Exhibition | Three Centuries of Chinese Reverse Glass Painting
Now on view in Switzerland at the Vitromusée Romont:
Reflets de Chine: Trois siècles de peinture sous verre chinoise
Vitromusée Romont, 16 June 2019 — 1 March 2020
As a museum entirely dedicated to the glass arts, the Vitromusée Romont houses a collection of more than 1300 reverse glass paintings—in addition to stained glass, glass containers, graphic works and tools related to glass arts. No museum in Switzerland or abroad, nor any private collection, holds such an important collection of this particular art in terms of quality, variety and quantity.
For its next temporary exhibition, the museum will highlight a form of artistic production little known to date, that of Chinese reverse glass painting. This will be the first exhibition in Switzerland devoted exclusively to this art created in China between 1750 and 1950, retracing its long history: from its conception in the 18th century with the successful artistic encounter between Chinese painting and that of Europe, to its subsequent ‘globalization’ before becoming a widespread popular art within China.
More information is available as a PDF file here»
Call for Papers | Reconsidering Chinese Reverse Glass Painting
From ArtHist.net:
China and the West: Reconsidering Chinese Reverse Glass Painting
Vitromusée Romont, 14–16 February 2020
Proposals due by 15 September 2019
The Vitrocentre and Vitromusée Romont are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for an international conference on Chinese reverse glass painting and related research fields including other media to be held at the museum in Romont, Switzerland 14–16 February 2020. The workshop is jointly organized by the Vitrocentre and Vitromusée Romont and the Section of East Asian Art History (KGOA) at the University of Zurich. It will be held in conjunction with an important exhibition of Chinese reverse glass paintings, held at the museum from 16 June 2019 to 1 March 2020.
Devoted entirely to the glass arts, the Vitromusée Romont houses, manages and showcases important collections that bring together stained-glass windows, reverse glass painting, objects in glass, and graphic works, as well as tools and materials related to the glass arts. The Vitrocentre, its scientific partner, has core tasks primarily in researching the art history of glass arts. For the first time in Switzerland and at international scale, the Vitromusée presents a major survey dedicated to Chinese reverse glass painting, tracing its long history, little known to date. The exhibition gathers examples of the genre from two major collections, from Germany and France, as well as the Vitromusée’s own collection, and features both reverse glass paintings made for export to Europe and for local consumption within China.
The workshop aims to
• open a cross-cultural dialogue between scholars of Asian art and to offer a platform for the presentation and discussion of recent research on Chinese reverse glass paintings and popular culture
• revise historical approaches that have been prevalent in the study and research of Chinese reverse glass paintings and related fields
• elaborate on the existing theories and methodology on the topic
• form new research approaches and methods by young, emerging scholars.
Scholars and curators of Asian art from Europe and beyond are invited to submit their proposals for contributions on Chinese reverse glass paintings. Presenters can be either established scholars (working at museums, universities, or independent scholars) or junior scholars (holding an MA or PhD degree).
Possible topics for the workshop presentations on Chinese reverse glass paintings include
• Chinese reverse glass paintings as points of knowledge transfer between East and West
• Chinese reverse glass paintings in the context of cultural appropriation
• The question of export vs. local consumption of Chinese reverse glass paintings
• Chinese reverse glass paintings as popular and/or elite art
• Technical aspects, types of glass and painting techniques in Chinese reverse glass paintings
• Types of frames in Chinese reverse glass paintings and their meanings
• Connections of Chinese reverse glass paintings to Chinese popular prints
• Connections of Chinese reverse glass paintings to porcelain (Compagnie des Indes orientales, etc.)
• The question of 3D aesthetics in Chinese reverse glass paintings
• Various themes and motives represented in the Chinese reverse glass paintings
• Gaps in understanding of Chinese reverse glass paintings in the East and in the West
• Reception of Chinese reverse glass paintings in the West
• Other East Asian traditions of reverse glass paintings
• Collection histories of the Chinese reverse glass paintings in the West
The languages of the workshop are English, French, and German. Presentations are to last twenty minutes, followed by a ten-minute discussion period. The presentations and the viewing of the exhibition will take place on the first two days of the symposium (14-15 February). The final day (16 February) is an optional day with tours of local historical sites.
Please send a presentation title, a paper proposal (maximum 250 words), and a CV to Elisa Ambrosio (elisa.ambrosio@vitrocentre.ch) by 15 September 2019. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15 October 2019. The workshop will cover the costs of accommodation and food during the workshop. Participants are expected to pay for their own transportation. In case you have any questions, please contact: Elisa Ambrosio, elisa.ambrosio@vitrocentre.ch.
