Chagall The Breakthrough Years, 1911–1919

January 6, 2018, 10:27 am

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Kunstmuseum Basel

16.09.2017–21.01.2018

This exhibition explores the early work of Marc Chagall. His creative breakthrough came at a time when his life was torn between contrasting experiences. Chagall lived in Paris from 1911 until 1914, creating paintings that combined his recollections of Russian provincial life with iconic fragments of the metropolis around him. Reminiscences of Russian folk art make an appearance in his works from the period, as do the most recent stylistic experiments he was exposed to through his life in the center of the artistic avant-garde and his acquaintance with many of the most progressive artists, including Picasso, Robert and Sonja Delaunay, and Jacques Lipchitz. 

Overtaken by the outbreak of World War I during a visit back home, Chagall was forced to spend the next eight years in Russia. The unexpected change of circumstances initially prompted a phase of searching self-scrutiny that speaks from many paintings and works on paper created in and after 1914. The artist produced numerous self-portraits, depictions of Jewish life, and designs for the stage setting for the celebration of the first anniversary of the October Revolution that he organized in his role as the commissar for arts and director of the art school in Vitebsk in 1918. 

The exhibition displays a representative selection of works from what was for Chagall a period of rapid artistic evolution and personal as well as political upheaval. The core of the show consists of the extraordinary ensemble of major paintings in the collections of the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Im Obersteg Foundation as well as eminent works on loan from Swiss and international private and public collections. 

They are complemented by documentary ethnographic photographs the Russian artist Solomon Yudovin took in 1912–1914 during the so-called Gintsburg Expeditions into Russia’s shtetlekh, in an attempt to capture a world constantly endangered by pogroms, political unrest and social dynamics. Yudovin’s photographs preserve the rich traditions of shtetl life that profoundly informed Chagall’s oeuvre.



 

Ich und mein Dorf (Moi et mon village), 1911 Gouache auf Papier, 42.4 x 32.6 cm © Kunstmuseum Basel, Kupferstichkabinett / ProLitteris, Zürich

Der Zeitungsverkäufer (Le marchand de journaux), 1914 Öl auf Karton, 98 x 78.5 cm © Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris / ProLitteris, Zürich

Der heilige Droschkenkutscher (Le Saint Voiturier), 1911-1912 Öl auf Leinwand, 148 x 118.5 cm Städel Museum, Frankfurt a. M. © Städel Museum - ARTOTHEK / ProLitteris, Zürich

Das gelbe Zimmer (La chambre jaune), 1911 Öl auf Leinwand, 84.2 x 112 cm © Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Basel / ProLitteris, Zürich

Die Hochzeit (La noce), 1911 Öl auf Leinen, 99.5 x 188.5 cm © Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris / ProLitteris, Zürich

Russland, den Eseln und anderen (A la Russie, aux ânes et aux autres), 1911(-1912) Öl auf Leinwand, 157 x 122 cm © Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris / ProLitteris, Zürich

Hommage an Apollinaire (Hommage à Apollinaire), 1911-1912 Öl, Gold- und Silberpuder auf Leinwand, 200 x 189.5 cm © Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Foto: Peter Cox, Eindhoven, The Netherlands / ProLitteris, Zürich

Selbstbildnis (Portrait de l‘artiste), 1914 Öl auf Karton, auf Leinwand aufgezogen, 50.5. x 38 cm© Stiftung Im Obersteg, Depositum im Kunstmuseum Basel 2004 / ProLitteris, Zürich

Der Jude in Hellrot (Le juif en rose), 1915 Öl auf Leinwand, 100 x 80.5 cm © Staatliches Russisches Museum, St. Petersburg / ProLitteris, Zürich

Der Mondmaler (Le peintre de la lune), 1917 Gouache, Aquarell, Tinte, Bleistift auf Papier, 32 x 30 cm Privatsammlung © ProLitteris, Zürich Der Jude in Schwarz- Weiss (Le juif en noir et blanc), 1914 Öl auf Karton, auf Leinwand aufgezogen, 101 x 80 cm © Stiftung Im Obersteg, Depositum im Kunstmuseum Basel 2004 / ProLitteris, Zürich

Der Viehhändler (Le marchand de bestiaux), 1912 Öl auf Leinwand, 97.1 x 202.5 cm © Kunstmuseum Basel / ProLitteris, Zürich    Die Uhr (La Pendule), 1914 Gouache, Öl, Buntstift auf Papier, 49 x 37 cm © Galerie Tretjakow, Moskau / ProLitteris, Zürich    Kubistische Landschaft (Paysage Cubiste), 1919-1920 Öl, Tempera, Graphit auf Leinwand, 100 x 59 x 6 cm © Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris / ProLitteris, Zürich   Die Hochzeit (La noce), 1911 Öl auf Leinen, 99.5 x 188.5 cm © Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris / ProLitteris, Zürich

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Caravaggio: Masterpieces from the Galleria Borghese

January 7, 2018, 8:10 am

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The  J.  Paul  Getty  Museum
November  21,  2017through  February  18,  2018 

http://news.getty.edu/image-gallery/recent-news/caravaggio-masterpieces-from-galleria-borghese/ 


The J. Paul Getty Museum is presenting a rare exhibition of three celebrated works by the great Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 -1610) , on loan from the Galleria Borghese in Rome, home to the largest collection of Caravaggio’s paintings in the world. Caravaggio: Masterpieces from the Galleria Borghese will be on view at the Getty Center from November 2 1, 2017 through February 18, 2018. 

According to Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum, “These three masterpieces are among Caravaggio’s best -known paintings , and we are extremely grateful to the Galleria Borghese for sharing them with our public. Caravaggio’s revolutionary genius made him one of the most  important and beloved figures in European art history.  Theopportunity to see three of his most renowned works alongside the exceptional 17th -century Italian master pieces in our own collection is an event not to be missed.” 

One of the most admired painters in history, Caravaggio developed a bold ly naturalistic style that employed striking theatrical compositions and emphasized the common humanity of his protagonists. His art was both widely celebrated and highly controversial among his contemporaries and remained influent ial for centuries afterward. The three paintings presented in the exhibition exemplify the crucial stages in Caravaggio’s short but intense career (hedied at age 39). 

 
 

Boy with a Basket of Fruit, about 1593 - 94. Caravaggio (Italian, 1571 -1610). Oil on canvas. Ministero de Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo –Galleria Borghese. 

Boy with a Basket of Fruit (ca. 1593- 94) represents the beginning of the artist’s career when he moved from Lombardy to Rome and first attracted attention as a painter of realistic genre scenes and still lifes.

Saint Jerome, about 1605 - 6. Caravaggio (Italian, 1571 - 1610). Oil on canvas. Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Cultu rali e del Turismo – Galleria Borghese. 

Saint Jerome(ca. 1605) portrays the saint as a scholar reading and annotating sacred passages in the dramatically spotlight manner that Caravaggio made famous. 

David with the Head of Goliath, about 1609 - 1610. Caravaggio (Italian, 1571 -1610). Oil on canvas. Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturalie del Turismo –Galleria Borghese.

In David with the Head of Goliath (ca. 1610) , painted at the end of the artist’s career in his more somber and expressive later style, Caravaggio included his own features in Goliath’s head, purportedly in penance for his having committed a murder in May 1606. 

All three paintings were acquired by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a nephew of Pope Paul V, who knew Caravaggio personally and was one of his primary patrons. 

“Caravaggio continues to exert tremendous influence on art today. His exceptional  combination of truth to life and drama, and that famous chiaroscuro, gave birth not only to a new style of painting, but also inspired generations of painters with his psychological naturalism,” said Davide Gasparotto, senior cur ator of paintings at the Getty Museum. “These rare loans are prime examples of Caravaggio’s exceptional talent and innovation.” 


CARAVAGGIO RESEARCH INSTITUTE 

With in its collection, the Galleria Borghese houses the most important and chronologically best preserved paintings by Caravaggio, an ideal collection to study the whole of his career. Indeed, the six works owned by the Museum, are from his early established paintings, reportedly dated to around the late 16th century and created in the Cavalier d’Arpino’s atelier – the Young Sick Bacchus and the Boy with a Basket of Fruit (1593 -1594) – to his latest works, David with the Head of Goliath and John the Baptist , created during his dramatic getaway, while waiting for Pope Paul V Borghese’s grace, which was unfortunately granted too late, in 1610, at the end of the artist’s endless wanderings between Naples, Sicily and Malta. 

From this outstanding collection, exceptionally preserved over the centuries, originates the idea of the Caravaggio Research Institute, which will see the creation of an international center of studies at Galleria Borghese, as an ideal and paradigmatic place for the study of Caravaggio's entire body of work. 

The aim of the Caravaggio Research Institute is to create the most complete database containing all data about Caravaggio through the creation of a digital platform so as to become an internationa l primary reference for humanistic and scientific studies on the artist. The database will include bibliographic, documentary, archival, philological, historiographical, iconographic information and updates, as well as a diagnostic documentation in digital form. 

The scientific validity of the database is assured by the high profile scientific committee, which include many outstanding professionals among Caravaggio’s scholars, with the intention to provide a valuable tool for specialists The Caravaggio Research Institute will start scientific partnerships with all the museums, art galleries, foundations, churches and private collections around the world hosting Caravaggio paintings, thus creating an extensive network of national and international partners. 

The project addresses amateurs, art historians, restorers, conservators, museum professionals, diagnosticians, historians, students, and, above all, aims at employing a relevant number of young researchers in the different steps of data collection and data analysis. 

Researchers will be able to access the database through different levels and personalized methods for consultation. Database queries will be accepted through a dedicated website providing different access levels: general, fully accessible data open to everybody; strictly specialist information reserved to scholars and technicians who submit a substantiated application to the museum; a third access level strictly reserved to the Caravaggio Research Institute operators and project partners. 

The Caravaggio database will therefore become the final repository of an inter -institutional undertaking: its digital format will intrinsically offer a synoptic, integrated understanding of data which might otherwise be less exact and complete, if they were acc essed with a linear consecutive approach failing to afford the requested combination of elements. 

When consulting the Caravaggio database for information, it should be possible to access, as rapidly as possible, the following data about a work of art : implementation techniques, date of execution, dimensions, origin, exhibitions it has been presented in, bibliography, conservative history card, images and written reports about diagnostic tests, and when the latest update of the data provided was carried out.

Michelangelo to Degas: Major New Acquisitions

January 7, 2018, 8:15 am

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  La Surprise, ca. 1718, Jean Antoine Watteau (French, 1684 – 1721). Oil on panel. 36.3 x 28.2 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
  
  In July 2017, the J. Paul Getty Museum announced one of the most important acquisitions in its history: sixteen major drawings and an exquisite painting by Jean Antoine Watteau. Michelangelo to Degas: Major New Acquisitions, presents these newly acquired works to the public from January 17–April 22, 2018 at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center.
  
