Enfilade

William Blake, The Tyger (Plate 42, from Songs of Innocence and of Experience), detail, 1794, color-printed relief etching with hand coloring in watercolor (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection).

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Now on view at YCBA:

William Blake: Burning Bright

Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 26 August — 30 November 2025

Curated by Elizabeth Wyckoff and Timothy Young

One of the most compelling figures in the history of British art and poetry, William Blake (1757–1827) developed an idiosyncratic worldview during a tumultuous era that witnessed the American and French Revolutions. He expressed his radical perspectives on religious belief, politics, and society through highly original illuminated books, watercolors, paintings, and poetry. This exhibition showcases the Yale Center for British Art’s impressive collection of works by Blake, with special focus on the inventive hand-printed publications that bring to life his poetry and prophecies.

The YCBA’s extensive holdings include Blake’s most innovative and celebrated books, such as Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789–94) and The First Book of Urizen (1794). Blake’s mastery of watercolor painting and his phenomenal imaginative powers are evident in the one-of-a-kind illustrations for The Poems of Thomas Gray (between 1797 and 1798) and in the only fully hand-colored version of his culminating poem, the 100-page Jerusalem (1804–20). This stunning presentation highlights the artist’s ambitious vision and skill, as well as his unparalleled contributions to art, literature, and spirituality.

Born in London at a time of major social change and upheaval, Blake aspired to be an artist and a poet from a young age. During his apprenticeship, he developed an elegant black-and-white engraving style that he deployed in both commissioned and original prints and book illustrations. He is best known for devising an unorthodox technique to create colorful illuminated books that merged his poetry and his art. His most notable innovation was a method for printing text and image from a single copper plate. Blake’s work was largely unacknowledged during his lifetime, yet today his striking imagery and stirring words are widely celebrated.

Blake, the second volume in the YCBA’s Collection Series, examines the art and methods of William Blake through the lens of one of the great collections of his work. Written by Elizabeth Wyckoff, with an essay by Sarah T. Weston, the book features exquisite reproductions of his paintings, watercolors, prints, and illustrated books, including the only hand-colored copy of his epic poem Jerusalem.

Elizabeth Wyckoff, Blake (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2025), 136 pages, ISBN: 978-0300284577, $40. With an essay by Sarah Weston.

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Programs exploring multiple dimensions of Blake’s life, work, and legacy will accompany the exhibition. Please visit britishart.yale.edu for the most up-to-date information.

Opening Celebration
Thursday, September 4, 4pm
A conversation with exhibition curators Elizabeth Wyckoff, Curator of Prints and Drawings, and Timothy Young, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, followed by gallery talks and a reception.

The Enduring Influence of William Blake
Thursday, October 30, 5pm
Author John Higgs will talk with Timothy Young, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Songs from the Imagination: Music Inspired by the Poetry of William Blake
Thursday, November 20, 5pm
Yale Voxtet, the Institute of Sacred Music’s select group of graduate student singers, will perform in the Library Court.

Create Community: Imagined Worlds in the Art of William Blake and Hew Locke
Thursdays, October 2, 16, and 23, 5:30pm
This three-part workshop will explore William Blake: Burning Bright and Hew Locke: Passages through a close investigation of material and process. Enrollment is limited to twelve people, and preregistration is required.

Curator Tours
Thursdays, September 18, October 30, and November 20, 4pm

Docent Tours
Saturdays, 3pm

Opening this month at the NMWA:

Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750

National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, 26 September 2025 — 11 January 2026
Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, 7 March — 31 May 2026

Curated by Virginia Treanor and Frederica Van Dam

Maria Schalcken, Self-Portrait in Her Studio, ca. 1680, oil on panel, 17 × 13 inches (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2019.2094).

Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750 showcases a broad range of work by more than forty Dutch and Flemish women artists, including Gesina ter Borch, Maria Faydherbe, Anna Maria de Koker, Judith Leyster, Magdalena van de Passe, Clara Peeters, Rachel Ruysch, Maria Tassaert, Jeanne Vergouwen, Michaelina Wautier, and more. Presenting an array of paintings, lace, prints, paper cuttings, embroidery, and sculpture, this exhibition draws on recent scholarship to demonstrate that a full view of women’s contributions to the artistic economy is essential to understanding Dutch and Flemish visual culture of the period.

Women were involved in virtually every aspect of artistic production in the Low Countries during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. During this period, colonial exploitation and the international slave trade enriched Europe’s upper and middle classes, fueling demand for art and other luxuries. From celebrated painters who excelled in a male-dominated field to unsung women who toiled making some of the most expensive lace of the day, to wealthy patrons who shaped collecting practices, women created the very fabric of the visual culture of the era. Within a thematic presentation that considers the intertwined influences of status, family, and social expectations on a woman’s training and career choices, this exhibition demonstrates the many ways in which women of all classes contributed to the booming artistic economy of the day. Whether their work was circulated within aristocratic social circles, sold on the open market, or commissioned by patrons, women shaped and molded the world around them from Antwerp to Amsterdam.

Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750 is organized in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium.

The press release is available here»

Virginia Treanor and Frederica Van Dam, eds., Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750 (Veurne: Hannibal Books, 2025), 304 pages, ISBN: 978-9493416277, $60. With contributions by Klara Alen, Frima Fox Hofrichter, Elena Kanagy-Loux, Judith Noorman, Catherine Powell-Warren, Inez De Prekel, Marleen Puyenbroek, Oana Stan and Katie Altizer Takata. Available in English and Dutch editions.