Organizational Committee
• Francine Giese (Director of the Vitromusée & Vitrocentre Romont)
• Hans Bjarne Thomsen (Professor of East Asian Art History, University of Zurich)
• Elisa Ambrosio (Curator of the Vitromusée Romont and scientific collaborator of the Vitrocentre Romont)
Exhibition | Chic Emprise: Art and Culture of Tobacco
Now on view at the Museum of the New World in La Rochelle, from the press release:
Chic emprise: Culture, usages et sociabilités du tabac du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle
Musée du Nouveau Monde, La Rochelle, 22 June — 23 September 2019
Curated by Maxime Georges Métraux and Annick Notter
De l’Amérique du Nord en passant par les Caraïbes jusqu’au royaume du Kongo, le tabac est une plante incontournable de l’époque moderne (XVIe–XVIIIe siècle). À la fois produit de consommation, plaisir addictif et marqueur social, il s’est enraciné durablement dans l’ensemble des strates de la société en imprégnant aussi bien les mœurs aristocratiques et bourgeoises que populaires. Originaire d’Amérique, le tabac est rapidement importé avec succès en Europe où il a immédiatement entraîné de vifs débats entre ses défenseurs et ses opposants. Aujourd’hui discréditée et blâmée pour ses effets sur la santé, cette plante bénéficiait alors d’un statut différent, ses prétendues vertus curatives ont parfois été louées au point d’être l’objet de véritables discours de médicalisation. Le tabac véhicule un puissant imaginaire artistique et visuel comme en témoigne la vaste sélection d’œuvres présentées. Par ses multiples usages et son rôle éminemment social, la célèbre « herbe à Nicot » constitue un sujet idéal pour comprendre que l’époque moderne, et plus particulièrement le XVIIIe siècle, est l’un des moments de bascule d’une « civilisation de la rareté et de l’économie stationnaire à celle du développement et de l’abondance[1] ». Outre sa production et sa circulation, cette substance a engendré la fabrication de nombreux objets dédiés à ses diverses utilisations allant des pipes en pierre de Nouvelle-France jusqu’aux précieuses tabatières parisiennes. À l’instar du sucre et des boissons exotiques que sont le thé, le café et le chocolat, cette plante permet de saisir pleinement les processus coloniaux et leurs fonctionnements. L’essor de son commerce s’accompagne de la mise en place d’une imagerie promotionnelle massive dont les enseignes des marchands de tabacs constituent un précieux témoignage. À la croisée de l’histoire naturelle, de l’art et de la culture visuelle, cette exposition se propose d’étudier le tabac selon différentes approches afin d’en souligner son exceptionnelle richesse.
Cette exposition est l’occasion de présenter une grande sélection d’objets grâce à l’aide de plusieurs prêteurs publics (musée du Louvre, BnF, musée du Tabac de Bergerac, MAD Paris, Petit Palais, cité de la céramique de Sèvres, etc.) mais également du soutien de collectionneurs privés.
[1] Daniel Roche, Histoire des choses banales : naissance de la consommation dans les sociétés traditionnelles, XVIIe–XIXe siècle (Paris: Fayard, 1997), p. 14.
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Un catalogue a également été publié par les éditions La Geste:
Chic emprise: Culture, usages et sociabilités du tabac du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle (La Crèche: La Geste Editions, 2019), 256 pages, ISBN: 979-1035304669, €29.
L’ouvrage est richement illustré et composé d’une douzaine d’essais dont voici le sommaire :
1 La production de tabac en Amérique du Nord
• Elodie Peyrol-Kleiber, Les hommes aux pouces verts : cultiver le tabac dans la baie de Chesapeake
• Philippe Hrodej, Le cycle du tabac dans la partie française de Saint Domingue au XVIIe siècle
2 Les pratiques tabagiques
• Samir Boumediene, Du bon usage des choses. Les métamorphoses du tabac entre rites, savoir médicaux et pratiques de consommation
• Catherine Ferland, Usages du tabac au Canada, XVIe–XVIIIe siècle : la rencontre interculturelle
• Anton Serdeczny, De la fumée pour le mort : le tabac entre pratiques médicales et imaginaires culturels
3 Production et circulation des objets du fumeur
• Bernard Clist, Premières mondialisations de l’économie : témoignages par les pipes à fumer du royaume du Kongo de la fin du XVe siècle à la fin du XVIIIe siècle
• Marie-Hélène Daviau, Travailler la pierre pour faire naître la fumée : la pipe de pierre en Nouvelle-France
• Michèle Bimbenet-Privat, Les tabatières parisiennes : un luxe à la pointe de la mode
4 Le tabac et ses représentations
• Agnès Lugo-Ortiz, Des routes du démoniaque : tabac, commerce et culture visuelle aux Caraïbes et leurs axes transatlantiques
• Marianne Volle, La Nicotinia fait un tabac : du récit de voyage au livre botanique, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles
• Pascale Cugy, ‘Agréable Tabac, charmant amuzement…’ Fumeurs, priseurs et râpeurs dans la gravure de mode sous Louis XIV
• Maxime Georges Métraux, Les enseignes des marchands de tabac au XVIIIe siècle : iconographie coloniale et culture visuelle de la consommation
At Sotheby’s | Treasures from Chatsworth: The Exhibition
Thomas Smith, View of Chatsworth from the Southwest, 1740–44, oil on canvas
(Chatwsorth)
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From Chatsworth:
Treasures from Chatsworth: The Exhibition
Sotheby’s New York, 28 June — 18 September 2019
Highlights from the Devonshire Collection have made their way to New York as part of Sotheby’s Treasures from Chatsworth: The Exhibition, open from 28 June to 18 September 2019 at Sotheby’s New York. Forty-three masterworks were selected to represent the remarkable breadth of the Devonshire Collection—fine art from Rembrandt van Rijn to Lucian Freud, furniture and decorative objects from the 16th century to 21st-century design, and exceptional jewels, garments, and archival materials commemorating historic occasions will all be on view.
Coinciding with Sotheby’s 275th anniversary, as well as the opening of the expanded and reimagined New York galleries, Treasures from Chatsworth is designed by the award-winning creative director David Korins, whose work includes the set designs for the Broadway musical phenomena Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen, as well as past Sotheby’s exhibitions.
Presenting Treasures from Chatsworth in America is a step towards realising our ambition to share the Devonshire Collection with the world and a wonderful opportunity to engage new audiences with the stories of Chatsworth and the work of the Chatsworth House Trust. To help meet this ambition, Chatsworth in America, Inc—a US non-profit corporation—has been set up by and for Americans with an interest in the historic significance of Chatsworth. You can support Chatsworth in America as a US taxpayer with a tax deductible donation.
