New Book | Art and Industry
Distributed in the US and Canada by The University of Chicago Press:
David Stacey, Art and Industry: Seven Artists in Search of an Industrial Revolution in Britain (London: Unicorn Publishing Group, 2021), 176 pages, ISBN: 978-1913491291, £25 / $38.
In seven linked essays, the author discusses paintings of industrial scenes by seven artists working in the period 1780–1830. Their unique and distinct responses to the subject-matter reveal a surprisingly coherent message. Joseph Wright of Derby invites us to consider the lives of the men, women and children working in Arkwright’s cotton mills at Cromford. John Opie, in his painting of a Cornish entrepreneur and a miner, acknowledges the value of new technology but leads us to reflect on class and the use of capital. Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg responds to the sublimity of the industrial landscape at Coalbrookdale but reveals the impact of an industry no longer subject to nature’s diurnal rhythms. Joseph Mallord William Turner presents an evolving response to the changes that Britain was undergoing. He observes with delight the opening up of pastoral scenery along the new canal routes but prompts the viewer to consider the environmental impact of industrial development. William Havell finds copper-mining employees in a place between heaven and hell in an industry subject to competition and the vagaries of demand. Penry Williams, in his paintings of ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil, raises the issue of the conditions that ironworkers and miners were facing as the gap widened between employer and employee. And the little-known and often-derided Henry Hawkins produces an image which lifts the lid on his slave-owning patron’s enterprise through an image of a slate quarry which suggests parallels with Dante’s Divine Comedy. Seven artists in search of an industrial revolution in Britain respond in their works with a coherent message on the impact of new technology, the use of capital and on conditions that saw the emergence of new social classes in Britain.
David Stacey is an independent art historian with a lifelong interest in British paintings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He has contributed articles to The British Art Journal, The Burlington Magazine, and other art history journals. He graduated with a degree in engineering science from the University of Oxford and has a postgraduate degree in the history of art from Birkbeck College, University of London. He has worked as an international water resources consultant in South and South-East Asia and the Middle East and is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He has two children and lives in London.
On Tour | Jan van Huysum Visits
From the National Gallery’s press release (May 2021). . .
Jan van Huysum, Flowers in a Terracotta Vase, 1736–37, oil on canvas, 134 × 92 cm (London: The National Gallery, NG796).
Following the positive response to Artemisia Visits (2019), the National Gallery is delighted to announce Jan van Huysum Visits which will see Van Huysum’s magnificent Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (1736–37) travel to six locations across the United Kingdom in summer 2021.
The painting will visit Cornwall, Norfolk, the East Midlands, South Yorkshire, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Each display will explore one of six ‘Ways to Wellbeing’: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, Give, and Care (for the Planet). Flowers in a Terracotta Vase will be on tour for approximately three months, from early June.
In each region, the painting will pop up in an unusual or unexpected non-museum venue; locations include a food bank and community library, a covered market, a former department store and community centres. The tour will promote ways in which art and culture can support wellbeing and reach audiences who have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19 and the UK lockdown.
At the heart of Jan van Huysum Visits is engagement with local communities. In each setting the Gallery is working closely with the venue as well as a local museum or gallery to ensure that as many people as possible can engage with the painting and make it come alive in new and different ways.
Jan van Huysum (1682–1749) was a native of Amsterdam and the last of the distinguished still-life painters active in the Northern Netherlands in the 17th and early 18th centuries, an internationally celebrated artist in his lifetime. His spectacular Flowers in a Terracotta Vase—which shows over 30 species of flowers and plants in bloom, unfurling in exquisite detail—is no shy, hide-in-a-corner painting. It’s meant to dazzle and it does. Van Huysum is after, and achieves, excess: a celebration of nature, an entertaining puzzle, and a display of wealth, culture, and fashion.
The vase towers above the viewer who is placed firmly below, looking up at it in a niche suitable for a Classical sculpture. The vase overflows with all types of flowers, from florid roses, peonies, mauve and red poppies to the humbler primroses, apple blossom and bachelor’s buttons. In the Dutch Republic, horticulture was a subject of national pride. This is a rich man’s bouquet made to look winsome and natural, but in reality, it’s carefully orchestrated, displaying not only a passion for flowers but an immense knowledge and understanding of them. Butterflies, a yellow ant, a fly, and hothouse fruit are added to the exotic mix, bringing the garden into the house as was the fashion in interior decoration. But one or two of the luscious grapes are past their best, perhaps suggesting the brevity of life but more likely indicating that a painted picture lives on long after the insects and flowers have vanished. Crystal drops of cool water, feathery leaves, delicate petals breathing their scent, the quivering wings of the red admiral butterfly all evoke the senses of touch, of smell, even of taste.