  “This latest acquisition has been the most transformative ever in the history of the Department of Drawings, bringing into the collection a number of extremely rare masterpieces by some of the greatest artists of the Renaissance through the 19th century,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “Showcasing these works together will demonstrate the monumental nature of this purchase, which also includes a famous painting by the French artist Jean Antoine Watteau. It is increasingly rare to be able to acquire masterpieces of this stature, which have been highly sought after by connoisseurs since the 16th century, and by now have long been swept up by museums.”
  
  With a particularly strong group of rare Italian Renaissance sheets, the acquisition features exceptional works by many of the most celebrated draftsmen in the history of European art, including Michelangelo, Lorenzo di Credi, Parmigianino, Andrea del Sarto, Domenico Tiepolo, Goya, and Degas.
  
  

Study of a Mourning Woman, ca. 1500-05, Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564). Pen and brown ink, heightened with white. 26 x 16.5 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Highlights include Michelangelo’s Study of a Mourning Woman (about 1500-1505), a celebrated drawing of a mourning figure, with her face semi-hidden. Michelangelo made the work at a pivotal moment early in his career when, already renowned as a sculptor, he became increasingly esteemed as a painter. The drawing was discovered pasted into an album in the library at Castle Howard, England in 1995.

Parmigianino, "Head of a Young Man," circa 1539-40, ink (Getty Museum)

The Head of a Young Man (about 1539-40), made toward the end of Parmigianino’s short life when he was at the peak of his artistic mastery, is one of his most famous drawings. Working in pen and ink on an under-lifesize scale with absolute precision and control of line, Parmigianino yields an astonishing impression of the sitter, who was probably a studio assistant. The influence of classical portrait busts on this jewel of a drawing is apparent in the gaze of the eyes and the sense of delicate perfection.

Degas is represented by two exceptional, complementary works. Two Studies of Dancers (about 1873), a superbly-preserved preparatory drawing on green paper, captures two dancers as one extends her leg and the other looks down, while strokes of white chalk indicate light streaming in from an unseen source. After the Bath (Woman Drying Herself) (about 1886) is a magnificent, large pastel of a nude in a densely patterned, dizzily colorful interior, made when the artist had all but ceased to exhibit, retreating into his studio to produce increasingly bold, experimental work.

“To be able to share any one of these drawings with our visitors would be an extraordinary privilege, but to add a group such as this to the collection, and to exhibit them together, is beyond a dream,” said Julian Brooks, senior curator of drawings.



The exhibition also includes one of Jean Antoine Watteau’s finest paintings, La Surprise (The Surprise), painted in 1718-19. Watteau created and defined the genre of the fěte galante, evocative outdoor scenes of romantic encounters and entertainment, which embodies the light-hearted spirit of French painting in the early eighteenth century. Thought to have been lost for centuries, and only known to historians from a 1731 engraving and copy in the British Royal Collection, this painting was rediscovered in 2007. At the Getty, it joins other exceptional eighteenth-century French paintings by Lancret, Chardin, Greuze, Fragonard, and Boucher.

Michelangelo to Degas: Major New Acquisitions will be on view January 17-April 22, 2018, at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition is curated by Julian Brooks, senior curator of drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Excellent review, more images,video

Rueland Frueauf the Elder and his Circle

January 9, 2018, 5:52 am

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Belvedere, Vienna
23 November 2017 until 11 March 2018

https://www.belvedere.at/press

This exhibition at the Upper Belvedere focuses on the works of the Late Gothic painter Rueland Frueauf the Elder and his workshop. It has been organized to display the panels from Frueauf’s Salzburg altarpiece following the painstaking conservation work undertaken by the Belvedere.

These works are at the heart of the exhibition about the generation of artists preceding Albrecht Dürer , who are so rarely placed in the spotlight . Rueland Frueauf the Elder was probably born around 1440/50. He first lived and worked in Salzburg and later on, from the 1480s, in Passau, where he completed the painting of the town hall, taking over from the official city painter. Frueauf the Elder, who died in Passau in 1507, can be regarded as one of the greatest Late Gothic painters in the German-speaking area. 

At the heart of the exhibition are eight altarpiece panels by the artist. These scenes from the Passion and the Life of the Virgin were painted in 1490/91, presumably for St. Peter’s Church in Salzburg, and they are the starting point for qu estions of attribution concerning the many works associated with the Frueauf circle. 

Rueland Frueauf the Elder, Portrait of the painter Jobst Seyfried, around 1495 Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere,

A further masterpiece by the artist in the Belvedere’s collection is the portrait of a man, whom recent discoveries in the archives have identified as the Passau-based painter Jobst Seyfrid.

“For this exhibition, we were able to bring togethe r more works by the Frueauf group than have ever before be en shown at one place. This opens up new perspectives on these extremely valuable paintings that have long preoccupied art history scholars and interested museum visitors,” said Björn Blauensteiner, the curator of the exhibition.

Besides the oeuvre of Frueauf the Elder, the exhibition also presents a selection of works by artists from his circle. These include several examples by the Master of Großgmain that are striking for their exquisite painting technique. 

Thanks to generous loans from Klosterneuburg Monastery art collections, all of the known works by Frueauf’s son, Rueland Frueauf the Younger, are also on display, including the famous



Legend of Saint Leopold. This first juxtaposition of the younger Frueauf’s oeuvre with his father’s work means that both painters can be compared in detail and promises plenty of food for thought conc erning questions surrounding the Frueauf circle. 

“The combination of works by the Frueauf father and son offers Klosterneuburg Monastery the unique opportunity to re-evaluate major works f rom its own picture gallery and see them in a fresh light. I am delighted about this temporary ‘family reunion’ after over 500 years,” said Wolfgang Christian Huber, custodian of the art collections at Klosterneuburg Monastery. 

The Salzburg altarpiece panels showing scenes from the Passion and the Life of the Virgin are in the Belvedere’s collection and have been painstakingly conserved in recent years. 

What was different about this project was that it was partially carried out as a public restoration at the Upper Belvedere and was thus made accessible to visitors. 

One particular challenge for the conservators was that the panels, originally painted on both sides, had been separated in the 1920s and 1930s. For a long time, this was common practice in order to be able to present both sides of the panels at the same time. However, the paintings were left very fragile as a result. 

A major aim of this conservation project was therefore to improve the stability of the paintings and secure the layers of paint. A further objective was to respectfully draw out the beauty of Rueland Frueauf the Elder’s unique art. 

Stella Rollig, CEO of the Belvedere, said: 

“The altarpiece panels by Rueland Frueauf the Elder are an example of the outstanding achievements of the Belvedere’s Conservation Department. The exhibition is the output of years of meticulous work – almost detective work – that has safeguarded the fu ture existence of these masterpieces from the Late Gothic period.” 

In addition to the eight paintings from the Salzbur g altarpiece, many other works from the Frueauf group were examined in preparation for the exhibition. 

The underdrawings hidden beneath layers of paint were brought to light using infrared reflectography, revealing original ideas that had actually been abandoned centuries ago. 

These paintings were also examined using X-rays and pigment analysis, ultraviolet light, raking light, and also under the microscope. The results are presented in the exhibition and published in the accompanying catalogue, the first monograph about Rueland Frueauf the Elder for over seventy years. 

The exhibition is curated by Björn Blauensteiner and has been organized in collaboration with Klosterneuburg Monastery.

Meister von Großgmain, Hl. Ambrosius, 1498

© Belvedere, Vienna

Rueland Frueauf the Elder, detail of Kreuztragung Christi, um 1490/91

Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Rueland Frueauf the Elder, Verkündung an Maria, 1490

Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Rueland Frueauf d. Ä., Maria Himmelfahrt

Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Malerei auf Fichtenholz 210 x 133,4 cm

Rueland Frueauf d.Ä., Anbetung der Heiligen Drei Könige

Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Rueland Frueauf the Elder., Christus am Ölberg, um 1490/91

Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Painting on spruce wood 211,7 × 134,7 cm

Meister von Großgmain, Hl. Augustinus um 1498

© Belvedere, Vienna

Rueland Frueauf the Elder, Crucifixion, around 1490/91

Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Painting on spruce wood 209,5 × 134,6 cm

Rueland Frueauf the Elder, Carrying of the Cross, around 1490/91

Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Painting on spruce wood 211,7 x 134,7 cm

 

Rueland Frueauf the Younger, Boar Hunt, around 1505

© Klosterneuburg, Monastery Museum

 

 

Rueland Frueauf the Elder, Flagellation of Christ, 1491

Photo: Johannes Stoll, © Belvedere, Vienna

Painting on spruce wood 208,3 x 134,6 cm

 

Rueland Frueauf the Younger, Baptism of Jesus, beginning of the 16th century

© Klosterneuburg Monastery Museum

Painting on spruce wood, 74 x 43 cm

Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Master Paintings on 1 February 2018

January 13, 2018, 7:03 am

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An exceptional selection of European paintings, spanning from the 14 th to the 19 th centuries will be offered in Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Master Paintings on 1 February 2018 in New York. 



The February sale features a rare and striking portrait of Cristoforo Segni, Maggiordomo to Pope Innocent X  painted and signed by Velazquez and Cremonese painter Pietro Martire Neri Martire (estimate $3/4 million). Painted around 1650, during Velazquez’s second trip to Rome, the work is one of a series of portraits painted for the Court of Pope Innocent X on the occasion of his Jubilee, the most famous being Portrait of Innocent X (1650, Galleria Doria Pamphilij). 

Having remained hidden in the present collection since the mid -20 th century, the painting was recently featured in a dedicated exhibition to Velazquez at the Grand Palais, Paris in 2015. Velazquez’s highly expressive and distinctive brushwork is clearly evident in areas of the canvas, in particular the head of the sitter. 



A Wooded River Landscape with a Landing Stage, Boats, Various Figures and Village Beyond is a stunning work by 17 th -century Flemish master Jan Bruegel the Elder, and stands as one of the finest river landscapes by the artist in private hands (front page, middle, estimate $2.5/3.5 million). A primary example of his work on copper, the painting’s vibrant colors, intact glazes and thick impasto are evidence of its remarkable condition, and its meticulous attention to detail further contributes to the captivating jewel -like effect so prized in works by the major Flemish mas ter. 

The February auction offers an impressive pair of Venetian views by Canaletto, whose inimitable success in capturing the architecture of 18th -century Venice has made him the undisputed leader of the genre (estimate $3/4 million). Most likely completed in England in the 1740s, the pair offers waterfront views of two of the most recognizable façade in La Serenissima: 

 

the Church of the Redentore 



and the Prisons of San Marco. 

While there are other known views of the Church of the Redentore by Canaletto, the present view of the Prisons of San Marco is a unique composition for the artist of which no other version is known. 



