New Release: Salomon Mesdach
January 13 2025
Picture: wbooks.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new monograph on the Zeeland painter Salomon Mesdach (1575/80-ca. 1628) is set to be released on 15th January 2025. The publication is the work of the scholar Carla van de Puttelaar and is the first to carve out the small but distinctive oeuvre of the artist. It contains 170 illustrations, within its 128 pages, and is supported by technical as well as art historical research.
Sleeper Alert!
January 13 2025
Picture: clarkeny.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News on social media (spotted via @mbrehe) that the following picture catalogued as 'FLORENTINE SCHOOL (POSSIBLY 14TH/15TH CENTURY)' sold for $230,000 over its $3k - $5k estimate at Clarke Auctioneers in NY yesterday.
1,000 posts later... and Maria Verelst
January 10 2025
Picture: Carmarthenshire Museum via ArtUk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
As I've just passed my 1,000 post since my return to AHN, I wanted to thank you all for sticking with the blog. It has been tremendously good fun to share enthusiasm for all of the interesting things going on in our small corner of the art world. I'm especially grateful to those of you who get in touch. Ultimately, we must all thank Bendor for supporting its continuation.
To mark this occasion, I thought I'd share a small accidental discovery of mine recently on ArtUK (whilst I was searching for something else, as is always the way). Although catalogued as Portrait of an Unknown Lady in Green by an 'Unknown Artist', it is clear to me that this must be a work by Maria Verelst (1680–1744). In particular, the face pattern and overall handling is so reminiscent of her painting of Anne Blackett formerly with Philip Mould & Co. The artwork is currently in the Carmarthenshire Museum in Wales and is the sort of picture that would really dazzle after a clean and new application of varnish! Maybe one day.
Wishing all readers a very good weekend ahead.
Michelangelo Casts and 3D Prints at the SMK
January 10 2025
Picture: smk.dk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Gallery of Denmark will be opening a new exhibition dedicated to Michelangelo in March. Michelangelo Imperfect will place specific focus on the gallery's collection of casts after his works 'alongside newly-produced 3D-modelled and -cast facsimiles'.
According to their website:
In the exhibition, SMK will juxtapose its own extensive collection of historical casts of Michelangelo’s sculptures with brand new, high-quality 3D-cast replicas. This way, you can experience the majority of Michelangelo’s sculptures in one place – something that would be impossible with the originals, which are never moved. You will also be able to see the largest selection of Michelangelo’s original drawings, letters, and sculpture models ever displayed in Denmark.
Join us as SMK unfolds Michelangelo’s life and art through close studies of his sculptures and focuses on the complex relationship between original and reproduction in the digital age.
The show will run from 29th March until 31st August 2025.
Funded PhDs for Medieval Art in Italy
January 10 2025
Picture: University of Salerno
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The University of Salerno in Italy is receiving applications for 2 funded PhDs in Medieval Art.
According to the page linked above:
The StoryPharm project, which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action – Doctoral Networks – Grant Agreement 101169114 (https://www.ucy.ac.cy/storypharm/). The focus of the project will be on premodern narratives and images involving medicine, health, and healing. These will be studied from a transdisciplinary and comparative perspective, across linguistic and cultural borders.
A place on the project will come with a rather generous €3,311 per month plus mobility allowance of €600. Applications must be in by 17th February 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Musée George Sand acquires Carolus-Duran's Portrait of Émile Aucante
January 10 2025
Picture: Nicolas Nouvelet
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
La Tribune de l'Art has shared news that the Musée George Sand in La Châtre, France, has acquired Carolus-Duran's portrait of the publisher Émile Aucante (1822-1908). The work was pre-empted from Nicolas Nouvelet's auction last October for 5,850 EUR (inc. fees).