Flowers in a Terracotta Vase celebrates the longevity of the painted image and enduring impact art can have on our hearts and minds. The Gallery invites audiences from across the nation to engage with this splendid picture during the longer, brighter days that summer will bring. The vibrancy and abundance of Flowers in a Terracotta Vase will resonate with so many who have sought comfort and hope in the natural world during a trying year. Whether it be tending to their own gardens, enjoying the beauty and wildlife of national parks and woodlands, or simply pausing to notice the dewy petals of fresh blooms, visitors will find echoes of that in the vivid colours of Flowers in a Terracotta Vase.
Jan van Huysum Visits is part of the National Gallery’s national touring exhibitions programme, which aims to share paintings across the UK, creating a range of ways for the widest possible audience to explore and be inspired by the collection.
National Gallery Director, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, says, “This astounding, large flower painting will make an unexpected appearance in unexpected venues across the country. I hope it will make people think about art and the beauty of nature, encourage their own creativity, and inspire them to visit their own local museum or art collection.”
New Book and Podcast | 125 Treasures
Hubert Martinet, Elephant Automaton, ca. 1770
(National Trust / Waddesdon Manor)
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In addition to this book celebrating the 125th anniversary of the National Trust (in 2020), the project includes a podcast, hosted by Alison Steadman, the first episode of which addresses Waddesdon Manor’s Elephant Automaton, made by Hubert Martinet (ca. 1770). Tessa Murdoch writes about the elephant for Apollo Magazine (14 May 2021), noting that “an in-depth study of the automaton, written by Jonathan Betts and Roger Smith, is also forthcoming.”
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Tarnya Cooper, 125 Treasures from the Collections of the National Trust (Swindon: National Trust Books, 2021), 224 pages, ISBN: 978-0707804538, £10.
This engaging, beautifully illustrated book brings together a selection of highlights from the National Trust’s vast collection. Arranged chronologically, starting with Roman sculpture and ending with 20th-century design, it focuses on museum-quality objects as well as important examples of decorative arts, furniture, textiles and objects with fascinating stories. The highlights—from Cardinal Wolsey’s purse to Rodin’s bust of George Bernard Shaw—are illustrated with exquisite photography and accompanied by illuminating captions. Based on the dedicated research of over 60 curators across the organisation, the book also includes a timeline of key moments in the Trust’s history.
Tarnya Cooper is the Curatorial and Collections Director at the National Trust.
Online Symposium | Opening Up! Collection Centre Strategies
From ArtHist.net:
Opening Up! Collection Centre Strategies
Online, SBMK and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 28 May 2021
As a museum professional, how often have you invited a visitor into your museum’s storage facility? Probably never. As a museum visitor, how often have you thought, “I’d really like to see the works in storage?” Undoubtedly very often. Museum storage facilities have traditionally been invisible and inaccessible to the public, usually housed in anonymous warehouses outside the city or in cellars beneath the museum’s building. But there have been changes in recent years.
An iconic example is the new Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, which will open in the autumn of 2021. This storage facility will be fully accessible to the public and occupies a prominent position, right next to the museum. The Netherlands is not alone in developing new ideas about preserving collections and opening them up to the public. The Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (SBMK) and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen have organised the online event Opening Up! Collection Centre Strategies about interesting international developments in the field of museum storage.
An international panel of six speakers will share their experiences of combining collection care with public access within their storage facility. How did they conceive and design the building? To what extent is it publicly accessible? How do they guarantee the safety of the collections? And how do they approach their visitors? The symposium will conclude with a round-table discussion with all speakers. As a participant, you will be actively involved in the online event: there will be lots of time for questions and comments from the international audience. The event will have a strong visual component with videos of the buildings’ architecture and internal layouts.
Participation costs €25 (€12.50 for students). You can register via the online form here. For the student registration rate, please also send a copy of your student card to aanmelden@sbmk.nl; otherwise the registration will not apply. The symposium is free for a number of museum employees who pay an annual contribution to the SBMK.