The sale includes a monumental painting by leading Italian Renaissance master Titian and his workshop. One of only two known versions of the subject by the artist, Saint Margaret Sotheby’s New York Evening auction of Master Paintings on 1 February 2018 will offer a monumental and striking painting by Titian and his workshop. One of only Titian, and Workshop  two known versions of the subject by the artist, Saint Margaret (estimate $2/3 million) was first recorded in the English royal collection of King Charles I (1600 – 1649), where it was displayed alongside the King's most highly prized works at Whitehall Palace. 

The present  work is being offered at a particularly poignant time, as the Royal Academy of Art’s upcoming exhibition Charles I: King and Collector (27 January – 15 April 2018) seeks to reunite the King’s treasures that were dispersed following his execution. 

During his reign, Charles I competed ferociously with the great powers of Europe to assemble an art collection rivaling to all others. Born into a family with deep ties to art, Charles I had an immense appreciation of art history and traveled across Europe to acquire works by some of the greatest artists, including Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael and Correggio. It was in the Privy Lodging Rooms at Whitehall Palace – a series of private apartments – where Charles kept his most highly- prized paintings. 

According to inventory records and notes from 1639, Saint Margaret is listed as hanging in the First Privy Lodging Room, an apartment so distinguished that no other could rival in splendor, where it was displayed alongside the King's collections of Titians, including the early  

 
 
Jacopo Pesaro Presented to Saint Peter(Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp),  

 

Venus with an Organ Player 



and Alonso de Avalos addressing his Troops (both Prado, Madrid), and three other remarkable works currently hanging at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. 

Soon after the King's execution in 1649, the decision was taken by Parliament to sell off his grand collection. Much of the collection was sold quickly to raise funds for the state, while others were sold to pay off the King’s debt. 

Alexander Bell, Worldwide Co -Chairman of Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings Department, commented: (images added)

“The inventories and valuations of Charles I’s collection compiled mainly in 1649 are unique document s that provide fascinating insights into the relative value of the works at this particular moment in time. The inventories record Saint Margaret at £100 – a little less than the more celebrated paintings by Titian, such as Venus with an Organist (Prado, Madrid) at £150 and the Allegory of Alfonso d’Avalos (Louvre, Paris) at £250, but more than the vast majority of works in the 3 enormous and storied collection, including the now-world-famous

 

Salvator Mundi by Leonardo Da Vinci at £30.

The most renowned pictures in the King’s collection were valued considerably higher:

 

Raphael’s Madonna della Perla (Prado, Madrid) was recorded at £2,000,

 

and Correggio’s Jupiter and Antiope (Louvre, Paris) at £1,000.”

 As one of two versions of the subject of Saint Margaret signed by Titian – the other being in the Museo del Prado, Madrid – it seems probable that the works were painted alongside one another , with Titian utilizing his workshop to block in areas of the painting and finishing the key areas himself. The expressive power of Titian’s later style is nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in the atmospheric depiction of the city of Venice on fire in the background. On the skyline, the campanile of St Mark glows in fiery orange and pinks, whilst the stormy waves of the sea are animated by dark blue and green brushstrokes. As is characteristic with Titian’s late works, the darker tones, fiery landscape and swift handling of the paint in the present work create a sense of drama that is entirely fitting to the narrative. 

Titian depicts the legendary virgin martyr, Saint Margaret, as she emerges unscathed from the body of Satan, who had appeared to her in the form of a dragon and swallowed her whole. The cross she held in her hand irritated the monster’s insides and the dragon burst open allowing her to escape unharmed. Painted in a myriad of colors, her luminous light green tunic with its bright white sleeves and rose pink veil stand out from the earthier, brown based tones of the rest of the canvas. The dragon that occupies the bottom register of the canvas is predominantly painted in brown and blackish hues and the only flashes of color are the strokes of red and white delineating his vicious mouth. Depicted in dramatic contrapposto, the implied movement in Saint Margaret’s twisting body contrasts to the solidarity of the rock behind her , emerging from the picture plane as an impressive figure, trampling the dragon underfoot and holding her crucifix aloft.

Christie’s New York in the Spring of 2018

January 13, 2018, 7:26 am

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In spring of 2018, the sale of The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller  will take place at Christie’s Rockefeller Center Galleries in New York. In keeping with David Rockefeller’s pledge to direct the majority of his wealth to philanthropy and provide for the cultural, educational, medical, and environmental causes long supported by him and his wife, all of the Estate’s proceeds from the sales across a wide variety of categories will be donated to the Rockefeller family’s charities of choice. As such, it will be the most important philanthropic auction ever held.

Impressionist & Modern Art Highlights

A Picasso Rose Period masterpiece, executed in 1905, Fillette à la corbeille fleurie is a highlight of the collection (estimate in the region of $70 million). Rich in pathos in its depiction of bohemian life at the turn of the 20^th century, this rare work is a technical tour de force of draftsmanship and atmosphere. The painting maintains a storied provenance; it was acquired in 1905 by brother and sister, Leo and Gertrude Stein, and passed to Alice B. Toklas upon Gertrude’s death in 1946, where it remained throughout Alice’s lifetime for another 21 years. In 1968, David Rockefeller formed a group of important art collectors to acquire the renowned collection of Gertrude Stein. Drawing slips of numbered paper from a felt hat, David Rockefeller drew the first pick in the syndicate, and he and Peggy were able to acquire their first choice of the Young Girl with a Flower Basket, and placed it in the library of their 65^th Street New York townhouse.

The most important work by Henri Matisse to be offered on the market in a generation is Odalisque couchée aux magnolias, painted in Nice in 1923 (estimate in the region of $50 million). The subject of the odalisque, the reclining female figure, held special significance for Matisse as it presented the opportunity to measure his art against past masters. Odalisque couchéeaux magnolias, with its symphonic synthesis of pattern and form, has long been counted among the greatest of Matisse’s paintings in private hands. This sumptuous painting resided in the living room of Peggy and David’s Hudson Pines home. Odalisque couchée aux magnolias is also the highest estimated work by Matisse to ever be offered at auction.

Monet’s beloved garden of Giverny was a source of unending inspiration. Nymphéas en fleur is among the largest scale, most brilliantly colored, and vigorously worked canvases that the artist executed – a glorious tribute to the natural world (estimate in the region of $35 million). This work belongs to a group of paintings Monet painted in a burst of untrammeled creativity between 1914 and 1917, as Europe plunged into the chaos of war. Upon the recommendation of Alfred Barr, the first director of the Museum of Modern Art, Peggy and David Rockefeller visited the Parisian dealer Katia Granoff and purchased the present painting in 1956. “One, which was almost certainly painted in the late afternoon and in which the water is a dark purple and the lilies stand out a glowing white, we bought immediately,” David Rockefeller recalled in Memoirs.

Paul Signac - Portrait de Félix Fénéon

Also on offer: significant works by ,Georges Seurat, Juan Gris, Paul Signac, Edouard Manet, Paul Gauguin, Jean Baptiste and Camille Corot, among others.

 American Art

Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), George Washington (Vaughan type), 1795. Oil on canvas. 29 x 24 in (74 x 61.3 cm). Estimate: $800,000-1,200,000.

Charles Sheeler (1883-1965), White Sentinels, 1942. Tempera on board. 15 x 22 in (38.1 x 55.9 cm). Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000.

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Cape Ann Granite, 1928. Oil on canvas 29 x 40 in (71.1 x 102.2 cm). Estimate: $6,000,000-8,000,000

Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), The Schooner I, 1965. Oil on canvas. 37 x 54 in (94.2 x 137.5 cm). Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000. 

Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist

January 14, 2018, 8:56 am

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Berthe Morisot

Exhibition Tour:

• Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec (June 21–September 23, 2018)
• The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (October 21, 2018–January 14, 2019)
• Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (February 24–May 26, 2019)
• Musée d’Orsay, Paris (June 17–September 22, 2019)

Berthe Morisot, Woman at Her Toilette, 1875–1880, oil on canvas, The Art Institute of Chicago, Inv. no. 1924.127, Photo courtesy The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY [NOTE: The Barnes Foundation and Dallas Museum of Art presentations only]

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The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Québec City, Canada), the Barnes Foundation (Philadelphia, PA), the Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, TX), and the Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France) have announced an internationally touring exhibition dedicated to one of the revolutionary artists of the French Impressionist movement, Berthe Morisot (1841–1895). Co-organized by the four institutions, Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist will focus on the artist’s figure paintings and portraits through approximately 50 to 60 paintings from both public institutions and private collections. This tour will be the first dedicated presentation of Morisot’s work to be held in the United States since 1987, the very first solo exhibition of her work to be mounted in Canada, and the first time since 1941 that a French national museum will devote a monographic show to this important painter.
One of the founding members of the French Impressionists, Berthe Morisot was celebrated in her time as one of the leaders of the group, and her innovative works were coveted by dealers and collectors alike. Despite her accomplishments, today she is not as well-known as her Impressionist colleagues, such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Co-curated by Sylvie Patry, Chief Curator/Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Collections at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris and Consulting Curator at the Barnes Foundation, and Nicole R. Myers, The Lillian and James H. Clark Curator of European Painting and Sculpture at the Dallas Museum of Art, Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist will both illuminate and reassert Morisot’s role as an essential figure within the Impressionist movement and the development of modern art in Paris in the second half of the 19th century.
The exhibition traces the exceptional path of a female painter who, in opposition to the norms of her time and social background, became an important member of the Parisian avant-garde from the late 1860s until her untimely death in 1895. Through her portrayal of the human figure, Morisot was able to explore the themes of modern life that came to define Impressionism, such as the intimacy of contemporary bourgeois living and leisure activities, the importance of female fashion and the toilette, and women’s domestic work, all while blurring the lines between interior and exterior, public and private, finished and unfinished.
Organized semi-chronologically, the exhibition will examine Morisot’s painterly innovations and fundamental position within Impressionism across the arc of her productive, yet relatively short life. The exhibition explores the following periods and themes of Morisot’s work:

• Becoming an Artist – The introductory section looks at Morisot’s formative years, when she left behind the amateur artistic practice associated with women of her upbringing and established herself as both a professional artist and a key contributor to the emerging Impressionist movement in the late 1860s and early 1870s.
• Painting the Figure en plein air – A selection of Morisot’s plein-air paintings of figures in both urban and coastal settings highlights her innovative treatment of modern themes and immersive approach that integrates her subjects within their environments through brushwork and palette.
• Fashion, Femininity, and la Parisienne – The importance of fashion in constructing modern bourgeois femininity forms a central part of the artist’s paintings of the 1870s and 1880s. This interest is revealed in Morisot’s creations and adaptations of quintessential Impressionist subjects, such as elegant Parisian women shown at the ball or dressing in their homes, and the leisure activities associated with suburban parks and gardens.
• Women at Work – Morisot’s depictions of the domestic servant—the majority of whom she employed in her household—reflect her own status as a working professional woman. Her interest in painting these women raises questions about bourgeois living and the intimacy of the shared domestic setting.  
• Finished/Unfinished – The increasing immediacy of Morisot’s technique, and her radical experimentation with the concept of finished and unfinished in her work, exposes the process of painting and furthers the indeterminacy between figure and setting begun in her plein-air work.
• Windows and Thresholds – Morisot’s interest in liminal spaces is revealed in her paintings of subjects such as doorways and windows. Within these often spatially ambiguous settings, Morisot’s masterful evocation of light and atmosphere, the most ephemeral of her subjects, serves to anchor the human figure within these transitory spaces. 
• A Studio of Her Own – Morisot’s late career paintings from the 1890s often depict her personal  domestic space, which served as both studio and setting. During this period, Morisot reached a new expressiveness in her painting as figures become increasingly enveloped by their surroundings. The vibrant, saturated palette and sinuous brushwork that she adopted in these final works demonstrate their visual and symbolic affinities with the emerging Symbolist aesthetic of the time.