According to the auctioneer's catalogue note:
Émile Aucante was a publisher and journalist, godson and close collaborator of George Sand. He began his career as a fervent disciple of the theoretician Pierre Leroux, for whom he contributed to the Revue Sociale. Condemned to exile during the coup d'état of 1851, he was called by George Sand, who made him her secretary in Nohant, inheriting all her manuscripts and papers. He then negotiated all publications with publishers on her behalf. In 1858, following Orsini's attempt on the life of Emperor Napoleon III, Émile Aucante was arrested once again. Our painting shows him at the age of 38, in his period as a political opponent of the Second Empire. Under the Third Republic, he developed his publishing activities, directing L'Univers Illustré and then several collections at Calmann-Lévy, alongside his printing business.
Curatorial Cataloguing Fellows at the FAM San Francisco
January 10 2025
Picture: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco are hiring 8 Curatorial Cataloguing Fellows. In particular, the positions are spread out across the departments / spheres of Costume and Textile Arts, European Paintings, European Decorative Arts, Contemporary Art and Programming, Africa, Oceania and the Americas, Ancient Art, American Art and AFGA (Works on Paper).
Here's the description for the European Paintings department role:
The Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums is offering a Curatorial Cataloguing Fellowship with the European Paintings department. This fellowship program aims to support the Museums’ strategic goal to significantly enhance the scope of information available about works of art in the Museums’ collection, and make this information digitally accessible to a wider public. The two-year paid Fellowship program, onsite in San Francisco from September 2025-August 2027, is designed to provide an important professional development opportunity for eight emerging art museum professionals. We strongly encourage applicants from backgrounds historically underrepresented in the art museum field. This fellowship will advance participants’ curatorial training through rigorous research and cataloguing experience.
The 2-year contract comes with an hourly rate of $27 and applications must be in by 14th February 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Sotheby's New York Master Paintings Part II
January 10 2025
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's New York have published their upcoming Master Paintings Part II sale online. The auction will take place on 6th February 2025 at 14.00 EST.
As usual with these sales, I won't spoil the fun by pointing out way may or may not be interesting.
Doom: The Gallery Experience
January 9 2025
Video: Martinoz
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
As AHN is both dedicated to both the sublime and ridiculous, I thought it was worth sharing news that two game developers have reinterpreted the popular 1990s shoot 'em up classic Doom into a free browser game set in an art gallery.
According to the article linked above:
Doom: The Gallery Experience, created by Filippo Meozzi and Liam Stone, transforms the iconic E1M1 level into a virtual museum space where players guide a glasses-wearing Doomguy through halls of fine art as classical music plays in the background. The game links each displayed artwork to its corresponding page on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website.
"In this experience, you will be able to walk around and appreciate some fine art while sipping some wine and enjoying the complimentary hors d’oeuvres," write the developers on the game's itch.io page, "in the beautifully renovated and re-imagined E1M1 of id Software's DOOM (1993)."
As you'll see from the video above, the comparison to an art show preview is simply uncanny.
Suzanne Valadon at the Centre Pompidou
January 9 2025
Picture: Centre Pompidou
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Centre Pompidou in Paris will be opening a new exhibition on 15th January dedicated to Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938).
According to their website:
Suzanne Valadon had not been the subject of a monograph since the one devoted to her by the Musée National d’Art Moderne in 1967. Presented at the Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2023 (“Suzanne Valadon. A World of Her Own”), then at the Musée des Beaux-arts de Nantes (2024) and the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (2024), the tribute to this ostensibly modern artist, free of the conventions of her time, continues at the Centre Pompidou in 2025, enhanced by new loans and new archives.
The exhibition showcases this exceptional figure and highlights her pioneering, but often underestimated, role in the birth of artistic modernity. It reveals the great freedom of this artist, who did not really adhere to any particular movement, except perhaps her own. The exhibition of almost 200 works draws on a wealth of national collections, in particular the largest, that of the Centre Pompidou, but also from the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie.
The show will run until 26th May 2025.
George Washington's pastel makes $317,500
January 9 2025
Picture: maineantiquedigest.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm very late to this rather fascinating story (spotted via @MaryMWalsh) that a unattributed pastel of St John the Evangelist realised $317,500 at the The Potomack Company auctioneers in Alexandria, Virginia, last October. This enormous sum is explained by the fact that the artwork had documented provenance back to its original owners George and Martha Washington and had descended with members of the family. Even if we forget that the estimate was $250,000 - $500,000, this is still quite a price! Click on the link to read more.
