisonné of Towne's work, to be published online by the Paul Mellon Centre in London. Richard will also be giving a talk on Towne at the BM on Tuesday 26th January at 1.15pm.
Regular readers will know Richard for his invaluable online resource, The Art World in Britain 1660-1735. I think it's high time AHN designated him a Hero of Art History.
Update - the show gets five stars from today's Guardian.
Sleeper Alert!
January 21 2016
Picture: Interencheres
A reader alerts us to the above 'Ecole Hollandaise', which soared to a strong six figure hammer price yesterday in France, against an estimate of a €6k-€8k. It is believed to be by Gerrit van Honthorst.
Cleaning Bassano
January 21 2016
Pictures: National Gallery
The National Gallery in London has cleaned their c.1600 Tower of Babel by Leandro Bassano. Looks like a good job.
Update - the picture has a handsome new frame too, courtesy of the NG's head of framing Peter Schade:
Newly discovered Jordaens at Sotheby's
January 20 2016
Video: Sotheby's
I'm looking forward to seeing a newly discovered picture by Jordaens at Sotheby's New York later this month. The picture, a large sketch of St Martin Healing the Possessed Man, had never been published before, and was completely unknown. The estimate is $4m-$6m, and you can read more about the picture here.
As I said before, if any readers want any advice about pictures coming up in the Old Master sales, just let me know.
New Donatello discovery
January 20 2016
Picture: NYT
In the New York Times, Scott Reyburn draws our attention to a newly attributed work by Donatello (above). It was recently sold in New York for a figure reported to be between $8m-$11m. It was identified and sold by the New York dealer and scholar Andrew Butterfield. Reyburn writes:
Mr. Butterfield had acquired the 2-foot-8-inch tall putto, or “spiritello,” in 2012 from the estate of a Turin art dealer, Giancarlo Gallino, for an undisclosed amount. The piece was not unknown, but it was not thought to be by Donatello, the pre-eminent sculptor of the early Renaissance in Italy.
When Mr. Butterfield bought the sculpture, it was described simply as “Florentine 15th century.” Believing there was more to the story, he consulted several art historians, including Francesco Caglioti, a leading Italian scholar of Renaissance art.
Initial study identified the work as the twin to one in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that was listed as “Italian (possibly Florence), possibly mid-15th century.” Other factors, including the putto’s tiptoe stance, appeared to strengthen the connection to Donatello.
Mr. Butterfield exhibited the statue this fall at Moretti Fine Art in New York. In an accompanying catalog, Mr. Caglioti wrote that “we can safely attribute to Donatello not only the invention and design” of both sculptures “but also the personal responsibility for their execution in his workshop and directly under his eyes, for a decorative project he devised and followed through to its completion.”
Reyburn then goes onto detail another Donatello find* by Mr. Caglioti:
Such a concern has not deterred Mr. Caglioti from announcing that he has discovered yet another Donatello.
In November, he argued in a 97-page article in the art journal Prospettiva that a terracotta bust of San Lorenzo that had been cataloged as “19th century” in the collection of the princes of Liechtenstein — and sold by them at Sotheby’s in Amsterdam in 2003 for about 2,000 euros, or about $2,175 — was a long-lost Donatello made for the facade of a church near Florence.Time will tell if this latest Donatello “discovery” — never historically documented and regarded, at best, as being by the artist’s circle — is accepted by other scholars, or indeed the market.
Reyburn begins the article with the premise that such discoveries are needed in the Old Master world because:
One of the problems for a billionaire wanting to put together a trophy collection of old master art is that the supply of documented works by the most illustrious sculptors and painters has all but dried up.
As a result, millions can be made if a work hitherto attributed to a minor or unknown artist can be upgraded to a famous name.
Such an introduction appears to perpetuate two Old Master myths. First, that works by great names aren't available any more. And second that art history mostly already knows who painted what, and that attribution is something of a settled thing.
To deal with the first, just take a look at some of the works available at Sotheby's forthcoming Old Master sales, which include a documented and signed Raphael no less. Each Old Master season usually brings forth a major work that sells for tens of millions of dollars. There have been nine Rembrandts at auction since 2000 (and more sold privately). Take a more prolific artist like Rubens, and the numbers soon escalate. Certainly, the truly greatest Old Master paintings avilable for sale are rare. But I'm not sure there was ever a golden age of art auctions dripping with major works by the major names. Collections such as the Louvre and the British Royal Collection accounted for large numbers of the most important Old Masters from centuries ago.
And on the discovery point - well, regular readers will know my views on this. Art history, as a discipline of sorting out who painted what, has been all over the place for some time now. Connoisseurship fell away as a valued skill from the late 1970s onwards. Before then, there were indeed many excellent connoisseurs, but it was still a discipline in its infancy, dependent largely on black and white photos, and with no recourse to all the technical analysis we can do today. In other words, although the oeuvres of the great painters are indeed mostly settled, there is still significant blurring around the edges.