Exhibition Organization:

Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist is organized by Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Barnes Foundation, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Musées d’Orsay and de l’Orangerie. The exhibition is co-curated by Sylvie Patry, Chief Curator/Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Collections at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris and Consulting Curator at the Barnes Foundation, and Nicole R. Myers, The Lillian and James H. Clark Curator of European Painting and Sculpture at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Exhibition Catalogue:



The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue that emphasizes the importance of understanding Morisot’s work in light of her dialogue with contemporary artistic movements—Impressionism, but also Post-Impressionism and Symbolism. Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist makes an important contribution to the field, with interdisciplinary scholarship and a specific focus on Morisot’s pioneering developments as a painter first, woman second. Edited by Sylvie Patry, an English- and French-language catalogue will be co-published by Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. and the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, in association with the Dallas Museum of Art and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec.

A separate French-language catalogue will be published by the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. The book contains essays by Morisot scholars including the exhibition co-curators Sylvie Patry and Nicole R. Myers; Cindy Kang, Barnes Foundation; Marianne Mathieu, Musée Marmottan; and Bill Scott, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, as well as a chronology by Amy Wojciechowski with additional research by Monique Nonne,

 

Berthe Morisot, Self-Portrait, 1885, oil on canvas. Musée Marmottan-Claude Monet, Fondation Denis et Annie Rouart, 

 

Berthe Morisot, The Cradle, 1872, oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 2849 © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

 
 

Berthe Morisot, Winter, 1880, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, Gift of the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, 1981.129; 

Berthe Morisot, In England (Eugène Manet on the Isle of Wight), 1875, oil on canvas, Musée Marmottan-Claude Monet, Fondation Denis et Annie Rouart, Photo by Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY; 

 

More on Sotheby's Master Paintings Evening Sale 1 February 2018

January 19, 2018, 11:10 am

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The Evening Sale property is led by 
 



a pair of still life paintings from the pioneering female painter Fede Galizia (estimate $2/3 million). Celebrated for her still-life painting in Italy and throughout Europe in the first quarter of the 17th century – particularly ones depicting fruit – the present pair is a testament to her sensitive approach to subject matter and acute eye for detail. Galizia’s pared-down compositions rarely depict more than two varieties of fruit and are never overfilled or cluttered , typifying her naturalistic style . 

At the turn of the 17th-century, still lifes of fruit alone were uncommon in Italy, the earliest known being the  




Basket of fruitby Caravaggio in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan. While it’s possible that Fede was influenced by the intense realism of Caravaggio’s works, her innovative approach to th e genre was unique and unpar alleled during her lifetime, inspiring generations of artists to follow. 

Safra’s collection also features a monumental landscape by Jan Wijnants, one of the most important Dutch landscape painters of the second half of the 17th century.



Painted in collaboration with Adriaen van de Velde, Wooded Evening Lands cape With A Hunter And His Dogs, was inspired by the dunes of Haarlem , the artist’s native city ($2/3 million) . 

The work is further distinguished by its provenance, having been formerly in the collection of the most important collecting dynasties in modern times. The picture entered the Viennese Rothschild collection by 1873 , and thus descended in the family for decades. Displayed in the aptly named ‘Gemäldesaal’ or ‘Museum’ room of Baron Anselm von Rothschild (1803 -1874 )’s palatial home in Vienna, it hung alongside the family’s most important pictures by the best names from the Dutch Golden Age. 

When the contents of the family’s palace in Vienna were targeted and seized by Nazi authorities in 1938, the collection – including the present work – was removed to the central depot of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna  where it was earmarked for Hitler’s planed museum-complex in Linz.

Following the conclusion of the War, the picture was recovered by The Allied Forces’ celebrated Monuments Men from the Nazi storage facilities in the Salt Mines in Alt Aussee before being restituted to Baroness Clarice de Rothschild in 1947  The Wijnants was one of 11 key paintings from the Rothschild collection for which the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna selected in exchange for the grant of a license to export the remainder of the collection to New York. Under the restitution laws introduced in Austria in 1998, the Rothschild family was able to reclaim the ir collection, and so the Wijnants was returned to the family, and sold at auction in 1999 to the present owner. 



Dated to 1777, Women In Classical Dress Attending A Young Bride (estimate $400/600,000) is one of Joseph - Marie Vien’s finest works in the neo -classical style, and the first of four major works painted by the artist during his tenure as Director of the French Academy in Rome. Though history and religious painting dominated his early career, Vien went on to become one of France’s earliest proponents of neo-classicism – catering to the growing demand for antique and classical subjects. 

Commissioned by the Comte d’Angiviller, Directeur des Bâtiments du Roi, in 1776, the painting was shown at the Paris Salon of 1779  the first and only museum exhibition to include the work.



Vanvitelli’s View Of The Ripa Grande in Rome, is a beautifully -rendered depiction of the Eternal City's main river port (estimate $800,000/1.2 million). 

One of the leading fathers of the Italian vedute, the present oil on canvas provides a glimpse into daily life at the end of the 17th century. The right side of the painting shows the Via Marmorata, along which marble from the quarries at Carrara was transported, while on the opposite bank are the main ramps of the port, near the Customs House, with the tower of the church of the Santa Maria in Torre behind it. In the distance is the Church of Santa Maria in Capella, the only building in this group that is still standing to this day. Signed and dated to 1690, it is one of the earliest Italian views by the artist, and one of the finest to remain in private hands. 

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Sotheby’s Old Masters 31 January in New York

January 19, 2018, 11:12 am

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Sotheby’s will offer property from the gallery and private collection of Otto Naumann, the preeminent dealer of Old Master and 19th century paintings, in a dedicated auction on 31 January in New York. After almost four decades of collecting and dealing Old Masters, Mr. Naumann is stepping down from his gallery space to allow his son, Ambrose, to establish Ambrose Naumann Fine Arts as a new venture.

Mr. Naumann is selling his collection of paintings and sculpture, including Dutch, Italian, and Spanish masterpieces by Giovanni Baglione, Carlo Dolci, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Antonio Mancini and Joaquín Sorolla which have decorated his gallery space and apartment for years. The collection will be on view alongside our public exhibitions of Old Master Paintings and Drawings from 26 – 31 January 2018.

Dealing in fine art for over 30 years , Otto Naumann is regarded as one of the most respected figures in the international art scene. A celebrated scholar, earning his master's degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in Art History from Yale, Mr. Naumann is renowned for his exceptional eye for quality and for determining difficult attributions. In 1981, he wrote the authoritative monograph on Frans van Mieris (1635 - 1681) and helped organize the 2005 exhibition on the artist at the Mauritshuis, The Hague and in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Having made a name for himself specializing in Dutch and Flemish art, Mr. Naumann expanded the breadth of his trade in 2007 to include Italian, French, Spanish and British works as well as 19th century painting .




HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COLLECTION




Giovanni Baglione’s impressive and exquisitely painted Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness  (estimate $400/600,000) is a recent addition to the artist’s oeuvre. The painting was rediscovered in a private collection where it had remained since 1970, bearing a later inscription in the lower right corner, reading CARRACCI . Despite the inscription, the hand was recognized as that of Giovanni Baglione, and the painting was sold with the correct attribution at Sotheby’s London in 2012.

While in the hands of Mr. Naumann, cleaning not only revealed its rich surface and intricate detail but also the artist’s own signature and date, hidden beneath the old varnish: EQ IO. / BALGIONVS / .R.P.1610. Baglione, who had been knighted four years earlier in 1606, prominently proclaimed his title, EQ , a shorthand for Eques or “knight,” while the R.P. stood for “Roma Pinxit,” or perhaps “Roma Pictor.”

With its starkly lit figure and pronounced chiaroscuro effect, it is believed to be an early reaction to Caravaggio’s revolutionary style in Rome. Baglione's distinctive hand can be discerned in many of the details, from his characteristic way of painting the hands, feet and eyes, to the outlines of the nails. While he is known to have treated the subject of Saint John numerous times over the course of his care er, the present work is by far th e largest and most accomplished.



Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida’s Viejo castellano sirviéndose vino ( The Old Man of Castille ) (estimate $200/300,000) is one of a group of major life - sized figural compositions that the artist painted in 1907 . This series can be divided into themes: portraits of Spanish royals, members of Sorolla’s family and, as with the present work, depictions of regional people. Sorolla began the series in El Pardo, north of Madrid, and later Segovia, before traveling further north to Léon, where he made extensive oil sketches and drawings of local life. These studies shaped the present work and others of the period, which demonstrate the artist’s interest in ethnography and variations in Spain’s regional dress, customs, and culture.

The “old man” in the present work is enrobed by multiple layers of a heavy brown cloak , which frames his grey stubbled and sun - reddened skin, as a bandaged hand emerges to pour wine from a green and yellow glazed clay pitcher. Beyond its impressive technique and scale, this monumental portrait of the common man connects Sorolla to the foundational giants of Spanish art history, most notably Velázquez, who always sought ways to communicate the essence of his country in his art .



Giovanni Bilivert’s small -scale painting on copper, Venus, Cupid and Pan (estimate $300/500,000), with its highly -polished surface, displays the artist’s superb sense of refinement and delight in vivid colors  In this intimate painting we see Venus, the goddess of love, dipping her feet in a shallow, crystalline pond; n aked save for her pearl headdress and earrings, she is assisted by Cupid, wearing only a silk sash, who tenderly washes her left leg. Standing in the background is Pan , who holds Venus’s crimson cloak and a shepherd’s crook, the attribute by which the god of the wild and protector of flocks is normally identified. Throughout the painting, Bilivert brilliantly conveys different text ures; the fleshy body of Venus contrasts with the still -like water around her legs ; whilst the sheen of her hair, like that of Cupid's, offsets the shiny pearls of her headdress.