F R I D A Y , 2 8 M A Y 2 0 2 1
2.45 Virtual Walk-in
3.00 Paulien ‘t Hoen (Coordinator SBMK) and Sandra Kisters (Head of Collections and Research, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Welcome
3.10 Sjarel Ex (Director, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Depot), Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen: A New Typology in Reconsidering Art and Conservation?
3.35 Joachim Huber (Consultant, Prevart GmbH, Konzepte für die Kulturgütererhaltung / Concepts for the Preservation of Cultural Assets, Winterthur, Switzerland), Clarifying Collections: An Approach in Seven Acts
4.00 Tim Reeve (Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer, Victoria and Albert Museum, London), Designing a New Paradigm for Access to the Nation’s Attic
4.25 Break
4.45 Markus Leuthard (Head of the Collections Center, Swiss National Museum, Affoltern am Albis, Switzerland), The Swiss National Museum’s Collections Centre: Our Approach to Collections Care and Public Access
5.10 Jane Dini (Senior Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York), Shimmering Shelves and Tiffany Lighting: Glamming-up Luce Visible Storage
5.35 Round Table Discussion with Speakers and Isabel Friedli (Curator at Schaulager, Basel, Switzerland)
New Book | William Blake’s Printed Paintings
Distributed by Yale University Press:
Joseph Viscomi, William Blake’s Printed Paintings: Methods, Origins, Meanings (London: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2021), 256 pages, ISBN: 978-1913107208, £40 / $50.
An in-depth examination of William Blake’s glorious and acclaimed series of twelve monoprints
Among William Blake’s (1757–1827) most widely recognized and highly regarded works as an artist are twelve color printed drawings, or monoprints, conceived and executed in 1795. This book investigates these masterworks, explaining Blake’s technique—one he essentially reinvented, unaware of 17th-century precursors—to show that these works were produced as paintings, and played a crucial role in Blake’s development as a painter. Using material and historical analyses, Joseph Viscomi argues that the monoprints were created as autonomous paintings rather than as illustrations for Blake’s books with an intended viewing order. Enlivened with bountiful illustrations, the text approaches the works within the context of their time, not divorced from ideas expressed in Blake’s writings but not illustrative of or determined by those writings.
Joseph Viscomi is James G. Kenan Distinguished Professor of English Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Call for Submissions | Metropolitan Museum Journal
Metropolitan Museum Journal 57 (2022)
Submissions due by 15 September 2021
The Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed Metropolitan Museum Journal invites submissions of original research on works of art in the Museum’s collection. There are two sections: Articles and Research Notes. Articles contribute extensive and thoroughly argued scholarship. Research Notes typically present a concise, neatly bounded aspect of ongoing investigation, such as a new acquisition or attribution, or a specific, resonant finding from technical analysis. All texts must take works of art in the collection as the point of departure. Articles and Research Notes in the Journal appear both in print and online, and are accessible via MetPublications and the Journal‘s home page on the University of Chicago Press website.
The process of peer review is double-blind. Manuscripts are reviewed by the Journal Editorial Board, composed of members of the curatorial, conservation, and scientific departments, as well as scholars from the broader academic community.
The Journal offers free image services to authors of accepted contributions.
Submission guidelines are available here.
Please send materials to journalsubmissions@metmuseum.org
Questions? Write to Iris.Moon@metmuseum.org or Elizabeth.Block@metmuseum.org
Online Talk | Building a Print Collection in Malta
This month’s installment of The Wallace Collection Seminars on the History of Collections and Collecting:
Krystle Attard Trevisan, The ‘Primo Costo’ Inventory of Count Saverio Marchese (1757–1833)
Wallace Collection Seminars on the History of Collections and Collecting
Online, The Wallace Collection, London, 24 May 2021, 17.30
Print collecting was considered a noble and erudite activity from the sixteenth and well into the nineteenth century. Collectors in major cities purchased prints from dealers and publishers and traded with other collectors. Malta’s role in the print market has so far been overlooked. There were no dealers in prints on the island. However, the Maltese nobleman and collector Count Saverio Marchese built a collection of 4,500 high quality prints. We know how he did this through his ‘Primo Costo’ manuscript in which he recorded all his purchases. The manuscript reveals who formed part of Marchese’s widespread network of print sellers in European cities such as Paris, Munich, Rome, and Milan. It confirms that there were local suppliers, though not specialised print dealers. It reveals the various collecting methods that Marchese adopted to obtain prints from Malta. The ‘Primo Costo’ is a rare type of document which gives invaluable insight into European print trading, making it essential for studying collecting practices. Marchese recorded the names of continental and local dealers, auctioneers, and other suppliers. The manuscript also refers to other Maltese collectors. Using the information found in the ‘Primo Costo,’ this paper will identify key figures not only within the Maltese print market but also within the European one.