To take Van Dyck - an artist I know a little about - we had in the 1980s a useless catalogue raisonné by Prof. Erik Larsen, which included just about any picture that looked vaguely Flemish and 17th Century. For at least a decade, Van Dyck attributions were wildly out, for Larsen was seen as the authority by many auction houses and dealers. Then, thankfully, along came Yale with their much more disciplined catalogue in 2004. And yet I think it's not unfair to say that, in the light of Larsen's 'inclusionism', the 2004 catalogue was perhaps a little too exclusionist. Barely more than 20 head studies were included, for example, and yet we know that Van Dyck's working practice would have required the use of a far larger number. In other words, there is still much more discovering to be done, not least because connoisseurs (those that are left) have so many more tools at their disposal: digital imagery, paint analysis, high resolution x-rays, infra-red, and so on.
*In my initial publication of this article I made a bish which appeared to suggest that Scott's "time will tell" line referred to the first mentioned Donatello discovery, not the second one. My apologies to both Scott and the New York Times!
Hermitage Rembrandts in Amsterdam
January 20 2016
Picture: Hermitage.nl
Here's a show to look forward to - Dutch Masters on the Amstel at the Hermitage museum in Amsterdam, in 2017. Says the blurb:
Dutch Masters on the Amstel is the fulfilment of a long-standing wish of the Hermitage Amsterdam. The Hermitage’s collection of paintings, prints and drawings by Dutch Masters is one of the world’s largest. Many Russian collectors were passionate about Dutch painting and their collections span several centuries. Peter the Great was fond of seascapes, Catherine the Great purchased large works like Haman Recognizes His Fate (c. 1665) by Rembrandt. The tsars were not the only collectors. In the nineteenth century, Count Pyotr Petrovich Semenov-Tyan-Shansky was an avid collector of works by artists like Honthorst, Ruysdael, Post and Lastman, and his collection was an important addition to the Hermitage’s.
Russia’s love affair with the great Dutch painters will be on exhibit in 2017–18.
More here.
'Fake or Fortune?' discovery at auction
January 18 2016
Picture: Sotheby's
A lost painting by Edouard Vuillard featured on the BBC programme 'Fake or Fortune?' is to be auctioned by Sotheby's next month. The estimate is £250,000-£350,000. I do hope it sells, not least because the owner is an exceedingly nice fellow.
How to hang Old Masters
January 18 2016
Picture: Apollo
Apollo Magazine reports on the restoration of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, and in particular the original way the pictures were first displayed in the 1960s: on glass panels supported by concrete blocks on the floor. I must say I think it looks fantastic. And how nice (for anoraks like me) to see the backs of pictures too. More here.
Update - a reader writes:
It’s been many years since I was last there, but if memory serves correct, La Galleria Nazionale di Parma uses this method, but not at the complete abandonment of hanging works on walls as well. From the look of the Brazilian effort, the technique seems to be taking precedence over the works themselves.
Update II - a reader is not so keen:
This hanging is indeed striking modernist art in itself, but my own preference for old masters is to go in the opposite direction: to display truly old masters by means that at least hint at their original purpose and context, where that is possible, and counter the pure museification of artworks never made for museums (unlike so much modern art). For instance, support former altarpieces upon altar-like structures, at their original heights; provide photographic mock-ups of a former altarpiece in its original situation; situate the old master in a context of other pieces evoking some sense of original context, for instance a casone underneath a wall-painting; avoid if possible the sterile separation of paintings from sculpture and “decorative arts”. Of course this applies less to works made for secular wall-hanging, often in no particular type of room, yet it is not dissimilar to the “country house” visit which is so often appreciated by visitors as well as AHN (sans beanbags). That this approach can also be “modernist” was shown in the terrific V&A 2006-2007 exhibition (At Home in Renaissance Italy) of diverse Italian works from Florence and Venice situated together in modern structures hinting at different rooms — an approach which I was very sorry to see was ignored in the V&A’s own renovation of its medieval and renaissance galleries. No doubt I am just an old fogey…
National Trust unveils Clandon plans
January 18 2016
Video: the National Trust
The National Trust have just unveiled their plans for the recently destroyed Clandon Park: they're going to restore the ground floor rooms, and rebuild the rest as more flexible spaces. More here.
At first glance this seems like a sensible way forward. We must be grateful that the Trust is not abandoning the site altogether, as many suggested.
We must also hope the new wiring is better than it used to be.
Van Dyck curiousness in the US
January 18 2016
Picture: The Georgia Museum of Art
The Georgia Museum of Art in the US has announced the acquisition of a portrait it says in by Anthony Van Dyck, of Archbishop William Laud:
Van Dyck’s painting, a large portrait of Archbishop William Laud, was donated to the museum by Dr. and Mrs. M. Daniel Byrd, of Atlanta. [...] The painting is on display in the museum’s H. Randolph Holder Gallery. Lynn Boland, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, said, “This world-class example of 17th-century portraiture, offering multiple avenues for interdisciplinary study, will serve as a lynchpin for the museum's small but important collection of European painting. Acquisitions of this significance would be beyond our reach were it not for the generosity of donors like the Byrds.”