Highlights will be on view in Los Angeles 24 -25 October, San Francisco 1 -2 No vember, and London 1 - 7 December ahead of its New York exhibition 26 – 31 January 2018 . 5 

Dox Thrash, Black Life, and the Carborundum Mezzotint

January 26, 2018, 6:22 am

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PALMER MUSEUM OF ART
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802

January 16th - May 20th, 2018

Dox Thrash, Saturday Night, c. 1944-45, etching. Courtesy of Dolan/Maxwell.

Philadelphia-based artist Dox Thrash (1893–1965) was both a pioneering printmaker and a noted participant in the “New Negro” movement of the 1930s and ’40s. A veteran of World War I as well as the minstrel stage, he trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before making his way to Philadelphia, where he ultimately forged a career as both a painter and a graphic artist.

Dox Thrash, Cabin with a Star in the Window, c. 1944–45, carborundum mezzotint, proof reworked in ink. Private collection, image courtesy of Dolan/Maxwell.
Image: Penn State

In 1937, Thrash signed on for employment with the Federal Art Project’s Fine Print Workshop. There, while working with fellow artists Hugh Mesibov and Michael Gallagher, he began to experiment with a new approach to intaglio printmaking, which today is known as the carborundum mezzotint process. With its broad tonal range, the new process was ideally suited to the sensitive portrayals of Black life for which Thrash would become known.

Dox Thrash, "Life," c. 1938–39, carborundum mezzotint, 10 7/8 x 8 13/16 inches.

Image: Dox Thrash / Courtesy of Dolan/Maxwell

Dox Thrash, Black Life, and the Carborundum Mezzotint brings together numerous examples of the experimental process by Thrash and other colleagues working in the Fine Print Workshop. Also on view are works by Thrash in other print mediums, as well as watercolors and drawings, all of which powerfully document the artist’s intimate, invested engagement with African American culture in the middle decades of the twentieth century.

Dox Thrash, "Defense Worker", c. Carborundum mezzotint over etched guidelines

Magical & Real: Henriette Wyeth and Peter Hurd, A Retrospective

January 26, 2018, 7:06 am

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Michener Art Museum , Doylestown, PA 
January 21 through May 6, 2018

— In January 2018, the James A. Michener Art Museum will present Magical & Real: Henriette Wyeth and Peter Hurd, A Retrospective, a major exhibition that explores the work, marriage, and careers of two remarkable artists who contributed to the canon and dialogue of 20^th century American art. Co-organized by the Michener Art Museum and Roswell Museum and Art Center, the exhibition includes more than 100 works by Wyeth, Hurd, and family members—including Andrew Wyeth, Henriette’s brother, and N.C. Wyeth, her father—in the influential Wyeth sphere.  The exhibition will be on view from January 21 through May 6, 2018.

“PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER”: Henriette Wyeth, 1937 (painting of her father, artist N.C. Wyeth)

“Very little attention has been given to N.C.’s role in shaping and guiding the artistic development and career of his daughters Henriette, Ann, and Carolyn,” said Kirsten M. Jensen, Ph.D., the Michener’s Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Chief Curator. “Magical & Real is the first exhibition to explore the work and career of N.C.’s eldest child, Henriette, and N.C.’s student Peter Hurd, whom Henriette married in 1929. It’s also the first scholarly project to probe family archives to flesh out their relationships to other family members, particularly to N.C. and Andrew.”

Portrait of Peter Wyeth Hurd (1937) by Henriette Wyeth, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas.

Henriette Wyeth (1907–1997) and Peter Hurd (1904–1984) were important contributors to the arts of both the Philadelphia region and the Southwest. Henriette studied with her father and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she enrolled at the age of sixteen.

Henriette Wyeth, Beulah Emmett, 1933

She quickly earned critical recognition for her luminous and lyrical large-scale canvases of psychological presence and magic, and local recognition for her talent as a portraitist. But when she moved permanently to Roswell, New Mexico in 1940 (and her studio became Andrew’s), she was largely forgotten.

Peter Hurd, The Escape of Billy the Kid, 1965

Peter Hurd, a native of Roswell, became a pupil of N.C. Wyeth’s in 1924. While studying with N.C., he met Henriette. Hurd was a significant artistic influence in the development of N.C. and Andrew’s practice;  he introduced them to tempera, which became Andrew’s medium of choice. Hurd painted a number of Pennsylvania landscapes, but it is the impressive vistas, stark rolling hills, and dramatic light of the Southwest for which he is best known.

 Peter Hurd, Eve of Saint John,1960

“This exhibition engages the tensions between eastern and western arts communities, tensions that permanently marked the lives and careers of Hurd and Wyeth,” said Jensen. “Henriette’s work changed substantially in both style and tone following their move to New Mexico. Magical & Real will broaden the awareness of the entire scope of the couple’s work in the regions with which they are most closely associated.”

Magical & Real includes more than 100 works, most of which have been in private collections since they were created and thus have not been seen in public. After being on view at the Michener Art Museum, the exhibition will travel to Roswell, where it will be on display from June 15 to September 16, 2018. Co-curated by Jensen and Sara Woodbury, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at Roswell, it will be accompanied by a richly illustrated scholarly catalogue, with essays by Jensen and Woodbury as well as additional contributors.

“In addition to the works coming from private collections, several pieces in the exhibition come from the Roswell Museum and Art Center itself, so this is a great opportunity to share our Hurd and Wyeth collection with new audiences,” said Woodbury.

Midnight in Paris & New York: Scenes from the 1890s - 1930s, William Glackens and His Contemporaries

January 26, 2018, 7:20 am

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NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

 February 4 – October 18, 2018

           

William Glackens, Study for Music Hall Turn, c.1918, oil on canvas, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale; Bequest of Ira D. Glackens, 

Alphonse Mucha, Gismonda, 1894, vintage poster, color lithograph, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale; gift of Drs. Walter and Mildred Padow.  

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale will present Midnight in Paris & New York: Scenes from the 1890s – 1930s, William Glackens and His Contemporaries from February 4 through October 18, 2018. Featuring drawings, paintings and photographs by Eugène Atget, Brassai, William Glackens, André Kertesz, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, Pablo Picasso, John Sloan, Louis Comfort Tiffany and others along with distinctive architectural designs, furniture, glass, metalwork and silver, this new exhibition offers a fascinating glimpse into the rapidly changing society of the turn of the century and life in the new modern city. 

The Museum’s Sunny Kaufman Senior Curator Barbara Buhler Lynes, Ph.D. curated the exhibition.

William Glackens (1870-1938) : Café de la Paix, c. 1906

William J. Glackens (1870-1938) came of age as an artist in the 1890s, when he distinguished himself as one of America’s most celebrated illustrators. He subsequently became known as an important and leading modernist artist for his lively, realistic depictions of modern life and an important advocate of modern art in America. The years of his creativity from the1890s to the 1930s were marked by dramatic social, political and technological changes that revolutionized the character of cities around the world, such as New York, where the Philadelphia-born Glackens moved in 1896, and Paris, where he lived from 1895-96 and to which he returned many times.

During these decades, the completion of the Eiffel Tower (1889) and the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur (1914), among other architectural achievements redefined the Parisian skyline, as did skyscrapers in New York, such as the Flatiron (1902) and Woolworth (1912) buildings. 

The population of both cities surged with the influx of immigrants and people from rural areas, which increased diversity, and led to building booms, the establishment of businesses, and the opening of department stores that acquainted people with the latest fashions, household products and furnishing. Newspapers and illustrated popular magazines flourished and their wide distribution disseminated new ideas and trends. Inventions like the airplane, automobile, escalator, elevator, light bulb, neon, movies, telephone, and radio revolutionized how people communicated, lived, worked and spent leisure time. 

Glackens and a group of his American contemporaries first distinguished themselves in the 1900s for their dynamic, realistic depictions of life in the modern city. Like their French contemporaries, they brought the diversity of city dwellers in New York and Paris to life in depictions of actors, dancers, circus performers, celebrations, crowds, immigrants, city streets, and tenements. Their scenes of bars, cabarets, cafes, circuses, dance halls, and theaters reveal how the magic of the electric light bulb transformed nightlife into glittering and colorful spectacles. 

Highlighted in the exhibition is NSU Art Museum's distinctive William J. Glackens art and archival collection, the largest holding of the artist's work in the world. Works on loan and from the museum’s collection by Berenice Abbot, Eugène Atget, William Bradley , Brassaï, Daum, Edith Dimock, Emile Gallé, William J. Glackens, Jabez Gorham, Hector Guimard, René Jacques, André Kertesz, Marie Laurencin, George Luks, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, Pablo Picasso, Maurice Prendergast, John Sloan, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Edouard Vuillard add to the exhibition’s recreation of the ambiance, environment, and historical context of the dynamic period in which Glackens lived and worked.   

The exhibition features four recent gifts to NSU Art Museum, including three renowned art nouveau posters by Alphonse Mucha dating from the 1890s to 1908, from Drs. Walter and Mildred Padow, and 



William J. Glackens’s Patriots in the Making,1907, from Patricia O’Donnell.  

The Robbers: German Art in a Time of Crisis

January 26, 2018, 8:23 am

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Portland (ME) Museum of Art 

February 16, 2018 to July 15, 2018

George Grosz (Germany, 1839–1959), "Lions and tigers nourish their young, ravens feast their brood on carrion... Series: The Robbers" (detail), 1922, Photolithograph on paper, 27 1/2 x 19 3/4 inches. Gift of David and Eva Bradford, 2002.53.6.5, Art © Estate of George Grosz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

In February 2018, the Portland Museum of Art will open The Robbers: German Art in a Time of Crisis in the Palladian Gallery. The exhibition of approximately thirty German prints executed between the World Wars will highlight the complete portfolio of George Grosz’s 1922 The Robbers. Grosz based his lithographic suite on Friedrich Schiller iconic 1781 play of the same name, yet when Grosz depicted the canonical story he situated the action in the tumultuous climate of early 1920s Berlin.



With figures culled from the modern era, Grosz’s imagery suggests the vast social discord where the traumatic effects of the mechanized war, greed, industry, and poverty intersected to undermine national stability in the young Weimar Republic.

 

 Georg Grosz, "I will root up from my path whatever obstructs my progress towards becoming the master" Act 1 Scene 2; From The Robbers by Friedrich Schiller, ...

Grosz’s prints were part of a broader artistic culture in which other printmakers and theater directors produced modern interpretations of canonical of German literature, overtly politicizing the hallmarks of the nation’s cultural heritage. Their work, available to broad audiences through widely disseminated prints or stage performances, was a type of social intervention at a moment when conceptions of German identity vacillated wildly. The interplay between contemporaneous politics and historic literature highlighted the tensions between tradition and modernity, which strained German society and which remain continually resonant today across the world.