Recent Release: Venice in Blue
January 9 2025
Picture: olschki.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little late to news of this interesting sounding book dedicated to the use of blue paper in Italy entitled Venice in Blue. The volume was edited by Alexa McCarthy, Laura Moretti and Paolo Sachet.
According to the blurb:
This volume is the first of its kind to focus solely on the material of handmade blue paper in Italy, shedding new light on its significance and transcultural impact. Bringing together perspectives from art and book historians, paper conservators and paper historians, this publication explores the proliferation of the use of blue paper for drawings, prints, and printed books in Veneto and beyond during the first half of the 16th century.
Acceptance in Lieu Report 2024
January 8 2025
Picture: artscouncil.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The UK Arts Council have published their Annual Acceptance in Lieu Report for 2024. 44 unique cultural items and collections were acquired through the scheme during this period, representing a total of £45m in value.
Here's a list of some of the artworks (and their values) which may interest readers of AHN:
- Nicholas Hilliard miniature. Victoria & Albert Museum, London - £207,396.
- Veronese and Van der Neer (pictured) paintings. Ashmolean Museum - £4,375,000
- Nicolas Poussin: Eucharist. National Gallery, London - £7,111,704
- Vroom: A pair of marine landscapes National Maritime Museum, London - £1,460,000
- Group of four Gainsborough portraits. No.1 Royal Crescent, Bath - £88,125
- Kneller portrait of James Medlycott. Holburne Museum, Bath - £28,000
- Portrait of Wills Hill, 1st Earl of Hillsborough by Allan Ramsay. Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland - £158,100
- Theseus and Ariadne by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. Fitzwilliam Museum - £350,000
- A collection of 18 Modern British works, a group of eight prints and a book of photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron. Pallant House Gallery, Chichester - £316,890
'Thrift Store' Find Connected to Prominent Black Artist Redisplayed
January 8 2025
Picture: artnews.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
An interesting story from artnews.com that a watercolour purchased from a 'thrift store' in the US has ended up on display in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The artwork was purchased by Andy Robbins, an HR professional, by chance. Robbins then spent time cracking the work's inscription which reads 'W.H. Dorsey 1864'. It transpired that this signature referred to William H. Dorsey, a prominent black artist in 19th-century Philadelphia who is known primarily for his extensive scrapbooking of black community history. Read the article above to find out more.
New Release: The Farnese Drawings Collection
January 8 2025
Picture: Editori Paparo srl
Yale 2024/25 Acquisitions
January 8 2025
Picture: YCBA
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Yale Centre for British Art have uploaded a list of their 2024-25 'additions' (or acquisitions) onto their website. Most impressively, many of these pictures were acquired from the art trade in Britain and will be familiar to readers who have attended many of the London / European art fairs (and auctions) in the past few years.
Here's a list of some of the noteworthy acquisitions (with dealers names added alongside by myself):
Mary Beale - Head Study of Charles Beale (Weiss Gallery)
Mary Beale - Portrait of an unknown Lady (Peter Harrison)
Sir Godfrey Kneller - Lady Boyle, Nursing her Son Charles (Philip Mould & Co.)
Mason Chamberlin - A Portrait of Joseph Nash (UK Dealer)
Maria Spilsbury - A Sunday School (Libson & Yarker)
Emma Soyer - Young Mariner and Dog (pictured) (Dominic Sanchez-Cabello)
_______
George Gower - Portrait of Thomas Whythorne, Musician (Transfer from the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Allan Ramsay - Portrait of Dorothy, Mrs. John Rolleston (née Burdett) (On loan from the Rolleston family)
A reminder that the YCBA will reopen to the public on 29th March 2025.
Frames from the Johnson Collection in Philadelphia
January 8 2025
Picture: Philadelphia Museum of Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I failed to spot that the Philadelphia Museum of Art opened a free exhibition focusing on European frames from the Johnson Collection at the end of last year.
