Artus Quellinus in Amsterdam
June 23 2025
Video: Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam have just opened an exhibition on the sculptor Artus Quellinus. Bringing together 100 of his works, from the Netherlands and further afield, this is the first monographic exhibition dedicated to the artist.
The show will run until 27th October 2025.
Uffizi Painting Damaged
June 23 2025
Video: La Nazione
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The accidental damage of the Uffizi's Ferdinando de' Medici by Anton Domenico Gabbiani by a tourist has made the headlines in Italy. The portrait has been removed from display by conservators for restoration. Follow the link above to see a detail of the damaged canvas.
Previously Unknown Wright of Derby gifted to Derby Museum and Art Gallery
June 23 2025
Picture: Derby Museum and Art Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A reader has been in touch with news that The Derby Museum and Art Gallery have been gifted Joseph Wright of Derby's portrait of Edward Miller, which only recently came to light in a private collection on the Scottish borders.
According to the museum's website:
The portrait, which depicts Wright’s friend, the musician and composer Edward Miller, was discovered in 2024 by the Hall family while sorting through the belongings of a late relative at a home on the Scottish Borders – described by family members as a “treasure trove of antiques”.
Amongst over 20 family portraits, there were three whose identities were a mystery to the family. One bore a simple inscription on the reverse: ‘Wright’. A single clue to the mysterious identity of the artist.
Joy Hall, who first contacted Derby Museums about the discovery, told how the family had initially considered selling the Wright painting for the value of its frame, until the exceptional quality of one of the works caught her attention. Struck by the detail of the lacework and tassels, reminiscent of Wright’s early self-portrait in Van Dyck dress – also found at Derby Museum and Art Gallery – Hall began researching the artist, and it was here she stumbled upon Joseph Wright of Derby.
The painting is now on display alongside the other Wright of Derby masterpieces in the museum's care.
Trois Crayons Summer Events
June 22 2025
Picture: troiscrayons.art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A quick post to draw attention to the very interesting selection of free events being organised by Trois Crayons for this Summer's sale season in London (as part of the aforementioned Tracing Time).
Here's a complete list:
Timeless Materials: A Conversation on Drawing with Contemporary Artists - 27 June | 4pm
Women Artists in Focus: Curating New Narratives - 28 June | 2pm
The Drawings of John Constable - 30 June | 4pm
Piccadilly Jim: The discovery of James Gibbs’s designs for the façade of Burlington House - 1 July | 4pm
New Ways of Looking at Italian Renaissance Drawings - 2 July | 4pm
The Intimate Collector: Why Drawings Thrive in the Digital Age - 3 July | 4pm
Between Drawins and Ceramics - 4 July | 4pm
The Drawings of Jean-Antoine Watteau - 5 July | 2pm
Off site visits:
Exhibition Visit: Colour and line: Watteau drawings - 26 June | 10.30am - @ The British Museum
Auction Visit: Master works on paper from five centuries - 28 June | 11.00am -@ Sotheby’s
It appears that all of these events are free, although, booking is required due to the limited spaces available.
Archer acquired by Nelson Atkins Museum of Art
June 20 2025
Picture: Nelson Atkins Museum of Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The website of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, located in Kansas City, shows that they have just acquired the following Portrait of a Boy Holding a Bow. Regular readers will remember this painting from a post on AHN back in December 2023, when the work had appeared at auction in France. More recently the painting was with Philip Mould & Co. and has been catalogued by the museum (and the dealer) as 'English School 1780s.'
Greuze 'une palette d’émotions' in Tournus
June 20 2025
Picture: Tournus-tourisme.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre have lent 30 works on paper by Greuze to the Hôtel-Dieu in Tournus to celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of the artist in that town. The exhibition will run until 21st September 2025.
Leonard Lauder (1933-2025)
June 20 2025
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Several obituaries have appeared online (1) (2) commemorating the life of the collector and philanthropist Leonard Lauder who died at the age of 92 last week. His longstanding connections to both the MET and the Whitney Museum of American Art feature prominently within the articles.
To quote Artnet's obituary linked above:
The son of Joseph and Estée Lauder (born Josephine Esther Mentzer), he helped grow her namesake business, founded in 1946, into a company with global reach for women’s makeup and face creams, while also donating millions to museums and medical research.
That included a gift valued at over $1 billion, featuring 78 works from his Cubist art collection to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, including work by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris. Lauder acquired many of these pieces from leading Cubist collectors such as Gertrude Stein, Raoul La Roche, and Douglas Cooper.
