European Romanticism on Paper
Varieties of Romantic Experience: Drawings from the Collection of Charles Ryskamp
New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, 4 February — 25 April 2010
ISBN: 0300152922 (Yale University Press), $75
In 1824, the Scottish painter David Wilkie wrote to the director of the French Royal Museums, “It is time to show that the arts are cosmopolitan and that all national prejudice is foreign to them.” In spite of Wilkie’s fine sentiment, drawings by British artists from the Romantic period have rarely been considered alongside those produced across the Channel. In response, this remarkable exhibition will take up the challenge of treating Romanticism as an international phenomenon by bringing together nearly two hundred British, French, German, Danish, and Dutch drawings from the outstanding collection of Charles Ryskamp (MA ’51, PhD ’56), Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, and Director Emeritus of the Pierpont Morgan Library and The Frick Collection in New York. The first exhibition of this scope dedicated to northern European drawings, it will consider the place of British art in a European milieu.
Varieties of Romantic Experience: Drawings from the Collection of Charles Ryskamp will explore the direct relationship between British and Continental artists during the Romantic period (here defined as the period between the French Revolution in 1789 and the revolutions of 1848). Despite the very different circumstances in which artists across Europe were working, and the diverse modes of representation they employed, they shared common concerns and frequently explored similar themes. The exhibition and accompanying book will focus on Romanticism’s novel exploration of two worlds in particular: nature and the imagination. (more…)
Courtly Frames in Munich
From The Art Newspaper:
The Art of the Frame: Exploring the Holdings of the Alte Pinakothek
Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 28 January — 18 April 2010
Johann Christian Sperling, "Markgraf Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach as a 13-year-old Boy," 1726, frame by Cuvilliés, 1755
The Alte Pinakothek was a pioneer in exhibitions devoted to picture frames and framing when it showed Italian Frames from the 14th to the 18th Centuries in 1976. Now the museum resumes its investigations with this more closely focused exhibition that presents ‘court’ frames dating from between 1600 and 1850. In the baroque period, frames were made by cabinetmakers rather than woodcarvers or sculptors as was the case elsewhere.
The majority of frames were made of ebony or ebonised wood with wave and ripple ornaments referred to as flammleisten—flame moulding—alluding to the effect caused by the flickerings of candlelight on the broad, black surfaces. The most significant change came with the return of the Elector Maximilian II Emanuel from exile in the Netherlands and France in 1715, with his architect Joseph Effner. Vast, three-dimensional sculptural frames with a range of gold leaf were used for the display of ceremonial scenes, portraits and old masters.
Effner was succeeded as court architect by François de Cuvilliés, the central figure in Munich of the pan-German enthusiasm for the rococo, the taste for which lasted up to 1780 (shown here, Johann Christian Sperling, Markgraf Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach as a 13-year-old Boy, 1726; frame by Cuvilliés, 1755).
In 1779 Carl Albert von Lespilliez was commissioned to frame the Electoral picture collection in the Hofgarten Galerie which he did using the up-to-date neo-classical frame, with leaf, frieze, beading and scotia. The Napoleonic wars spelled the end of the craftsman-made frame along with other luxury items, and the Industrial Revolution ushered in the period of mass-produced products. . .
For the full article click here»
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As noted in a press release for the exhibition, there is an accompanying catalogue, edited by the show’s curator, Helge Siefert, Rahmenkunst: Auf Spurensuche in der Alten Pinakothek (Munich: Prestel, 2010), ISBN: 9783775726061
Built by Numbers
This exhibition was on view at Oxford’s Museum of the History of Science last summer; it opens at the YCBA in February. The following description comes from the latter’s website:
Compass & Rule: Architecture as Mathematical Practice in England, 1500-1750
Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, 16 June — 6 September 2009
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 18 February — 30 May 2010
Catalogue edited by Anthony Gerbino and Stephen Johnston (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009)
The spread of Renaissance culture in England coincided with the birth of architecture as a profession. Identified as a branch of practical mathematics, architecture became the most artistic of the sciences and the most scientific of the arts. During this time, new concepts of design based on geometry changed how architects worked and what they built, as well as the intellectual status and social standing of their discipline.
