Spanish State Insure €134m worth of El Grecos for 2025 Prado Exhibition
November 14 2024
Picture: Santo Domingo el Antiguo, Toledo
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Here's an interesting story which has made the headlines in Spain (spotted via @MarteVelazquez), and a part of the loan exhibition world you usually don't often hear much about publicly. The Spanish Ministry of Culture has disclosed that it has insured €134m worth of paintings by El Greco for an upcoming exhibition at the Prado in 2025. This tremendous sum is for the loan of a total of four works, three from the Church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in Toledo (pictured), Spain, and one from the Art Institute in Chicago.
This is in preparation of an exhibition in Madrid which will focus on the works commissioned for the aforementioned Church in Toledo and is set to run from February to June 2025.
The Enigma of Watteau's Pierrot
November 14 2024
Video: Louvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre in Paris published this rather fascinating video a couple of weeks ago dedicated to the enigma of Jean-Antoine Watteau's famous Pierrot. The video also examines the recent conservation of the painting, which appears to have been rather visually transformative.
The museum's current exhibition on the work, entitled A New Look at Watteau, runs until 3rd February 2025.
Paris OMP Sales
November 14 2024
Picture: Artcurial
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I feel that I may have neglected pointing out the upcoming season of Old Master Paintings auctions in Paris, which are increasingly full of interesting pictures to examine and admire. This includes Christie's Paris, who have a live sale on 21st November and an online sale which ends on 22nd November, and Artcurial on 26th November.
Sotheby's Paris' auction, which was held earlier on the 13th November (yesterday), yielded a few interesting results, most notably Vigée Le Brun's portrait of the Marquess Dubois de La Motte which realised 120,000 EUR over its 40k - 60k estimate.
Sleeper Alert!
November 14 2024
Picture: Pandolfini
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Quite a few accounts on social media have pointed out the phenomenal 290,000 EUR this drawing made at Pandolfini in Florence yesterday. The work, catalogued as 'Artist of the 18th century', soared past its 1,000 - 1,500 EUR estimate. Several accounts have pointed towards the sheet possibly belonging to a 16th century German hand.
Leighton and Landscape
November 14 2024
Picture: Leighton House
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Leighton House in Holland Park will be opening their latest temporary exhibition in a few days' time. Leighton and Landscape: Impressions from Nature will be a celebration of the relatively underappreciated works from nature Lord Leighton undertook on this various travels.
According to the museum's blurb:
This first major exhibition of Frederic Leighton’s small landscape oil sketches, painted en plein air as he travelled, reveals the celebrated Victorian artist in a new light. Discover a spontaneous, experimental artist who took the road less well trodden by his contemporaries, documenting the places he encountered. Created between 1856 up until his death in 1896, many of these delicate artworks will be returning to Leighton's house for the first time over 120 years, including new acquisition Bay of Cádiz, Moonlight (1866).
The show will run from 16th November 2024 until 27th April 2025.
'The Invention of British Art' (ctd.)
November 13 2024
Picture: Elliott & Thompson
Hi everyone, Bendor here to point you to an interview I did with The Daily Telegraph about my new book, The Invention of British Art. In the words of Chris Harvey, who wrote the article, the book is, 'an intellectually thrilling 400-page romp through 12,000 years of our often brutal history'.
The book has an epic sweep – it begins with a Bronze Age drawing of a horse’s head carved into animal bone that was found in a cave at Creswell Crags in Derbyshire and continues up to the emergence of the genius of JMW Turner in the 19th century. Along the way it takes in everything from the 3,000 year old Uffington Horse on the Berkshire Downs (“if Matisse had made something similar in France, it would be one of the artistic wonders of the world”) to pressed metal pilgrim badges. Every time Grosvenor settled on a starting point, he says, “something else drew me further back.”
His end point, he decided, had to be “that moment when you could say a school of distinctive British art exists”. (He hopes there will be a second volume.) Why that took so long is one of the themes of the book. Landscape painting, he suggests, is the major British achievement in the visual arts. “I mention people like Delacroix hailing Constable as the father of French landscape painting. It’s probably a moment where British artists change the normal flow of art across Europe, where for hundreds, thousands, of years we’re importing ideas.”
And if that doesn't tempt you to order a copy, then Apollo magazine has described it as 'highly readable', while the New Statesman says it is 'handsome and thoughtful'.
The book is available here on Amazon for the bargain price of £29. Another way to think of it is as a tiny contribution to getting AHN for free, for over a decade!
Sotheby's London Day Sale
November 13 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Sotheby's London upcoming Old Master & 19th Century Paintings Day Sale has been uploaded online. The auction will take place on 5th December 2024.
As usual with these sales, I won't spoil the fun by point out what may or may not be interesting.
Rijksmuseum Fellowship Programme 2025-26
November 12 2024
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam are advertising for their upcoming Fellowship Programme for 2025-2026 (spotted via Codart).