From Sotheby’s:
Inspired by Chatsworth: A Selling Exhibition
Sotheby’s New York, 28 June — 18 September 2019
Inspired by Chatsworth: A Selling Exhibition will present a carefully curated group of artworks and objects of exceptional quality that draw inspiration from the country-house aesthetic, as exemplified by the magnificent collection assembled by the Dukes of Devonshire over centuries at Chatsworth. On view alongside Treasures from Chatsworth: The Exhibition, the private selling exhibition will be on display in the newly expanded and reimagined galleries at Sotheby’s New York. The exhibitions will be open simultaneously and their visual parallel will provide the opportunity to celebrate collecting and collectors, of which Chatsworth and the Cavendish family are amongst the greatest examples in history. Inspired by Chatsworth: A Selling Exhibition will also provide today’s collectors with the opportunity to begin or enrich their collections with works of outstanding quality in the Chatsworth taste.
At Sotheby’s | Old Masters Evening Sale
Thomas Gainsborough, Going to Market, Early Morning, oil on canvas, 122 × 147 cm (lot 22, estimate £7–9 million).
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Press release, via Art Daily:
Old Masters Evening Sale (Sale L19033)
Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 2019
This summer, Sotheby’s will present a roll-call of the greatest names in Western art history at its flagship Old Masters Evening Sale (L19033) on 3 July in London. With an overall estimate of £4665.9m/ $59.5–83.7m, the sale next week is one of the strongest sales ever staged in this category, both in value as well as in the quality of works on offer. From some of the finest works by the three key British landscape painters remaining in private hands, to masterpieces and newly discovered works by Renaissance and Baroque masters, the sale features works by the biggest household names spanning six centuries.
British Landscapes
Thomas Gainsborough, Going to Market, Early Morning, estimate £7–9 million
Going to Market, Early Morning (lot 22) is unquestionably one of Gainsborough’s finest masterpieces remaining in private hands, and one of the finest eighteenth-century British landscapes by any artist ever to likely come to market. Painted in 1773 it is one of an important group of three major landscapes Gainsborough painted at this period that deals with the subject of travellers going to or returning from market. The subject and composition of the picture demonstrates Gainsborough’s natural affinity with, and sympathy for the rural poor and includes one of his favourite themes—rustic lovers in an idealised rural setting. Beautifully evoking the early morning journey to market of rural folk as they rise out of the still misty valley into the watery sunlight, this painting acclaimed by scholars and widely praised is one of the artist’s most ravishing landscapes.
John Constable, Study for ‘The White Horse’, estimate £2–3 million
A rare and important compositional study for one of the most celebrated paintings of the English Romantic Movement: The White Horse, which now resides at The Frick Collection in New York. The painting that launched John Constable’s career, The White Horse was the first of Constable’s great ‘Six-Footers’ which cemented the artist’s contemporary fame and which defined his art for generations. Created in 1819, the painting was immediately a critical success and led to the artist being voted an Associate of the Royal Academy the same year. Unlike most of Constable’s major landscapes, for which he produced numerous sketches and went through several drafts before settling upon the final composition, only a small number of preparatory works relating to The White Horse are known. Possibly painted en plein air, the oil sketch shows Constable responding directly to the landscape, capturing the atmosphere of the River Stour, as well as the topographical detail.
J.M.W. Turner, Landscape with Walton Bridges, estimate £4–6 million
One of a small group of ten or so proto-impressionist late pictures by the artist left in private hands, Landscape with Walton Bridges comes to the market for the first time in over 35 years. The central motif—Walton Bridges—is one that the artist had treated twice before in oils, in 1806 and 1807. Clearly a subject with significant meaning to him, in this work he sets the bridge in an idealised, Italianate landscape of his own imagining. Essentially explorations of the effects of light, Turner created the late works for himself, rather than for exhibition or for sale, retaining them for the development of his art. With their bold application of colour, their treatment of light and their deconstruction of form, these late works revolutionised the way the painted image was perceived and are considered to be the artist’s supreme achievement, and the pictures upon which his artistic significance ultimately rest.
J.M.W. Turner, Sun-rise. Whiting Fishing at Margate, 1822, estimate £800,000–1.2 million (part of the Old Master & British Works on Paper Sale)
A celebrated picture which sees the artist working at the height of his powers and on a grand scale, Sun-rise. Whiting Fishing at Margate is one the greatest and most beautiful Turner watercolours to remain in private hands. Positioning himself off the Kentish coast at Margate, a town he had first visited as a small boy and which he regularly returned to throughout his life, Turner looks east in this painting, directly into a mesmeric sunrise, whose magical light gives warmth to everything it touches, before exploding into a myriad of colours on the glass-like surface of the sea. On the left, far in the distance, a guardship announces the dawn by firing its morning gun, while in the foreground, fishermen have already struck lucky and are excitedly hauling in a plentiful catch. Through the cluster of small vessels, the town itself can be made out.
New Discoveries
Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez, Portrait of Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj, estimate £2 –3 million
Lost for nearly 300 years, this is the hitherto missing portrait of Donna Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj (1591–1657), the most powerful woman in 17th-century Rome. Sister-in-law, reputed lover, and puppet master of Pope Innocent X, Olimpia controlled all aspects of Vatican life. Arguably one of the earliest feminists, this formidable woman, centuries ahead of her time, ruled in all but name as the de facto Pope, taking control of one of the most powerful and male dominated institutions in European history. Once part of the illustrious collection of the 7th Marques del Carpio, one of the greatest patrons and collectors of arts in 17th-century Italy, this painting was last recorded in 1724, before it disappeared without trace. The whereabouts of the painting remained completely unknown until one day, an unattributed work, sold in the 1980s as ‘anonymous Dutch school’, was brought into Sotheby’s Amsterdam office. An intriguing old cypher hidden on the back of the painting prompted Sotheby’s specialists to begin a process of research and discovery—all of which ultimately led to the realisation that this striking portrait was the long-lost original by Velázquez and one of only a handful of paintings by the great Spanish artist left in private hands.