Compass & Rule examines the role of mathematics in architectural design and building technology, highlighting the dramatic transformation of English architecture between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The exhibition brings together some of the finest architectural and scientific material from the early modern period, including drawings of St. Paul’s Cathedral, an astrolabe commissioned for Queen Elizabeth I, and architectural drawings by King George III. Also on view will be nearly one hundred drawings, paintings, printed books and manuscripts, maps, and other unique mathematical instruments that illustrate the changing role of both the architect and the profession 1500 to 1750.
An illustrated catalogue edited by exhibition curators Anthony Gerbino, architectural historian and Senior Research Fellow of Worcester College, University of Oxford, and Stephen Johnston, Assistant Keeper at the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford, will accompany the exhibition.
Canaletto’s Venice
From the Ringling Museum website:
Venice in the Age of Canaletto
John and Marble Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 8 October 2009 — 10 January 2010
Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, February 14 — 9 May 2010
Curated by Stanton Thomas and Alexandra Libby
Edited by Alexandra Libby and Stanton Thomas (Prestel) ISBN: 978-3791380001, $60
Venice in the Age of Canaletto is a collaborative project between The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art that will consider Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto in a Venetian context. In particular, it focuses upon the contrast between the artist’s paintings and the works of his contemporaries also active in the city. Canaletto’s vedute, or view paintings, were arguably the most familiar artistic products of eighteenth-century Venice; yet, for all their ability to reproduce immediately recognizable views of the city, they are curiously devoid of the exuberance, sensuality, and rich coloring of most Venetian art of the period. When Canaletto’s paintings are compared with the works of Giambattista Tiepolo, Francesco Guardi, and Sebastiano Ricci, they are revealed as beautiful but rather anomalous creations. The exhibition explores the strange tension that exists between Canaletto’s austere, seemingly realistic cityscapes and the exuberant, pastelline fantasies, religious pictures, and historical dramas of the Venetian Rococo.
Venice in the Age of Canaletto considers a span of approximately 100 years, beginning in 1697, the year of the artist’s birth, and ending in 1797, the year that Napoleon invaded the city and brought the Venetian Republic to an end. This period captures the fascinating social, religious, political, and artistic evolution that precipitated the end of the Republic. The exhibition focuses upon a time when Venice, perhaps more than any other European city, cultivated an elusive civic image of pleasure, fantasy, and escapism. (more…)
Forthcoming: Book on the Met’s Wrightsman Galleries
A book detailing the Met’s recently renovated Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts is scheduled to appear this spring from Yale University Press:
Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide and Jeffrey Munger, The Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts (New Haven: Yale University Press, April 2010), 228 pages, ISBN: 9780300155204, $50
Photo from the blog, 'Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century' (click to visit)
The Metropolitan’s holdings of late 17th- and 18th-century French decorative arts, unrivaled outside Europe, are on display in nine magnificent paneled period rooms and three galleries. This suite of spaces is named for Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, whose extraordinary generosity made the installations possible and who also donated many of the furnishings from their own celebrated collection. The first book on the Wrightsman Galleries since 1979, this beautifully illustrated volume presents detailed descriptions of the period rooms and 116 of the most important artworks on view, including wood paneling and furniture, chimneypieces and fireplace furnishings, textiles and leather, portraits, gilt bronze, porcelain, silver, and decorative boxes, many of which have a royal provenance. The text incorporates the results of recent research and conveys the illuminating comments of contemporaries as expressed in diaries, travel guides, craft manuals, and correspondence.
Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide and Jeffrey Munger are curators in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. (more…)
A Glimpse of Sun for the French Winter
From the website of Versailles:
Louis XIV: The Man and the King
Château de Versailles, 20 October 2009 — 7 February 2010
Curated by Nicolas Milovanovic and Alexandre Maral
For the first time, a major exhibition is devoted to Louis XIV, the king’s personality, his personal tastes. This exhibition, Louis XIV: The Man and the King, brings together more than 300 exceptional works coming from collections all over the world and never shown together before. Paintings, sculptures, objets d’art and furniture will be exhibited. These masterpieces, some of which have never been presented in France since the days of the Ancien Régime, will enable visitors to get to know the famous monarch better in both his personal tastes and through his public image.
The King’s Public Image
The richness of the image of Louis XIV has no precedent in history: Louis XIV is the Sun King, i.e. Apollo as the sun god. Fashioned by the king himself and his counsellors, this image constantly evolved to convey emblematic figures of the royal power: the king of war leading his troops, the patron king and protector of the arts, the very Christian king and Defender of the Church, the king of glory, an image constructed for posterity. This visible glory, given mythical proportions, which was constructed during his lifetime, took shape thanks to the excellence of the artists chosen, such as Bernini, Girardon, Rigaud, Cucci, Gole, Van der Meulen and Coysevox who set out to sublimate the royal portrait, which the exhibition allows the visitors to rediscover.