According to the museum's website:
We are offering a maximum of six fellowships for the 2025-2026 academic year, across four fields of research. For more information about each of the fellowships, please see below:
-Mellon Fellowship for research in art and cultural history, particularly object-oriented research
-Dr. Anton C. R. Dreesmann Fellowship art history research specifically conducted by PhD candidates from the University of Pennsylvania
-Johan Huizinga Fellowship historical research on objects from the Rijksmuseum collection
-Migelien Gerritzen Fellowship conservation and scientific research on works of art and historical artifacts.
As one might imagine, the perks of the fellowship programme are rather vast, do click on the link above to view all of the details. Applications close on 5th January 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Re-discovered portrait of Oliver Cromwell unveiled by Dickinson
November 12 2024
Picture: Dickinson
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The London dealers Simon Dickinson have unveiled a re-discovered portrait of Oliver Cromwell by Robert Walker. Interestingly, recent conservation has revealed the painting was never finished by the artist which raises some very intriguing questions as to its history.
According to their press release:
The restoration process brought a surprise to light: the painting was left unfinished by Walker, raising significant questions. Why would Cromwell’s preferred artist abandon such an important commission? Painted during a period when Cromwell was facing military challenges in Scotland and Ireland and unrest at home, the sudden abandonment of the project by Walker indicates that it fell victim to the changing fates of the period.
“Seeing this masterpiece come to life through restoration was a revelation,” says Simon Dickinson, Chairman of Dickinson Gallery. “This isn’t just a painting; it’s a statement of Cromwell’s character and ambitions. We are thrilled to invite the public to experience the power and enigma of this unfinished portrait and the historical era it represents.”
The portrait will be on display in Jermyn Street from 25th November until 10th December. Cromwell and his band did love Christmas, after all.
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As a side note, I've always wondered what happened to this version of Walker's Cromwell which was formerly in the collection of Warwick Castle (one of my unhealthy obsessions, I must confess). The painting is visible on the left-hand side of this old black & white photograph (see below). Do let me know if any reader of AHN spots it out in the wild one day!
Palazzo Ducale Mantua acquire Bazzani
November 12 2024
Picture: mantovaducale.beniculturali.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Italy (spotted via @Mweilc) that the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua have acquired Giuseppe Bazzani's (1690-1769) Christ and the pilgrims on the way to Emaus. It appears that the painting's companion piece, Christ in the House of Mary Magdalene and also dating to 1720-25, survives in the Harvard Art Museum in Cambridge.
Egon Schiele: Living Landscapes - at the Neue Galerie
November 11 2024
Video: Neue Galerie
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I missed the news last month that the Neue Galerie in New York have just opened their latest exhibition entitled Egon Schiele: Living Landscapes, a display which focuses on the artist's attention to nature throughout his career. The show will run until 13th January 2025.
Video Tour: Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350
November 11 2024
Video: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little late to this video tour of the MET in New York's recently opened exhibition entitled Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350.
The show will run in NYC until 26th January 2025 and will then head to the National Gallery in London in March 2025.
Lecture on Art History in Australia
November 11 2024
Picture: University of Western Australia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The University of Western Australia in Perth are hiring a Lecturer in Art History and Curatorial Studies.
According to the job description:
UWA Design is a dynamic and collegial multi-disciplinary School offering undergraduate and postgraduate programs in History of Art, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design. The School is organised into the correlating five discipline groups, and additionally houses the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC). Academic staff deliver high quality teaching and learning, and produce internationally renowned research across scholarship and creative practice. Our School is future-focused and comprehensively prepares graduates for careers, further study, or research within Australia and around the world.
One of the five discipline areas within the School, History of Art offers a Major through the Bachelor of Arts; a Curatorial Studies Minor; and from 2025 is introducing a Bachelor of Art History and Curatorial Studies, followed by an end-on Honours degree. Becoming a greater focus within the new degree, curatorial studies is key to future career opportunities for students and graduates from a range of study areas. It is integrated within History of Art and intersects with the Fine Arts offerings within the School, as well as fields of education and research in other schools at UWA. The appointee to this position will help to develop this expanding field.
The job comes with an annual salary of $113,934– $134,824 AUD (equivalent of roughly £58,000 - £68,000) and applications must be in by 12th November 2024 (tomorrow!).
Good luck if you're applying!
New Release: Women Pioneers of the Arts & Crafts Movement
November 11 2024
Picture: Thames & Hudson
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The publishers Thames & Hudson have just this month released Karen Livingstone's new book Women Pioneers of the Arts & Crafts Movement, a publication produced in collaboration with the V&A in London.
According to the publisher's website:
Women Pioneers of the Arts & Crafts Movement is a celebration of the work and ambition of the women who were at the heart of the most influential art and design movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It shines a light on the vital contribution of figures such as May Morris, Gertrude Jekyll, Annie Garnett, and many others, and describes the Arts and Crafts Movement from the perspective of these women who worked against the odds as artists, makers, teachers, authors, and entrepreneurs.