Giovanni Battista di Jacopo Rosso, called Rosso Fiorentino, The Visitation, estimate £500,000–700,000 (part of the Old Master & British Works on Paper Sale)
This newly discovered 16th-century work by the Italian Mannerist painter is an extremely rare example of a chalk drawing by Rosso Fiorentino, and the first compositional study by the artist to appear on the market for half a century. Long thought lost, it is an important and vital addition to the artist’s corpus of drawings. Delicately executed in black chalk, the ten-figure composition was created by Rosso on the request of Aretine painter Giovanni Antonio Lappoli, who had been granted in 1524 a commission for a private altarpiece for the family chapel of the wealthy Aretine citizen, Cipriano d’Anghiari.
Although Rosso must have executed many drawings in his lifetime, almost all of his graphic works have been lost over the centuries and this work adds significantly to the understanding of the working method of an artist known for his eccentricity, and expressive, unconventional pictorial style. Interestingly, the work, which stayed undetected in the same collection since the 18th century, bears on the verso an old attribution to Michelangelo (probably from the 17th century), which may have contributed to the fact that the work is even now, still in excellent condition.
Baroque Pictures
Jusepe de Ribera, Girl with a Tambourine, estimate £5–7 million
One of Ribera’s most celebrated paintings, this arresting depiction of a girl singing a tune while tapping a tambourine embodies his extraordinary powers of expressive characterisation. Probably one of five works originally depicting the five senses, Girl with a tambourine encapsulates Ribera’s inimitable contribution to the imagery of music-making by merging allegory and genre, as well as portraiture, into one remarkable image. Dated to 1637, this painting also features the artist’s characteristic loyalty to his Spanish roots, signed ‘Ribera español’
Peter Paul Rubens, Head of a Young Warrior, estimate £2.5–3.5 million
Painted in the early 1610s, Head of a Young Warrior shows Rubens in complete control of his medium, his brush, and his subject. The characteristically vivacious and energetic study was most likely kept in the artist’s studio as a prop throughout his life for use in larger compositions, including his painting of Saint Ambrosius of Milan Barring Emperor Theodosius from Entering the Cathedral in Milan, painted ca. 1615–17, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Johann Liss, The Temptation of Saint Mary Magdalene, estimate £4–6 million
One of the finest examples of the artist’s work to remain in private hands, this captivating depiction of the Magdalene choosing Salvation over Temptation marks Liss as one of the most fascinating painters of the entire 17th century. The painting sees the artist add a personal twist to the traditional iconography of the penitent Magdalene, portraying her turning away from worldly temptation towards an angel in a design that recalls traditional Netherlandish renderings of the Choice between Vice and Virtue.
Joachim Antonisz Wtewael, Diana and Actaeon, estimate £4–6 million
Joachim Antonisz Wtewael was the supreme exponent of the last great phase of mannerist painting in northern Europe and the most important in the Netherlands of mythological cabinet pieces painted on copper. The intimate scale of this panel, combined with the meticulous detail and smooth finish afforded by the copper’s surface, mark it as a work intended for personal enjoyment by the spectator, who can appreciate the excitement of the extraordinary myth in tandem with the erotic elegance of its forms.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap, estimate £1.5–2 million
One of the best loved of all the Brueghel compositions and, in its beautiful evocation of a winter’s day, one of the most enduring images in Western Art. This particular version of the Bird Trap is one of only a small handful that is both signed and dated by Pieter Brueghel the Younger himself, as well as being one of a few to include the figures of the holy family on the far bank.
18th-Century Masterpieces
Francesco Guardi, The Grand Canal, Venice, with San Simeon Piccolo, estimate: £1–1.5 million
Only recently brought to light for the first time, this beautiful depiction of the Grand Canal is a mature work by Francesco Guardi, most probably painted in the 1770s. The far north-western stretch of the Grand Canal, dominated by the neoclassical church of San Simeone Piccolo and its great dome, though not the most famous of Venetian views, was often chosen by Guardi as a subject for his paintings. This canvas is one of a small group of closely related vedute, probably also painted in the same decade and taken from the same viewpoint; it is moreover the only signed example known, and certainly the finest to remain in private hands. Its subtle colour harmonies of creams, pinks, blues and greys, and its wonderful capture of the atmospheric qualities of Venetian light attest to Guardi’s mastery of his subject, but equally noteworthy are his closely observed details of everyday life upon the canal.
Jean-Etienne Liotard, A Woman in Turkish Costume in a Hamam Instructing a Servant, pastel on paper, laid down on canvas, 70 × 56 cm (lot 33, estimate £2,000,000–3,000,00).
Jean-Etienne Liotard, A Woman in Turkish Costume in a Hamam Instructing a Servant, estimate: £2–3 million
This exceptional pastel is one of the most famous images created by Liotard, whose endeavours in exotic subjects such as this would have excited the senses of the 18th-century viewer, providing a window into a different world. Though his ties with his native Switzerland never wavered, there was perhaps no other 18th-century artist who was more truly cosmopolitan, with Liotard working in almost all the main cultural centres of Europe over a career that spanned six decades. His works in his preferred medium of pastel are often of startling technical and compositional originality. This portrait encapsulates all of the technical brilliance and timeless mystery that underpin Liotard’s genius and enduring appeal.
Medieval and Renaissance
Sandro Botticelli and Studio, Madonna and Child, Seated before a Classical Window, estimate £1,500,000–2,000,000
Painted in 1485, or soon after, this well preserved Madonna and Child follows the design of the central section of Botticelli’s famous altarpiece for the Bardi chapel in the church of Santo Spirito, Florence and since 1829 in the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin. Whether by Botticelli in its entirety, as believed by Prof. Laurence Kanter, or by Botticelli with some assistance from his workshop, the head and hand of the Madonna are of particular note and it seems very likely that the same cartoon, to map out the composition, was used for both this and the Bardi altarpiece.