The King’s Taste
He saw himself as a king who was the protector of the arts and a collector, competing with other sovereigns of Europe who were also genuine connoisseurs. Benefiting from the example of Mazarin, Louis XIV formed his taste in direct contact with artists, and through the personal relations that he established with them: Le Brun and Mignard in painting, Le Vau and Hardouin-Mansart in architecture, Le Nôtre in the art of gardens, Lully in music, and Molière in theatre. By assembling the works appreciated by the king, a genuine portrait emerges of a passionate lover of the arts and a man of good taste through the jewels, cameos, medals, miniatures and objets d’art, as well as the paintings and sculptures that he loved to surround himself within the Petit Appartement in Versailles.
Accompanying the show is a tapestry exhibition, Royal Pomp, Louis XIV’s Tapestry Collection, at the Gobelins Gallery in Paris.
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Reviews and notices of the exhibition can be found at Newsweek, the Telegraph, and The New York Times. The catalogue, Louis XIV, l’homme et le roi (Skira-Flammarion, 2009; ISBN: 9782081228108) is available through Michael Shamansky’s artbooks.com.
Looking Ahead: Art of the Austrian Table
From the Met’s website:
Vienna Circa 1780: An Imperial Silver Service Rediscovered
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 13 April — 7 November 2010
Wolfram Koeppe, ISBN-10: 0300155182 ($35)
Following the acquisition in 2002 of two Viennese silver wine coolers from the Sachsen-Teschen Service, most of the set’s surviving parts were discovered in a French private collection. This superb ensemble was last displayed at the beginning of the twentieth century. Wine coolers, tureens, cloches, sauceboats, candelabra, candlesticks, dozens of plates, porcelain-mounted cutlery, and other kinds of tableware totaling over 350 items, represent the splendor of princely dining during the ancien régime. It was made for Duke Albert Casimir of Sachsen-Teschen (1738-1822), and his consort, Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria (1742-1798) by the Imperial court goldsmith Ignaz Josef Würth. The Sachsen-Teschen Silver Service, an embodiment of Viennese neo-classicism, will be shown in the context of contemporary silver from other countries.
Accompanied by a catalogue to be published by the MMA.
Worth Talking About: Before and After Zoffany
Buckingham Palace offers an immensely satisfying show anchored by Zoffany (works include the The Academicians of the Royal Academy and The Tribuna of the Uffizi). From the website of the Royal Collection:
The Conversation Piece: Scenes of Fashionable Life
Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, 27 March — 20 September 2009
Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, London, 30 October 2009 — 14 February 2010
The Conversation Piece: Scenes of Fashionable Life is now on view at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. The exhibition presents a fascinating insight into high-society fashions, interiors and manners from the time of Charles I to the reign of Queen Victoria. While a portrait primarily records the sitter’s appearance, the Conversation Piece depicts their way of life, often conveying the impression that the subject has been caught off-guard. Typically a work shows a family group or a gathering of friends participating in informal activities. The genre was popular amongst Dutch painters in the seventeenth century and was subsequently developed in England. It is best known through the work of artists William Hogarth and George Stubbs during the eighteenth century and Sir Edwin Landseer in the nineteenth century. The exhibition brings together outstanding paintings by the greatest exponents of the Conversation Piece. The centrepiece is a remarkable series of portraits produced by Johan Zoffany for his royal patron George III, including the artist’s masterpiece The Tribuna of the Uffizi, 1772-7. The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue The Conversation Piece: Scenes of Fashionable Life by Desmond Shawe-Taylor, the first publication on the subject for over 30 years.
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An informative exhibition microsite accompanies The Conversation Piece. In the London Times and Sunday Times, the show is reviewed by Anna Burnside, Rachel Campbell-Johnston, and Waldemar Januszczak, while Richard Cork supplies a summary for The Financial Times.