In addition to the Grosz’s Robbers portfolios, the exhibition will also include provocative artworks, by printmakers including Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz. These works, many of which are gifts to the PMA from David and Eva Bradford, add context to Grosz’s social and artistic expression and are equally probing in their evaluation of German society and national identity.

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Many of these prints, including the Grosz series, represent a post-World War I aesthetic known as “New Objectivity.” Whereas German expressionists of an earlier generation often depicted emotional responses to the modern condition, highlighting themes of angst, inner turmoil, and social alienation, the leaders of New Objectivity rooted their prints in a type of biting, provocative realism, often relying on satire and caricature.

 The division between the two styles was never absolute, and both allowed artists to participate actively in cultural debates about social class, politics, and modern, urban phenomena. Because of their goals to be socially engaged artists shaping the national discourse, many of the artists working in these styles found the print medium to be especially efficient as prints could be disseminated more broadly than painting or sculpture.

This exhibition, opening in the centenary year of the end of World War I, turns our attention away from the conflict itself and towards the aftermath that defined the next two decades. History, politics, art, and national identity will intersect and provoke questions about who we are and what we value in ways that are as pertinent today as they were a century ago.
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Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau

January 27, 2018, 7:19 am

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The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY

January 14 to March 18, 2018

An exhibition featuring the works of the artist credited with inspiring the Art Nouveau movement opened Sunday, January 14, at The Hyde Collection.



Alphonse Mucha: Master of Art Nouveau includes more than seventy works drawn from the Dhawan Collection of Los Angeles, California, one of the most significant private collections of Mucha’s work in the United States.

 

L'Estampe Moderne 1897

The exhibition examines how Mucha’s work helped shape the aesthetics of French Art Nouveau at the turn of the century. Art Nouveau, or New Art, describes a style in architecture, and visual and decorative arts that flourished from the 1890s through 1910. It emphasized the beauty of natural forms in everyday life. Art Nouveau featured a sinuous or “whiplash” line, flattened space, and botanical shapes and patterns.



“Mucha’s early work is centered on the epitome of beauty,” said Jonathan Canning, director of curatorial affairs and programming at The Hyde Collection. “With use of subtle color schemes, lavish scrolling text, and exquisite women, he defined the Art Nouveau movement.”

 

Many of the works in the exhibition feature beautiful women, dramatic curving lines, flowers, and plants. Mucha worked across many media and those are revealed in the exhibition, which includes lithographs, drawings, paintings, books, and advertisements. Highlights include four versions of a poster Mucha created for actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1894 — an assignment largely believed to have launched Mucha’s prolific career —

 

and two posters advertising Job cigarette papers from 1896 and 1898.

The Slavs in their Original Homeland ,  Oil and tempera on canvas 

"The Celebration of Svantovit"

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Mucha (July 24, 1860-July 14, 1939), the most successful decorative graphic artist of his day, considered his life’s masterpiece to be Slav Epic, twenty large-scale paintings depicting the history of the Czech lands and people. The latter part of Mucha’s career is also included in the exhibition, with samples of his work after returning to his homeland in the early part of the twentieth century, including bank notes and one of the Slav Epic panels.

New York Times article about the Slav Epic

“Later in his career, Mucha wanted to separate himself from his commercial art, and instead devoted himself to making art that celebrated the history of his people,” Canning said. “He was inspired by the traditional dress, the folklore, and landscapes, and proud of the Czech culture.”

About Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Maria Mucha was born in Ivančice, a rural town in Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic) at the height of the Czech National Revival. He grew up with a strong belief in national heritage and an independent Czech nation. Those beliefs would shape his artwork in the latter part of his career.

Musical ability earned young Mucha a scholarship to the Gymnázium Slovanské secondary school in Brno. Poor academic performance led to his being asked to leave. He vowed to earn a living as an artist and applied to Prague Academy of Art, but was rejected. Undeterred, he worked as a court clerk while designing sets for local theaters and magazines. He signed on as an apprentice scenery painter at a theater in Vienna, where he took art classes.

Mucha was commissioned to paint murals for wealthy landowners, one of whom became his benefactor and paid for formal art training at Munich’s Academy of Art. By the 1880s, he regularly contributed artwork to magazines. Moving to Paris in 1887, he enrolled in Académie Julian, then Académie Colarossi, both of which encouraged students to meld art and design.

His sponsorship ended, Mucha left art school and worked as an illustrator for magazines and, ultimately, books. His artwork developed a following and was regularly exhibited. He taught drawing out of his studio, classes that became known as Cours Mucha. They were eventually so successful that the artist was asked to teach at the Académie Colarossi and ran a drawing course at James McNeill Whistler’s Académie Carmen.




But his catapult to fame is reported to have happened quite by accident. The young commercial artist was in a print shop in 1894 when iconic French actress Sarah Bernhardt called needing a poster for one of her upcoming shows. The result is the poster Gismonda. Ms. Bernhardt was so moved by Mucha’s work, she signed him on for a six-year contract, during which he created advertisements so beautiful, art lovers searched them out throughout the city, removed them from their posts, and brought them home to hang on their parlor walls.

In the years that followed, posters became an art in their own right, and Art Nouveau flourished. Mucha moved into a new studio, where he was introduced to pastels and sculpture. His works were commissioned by Imprimerie Champenois, one of the most important printers of the period, Job cigarette paper, and other companies seeking advertisements. In 1895, Mucha teamed up with jeweler Georges Fouquet and the pair redefined jewelry design, making aesthetic more important than the monetary value of the materials used.

When Fouquet decided to move his jewelry boutique to the luxurious Rue Royale in Paris, he called on Mucha to design all aspects of his shop — exterior, interior, furniture, light fittings, and showcases. Mucha conceived the shop as a complete work of art inspired by the natural world.
After the turn of the century, Mucha traveled to the United States several times to secure funding for Slav Epic. He painted portraits, taught classes, and befriended President Theodore Roosevelt.

He ultimately secured funding for the project from Chicago industrialist Charles Richard Crane, heir to R.T. Crane Brass and Bell Foundry. In 1910, he returned to Bohemia and spent the next two decades working on the twenty-panel series. Some of the completed panels were exhibited in the United States, attracting massive crowds to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brooklyn Museum in 1920-21.

Mucha focused on social and cultural projects for the new Czechoslovakia, including stamps, bank notes, murals, and cultural projects until his death in 1939.

Complete illustrated checklist
 

Emil Nolde (1867-1956) National Gallery of Ireland

January 27, 2018, 7:57 am

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National Gallery of Ireland

14 February - 10 June 2018 

Emil Nolde (1867-1956), 'Two Women in a Garden', 1915. Copyright the artist's estate

The German Expressionist artist Emil Nolde was a prolific painter and printmaker. This exhibition, a collaboration between the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Ireland, will present a bold and colourful survey of his paintings, drawings, etchings, and woodcuts. Included will be scenes of Berlin café culture, calligraphic views of the River Elbe, brilliant studies made on travels to the South Seas, as well as portraits, flower paintings, and imaginative depictions of fantastical creatures in both oils and watercolours.

 Coastal Landscape Emil Nolde - Date unknown Nolde Foundation Seebüll - Neukirchen (Germany) Painting

This exhibition will be the first to showcase the work of this important artist in Ireland for over fifty years.

Old Gardener Emil Nolde 1938-1945 Nolde Foundation Seebüll - Neukirchen ( Germany) Painting

All works are on loan from the Nolde Foundation Seebüll, Germany.



Curator: Janet McLean and Sean Rainbird, National Gallery of Ireland, with Keith Hartley, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Martyrdom I (left panel of triptych) Emil Nolde - 1921 Nolde Foundation Seebüll - Neukirchen (Germany) Painting - oil on canvas

 

Emil Nolde, Monastery on the Etna Mount, 1905 © Nolde Foundation Seebüll

 

Emil Nolde, Tropical Sun, 1914 © Nolde Foundation Seebüll.

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Towards Impressionism: Landscape Painting from Corot to Monet

January 27, 2018, 10:56 am

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Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College Winter Park, FL
January 20 to April 8, 2018

Henri-Joseph Harpignies (French 1819-1916) De Saint-Privé à Bléneau: souvenir de l'Yonne, (View from Saint-Privé towards Bléneau: Memory of the Yonne), 1885, Oil on canvas, © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Henry Vasnier. Photo: C. Devleeschauwer

This exhibition is curated by Suzanne Greub, founder and director, Art Centre Basel, in collaboration with the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims and the city of Reims, France.

Towards Impressionism marks the first time that an exhibition drawn exclusively from the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Reims, France—home to one of the largest collections of French 19th-century landscape painting —will travel to the United States. The Cornell Fine Arts Museum is the first of only two venues nationwide to host this extraordinary exhibition and the only stop on the East Coast.

The exhibition traces the revolutionary evolution of landscape painting in France from Romanticism to Impressionism, telling the story of how Impressionism came to be and of its lasting power.

“We are thrilled by the opportunity to experience the brilliance, revolutionary brushwork, and nuanced tonal palette—in a word, the beauty—of these paintings firsthand," notes CFAM director, Ena Heller. “As a teaching museum, we are equally thankful for the curatorial framework that places the schools of Barbizon and Honfleur within the wider arc of French landscape painting and traces both their debt to Romanticism and the legacy they handed on to Impressionism.”

 

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926), Les rochers de Belle-Île (Rocks at Belle-Île), 1886, Oil on canvas, © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Henry Vasnier. Photo: C. Devleeschauwer

Landscape painters active in the first half of the 19th century found their major inspiration in Dutch and English landscape art. Many were active roughly from 1830 until 1855 in the village of Barbizon, on the edge of the Fontainebleau forest.

These artists like Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, Narcisse Virgile Díaz de la Peña, Charles Jacque, Constant Troyon, Jules Dupré, and others rejected urban life and burgeoning industrialization, seeking instead untouched nature in its original form. They were fascinated by the mysteries of the forest and the rural tradition later described by George Sand in her pastoral novels.

Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867) was a friend of the novelist and acted as the leader of the so-called Barbizon School. Rousseau rebelled against official art teaching, adopting thickly applied paint in contrast to the smooth surfaces seen in academic paintings.

One of the most significant painters and a frequent visitor to the forest of Fontainebleau was Camille Corot (1796-1875). Reims is proud to possess the second largest collection of his work after the Louvre: 27 authenticated works, 17 of which will be displayed in this exhibition.



 The Medici Fountain (after 1845) will remind visitors of Corot’s first trip to Italy in 1825. On his arrival in Rome he was immediately dazzled by the southern light that was to become one of the principal subjects of his work. Corot never forgot these formative years, idealizing the landscapes he had studied in the open air as he re-created them later in his studio.

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. Monte Cavo, ca. 1825–28. Oil on cardboard. © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Paul Jamot Photo: C. Devleeschauwer.