Krystle Attard Trevisan is a PhD Candidate at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London.
Register here to view this talk via Zoom.
To view the talk via The Wallace Collection’s YouTube channel, please click here.
Some of the previous seminars are now available on YouTube.
Call for Applications | HECAA Social Media Manager
HECAA Social Media Manager, 2021–2023
Applications due by 4 June 2021
HECAA is seeking a new Social Media Manager. The position requires 2–3 hours per week, and includes a $1500 yearly stipend. This is a two-year position (1 July 2021 – 30 June 2023) with a review at one year.
We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic about eighteenth-century visual culture, has strong communication skills, and has experience with social media. The Social Media Manager (SMM) will maintain and grow all social media accounts on behalf of HECAA (Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook). As SMM, you will be responsible for continuing to develop the look and tone of HECAA’s social media presence, using the accounts to highlight the work of HECAA members, promote the organization’s activities, build community, and increase visibility of eighteenth-century art history. You will make/oversee/coordinate at least three social media posts per week, more during times of peak HECAA activity.
To apply, please send a brief cover letter that includes your vision for the HECAA accounts and a CV to the HECAA board at hecaamembers@gmail.com by 4 June 2021.
Thank you!
The HECAA Board
Online Discussion | Advancing Equity in & through Academic Footnotes
Information on The Italian Art Society, which is dedicated to the study of Italian art and architecture from prehistory to the present day, is available here:
Citing Truth to Power: Advancing Equity in & through Academic Footnotes
The Emerging Scholars Committee of The Italian Art Society
Online, 2 June 2021, 12pm (CST)
Footnotes are the fundamental building blocks of academic arguments. They not only validate new ideas, they also situate us scholars within larger academic conversations and serve as a roadmap for how those conversations have developed over time. But this relationship is reciprocal. When appealing to the authority of these previous scholars, our footnotes also amplify their voices and argue implicitly for what conversations are worth being had, and by whom. As a result, footnotes often serve to reinforce the dominance of a narrow range of (usually European and American, white, fully-able, male) academics, limiting both the kinds of conversations that can be had within a field as well as who can have them. For this reason, we invite you to our virtual open forum. By bringing scholars of Italian Art History and related art historical and humanities fields into conversation with each other, we hope to interrogate what is at stake in both our footnotes and the citational process.
Allison Levy is Digital Scholarship Editor for Brown University Library’s Digital Publications Initiative. She has authored or edited five books on early modern Italian visual culture and is co-chair of the College Art Association’s Committee on Research and Scholarship.
Julia DeLancey is Professor of Art History at the University of Mary Washington. She specializes in the visual culture of early modern Venice and, most recently, works on questions related to disability, art, and visual culture.
Robert Clines is Assistant Professor of History and International Studies at Western Carolina University. His first book A Jewish Jesuit in the Eastern Mediterranean appeared in 2019. He’s currently writing a book tentatively entitled Ancient Others: Essays on Race, Empire, and the Mediterranean in Italian Renaissance Humanism.
Excavating James Madison’s Montpelier
Transferware ceramics, Bride of Lammermoor pattern, after 1819, when Sir Walter Scott’s novel was published.
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From the most recent issue of Preservation Magazine:
Meghan Drueding, “Ceramic Fragments Provide Clues to an Enslaved Community’s Past,” Preservation Magazine (Spring 2021), p. 16.
What does a one-inch-square scrap of an old ceramic teacup mean? Plenty, when it’s found during an archaeological dig at James Madison’s Montpelier, a National Trust Historic Site in Orange County, Virginia.
The dig took place over a four-year period ending in 2016, and focused on the South Yard, which contained housing for many of the people enslaved by the Madison family. It yielded thousands of ceramic pieces from hundreds of china patterns. Their existence revealed that members of Montpelier’s enslaved community often purchased their own ceramics using money they earned through activities like raising livestock, growing vegetables, or sewing—on top of the unpaid work the Madisons required of them.
“The ledger books survive from at least one nearby store,” says Mary Furlong Minkoff, curator of archaeological collections. “We have records of people we know were enslaved at Montpelier buying things for themselves.” . . .
The full article is available here»
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