Third Master of Anagni, The Madonna and Child, Two Angels in the Spandrels above, mid-1230s, estimate £200,000–300,000
Probably created in the mid-1230s, this is one the earliest paintings to be offered in an Old Masters sale at Sotheby’s. Executed in a deft graphic style, this remarkable early work depicts the Virgin with the Christ Child with an inset arch. Acquired for the illustrious Stoclet Collection in Brussels in the early 20th century, this work has not been offered for sale for nearly a century.
At Christie’s | Old Master Paintings and Sculpture Sales
Claude-Joseph Vernet, Un port de mer au clair de lune, 1774, oil on canvas, 115 × 163 cm
(Lot 33: sold for €416,000)
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Press release, via Art Daily:
Tableaux anciens et du XIXème siècle (Sale 17586)
Christie’s, Paris, 25 June 2019
The top lot of the Old Masters Paintings sale (17586) in Paris was Diane découvrant la grossesse de Callisto by Denys Van Alsloot (1570–1620), which sold for €454,000, four times its pre-sale estimate.
Attributed to François Boucher, Jeune garçon noir de profil, oil on canvas, 45 × 38 cm (Lot 33: sold for €43,750; estimate €20,000–30,000).
Pierre Etienne, International director of the department, stated: “We are proud of the results achieved today for the first sale of our new team, under the hammer of François de Ricqlès for which this auction was the last of his career at Christie’s. These strong results demonstrate that international buyers, from thirteen countries, are always attracted by high-quality paintings from private provenances and fresh to the market such as the beautiful painting by Claude-Joseph Vernet, which was acquired for €416,000 and for le Baron Gérard’s Portrait of the Countess Starzenska coming from the Counts Doria collection which realised €200,000.”
The young painter Théodore Chassériau was also represented in the sale with a beautiful replica of La Joconde executed when the artist was only seventeen years old. It sold for €162,500 against a pre-sale estimate of €50,000–70,000.
Astrid Centner, Director of the department added: “We were pleased to see the constant very positive response of the market for early Flemish paintings that realised great results today such as for a Portrait of a Man Holding a Carnation, which realised €298,000 against a pre-sale estimate of €40,000–60,000, and a portrait of Saint Magdalene executed by the Flemish school ca. 1530, which achieved €162,500.”
We can also notice the preemption made by the Hyacinthe Rigaud Museum for Portrait d’homme à l’habit bleu executed by Hyacinthe Rigaud ca. 1700–15, which sold for €25,000.
Sale total including buyer’s premium: €3.5million
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Sculpture et Objets d’Art européens (Sale 17587)
Christie’s, Paris, 25 June 2019
Jean-Antoine Houdon, Marble Bust of the Countess Jean-Isaac de Thellusson de Sorcy, ca. 1791 (Lot 147: sold for €562,000; estimate €200,000–300,000).
The top lot of the Sculpture and Objets d’Art sale (17587) was a bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon representing the Countess Jean-Isaac de Thellusson de Sorcy, executed ca. 1791, which sold for €562,000.
Isabelle d’Amécourt, Director of the department, stated: “We are pleased with these great results illustrating the continuing high demand for European sculptures and works of art. This auction, which attracted buyers from twenty countries, put forward religious iconography as seen with a stone group of Mary Magdalene and a donor (probably Jacqueline de Bavière), which sold for €478,000, and underlined also the immense talent of 18th-century artists such as Jean-Antoine Houdon or Joseph Chinard, whose bust representing the portrait of a lady artist was recently restituted to the Seligmann family thanks to great work of Christie’s teams.”
Further highlights included two impressive terracotta sculptures of allegorical figures by Mathieu de Tombay, which achieved €112,500 against a pre-sale estimate of €50,000–80,000, and a linden and walnut wood relief of the Abduction of Ganymede executed by Guiseppe Maria Bonzanigo, which realised €47,500.
A real enthusiasm was seen once again for beautiful walnut staircase models. The important group of sixteen staircase models from Henri Klinger’s collection achieved a total of €243,375. Among the highlights was a walnut double staircase executed by Ernst Pinedo in 1897, which was sold for €40,000 against a pre-sale estimate of €5,000–8,000, and another double staircase realised in Amiens ca. 1925, which achieved €37,500 against a pre-sale estimate of €6,000–9,000.
Sale total including buyer’s premium: €2.5million
Call for Papers | New Perspectives on British Orientalism
From WG-AV:
Eastern Questions: New Perspectives on British Orientalism
Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village, Compton (Surrey) and Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham (Surrey), 16–17 October 2019
Proposals due by 31 July 2019
John Frederick Lewis, The Attendant on the Bath, 1854, oil on panel (Preston: Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library).
To coincide with Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village (WG-AV) exhibition John Frederick Lewis: Facing Fame (9 July – 3 November 2019) this interdisciplinary event aims to explore new perspectives on the intersection between Orientalism and visual culture across the long nineteenth century. Alongside WG-AV’s John Frederick Lewis exhibition, the collection of so-called ‘uncomfortable pictures’ at Royal Holloway (which includes Edwin Long’s Babylonian Marriage Market) will act as a catalyst for wide-ranging debates around Orientalism’s place within British scholarship today.