Later works herald Impressionism, reminding the visitor that Corot was interested in the ever-changing flow of time and atmospheric effects, painting the same motif at different times of day.

 Eugène Boudin (French, 1824-1898), La marée montante (baie de Saint-Valéry), Rising Tide (bay of Saint-Valéry), 1888, Oil on canvas, © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Henry Vasnier. Photo: C. Devleeschauwer

 
Honfleur, on the Normandy coast at the mouth of the Seine, also became a magnet for artists from about 1850 onward. Gathering at the Ferme Saint-Siméon to exchange ideas and support each other, these painters included Eugène Isabey, Paul Huet, Eugène Boudin, Constant Troyon, Jean-François Millet, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, Frédéric Bazille, Johan Barthold Jongkind, Adolphe-Félix Cals, and Louis-Alexandre Dubourg.

Eugène Boudin, (French, 1824-1898), Sur la plage de Trouville, undated, Oil on canvas, 24 x 27 3/4 in., Musée des Beaux-arts de Reims, Reims. 

Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) was one of the first artists to paint en plein air in Honfleur, encouraging Claude Monet, 16 years his junior, to follow suit. Boudin drew his inspiration from Normandy seascapes and coastal scenes; nobody could capture the endless horizon and the wide expanse of sky in quite the same way. His friend Camille Corot, who purchased several of Boudin's pastels, dubbed him the roi des ciels (King of Skies)—praise indeed from an artist who himself ascribed such importance to representing the sky and the atmosphere. Gustave Courbet also succumbed to the magic of the lightness and transparency of a Boudin sky. Eugène Boudin can thus be cast as the immediate forerunner of the Impressionists.

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. Le coup de vent (The Gust of Wind), ca. 1865–70. Oil on canvas. © Musée des Beaux-Arts, Reims, Legacy Jules Warnier-David Photo: C. Devleeschauwer. 

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, ‘Le lac, effet de nuit’, ca. 1869

 

Narcisse Virgile Díaz de la Peña. Landscape at Barbizon, n.d. Oil on canvas. Frye Art Museum, Founding Collection, Gift of Charles and Emma Frye, 1952.035. Photo: Spike Mafford. 

The exhibition presented at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum will display 45 paintings in total by several School of Barbizon painters active after 1830 and by the artists’ circle founded by Eugène Boudin in Honfleur around 1850, as well as from the Musée des Beaux-Arts' collection of Impressionists, including works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro.

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Catalogue

 

This beautifully illustrated volume follows the artistic forebears that led up to the works of Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, by way of pastel palettes, loose brushwork, ordinary figures, and natural landscapes.

Modern Times: American Art 1910-1950

January 30, 2018, 11:09 am

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Philadelphia Museum of Art
April 18 —September 3, 2018

American artists in the first half of the twentieth century created a bold new artistic language to capture the essence of modern life. This wide-ranging exhibition reframes examples of American Modernism in the collection, with an emphasis on painting and sculpture, along with select examples of prints, drawings, photographs, decorative arts, and costumes. It features works by internationally acclaimed artists from the circle of the photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and Arthur Dove, along with equally significant if lesser-known artists who contributed to the art of their day.

The exhibition also explores modernity from a less formal angle, focusing on work by artists who were drawn to depict modern amusements and moments of daily life, from burlesque performances and beach scenes by Reginald Marsh and George Bellows to vignettes of people quietly occupying public spaces by Ben Shahn and Jacob Lawrence. The newest acquisitions to be included are two paintings by Horace Pippin and the singular work, Road andTrees by Edward Hopper.



The Museum will publish a catalogue in conjunction with the exhibition, co-published by Yale University.

Spring Sale at Bendel's, 1921, by Florine Stettheimer, American, 1871 – 1944. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 inches (127 x 101.6 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Miss Ettie Stettheimer

Pertaining to Yachts and Yachting, 1922, by Charles Sheeler, American, 1883 – 1965. Oil on canvas, 20 x 24 1/16 inches (50.8 x 61.1 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Bequest of Margaretta S. Hinchman, 1955-96-9.

Neighbors, 1951, by Charles Sheeler, American, 1883 – 1965. Oil on canvas, 18 x 15 inches (45.7 x 38.1 cm); Frame: 26 1/2 × 23 1/2 inches (67.3 × 59.7 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of C. K. Williams, II, 2015-8-2.

 Portrait of James Baldwin, 1945, by Beauford Delaney, American (active Paris), 1901 – 1979. Oil on canvas, 22 x 18 inches (55.9 x 45.7 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: 125th Anniversary Acquisition. Purchased with funds contributed by The Daniel W. Dietrich Foundation in memory of Joseph C. Bailey and with a grant from The Judith Rothschild Foundation, 1998-3-1.

 Something on the Eight Ball, 1953-1954, by Stuart Davis, American, 1892 - 1964. Oil on canvas, 56 × 45 inches (142.2 × 114.3 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Purchased with the Adele Haas Turner and Beatrice Pastorius Turner Memorial Fund, 1954-30-1. © Estate of Stuart Davis / Licensed by VAGA, New York.

View from Ship, c. 1932, by Jan Matulka, American (born Czech Republic), 1890 - 1972. Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches (91.4 x 76.2 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of C. K. Williams, II, 2015-8-1. © The Estate of Jan Matulka.

Words and Music of Two Hemispheres Francis Criss, American (born England), 1901 - 1973 © Estate of Francis Criss

“VIENNA AROUND 1900. KLIMT – MOSER – GERSTL – KOKOSCHKA”

January 30, 2018, 11:22 am

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 Leopold Museum, Vienna
 18th January – 10th June 2018


2018 is the year of the Leopold Museum: as Vienna celebrates Viennese Modernism and its protagonists Klimt, Schiele and Moser, the Leopold Museum traces an arc from the movement’s beginnings with Anton Romako to the Schiele jubilee exhibition, via Klimt, Moser, Gerstl, Kokoschka and the photographers Moriz Nähr and Madame d’Ora all the way to Brus and Palme, while the exhibition “WOW! The Heidi Horten Collection” unites 100 years of art history from Klimt to Hirst.

A century ago, the year 1918 saw the passing of the protagonists of Viennese Modernism Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Koloman Moser who shaped the period of Vienna around 1900. Seeing as these artists and their milieu provide important emphases within the collection of the Leopold Museum, they will dominate the museum’s 2018 exhibition program. “Next year, we will be able to offer the most important exhibitions throughout this anniversary year of Viennese Modernism,” Wipplinger announced proudly.

The commemorative year kicks off with the exhibition “VIENNA AROUND 1900. KLIMT – MOSER – GERSTL – KOKOSCHKA” (18^th January – 10^th June 2018), which will present works from Viennese Jugendstil to Austrian Expressionism by these protagonists. Along with eminent chief works by Gustav Klimt, including  



Death and Life (1911/15)



 and the lakescape created in 1900 On Lake Attersee, 



  Venus in the Grotto by Koloman Moser

the presentation also features Kolo Moser’s paintings as well as outstanding examples of design from around 1900, including furniture, artisan craftwork and posters, created by this “artist of a thousand talents” and co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte. 

The radical works by the proto-Expressionist Richard Gerstl will once again be on display at the Leopold Museum following their tour with stops in Frankfurt and New York. 

 


Featuring his trend-setting Self-Portrait, One Hand Touching the Face created in 1918/19, which is a symbol of Austrian art embarking on a new era,Oskar Kokoschka, the enfant terrible of the Viennese art scene of the early 20^th century, completes the tetrad of heroes in the only permanent Kokoschka hall in Austria. 

EGON SCHIELE, Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait), 1910 © Leopold Museum, Vienna | Photo: Leopold Museum, Vienna

 Director Wipplinger is also delighted to present the jubilee exhibition "EGON SCHIELE” (3^rd March – 4^th November 2018) commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the artist’s death, which he will curate together with Diethard Leopold. Seeing as the Leopold Museum is home to the largest and most eminent collection of works by Egon Schiele, a special exhibition will be dedicated to the artist for this anniversary: unique in its juxtaposition of paintings and works on paper – which for conservational reasons will be shown in three separate stages – the presentation will touch upon the most important themes in the life and work of the artist and, according to Wipplinger, “promises to be the ultimate Schiele jubilee exhibition”.



Egon Schiele, self-portrait with lampion fruits, 1912

"SCHIELE – BRUS – PALME”, three enfants terribles of their respective generations, will broaden the conventional concept of art with their works in this exhibition (3^rd March – 11^th June 2018). Egon Schiele’s unsparing exploration of the individual, of the self, provided a necessary but unsettling prelude to the 20^th century ravaged by two world wars. In the 1960s, Günter Brus revisited the body as a major theme in art, with Thomas Palme continuing Schiele and Brus’ legacy with his graphic works one generation later. The exhibition will provide for a fictitious – and in the case of Brus and Palme also a direct – dialogue, transcending temporal, spatial and social borders. The exhibition will be curated by the head of the Graz Bruseum Roman Grabner.

The beginning of Modernism will be highlighted with the exhibition“ANTON ROMAKO” (22^nd March – 18^th June 2018). The retrospective curated by Marianne Hussl-Hörmann showcases eminent works from the oeuvre of this unusual painter. Since Rudolf Leopold recognized Anton Romako’s importance as one of the great pioneers of Modernism very early on, the Leopold Museum as well as the Leopold Private Collection house one of the most comprehensive collections of works by the artist today. 

GUSTAV KLIMT, The Bride, 1917/18 (unfinished) © Klimt-Foundation, Vienna

In the presentation “GUSTAV KLIMT” (22^nd June – 4^th November 2018), the artist, who also passed away in 1918, will be honored with a special exhibition commemorating the 100^th anniversary of his death and retracing his evolution from an exponent of late Historicism towards the most eminent representative of Viennese Jugendstil. Along with works from the holdings of the Leopold Museum and the Leopold family’s private collection, the presentation will feature exhibits from the Klimt Foundation, works given to the museum as a permanent loan by a Klimt descendant as well as select international loans. 

Director Wipplinger emphasized the presentation of Klimt’s Symbolist painting The Bride curated by Sandra Tretter (Klimt Foundation). The group of figures rendered in the painting will be shown for the first time in connection with drawings and sketches of the depicted protagonists, most of which also hail from the collection of the Klimt Foundation.



... Gustav Klimt, Johanna Staude, 1917-1918



  Gustav Klimt, Nuda Veritas, 1899

Charles I: King and Collector

February 1, 2018, 8:16 am

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 Royal Academy of Arts
January 22, 2018 

Anthony van Dyck, Charles I, 1635-6. Oil on canvas. 84.4 x 99.4 cm. RCIN 404420. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017. 