Old Masters from Kyiv in The Hague
June 20 2025
Picture: Museum Bredius
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museum Bredius in The Hague will be opening a temporary exhibition of 14 Old Masters from the The Khanenko Museum tomorrow.
According to the link above:
Fourteen masterpieces from the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv are shown alongside twelve highlights from the Bredius collection. Portraits, still lifes, landscapes and historical scenes are exhibited together for the first time, revealing the artistic dialogue between Ukraine and the Netherlands — just as art historian Abraham Bredius experienced during his 1897 journey through Eastern Europe.
Wallace Collection Treasures in High-Definition
June 20 2025
Picture: The Wallace Collection via. Google Arts
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news for those of us who like to Zoom into digital images of paintings In infinitum. The Wallace Collection in London have just announced that a large selection of their treasures are now on Google Arts. Alongside the copious 'digital exhibition' material you'll find are very high-definition images of their paintings. This is a real step-up from the images available on their website. This is a detail of the earlobe and hair from Rembrandt's Self Portrait of c. 1637.
Just for fun, and to test the connoisseurship of readers of AHN, can anyone guess who painted the detail below?
Update - Congratulations to an AHN reader called Jonathan who was the first to spot the feather of Vigée Le Brun's portrait of Madame Perregaux.
Fra Angelico Crucifixion Conserved
June 19 2025
Video: Italia7
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy that Fra Angelico's Crucifixion in the Convent of San Domenico in Fiesole has been conserved. The work was undertaken by Cristiana Conti and Alessandra Popple with funds from the Friends of Florence, Gerhard De Geer and the Belacqua medical group.
William Carey Portrait acquired by Hever Castle
June 19 2025
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Times published a photograph today (here's the story from the BBC) explaining that Hever Castle has acquired a portrait of William Carey (1497-1528), who famously married Mary Boleyn (Anne Boleyn's sister). The painting was sold at Christie's Paris last year, and the auction house's catalogue note is worth reading in terms of the dating and the prototype on which this work was based.
Duplessis – The art of painting life
June 19 2025
Video: Carpentras
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Hôtel-Dieu de Carpentras in France has just opened a new exhibition on Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (1725-1802), which will run until 28th September 2025.
According to their website:
The exhibition will bring together sixty masterpieces from Duplessis’ extensive body of work—among the 200 paintings he created. These works come from prestigious collections such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Château de Versailles, and the Louvre Museum. This outstanding selection will allow visitors to (re)discover the virtuosity of Duplessis, particularly his role as the official portraitist of Louis XVI. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog published by Lienart Editions, documenting nearly two hundred of Duplessis’ paintings.
New Maria Cosway Book
June 19 2025
Picture: Unicorn
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The publishers Unicorn have just this week released a new biography on Maria Cosway. The book was penned by Diane Boucher.
According to the blurb:
The beautiful Anglo-Italian artist Maria Cosway was one of the most talented and dynamic women active in Regency England, but one whose achievements have been largely overlooked. Born in Florence in 1760, she was acclaimed at an early age as both a painter and a musician. She exhibited forty-one paintings at the Royal Academy summer exhibition between 1781 and 1801, and hosted regular musical soirées at the Pall Mall house she shared with her husband, Richard Cosway. They were attended by the political and cultural elite of London. Maria’s extraordinary network of connections to the great and the good of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, included friendships with, among others, Thomas Jefferson, the Prince of Wales, Pasquale Paoli, the artist Jacques-Louis David, the opera singer Luigi Marchesi, the Duchess of Devonshire, the actress and writer Mary Robinson, and members of the Bonaparte family. Estranged from her husband by 1801, Maria Cosway largely gave up painting and reinvented herself as a progressive educator, founding schools for young women: first in Lyon, later in Lodi, Italy. In recognition of her achievements at Lodi, the Emperor of Austria made her a baroness.
Hypertrichosis Portrait coming up at Bertolami
June 19 2025
Picture: Bertolami
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
One of the highlights and oddities of the upcoming sale at Bertolami Fine Art in Rome is the following portrait of Portrait of Barbara Urslerin van Beck (1629- c.1688), who is likely to have suffered from hypertrichosis (excessive hair growth). As her wikipedia entry shows, a related engraving dated 1653 seems to suggest this particular image of Barbara was created whilst she was in London.
It will be offered for sale on 24th June 2025.
Seurat and the Sea for the Courtauld in 2026
June 19 2025
Picture: The Courtauld Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Courtauld Gallery in London have announced that their next big exhibition Seurat and the Sea will be opening in February 2026.