Women of the era took part in, and often led, the founding of exhibitions, societies, art schools, and small craft industries. Some were activists and social disruptors while using their skills and talents to make a living. This book highlights the versatility and range of these talented women, who worked across a host of disciplines, including textile design, embroidery, bookbinding, illustration, painting, enameling, stained glass, metalwork, furniture design, and architecture. It is richly illustrated with a wide array of their work, much of it previously unpublished. Featuring objects from the V&A’s renowned Arts and Crafts collection, the book also includes key pieces from other museums and private collections across the UK.
Barocci altarpiece sent to the Palazzo Marino for Christmas
November 11 2024
Picture: comune.milano.it
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Palazzo Marino in Milan is being lent The Madonna of San Simone by Federico Barocci for the Christmas period. The picture, usually found within the collections of Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino, will be part of a free display which runs from 4th December 2024 until 12th January.
Italian Renaissance Drawings from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen at the Fondation Custodia
November 11 2024
Picture: Fondation Custodia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This autumn seems to be the season for Old Master Drawings exhibitions! The Fondation Custodia in Paris opened a new show last month dedicated to Italian Renaissance Drawings from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
According to the museum's website:
The aim of the exhibition is to reveal those talented draughtsmen whose artistic innovations were at the core of the Italian Renaissance. Pisanello, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Veronese, Correggio... Thanks to recent research carried out at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, in collaboration with international experts and the Fondation Custodia, a number of important discoveries have been made regarding the drawings and some have been re-attributed to leading artists including Pontormo, Federico Zuccari, Aurelio Lomi and Pellegrino Tibaldi.
Drawings made by some of the early fifteenth-century precursors of the Italian Renaissance, today of the greatest rarity, are one of the salient features of the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Several studies by Pisanello, Parri Spinelli and Benozzo Gozzoli open the exhibition in an impressive way. From then on, the pre-eminent centres of Florence and Venice take over. These were the principal hubs of artistic creation at the time and indeed dominate the Rotterdam collection. The museum is famous for its exceptional collection of 400 drawings by the Florentine painter Fra Bartolommeo, thirteen of which are presented in Paris. Venice is not far behind and the exhibition contains work by its greatest representatives: Vittore Carpaccio, Gentile Bellini, Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto and their workshops, as well as that of the Bassano family.
The exhibition will run until 12th January 2025.
Dürer to Van Dyck - Drawings from Chatsworth House
November 10 2024
Picture: National Galleries Scotland
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Galleries of Scotland have just opened a new exhibition (at the RSA) of early drawings on loan from Chatsworth, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire. Alongside the works on paper is also the recently cleaned double portrait en grisaille of Rubens & Van Dyck, which was recently returned to Chatsworth after being stolen in 1979.
According to the gallery's website:
A spectacular group of some 50 Flemish, Dutch, Early Netherlandish, and German drawings and watercolours, spanning from about 1500 to 1700, will be exhibited in Scotland for the first time. They have been selected from the collection of drawings at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, home to the Devonshire family, one of the finest and most significant holdings of drawings anywhere in the world. This exhibition is exclusive to the National Galleries of Scotland and will not travel elsewhere. Look forward to stunning drawings by, among others, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, and Sir Peter Paul Rubens, alongside no less than eleven works by Anthony van Dyck, and nine by Rembrandt.
The show will run until 23rd February 2025.
Apsley House conserve 'Attributed to' Cignani
November 9 2024
Picture: Apsley House
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Apsley House, the historic London residence of the Dukes of Wellington, have revealed on social media the recent conservation of a painting depicting Venus and Adonis which is currently 'Attributed to' Carlo Cignani. Their recent posts suggest that now that the painting has been cleaned their thoughts will turn towards whether this is really by Cignani or not. We'll have to wait to find out the results, it seems!
Christie's Old Masters Part II
November 9 2024
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's London have uploaded their upcoming Old Masters Part II: Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings and Watercolours sale online. This auction will take place on 4th December 2024.
As usually, I won't spoil the fun by pointing out what may or may not be interesting.
Living with the Gods at the MFA Houston
November 9 2024
Video: MFA Houston
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston have just recently opened a new exhibition entitled Living with the Gods: Art, Beliefs, and Peoples.
Here's a blurb from their website:
How has humanity given form to spiritual beliefs across time and cultures? Living with the Gods: Art, Beliefs, and Peoples explores that quest in an expansive exhibition featuring more than 200 objects from the past 4,000 years.
As a capstone for the Museum’s centennial year, British art historian and former museum director Neil MacGregor was invited to revisit his 2017 BBC radio series and book of the same title, bringing that vision to the MFAH collections, along with many exceptional loans from museums and private collections.
Displayed in dialogue across a suite of 11 galleries, masterpieces in the installation explore elemental themes: the cosmos, light, water, and fire; the mysteries of life and death; the divine word; and pilgrimage. Living with the Gods includes ancient, historic, and contemporary works drawn from regions across Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas.
The show will run until 20th January 2025.
