Their direct ancestor, Beata Louise Schultz, was the painter’s first cousin who had moved to the Dutch colony of Berbice (modern-day Guyana) in 1768 after her husband was appointed governor. Archives showed that after Beata’s husband died in 1773, she decided to return to Amsterdam and wrote a letter to the Dutch government asking permission to bring two enslaved people who worked in her home. Their names were Michiel and Eleonora Susette, who was born in 1756 and was forced to work alongside her mother, Lucia Afiba.

Upon returning to Amsterdam, Beata commissioned her cousin to paint portraits of her son and daughter as well as of Eleonora Susette and Michiel [their last names are not known]. It was most likely intended as a keepsake of the pair, the museum noted. Eight months later, they were sent back across the Atlantic Ocean to Berbice.

This display, featuring drawings by artists including Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hendrick Goltzius, Rogier van der Weyden and Lucas van Leyden, is the culmination of a five-year research project on the Museum collection of early Netherlandish drawings. Around 120 drawings, dated from around 1430 to 1600, have been selected from more than 1,200 which have not been systematically researched or catalogued since AE Popham's collection catalogue in 1932.

The show will highlight new findings that have come from combining curatorial and conservation expertise along with scientific analysis. The project, supported by a grant from the International Music and Art Foundation, charts the origins and development of drawing in the Low Countries. The breadth and quality of the Museum's holdings in this field provide an opportunity to piece together this sometimes-fragmented narrative.

The exhibition presents a wide selection of his drawings and engravings and, for the first time, a near-complete collection of his paintings (altarpieces and easel paintings), including the 1473 Madonna of the Rose Bower, his only painting on panel whose date of creation is known. His works reveal a well-read artist with a penchant for fine, inventive storytelling and a skilful eye for natural subjects.

The Baltimore Museum of Art seeks a visionary curator to lead its Department of European Painting and Sculpture using a globally oriented and socio-historically grounded curatorial approach. The successful candidate will be a scholar who is committed to interrogating the formation of European artistic practice within the contexts of colonial expansion, global trade, and sustained exchange with Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. In centering these interconnected histories, the curator will work collaboratively with curatorial staff across departments to reconceive the Museum’s presentations of European art and challenge inherited disciplinary boundaries. Through exhibitions, collection reinstallations, research, and extensive in-gallery interpretation, the curator will articulate how European artistic traditions emerged in dialogue with—and were materially, formally, and conceptually shaped by—global systems of exchange, colonization, and diaspora. 

The successful candidate will be a specialist in European art from the 15th to the 19th centuries with a demonstrated commitment to education and public engagement. While the Department of European Painting and Sculpture encompasses European art from the 13th century through 1960, the Associate Curator/Curator and Department Head is not expected to be a specialist across this full chronological span. Rather, they should be comfortable providing intellectual leadership and making informed curatorial and interpretive decisions across the breadth of the collection. As such, the successful candidate will approach curatorial practice as a collaborative endeavor that requires deep engagement with internal and external stakeholders and will be committed to polyvocal and inclusive modes of storytelling.

With the exhibition At Home with Jan Steen – 400 Years of Merrymaking, Museum De Lakenhal celebrates Jan Steen's 400th birthday. In this exhibition, you will discover how the Leiden artist used his children, spouses, friends and pub as inspiration for his paintings. The exhibition offers a surprising glimpse into everyday life in the 17th century and the humour and humanity that make his paintings so beloved. Through his works and those of other artists of his time, you will embark on a journey of discovery through Steen's world full of humour, chaos and hidden messages.

This book examines the Court Beguinages, a fascinating group of semi-monastic female communities that were endemic to cities of the Southern Low Countries from the thirteenth century into the twentieth.

Their members, called Beguines, played fundamental social and religious roles in their communities, and they also became major patrons of art and architecture, building vast complexes and filling them with paintings, sculptures, prints, textiles, and all sorts of other decorative objects. As the first comprehensive and primary source-driven account of Court Beguinage visual culture, this study explores the historical importance of these institutions and reveals how the Beguines used buildings and images to support devotional practice, shape public perception, raise funds, and negotiate power relationships during the Counter Reformation.