I'm sorry to rain on the Georgia Museum's parade but this picture is not, alas, by Van Dyck. The picture listed as the original in the 2004 Yale catalogue raisonné is in the Fitzwilliam Museum in the UK (below), and is of course significantly better than the picture seen above. You can see a higher resolution image of the Georgia picture here. Notice in particular the angular and clumsy drapery.
Van Dyck's portrait of Laud was much copied, and confusion often arises over the various copies and studio versions that were made. Indeed, the Codart website, in its reporting of the Georgia acquisition, in fact reproduces the Fitzwilliam painting. A little Googling reveals that the Georgia picture was in fact recently offered at auction (and seemingly by the current donors too) in the US as 'Studio of Van Dyck'. It did not sell, against an estimate of $100,000-$150,000. The auction house stated that the attribution to Van Dyck was supported by the late Prof. Erik Larsen, who did indeed write a catalogue raisonné of Van Dyck's work. It is perhaps the most inept catalogue raisonné ever - even the front cover shows a copy. For more AHN on Larsen, see here.
From the photos currently available I'm not even sure the Georgia picture even qualifies as 'studio'.
The Georgia Museum's press release is here.
Update - the story was picked up by The Independent, which prompted a slight climbdown from the museum. Though they still describe the picture as 'world class' it is now described as 'Van Dyck and Studio'. On what grounds I am not entirely sure - but obviously it's hard to be certain from the image.
Securitising art
January 18 2016
Picture: Art Newspaper
Art investment funds have been around for a while now, but they struggle to make reliably good returns for investors. A new fund called Arthena has now entered the game (reports The Art Newspaper), with the USP that it's for 'smaller' investors, who can put in as little as $2,500. Here's the business plan, as set out by founder Madelaine D'Angelo (above):
Arthena’s advisers began buying art last autumn with around $500,000 in funds that have been generated so far. The works fit into one of several investment categories, or “collections”, such as emerging art from New York and “undervalued” post-war art. D’Angelo says that each collection will be worth between $250,000 and $1m once all of the funds have been raised and the works bought. Arthena plans to hold the art for around five or seven years before beginning to sell it.
Sounds easy, doesn't it? But before you cash in your pension, think of this: art is illiquid, and has high transaction costs. Buy at auction, especially at the 'lower end' of the market, and you're instantly stung for the highest rates of buyer's premium - usually at least 25% (excluding taxes). Buy from an artist's dealer and you're likely looking at an even higher margin. Then to sell it again you're invariably losing another slice in commissions and taxes - sometimes up to 20% or more. So in that intervening five or seven years, you need to be pretty sure that the artists you're taking a punt on will grow by at least that much, just to get your money back. And don't forget the fund's own fees.
If you've got $2,500 you want to 'invest' in art, my advice is to buy something yourself - and something you like. At least then you get the pleasure of actually looking at it.
Art imitating art
January 18 2016
Picture:
There's a performance artist called Deborah Robertis, who likes to get naked in front of paintings of naked women. She also likes to get naked at other times too (as you'll see if you Google her as I did, purely in the name of research). In the above photo she's about to sit down and do her thing in front of Corbet's 'Origin of the World'. Apparently it's called 'vagina activism'.
Her most recent stunt got her arrested, however, as the Daily Star explains in suitably tabloid form:
Deborah de Robertis tore of her clothes in front of a portrait of a prostitute.
She then laid down starkers in the same pose as the picture’s saucy model.
Visitors to the French capital’s Musee d’Orsay museum had been casually looking at an exhibition featuring famous nude artworks when de Robertis offered them the real version.
Once the artist from Luxembourg was completely naked, she laid down under Eduord Manet’s painting of the prostitute Olympia and copied her sultry pose.
But the artist wasn’t completely bare – she was wearing a portable camera to film the shocked audience’s reaction.
Her lawyer has defended her mid-exhibition exhibitionism, saying: “it was an artistic performance”
"Putting an artist in custody sends a very bad message."
Some might say that putting this artist in custody sends rather a good message.
Rembrandt goes to Belfast
January 18 2016
Picture: National Gallery
I'm a fan of the National Gallery's 'Masterpiece Tour' initiative (and well done Christie's for sponsoring it). The latest loan is a Rembrandt Self-Portrait to the National Museum of Northern Ireland. More here.
Obviously, as a critic of the amount of great art in storage in London museums, I'd like to see more loans like this - and not just of the 'masterpieces' either.
Artist's resale right
January 18 2016
Here in the UK we have (courtesy of the EU) a law called the Artist's Resale Right. This means that every time you buy a painting sold by an artist who died within the last 70 years, you have to pay their designated heirs a commission. The idea is that the heirs should have a share in the 'success' of their artistic ancestor. Imagine doing the same for the architect of your house, or the fellow who made your car, and you can see what a silly thing this is. But perhaps the silliest aspect of all is that when, recently, I bought a picture from the heirs of a well-regarded modern British artist - who had already benefited from the rise in value of their father's work - I had to pay them ARR on top too!