According to their website:
In 2026, The Courtauld will present the first ever exhibition dedicated to the seascapes of the French artist Georges Seurat (1859–1891). This major, focused display will be the first devoted to Seurat in the UK in almost 30 years. It will chart the evolution of his radical and distinctive style through the recurring motif of the sea. [...]
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea will bring together around 23 paintings, oil sketches and drawings made by Seurat during the five summers he spent on the northern coast of France, between 1885 and 1890. Working in port towns along the English Channel, including Honfleur, Port-en-Bessin and Gravelines, Seurat captured their seascapes, regattas and port activity in his distinctive Neo-Impressionist technique. He sought, in his words, ‘to wash his eyes of the days spent in the studio [in Paris] and to translate in the most faithful manner the bright clarity, in all its nuances’.
The show will run from 13th February until 17th May 2026.
Monogrammist I.S. acquired by Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
June 19 2025
Picture: Nicholas Hall
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Journalist Paul Jeromack has shared news on his Instagram account that the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has acquired the following Portrait of a Woman by the elusive Monogrammist I.S (spotted via @mweilc). The work was sold at Sotheby's in 2010 and has more recently been with the dealer Nicholas Hall.
Curate the MET's American Paintings
June 19 2025
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (MET) are hiring an Assistant Curator, American Painting & Drawing.
According to the job description:
As the Assistant Curator of American Painting and Drawing, you will have expertise in 18th- and 19th-century art and culture. Working with diverse Museum colleagues, you will contribute to researching, cataloguing, interpreting, and enhancing works in the American Wing collection, while also proposing installations and publications. You are committed to telling expansive and inclusive stories with a broadly conceived collection of American art.
The job comes with a salary between $85,000 - $95,000 per annum and no application deadline has been posted.
Good luck if you're applying!
Lecture in Renaissance Art History at Birkbeck
June 18 2025
Picture: jobs.ac.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Birkbeck, a part of the University of London, are hiring a Lecturer in Renaissance Art History.
According to the job description:
As Lecturer, you will convene and deliver the Autumn term lectures for the team-taught Level 4 module, ‘The Artwork in History’, and contribute lectures to the team-taught Level 5 module, ‘Art and Devotion in the Middle Ages and Renaissance’.
You will also convene the L6 dissertation module and deliver 2 to 3 lectures as part of the Level 7 module, ‘Frameworks: Histories and Theories of Art, Architecture, Photography’. In addition, you will be required to supervise both BA and MA Dissertations, and other student research projects and provide pastoral support as student tutor. You will also be encouraged to become involved in the Murray Seminar on Medieval and Renaissance Art series.
The job comes with a salary £43,636 rising to £60,018 per annum and applications must be in by 1st July 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Update - Bendor adds: it's interesting and a bit depressing to see how the salary for this position corresponds to the museum sector. Unfortunately, UK museum salaries are known to be too low, especially by international standards. But this highlights that they're too low even by domestic standards. An equivalent position, say senior curator, in a major London museum would be paid barely over £40k, with no flexibility to go higher (as we saw recently for example at Tate Britain, for their curator of British art). What can be done?
Catharina Ykens Still Lifes acquired by Nivaagaard Collection
June 18 2025
Picture: Nivaagaard Collection
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
CODART (the international network of curators of Dutch and Flemish art) have announced news that the Nivaagaard Collection in Denmark have acquired two floral still lifes by Catharina Ykens II. This acquisition marks the first female artist to enter the museum's Dutch Baroque Collections.
Bristol Council announce Bid to Buy Turner from Sotheby's Sale
June 18 2025
Picture: BBC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The BBC have published news that Bristol Council have announced their plans to fundraise £300,000 in two weeks to bid for JMW Turner's The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol from the upcoming Sotheby's London Evening Sale.
According to the article:
The upcoming auction, he [Philip Walker - the Head of the Culture for the City] said, was a "once in a generation opportunity to purchase a significant work of art by such a significant great master artist", adding that while the plan was for the council to actually make the transaction - should it bid successfully - the cost would be covered through fundraising.
Councillor John Goulandris described the bid as a "once in a lifetime opportunity", but pointed out there was only a "narrow window" to raise funds at a time when the council's finances were "extraordinarily tight".
In response to Mr Goulandris' requests for assurance that costs would not fall to the local authority, Mr Walker said the "intention" was to raise enough money to pay for the painting.