Paul Sandby’s Bicentenary
From the website of the National Gallery of Scotland:
Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain
Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery, 25 July — 18 October 2009
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 7 November 2009 — 7 February 2010
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 13 March — 13 June 2010
Paul Sandby, "Windsor Castle from Datchet Lane on a Rejoicing Night," Photograph: The Royal Collection © 2009 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain looks at all aspects of Sandby’s career and includes studies of rural and urban views, street scenes, royal parks and ancient castles. Sandby explored a broader range of subject matter than any previous artist in Britain and was integral in refining the use of watercolour. This exhibition features over one hundred loans, including oil paintings, watercolours, gouaches, prints and sketchbooks, coming from all the major collections which house his work: The Royal Collection, The British Museum, The British Library, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and The Yale Center for British Art. It also showcases outstanding works from private collections.
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Addressing the exhibition in The Gaurdian (7 November 2009), Linda Colley describes Sandby’s standing in British society, then and now:
Stephen Daniels, et al (London: Royal Academy of Arts), ISBN: 978-1905711482, 216 pages, $55
. . . As George III’s remark illustrates, this view of him has always been coloured by varieties of snobbery. To this extent, the portrait of Sandby by Francis Cotes, showing him leaning out of a country house window, sketchbook in hand, can be seen as a calculated puff by a close friend. It accurately conveys Sandby’s good looks and pleasant temperament. But the portrait gives a flatteringly deceptive impression of a man as much at ease in polite and leisured interiors as he is with nature. In reality, Sandby’s family background was considerably more humble than that of Gainsborough or John Constable. Unlike his fellow academician Joshua Reynolds, Sandby was never a fashionable, expensive portrait painter. Nor was he a practitioner of academically prestigious history painting. And, crucially, unlike JMW Turner or Thomas Girtin, Sandby was not a metropolitan.
The son of a framework knitter, he was baptised in Nottingham in 1731; and this exhibition is very much a Nottingham achievement, where it was first displayed. The show, opening today at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, and at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in March, was conceived by Stephen Daniels of Nottingham University. It is exactly the sort of deeply researched and ambitious regional art exhibition that is likely to be rendered increasingly impracticable because of government, municipal and corporate spending cuts. . . .
Sandby’s vision then is substantially (not entirely) loyalist and conventionally patriotic, and this may be another reason why his work is sometimes passed over. Morning, an extraordinary painting of a massive, venerable beech tree set firm in a Shropshire landscape, is, for instance, a powerfully loyalist testament. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1794, five years after the fall of the Bastille and in the midst of war, the painting would have been understood as an allusion to contemporary conservative celebrations of an ancient, organic British constitution as against the recent republican outgrowths of revolutionary France. As the exhibition catalogue argues, Sandby’s vision was also increasingly a Britannic one. Like Turner, Sandby made repeated tours throughout Wales and Scotland, representing not just their scenic and cultural differences, but also the ways in which these countries were undergoing change and becoming in some respects far more closely linked with England. . . .
For the full article, click here»
Newly Restored Dutch Panel Paintings
From the Museum Van Loon website:
Jurriaan Andriessen (1742-1819): A Beautiful View
Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, 2 October 2009 — 4 January 2010
Jurriaan Andriessen, 1780
The exhibition Jurriaan Andriessen (1742-1819): een schoon vergezicht . . . is the very first solo exhibition of this famous eighteenth-century wall panel painter, with works from — amongst others — the Rijksmuseum, the City Archives, and the Archive of the Royal Household, many of which have not been on display earlier. The occasion of this exhibition is the . . . completed restoration of the six Andriessen wall panels in the collection of the Museum Van Loon. Andriessen manufactured the paintings in 1780 for Drakensteyn Castle, where Princess Beatrix lived before her accession to the throne. Professor Maurits van Loon acquired the panels in the 1970s as a result of the special relationship between Drakensteyn Castle and the Van Loon house. Since those days, they embellish the wall of the ‘Drakensteyn Room’ in the museum. It is the only Andriessen ensemble presently open to the public.
In the eighteenth century, wall panels were a true trend in Dutch interiors. Contrary to present day wallpaper, they were actual paintings, mostly landscapes with wall-to-wall displays that made people feel ‘outside on the inside’. Jurriaan Andriessen was particularly popular in his day and had many commissions both in Amsterdam and the country. With the exhibition comes a publication: Richard Harmanni, Tonko Grever, and Laura Smeets, Jurriaan Andriessen (1742-1819): A Beautiful View (Zwolle, Waanders, 2009), ISBN: 9789040076534, $29.
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