This conference invites contributions that explore the visual material of the Orient in the contexts of transculturation, imaginative geographies, and cultural border crossing in both directions. This event hopes to attract a wide range of perspectives and invites proposals from scholars in all sub-fields of the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers and will be particularly interested in the following topics:
• The Orient in British painting, sculpture, photography, print, the decorative and applied arts or other media
• British artist-travellers to the Middle East and North Africa in the long nineteenth century
• Edward Said’s Orientalism and its legacy forty years on
• British imperialism, colonial histories, and notions of the Orient
• Networks of artistic production and influence among artist-travellers
• Women as agents of empire
• Construction and presentation of gender
• Role and representation of Spain and European-based ‘othering’ as a precursor to travels to the East
• Interrelationship between British and French Orientalism
• Interrelationship between the Middle and Far East (including Chinoiserie and Japonisme)
• Intersections between Orientalist painting, history painting, and genre painting
• Legacies of British Orientalist artworks in public and private collections
In addition to 20-minute papers, we also invite participants for a series of pop-up debates that will take place with the exhibition space. We invite submissions for informal 2– to 3–minute responses to the following key works in John Frederick Lewis: Facing Fame at Watts Gallery and the Royal Holloway Art Gallery:
• John Frederick Lewis, In the Bezestein: El Khan Khalil (1860), Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
• John Frederick Lewis, In the Bey’s Garden (1865), Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston
• Edwin Long, The Babylonian Marriage Market (1875), Royal Holloway
• David Roberts, Pilgrims Approaching Jerusalem (1841), Royal Holloway
For 20-minute papers, please submit abstracts of 300 words and biographies of no more than 100 words. If you would like to be a respondent in a pop-up discussion, please submit proposals of 150 words and biographies of no more than 100 words. Please send submissions to Abbie Latham at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village (curatorialtrainee@wattsgallery.org.uk) by 31 July 2019. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.
This event is kindly supported by the British Art Research School (BARS), University of York and the Association for Studies in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE).
Call for Papers | Privacy at Early Modern Courts
Next year at the University of Giessen (as noted at ArtHist.net):
„Privatheit“ in der höfischen Kultur der Frühen Neuzeit
Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, 28–30 September 2020
Proposals due by 25 August 2019
Veranstaltet vom Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, dem Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster und dem Historischen Institut der Philipps-Universität Marburg
Leitung: Dr. Kristina Deutsch (Münster), Prof. Dr. Eva-Bettina Krems (Münster), Prof. Dr. Sigrid Ruby (Gießen), Prof. Dr. Inken Schmidt-Voges (Marburg)
Das gesellschaftliche Leben an den Höfen der Frühen Neuzeit habe ein „Doppelgesicht“, schrieb einst Norbert Elias: Da ein „Berufsleben“ nicht existierte, gab es noch keine Trennung zwischen privatem und öffentlichem Dasein im modernen Verständnis. Heute sind wir, so scheint es, erneut konfrontiert mit einer Aufweichung der Grenzen zwischen diesen beiden Sphären, die mit dem Wandel der sozialen Medien und einer Neudefinition des Raumes (spatial turn) einhergeht.
Angesichts dieser hochaktuellen Problematik lohnt es, das Thema aus der historischen Perspektive zu beleuchten. Was bisher in der Forschung unter „Privatheit“ diskutiert wurde, adressiert ganz unterschiedliche Verständnisse und Konzepte, die wir kritisch vergleichen, hinterfragen und systematisieren wollen. Damit ist es möglich, jenseits problematischer Forschungsbegriffe zu einem frühneuzeitlichen Verständnis dessen zu gelangen, was wir unter Privatheit fassen (können). Insbesondere für die höfische Kultur besteht Nachholbedarf, da die Diskussion bislang geprägt war von der eingangs angesprochenen, grundsätzlichen Infragestellung der Existenz höfischer Privatheit. Demgegenüber steht die Annahme eines anthropologischen Grundbedürfnisses nach Rückzug und Muße. Denn der stets gespannte Bogen reißt auch zu Hofe irgendwann. So betonte bereits Baldassare Castiglione im frühen 16. Jahrhundert die Notwendigkeit fürstlicher Entspannung. Zahlreiche Rückzugsräume zeugen von dieser Komplementarität von otium und negotium, von Repräsentation und Intimität, von Öffentlichkeit und Privatheit.
Die interdisziplinär ausgerichtete Tagung nimmt den soziokulturellen Raum des frühneuzeitlichen Hofes in den Blick. Hier sind höchst ausdifferenzierte Formen der Sichtbarmachung und Instrumentalisierung von Nähe und Distanz zu beobachten, die es als sinnvoll erscheinen lassen, von einer lediglich graduellen Opposition von privat und öffentlich auszugehen und so die dialektische Qualität des Begriffspaars beizubehalten. Handlungen, Räume und Darstellungen richten sich an eine von Fall zu Fall zu definierende, mehr oder weniger eingeschränkte Öffentlichkeit, und sie gestalten den höfischen ‚Nahraum‘, um Herrschaftsstrukturen zu stabilisieren, politische Ambitionen zu rechtfertigen etc. Diese Inszenierungen von Intimität, Nichtzugänglichkeit, Unverfügbarkeit, Exklusivität, Innerlichkeit, Luxus oder—im Gegenteil—Schlichtheit stehen im Zentrum der Tagung, die nach den individuellen (und zugleich strukturbildenden) Zielen, Adressierungen und Funktionsweisen von „Privatheit“ am Hofe fragt. Wer darf überhaupt (im oben erläuterten Sinne) privat sein, und wem nützt die Privatheit? Wen schließt sie wann und wie aus?
Einen Interessenschwerpunkt bildet die Performanz des Privaten, die sich innerhalb der Leerstellen des offiziellen Zeremoniells entfaltet. Sie verfestigt sich in Form von Räumen, Texten und Objekten (Miniaturporträts, abschließbare Möbel, Kleidung etc.), deren besondere Eigenschaften—Kleinheit, Verknappung, Enge, Verschachtelung—und Gebrauch sowie ihre Lage im innersten, geschützten Bereich zur körperlich-emotionalen Erfahrung höfischer Privatheit gehören. Gerade in der ambivalenten Sphäre höfischer Rückzugsorte entstehen schon im 16. Jahrhundert geistige und künstlerische Freiräume. „[S]olo in luoghi appartati e privati”, „nur in entlegenen und privaten Räumen“, so Gabriele Paleotti 1582, seien bestimmte Innovationen möglich. Ausgerechnet in der Enge und Abgeschiedenheit des Privaten wird in der mentalen Konzentration die intellektuelle Öffnung möglich.