According to the museum's website:
The installation highlights picture frames as works of art in their own right, exploring their shifting forms and functions from the altar-like frames of the Renaissance to the experimental, artist-designed frames of the late 1800s. It will include 13 frames from the Johnson Collection, which, together, express the craftsmanship and variety of European frames through the centuries.
The display will run through into Spring 2025.
Sotheby's New York Master Paintings Part I
January 8 2025
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Sotheby's New York Master Paintings Part I sale has been uploaded online. The auction will take place on 6th February 2025 at 10.00 EST.
Amongst the top lots are a Rubens sketch of the Annunciation at $4m - $6m, a hairy Saint Mary Magdalene by Raphael at $2m - $3m, a portrait of a noblewoman by Bernardino de Conte at $2m - $3m, a Nest Robber by Pieter Brueghel the Younger at $1.2m - $1.8m, and a crucifixion by Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen at $1.2m - $1.8m. Being musically minded though, my favourite is this Cornelis de Vos portrait showing a young girl playing the virginal, estimated at $600k - $800k (pictured).
It is also worth drawing attention to the Aso O. Tavitian single-owner sales, which contain a selection of fine selection of Old Masters from various centuries and national schools, the top lots being a portrait of Margaret of Austria at $1.5m - $2m and a Mary Magdalene by Ambrosius Benson at $600k - $800k.
Tudor (?) Guido Mazzoni Busts with Colnaghi
January 7 2025
Picture: Colnaghi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The dealers Colnaghi have shared interesting news on Instagram that they are currently exhibiting two rare terracotta busts attributed to the Italian renaissance sculptor Guido Mazzoni. Dated to the last years of the fifteenth century, fans of Tudor art will recognise the relation of these works to a bust in the Royal Collection (1) which at various times throughout its history has been identified as a likenesses of the young Henry VIII (although this has been doubted in more recent times). Colnaghi has suggested in their post that theirs might depict Margaret Tudor and her brother Henry VIII, although, the dealers haven't yet published any catalogue notes or further information online yet. The sculptures are on display at 26 Bury Street, London, in case any AHN readers would like to go and have a look for themselves!
Uffizi acquire Salvator Rosa Witch
January 7 2025
Picture: Nicholas Hall
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The New York dealer Nicholas Hall has announced on Instagram that the Uffizi Galleries in Florence have acquired Salvator Rosa's La Strega (The Witch).
To quote part of their catalogue note written for the picture:
In the twenty-first century Western imagination, the word ‘witch’ conjures a variety of figures, from the Puritans of Salem, to Snow White’s transforming evil stepmother, to the seductive temptresses of 1970s B-films. For the early modern European, the idea of a witch was similarly varied—corroborated by the numerous and diverging pictures and descriptions that crop up in demonological texts, mythological narratives, court documents and images of artistic fantasy. In this milieu, the notoriously audacious Neapolitan artist Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), famed for his sublime landscapes and esoteric philosophical subjects, fashioned a specific stereotype of witches in his paintings of black magic. Made during the 1640s and 1650s between Florence and Rome, Rosa’s pictures drew on a wide variety of sources, including popular superstitions, literary characters, demonological treatises and the rich visual tradition crafted by Renaissance artists.
No picture captures the qualities of the ‘Rosian witch’ as explicitly as the painting La Strega. Towering over two meters tall, it features a naked witch thrashing alone in the middle of a shadowy, cavernous space. While the painting is atypical of Rosa’s approach to depicting witchcraft (in that it is both structurally simple and physically large), it nevertheless foregrounds Rosa’s paradigmatic witch. This ‘hideous hag’ is an explicitly old, naked woman—a grotesque character. I purposefully employ the term ‘grotesque’ in order to lay bare the inherent misogynistic intentions behind creating this character and in her reception by an early modern audience, as well as to relate this witch directly to the Bakhtinian concept of the grotesque body—open, excessive and tangibly debased.[1] But rather than dismissing Rosa’s witch as simply stereotypical or sexist, investigating her attributes and sources reveals how Rosa created a terrifying, electrifying and ambitious character. In so doing, he cemented stereotypes of the witch that share a direct line to the ideas of witches—and women—today.
