Enfilade

The long 18th century in the December issue of The Burlington:

The Burlington Magazine 166 (December 2024)

e d i t o r i a l

• “A ‘Grand Life’: Belle da Costa Greene,” pp. 1203–04.
New York’s Morgan Library & Museum was founded as a public institution in 1924 and its centenary this year has been celebrated in style. The most substantial project to form part of the anniversary is the exhibition (25th October–4th May 2025) on Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950), the museum’s inaugural Director. This is an exercise in fascinating institutional storytelling, but at the same time also considerably more, as Greene was an extraordinary and accomplished figure.

l e t t e r

• Elizabeth Cropper, “Further Notes on boîtes à portrait’,” p. 1205.
A response to Samantha Happé’s article in the October issue of The Burlington: “Portable Diplomacy: Louis XIV’s ‘boîtes à portrait’,” pp. 1036–43.

r e v i e w s

• Richard Rand, Review of the exhibition Revoir Watteau: Un comédien sans réplique. Pierrot, dit le ‘Gilles’ (Louvre, 2024–25), pp. 1238–40.

• Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Review of the exhibition Paris through the Eyes of Saint-Aubin (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024-25), pp. 1249–50.

• Denise Amy Baxter, Review of the exhibition The Legacy of Vesuvius: Bourbon Discoveries on the Bay of Naples (Meadows Musem, 2024), pp. 1251–53.

• Camilla Pietrabissa, Review of the exhibition catalogue L’arte di tradurre l’arte: John Baptist Jackson incisore nella Venezia del Settecento, ed. by Orsola Braides, Giovanni Maria Fara, and Alessia Giachery (Biblioteca Marciana, 2024), pp. 1270–72.
The British printmaker John Baptist Jackson was active in Venice from 1731 to 1745.

• Tom Stammers, Review of Oliver Wunsch, A Delicate Matter: Art, Fragility, and Consumption in Eighteenth-Century France (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2024), pp. 1285–86.

o b i t u a r y

• Simon Jervis, Obituary for Georg Himmelheber (1929–2024), pp. 1287–88.
A pioneering historian of furniture and a curator at Karlsruhe and Munich, Georg Himmelheber was also a founder member of the Furniture History Society; although his expertise encompassed many periods and styles, he was perhaps best known for his work on ‘Biedermeier’ furniture.

s u p p l e m e n t

• “Acquisitions by Public Collections across the UK (2013–23) Made Possible by the Acceptance in Lieu of Tax and Cultural Gifts Schemes,” pp. 1289ff.