In January 2018, the Royal Academy of Arts, in partnership with Royal Collection Trust,  presented Charles I: King and Collector, a landmark exhibition that will reunite one of the most extraordinary and influential art collections ever assembled. During his reign, Charles I (1600-1649) acquired and commissioned exceptional masterpieces from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, including works by Van Dyck, Rubens, Holbein, Titian and Mantegna, amongst others.

Charles I was executed in 1649 and just months later the collection was offered for sale and dispersed across Europe. Although many works were retrieved by Charles II during the Restoration, others now form the core of collections such as the Musée du Louvre and the Museo Nacional del Prado. Charles I: King and Collector will reunite around 150 of the most important works for the first time since the seventeenth century, providing an unprecedented opportunity to experience the collection that changed the appreciation of art in England.

In 1623, two years prior to his ascension to the throne, Prince Charles visited Madrid. The Habsburg collection made a lasting impression on the future king and he returned to England with a number of works, including paintings by Titian and Veronese. Intent on creating his own collection, he acquired the esteemed Gonzaga collection, which had been accumulated by the Dukes of Mantua. He also commissioned important artists, most notably Anthony van Dyck, who was appointed ‘principalle Paynter in Ordenarie to their Majesties’ in 1632. In collaboration and competition with other collectors close to the Stuart court, namely Thomas Howard (1586-1646), Earl of Arundel, and George Villiers (1592-1628), Duke of Buckingham, Charles I amassed a collection unrivalled in the history of English taste.

By 1649, the collection of Charles I comprised around 1,500 paintings and 500 sculptures. An inventory compiled by Abraham van der Doort (c.1580-1640), first Surveyor of The King’s Pictures, recorded the contents of the collection, providing a detailed account of the artistic tastes and high level of connoisseurship within the king’s circle.

Charles I: King and Collector will include over 90 works generously lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection. Major lenders will also include The National Gallery, London, the Musée du Louvre, Paris, the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, as well as numerous other public and private collections.

Anthony van Dyck’s monumental portraits of the king and his family will form the core of the exhibition: his first major commission upon his arrival in England,



Charles I and Henrietta Maria with Prince Charles and Princess Mary (‘The Greate Peece’), 1632 (The Royal Collection),

and his two magnificent equestrian portraits,





Charles I on Horseback with M. de St. Antoine, 1633 (The Royal Collection),

 

and Charles I on Horseback, 1637-38 (The National Gallery, London).

They will be shown together with Van Dyck’s most celebrated and moving portrait of the king,



Charles I (‘Le Roi à la chasse’), c.1635 (Musée du Louvre, Paris), which will return to England for the first time since the seventeenth century.

Charles I commissioned some of the most important artists of his day, and the exhibition will include



Peter Paul Rubens’s Minerva Protects Pax from Mars (‘Peace and War’), 1629-30 (The National Gallery, London)

 

 and his Landscape with Saint George and the Dragon, 1630-5 (The Royal Collection)



as well as Van Dyck’s spectacular Cupid and Psyche, 1639-40 (The Royal Collection).

Particular attention will be given to the patronage of Queen Henrietta Maria, including works by Orazio Gentileschi and Guido Reni. In addition, the exhibition will present the most important Renaissance paintings from the collection, including Andrea Mantegna’s monumental series,

 

The Triumphs of Caesar: 1. The Picture-Bearers c.1484-92

 

The Triumphs of Caesar: The Vase-Bearers c.1484-92

 The Triumphs of Caesar - Trumpeters and Standard-Bearer

The Triumphs of Caesar - The Bearers of Trophies and Bullion 

The Triumph of Caesar, c.1484-92 (The Royal Collection), which will command a dedicated gallery within the exhibition, (The Triumphs of Caesar are a series of nine large paintings created by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna between 1484 and 1492 for the Gonzaga Ducal Palace, Mantua. They depict a triumphal military parade celebrating the victory of Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars.)



as well as Titian’s Supper at Emmaus, c.1530 (Musée du Louvre, Paris),



and Charles V with a Dog, 1533 (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid).

Other Renaissance artists represented are Correggio, Agnolo Bronzino, Jacopo Bassano, Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese as well as Albrecht Dürer, Jan Gossaert, Hans Holbein the Younger and Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

 

Further highlights will be the celebrated Mortlake tapestries of Raphael’s Acts of the Apostles, c.1631- 40 (Mobilier National, Paris), arguably the most spectacular set of tapestries ever produced in England, as well as the precious works formerly kept in the Cabinet at Whitehall Palace, including paintings, statuettes, miniatures and drawings.

Christopher Le Brun, President, Royal Academy of Arts, said: ‘Charles I is one of history’s greatest collectors, the Royal Collection is one of the world’s greatest collections and the Royal Academy’s galleries are amongst the finest in the world. With such a combination this exhibition provides the perfect launch for our 250th anniversary celebrations in 2018’.

Charles I: King and Collector is organised by the Royal Academy of Arts in partnership with Royal Collection Trust. The exhibition is curated by Per Rumberg, Curator, Royal Academy of Arts, and Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of The Queen’s Pictures.



Charles I: King and Collector will be accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue edited by Per Rumberg and Desmond Shawe-Taylor; further authors include David Ekserdjian, Barbara Furlotti, Erin Griffey, Gregory Martin, Guido Rebecchini, Vanessa Remington, Karen Serres, Lucy Whitaker and Jeremy Wood.

Power and Grace: Drawings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Jordaens

February 2, 2018, 8:25 am

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The Morgan Library & Museum
January 19 to April 29, 2018 

In a letter from September 13, 1621, describing a large painting of a lion hunt that he had just completed, Peter Paul Rubens expressed what he believed to be essential to his art: it had to be powerful and graceful. A constant quest to achieve an equilibrium of these two qualities lay at the heart of his work. The same can be said of Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens, who studied with Rubens and whose lives and careers were entwined with—and influenced by—the senior artist.

Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), Mother and Child, ca. 1638-40 (detail), black, red, and white chalk, The Morgan Library & Museum, Thaw Collection, 2017.133. Photography by Steven H Crossot, 2014.

 A new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, Power and Grace: Drawings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Jordaens, brings together an extraordinary selection of twenty-two works on paper by these three giants of Flemish Baroque art, demonstrating the crucial role the medium of drawing played in their individual practice and highlighting their graphic styles. The show, which includes work from the Morgan’s collection supplemented with a small number of loans, is on view from January 19 through April 29, 2018.

“The Morgan is particularly well-suited to tell the fascinating story of the intersection of these three artists in works on paper,” said Colin B. Bailey, director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “Its collection of drawings by Rubens, van Dyck, and Jordaens is unparalleled in the United States. Rubens, the teacher, cast a long shadow on all who studied with him. Nevertheless, van Dyck and Jordaens, while acknowledging their debt to Rubens, would develop their own characteristic techniques and become renowned masters in their own right.”


Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) 
 
Of the three artists in the show, Rubens was the most prolific and versatile draftsman. His output includes compositional studies, designs for book illustrations and architecture, portrait drawings, figure studies, and retouched drawings. He also created numerous copies after older masters, such as the exhibited sheet with motifs from a 1576 Bible with woodcuts by Tobias Stimmer (1539-1584), which he drew as a teenager. Throughout his life, Rubens remained deeply invested in the art of past generations.

While he was in Italy in 1600-8, he developed a keen interest in human anatomy after encountering the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, the work of Michelangelo, and ancient sculpture. Seeking to understand the human form in order to create credible figures in his work, Rubens made many anatomical drawings and kept them in his so-called annotomibock (anatomy book). One such drawing, an écorché study of the buttocks and legs of a man (with the skin removed to reveal the musculature), is probably based on a small sculpture that Rubens could pick up and illustrate from different vantage points.

Rubens also drew nude studies from live models, a practice he would teach to van Dyck and Jordaens in the period of ca. 1617-20 when they were both at work in his studio.



His Seated Male Youth—a tour de force in his drawn oeuvre—is a study for the figure of Daniel in the celebrated painting

 

 Daniel in the Lions’ Den (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC).

Rubens likely drew this formidable figure from a live model. At the same time, the pose is so close to a drawing by Girolamo Muziano, which Rubens likely owned, that Rubens may have used it as a template for posing his model. This drawing demonstrates Rubens’s conviction that art should always respond to older art, but ultimately also be based on observations taken from nature.

Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) 
 
The Morgan’s rich holdings of van Dyck drawings include works from nearly every phase of his career. As a young artist, van Dyck often made many drawings to work out his compositions, each time moving away from the examples set by other artists, Rubens in particular.


 

A wonderful early example is his Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (ca. 1618-20), which was executed during the time he worked in Rubens’s studio, one of



seven compositional drawings he made for



 a majestic painting that today hangs at the Prado in Madrid.

Like Rubens, Van Dyck was also deeply influenced by the example of earlier art.

 

The virtuoso sheet with two studies for Diana and Endymion (ca. 1625-27) displays a profound influence of Italian models, including a fresco by Annibale Carracci and several antique sculptures, suggesting that it dates from van Dyck’s Italian sojourn of ca. 1621-27.

As an experienced artist later in his career, van Dyck felt less need to work out his compositions in multiple drawings. He did sometimes make studies for elements in his paintings, such as the Morgan’s 

 

Study for the Dead Christ (ca. 1635–40),

 

a preparatory drawing for his late painting  Lamentation of Christ (ca. 1635–40).

Here, van Dyck revisited the method he had practiced in Rubens’s studio of drawing from the nude model in order to achieve the realistic rendering of the human body and the light reflections on the flesh.

Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678) 
 
Although Jordaens never traveled to Italy, he avidly took to heart Rubens’s insights about the importance of studying ancient art, in particular muscular antique sculpture. A recently discovered drawing,  



Study of a Male Nude Seen from Behind (ca. 1617–20), created from a live model while Jordaens was working in Rubens’s workshop, demonstrates how he also learned from Rubens to observe the human body from life. Jordaens took great care to depict the complex muscle structure of the burly man’s back, combining strong highlights in white chalk with perfectly placed accents in red and black chalk.

Jordaens would often create head studies from life to aid the production of his large, multi-figure paintings of merry scenes and religious narratives. He used his spirited drawing of a  

 

Mother and Child, for which he used his wife and daughter as models, in the impressive 

 

King Drinks of 1638-40 (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

After Rubens’s death in 1640, and that of van Dyck in 1641, Jordaens became the most productive and highly sought artist in Antwerp. Throughout his long career, compositional drawings were an essential part of his creative process, which was fueled by his contact with the physical sheet of paper.

In a design for his 1663 painting (Landesmuseum, Mainz), Jordaens portrayed the twelve-year-old Christ in conversation with the elders of theTemple in 




 Christ Among the Doctors (ca. 1663). He prepared this study with a complicated technique that included an underdrawing in charcoal, reinforced contours in black chalk, and different layers of watercolor and opaque watercolor. Unlike most artists, Jordaens used this elaborate combination of media not for independent, but for working drawings.