While the cycle may lack the same recognition held by the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and other treasures held by the Louvre, these Rubens paintings are some of the key works of their time. But despite their fame, the paintings are currently be exhibited in an “unsatisfactory state,” according to the Louvre, whose 2016 analysis triggered an internal investigation into the works. In 2020, upon further research, experts with the Louvre expressed “grave concern” about the works, the museum said.

“The works are no longer in a suitable state for display,” the museum said. “Specifically, the varnishes have generally yellowed (due to oxidation), and retouching from earlier restorations has become visually discordant—and therefore visible—detracting from the proper appreciation and interpretation of the paintings.”

The Louvre will now remedy this, turning the gallery into what it described as a “restoration studio” where its team can refurbish the works once more.

“In light of the classification, which highlights the major importance of this drawing while disrupting the organisation of the auction scheduled for Monday, 23 March, given the strong interest expressed by the French Ministry of Culture in its acquisition, and despite the interest shown by several institutions and international collectors, the sellers wish to take the necessary time to pursue negotiations in a private context outside the auction process,” said Arthur de Moras, auctioneer at BEAUSSANT LEFÈVRE & Associés.

This is a rare opportunity to shape research strategy at an internationally renowned institution with the chance to influence research across the UK museum sector. With a strong track record of world-leading research, you will ensure the Museum has one of the world’s most researched, accessible and visible collections. Working closely with the Trustee’s Collections and Research Committee, and over 100 researchers and curators across all Collection Departments, you will lead the development and delivery of a compelling Research Strategy that enriches understanding of the Museum’s collections, supports major projects, and fuels the next generation of researchers.

You will reimagine what it means to be a research-led international museum in the 21st century as the Museum embarks on the biggest redisplay of its permanent galleries in the past 150 years. To achieve this, you will build strong internal and external partnerships at the highest levels, champion research excellence, and secure significant external funding to advance the Museum’s ambitions.

According to the museum, the San Giobbe altarpiece—full name: Madonna and Child Enthroned, Music-Making Angels and Saints Francis, John the Baptist, Job, Dominic, Sebastian and Louis of Toulouse (c. 1478)—is set to receive the most comprehensive restoration of its more than 500-year history. The problems are fundamentally two-fold. First, the painting bears long cracks across its surface due to temperature fluctuations causing the wood to expand and contract. Second, the painting’s original pigments have changed color over the centuries.

The two-year project will initially see experts stabilize the painting’s wooden support. At the same time, Bellini’s altarpiece will be analyzed using ultraviolet fluorescence and infrared imaging to reveal the artist’s original composition and the effects of previous restorations (there have been half a dozen since the early 19th century). Only then will the painting be cleaned, using gentle solvents to remove dirt and old varnish, touched up with compatible and revesible pigments, and protected with a new stable varnish.

Glasgow Life is a charity like no other. Our vision is to improve the lives of everyone in our city. To help us achieve that, we are looking for a Curator (European Art) to join our Museums and Collections team. As Curator (European Art) your will support the research of the 8,000 European art objects held at Glasgow Life Museums and Collections. This post is full-time based at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre and working across our other museum venues including Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and The Burrell Collection. [...]

As a Curator (European Art), you’ll be a part of an established team, reporting to the Senior Curator. You’ll play an essential role in researching and documenting the European Art collection and developing content for public programming. You will develop and manage the delivery of displays, publications and other collections-related projects. Glasgow Life Museums has an internationally significant collection of European art. The collection comprises of paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture from the period 1200 to 1960 including works from the Italian Renaissance, 19th century French Impressionism, and Dutch, and Spanish Old Masters. We take a broad view of Europe and the successful candidate will be expected to be an active participant in our legacies of slavery and empire initiatives.

France Musées, the international consultancy responsible for the development of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, has indicated that in addition to the 600 works in the museum's permanent collection, some 250 works are on loan from France, without providing any further details.

A great deal of secrecy surrounds the works from French public collections temporarily on display in this 24,000 m2 showcase.

None of the French institutions contacted, including the Louvre, Versailles, Beaubourg and Orsay, would say which paintings or sculptures are on loan to Abu Dhabi as part of a partnership worth €190 million over ten years, according to the Cour des Comptes (excluding temporary exhibitions).