Hinterfragt werden soll das Verhältnis der „verspielten Privatheit“, die Jürgen Habermas für den französischen Adel in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts feststellte, zur „dauerhaften Intimität des neuen Familienlebens“. Denn Habermas’ auf die bürgerliche Öffentlichkeit bezogenes Konzept wurde zumindest im deutschsprachigen Raum längst von komplexeren Modellen abgelöst. Hypothetisch zu erwägen ist eine ‚Veradeligung‘ des Bürgertums, also die Übernahme adeliger Modelle durch das Bürgertum. Die gesellschaftlichen Umbrüche am Ende des Ancien Régime sollen deshalb noch mit in den Blick genommen, d.h. der Untersuchungszeitraum bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts gefasst werden. Den Anfang bildet das 16. Jahrhundert mit der Residenzenbildung und der Ausdifferenzierung von Innenraumfolgen im Schloss, die als Handlungsräume die zeremonielle Bedeutung von Nähe und Distanz erfahrbar machen.
Erwünscht sind Beiträge aus allen Bereichen der Hofforschung und allen historischen Disziplinen. Mögliche Themenfelder sind:
• Informalität und Individualität — Welche Gestaltungsweisen konstituieren den informellen Raum, welche Regeln herrschen in ihm, wie wird (vermeintliche) Privatheit organisiert? Warum und mit welchen Mitteln wird das Private instrumentalisiert? Inwiefern können sich jenseits des Zeremoniells Individualität und Kreativität ‚frei‘ entfalten? Oder gibt es vielmehr einen ‚Kanon‘ des Privaten?
• Schutz und Sicherheit — Die Kleinheit und hintere Lage des Kabinetts, die verrätselte Sprache und Vertraulichkeit eines Briefes, die Abschließbarkeit eines Möbels: Welche Medien erzeugen Sicherheit, welche Mittel stellen diese her bzw. inszenieren sie, und warum muss das Private geschützt werden? Hat höfische Privatheit eine Schutzfunktion, wer profitiert davon, und was wird geschützt?
• Männlichkeit und Weiblichkeit — Gibt es spezifisch männliche, spezifisch weibliche Privatheit, und wie manifestiert diese sich jeweils? Inwiefern ist das höfische Frauenzimmer ein „privater“ Bereich? Ist das Weibliche ein Mittel der Inszenierung von Privatheit? Wie sieht im Gegensatz dazu weibliche Öffentlichkeit aus?
• Begriffsgeschichten und Definitionen — Wie wurde der Terminus „privat“ in der Frühen Neuzeit definiert? Was verstand die Zeremonialwissenschaft des 18. Jahrhunderts unter „Campagne Ceremoniel“? Was galt als ein Lustschloss, und wer hatte dort Zutritt?
Geplant sind Vorträge zu je dreißig Minuten. Nachwuchswissenschaftler*innen (Promovierende und Postdocs) werden ausdrücklich zur Bewerbung ermutigt. Einzureichen sind ein tabellarischer Lebenslauf mit Publikationsliste und ein kurzes Exposé (max. 3000 Zeichen inkl. Leerzeichen), das den Vortragsvorschlag darlegt und einen vorläufigen Titel nennt. Wir bitten um die Einreichung Ihrer Bewerbung (ein einziges pdf-Dokument!) bis zum 25. August 2019 an das Sekretariat des Instituts für Kunstgeschichte der JLU: Barbara.Stommel@kunstgeschichte.uni-giessen.de. Fragen beantworten wir gerne via kristina.deutsch@uni-muenster.de.
Call for Articles | The Materiality of Festivity
From H-Material-Culture:
Special issue of the Journal of Festive Studies on “The Materiality of Festivity”
Articles due by 31 December 2019
In previous issues, the Journal of Festive Studies explored the emerging academic sub-field of festive studies (broadly defined) and the politics of carnival. For this issue, we follow Peter-Paul Verbeek’s advice and look at “the things themselves,” i.e. at the material culture in which carnivals and other festivities are rooted (Verbeek, 2005).
The 1996 inaugural editorial for the Journal of Material Culture defined Material Culture Studies as “interdisciplinary research in ways in which artifacts are implicated in the construction, maintenance and transformation of social identities” and as the “investigation of the relationship between people and things irrespective of time and place” (Editorial,1996). More recent studies have expanded the scope of the discipline to look at the agency of things (Latour, 2005), thus rejecting “any absolute ontological distinction between humans and things” (Roberts, 2017). The field has also seen a shift from the exclusive focus on consumption to an investigation of the production of objects and materials (Adamson, 2013 and 2018 and Smith, 2012). Other approaches include investigations of ways in which the exchange of objects shapes social life and experiences; how that process is negotiated intra-cultures (Appadurai, 1986); and the environmental impact of those objects and materials (Clarke-Hazlett, 1997, Ingold, 2012, and Morton, 2013). Furthermore, there has been a move to understand the materiality of things beyond finished manufactured products, or the raw matter of which these objects consist of, in all of its socio-historical and political implications (Lange-Berndt, 2015, Ingold, 2012, and Rosler et al., 2013). Scholars of festivities have also paid attention to the “things” that constitute the phenomena they investigate, whether by poetically capturing in photos and in text the embodiment of Caribbean history and identity in Trinidadian mas (Adonis Browne, 2018); by analyzing how banners and flags display identity through color in Belfast’s Orange Parade (Jarman, 2003); or by questioning why we consume (or abstain from consuming) certain foods during festivities (Avieli, 2009).
Building on such scholarship, and taking the material record of celebrations from all time periods and geographical areas as a starting point, this special issue of Journal of Festive Studies seeks to explore the following themes/questions:
• The things themselves: costumes, jewelry, makeup, musical instruments, the body itself, posters, flags and banners, float designs, paintings, sheet music, photographs, food, etc. What does the material record of festivities include?
• The preservation of that material culture: What are the politics of curating and what are the material constraints bearing on archival sites?
• Objects as part of a mise-en-scène of identity: How is identity created-recreated-negotiated through masking, costumes, makeup, etc.? How is gender and sexual normativity created/expressed/challenged through interactions with objects in celebrations?
• Imagining communities: What is the role of these objects/materials/artifacts in the creation of imagined communities during these celebrations? How do individuals and communities relive and reinvent traumatic pasts through rituals and the artifacts used to physically manifest them?
• The evolution and circulation of things: How does the material record of celebrations change over time, reflecting different socio-historical moments? How do geopolitical realities, global capitalism, and the flow of ideas and things affect the material record of celebrations?
• What role do these objects play in current debates on decoloniality and cultural appropriation?
• The environmental problems caused by the objects/materials used in festivities (such as the plastic pollution of Mardi Gras beads in the U.S. Gulf Coast) and the environmental solutions encountered by festival organizers and revelers (such as the ban on glitter in Sydney’s LGBTQ Mardi Gras.)
Contributors may also choose to focus on some of the methodological issues faced by scholars researching festivities across the globe and how does material culture feature in these processes. For instance, how does equipment affect the way the researcher interacts with their subject? What sorts of objects, outfits, and accouterments are used in the researcher’s “performance of self” during fieldwork and how might that affect their relation to the people and environment they are observing?
In line with the interdisciplinary nature of the Journal of Festive Studies, we welcome submissions of original research and analysis rooted in a variety of fields including (but not limited to): social and cultural history, anthropology, archeology, cultural geography, art history, architecture, decorative arts, technology, folklore, musicology, consumption studies, labor studies, museum studies, and design studies. In addition to traditional academic essays, we invite contributions that incorporate digital media such as visualizations, interactive timelines and maps, video and imagery.
Documents should be between 6,000 and 12,000 words and should be uploaded by December 31, 2019 to the journal’s website, along with the author’s bio and an abstract of c. 250 words. Please consult the author’s guidelines under “Submissions” on the website for further submission specifications, such as citation methods. Contact Isabel Machado (isabelmchd@gmail.com or machadoisabel) with any questions.
Works Cited
“Editorial.” Journal of Material Culture 1, no. 1 (March 1996): 5–14.
Adamson, Glenn. The Craft Reader. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2010.
Adamson, Glenn. The Invention of Craft. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2013.
Appadurai, Arjun. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” Theory, Culture & Society 7, no. 2–3 (June 1990): 295–310.
Avieli, Nir. “‘At Christmas We Don’t Like Pork, Just Like the MacCabees’: Festive Food and Religious Identity at the Protestant Christmas Picnic in Hoi An.” Journal of Material Culture 14, no. 2 (June 2009): 219–41
Bauer, Arnold J. Somos lo que compramos: historia de la cultura material en América Latina. México: Taurus, 2002.
Browne, Kevin Adonis. High Mas: Carnival and the Poetics of Caribbean Photography. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2018.
Clarke-Hazlett, Christopher. “Interpreting Environmental History through Material Culture.” Material Culture Review / Revue de la culture matérielle, [S.l.], June 1997.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Eugene Rochberg-Halton. The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Ingold, Tim. “Toward an Ecology of Materials.” Annual Review of Anthropology 41 (2012): 427–42.
Jarman, Neil. “Material of Culture, Fabric of identity.” In Material Cultures: Why Some Things Matter, edited by Daniel Miller, 121–45. London: Routledge, 2003.
Lange-Berndt, Petra. Materiality. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2015.
Latour, Bruno. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Madison, D. Soyini. Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics, and Performance. Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2012.
Roberts, Jennifer L. “Things: Material Turn, Transnational Turn.” American Art 31, no. 2 (Summer 2017): 64–69.
Rosler, Martha, Caroline Walker Bynum, Natasha Eaton, Michael Ann Holly, Amelia Jones, Michael Kelly, Robin Kelsey, Alisa LaGamma, Monika Wagner, Oliver Watson, and Tristan Weddigen. “Notes from the Field: Materiality.” The Art Bulletin 95, no. 1 (2013): 10–37.
Smith, Pamela H. “In the Workshop of History: Making, Writing, and Meaning.” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture 19, no. 1 (2012): 4–31.
Verbeek, Peter-Paul. What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design. Penn State: Penn State University Press, 2005.
Enfilade turns 10!
From the Editor
Ten years on and a million visits later, Enfilade continues to grow because of you! And by now, you know the routine for celebrating:
1) Buy an art book this week. In the world of academic art history publishing, several hundred books sold over a few days is stellar. It’s an important way to communicate that the eighteenth century is a thriving field with a vital, engaged audience.
2) Renew your HECAA membership. In the normal world $30 doesn’t really count as philanthropy. For a small academic society it does. Because of HECAA’s 501c3 status, all donations are tax deductible in the United States. So send in a contribution of $100 or $5. But donate something. We accept PayPal.
3) Finally, send in news you’d like to see reported! After a decade, I’m still not sure what surprises me more: how easy it is to know what’s going on in the field all over the world, or how difficult it is to know what’s going on in the field all over the world! I’m glad to post announcements about conferences, forthcoming books, journal articles, exhibitions, fellowship opportunities, &c. The postings readers most enjoy are inevitably original content, reports of interesting collections, house museums, resources, and the like. No reason to be shy.
Happy midsummer (to all of you in the Northern Hemisphere) and enjoy the long days!
Craig Hanson
Enfilade 
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