Frederica Van Dam is the Curator of Old Masters at MSK Ghent. Specializing in early modern Flemish painting, Dr. Van Dam co-curated Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution and led the first monographic show on Theodoor Rombouts (1597–1637). Virginia Treanor is the Senior Curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. She earned her PhD in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art from the University of Maryland. Since joining NMWA in 2012, Dr. Treanor has curated numerous exhibitions, including multiple installments of the Women to Watch series.

Now on view at the VMHC:

Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619–1865

Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Richmond, 14 June 2025 — 4 July 2027

Bringing together artifacts and rich stories from across the Commonwealth, Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619–1865 tells the stories of free Black Virginians from the arrival of the first captive Africans in 1619 to the abolition of slavery in 1865. It is one of the first museum exhibitions to cover the subject in depth.

Through powerful artifacts, first-person accounts, and more than 200 years of stories, visitors will discover how Virginia’s people of color achieved their freedom, established communities, and persevered within a legal system that recognized them as free but not equal. Featured alongside artifacts spanning hundreds of years will be newly commissioned portraits by award-winning photographer Ruddy Roye, who TIME named ‘Instagram Photographer of the Year’, of some of the descendants of free Black Virginians who shared their stories and objects to help create the exhibition.

Building upon research about centuries of free Black Virginians and regional exhibitions focused on local communities, Un/Bound endeavors to encapsulate the broader, statewide story in depth and at a yet-to-be-seen scale through a collection of artifacts and rich histories told by descendants and experts. This exhibition was created by the VMHC in collaboration with subject matter experts and five institutions of higher education—Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, William & Mary, Longwood University and Richard Bland College—bringing together resources and knowledge to tell a compelling story of Virginia. The exhibition is on display alongside VMHC’s multiyear commemorative exhibitions and displays related to America’s 250th anniversary.

The accompanying book is published by D. Giles:

Cassandra Newby-Alexander, Melvin Patrick Ely, Sabrina Watson, Evanda Watts-Martinez, and Stephen Rockenbach, Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619–1865 (London: D. Giles, 2025), 176 pages, ISBN: 978-1913875619, $30.

On the eve of the Civil War, around 60,000 Black men, women and children lived free in the state of Virginia, often alongside enslaved neighbours. This volume is a history documenting the richness and variety of their lives. Although many stayed in Virginia, living, working and thriving despite serious threats to their lives, some moved north or, further still, across the Atlantic to Liberia. In studying the lives of free Black Virginians prior to emancipation, this volume explores an under-told and inspirational story of Virginia’s past. By delving into collections across the Commonwealth, whether the records of the state or testimonies left by free Black people themselves, this new volume fills a critical gap in our understanding of Virginia’s Black history.

c o n t e n t s

Foreword — James W. Dyke, Jr., Tim Sullivan, and Alvin J. Schexnider
Acknowledgments — Jamie O. Bosket

Introduction — Elizabeth M. Klaczynski
1  Black Freedom in Slaveholding Virginia — Melvin Patrick Ely
2  The Christian Faith and Legacies of Liberation in Virginia’s Free Black Society — Evanda S. Watts-Martinez
3  Free Black People in Rural Virginia: Forms of Resistance — Sabrina G. Watson
4  Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Free Black Émigrés, and the Liberian Experiment — Cassandra L. Newby-Alexander
5  Education, Politics, and the Legacy of Free Black Virginians after Emancipation — Stephen Rockenbach
Afterword — Jamie O. Bosket

Contributors
Endnotes
Index

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Young Shepherd Holding a Flower, detail, 1760–61, oil on oval canvas, 72.5 × 59.5 cm
(Paris: Petit Palais, PDUT1192)

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Greuze was born on this day (August 21) 300 years ago; the exhibition opens next month at the Petit Palais:

Jean-Baptiste Greuze: L’enfance en lumière

Petit Palais, Paris, 16 September 2025 — 25 January 2026

Curated by Annick Lemoine, Yuriko Jackall, and Mickaël Szanto

A little-known and misunderstood artist today, Greuze was nonetheless acclaimed by the public, adulated by critics, and sought after by the greatest collectors.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805) is undoubtedly one of the most important and daring figures of 18th-century France. To mark the 300th anniversary of his birth, the Petit Palais is paying tribute to this painter of portraits and genre scenes, who knew more than anyone else how to translate the human soul. This exhibition invites visitors to rediscover Greuze’s work through the prism of a central theme in his painting: childhood. Echoing the preoccupations of the philosophers Diderot, Rousseau, and Condorcet, the artist invites us to reflect on the place of the child within the family, the responsibility of parents in the child’s development, and the importance of education in shaping the child’s personality. With empathy, the artist questions the place of children in 18th-century society, their future, and their emancipation. He mirrors the major issues of his time. He also examines the transition to adulthood and the birth of love. Using the codes of his time, he tackles the theme of consent, which is strikingly topical today. Bringing together around a hundred paintings, drawings, and prints from all over the world, this exhibition is an opportunity to rediscover the singular work of this major artist of the Age of Enlightenment.

Curators
• Annick Lemoine, General Curator of Heritage, Director of the Petit Palais
• Yuriko Jackall, Director of the Department of European Art & Allan and Elizabeth Shelden Curator of European Paintings, Detroit Institute of Arts
• Mickaël Szanto, Senior Lecturer, Sorbonne University

Annick Lemoine, Yuriko Jackall, and Mickaël Szanto, Jean-Baptiste Greuze: l’enfance en lumière (Paris Musées, 2025), 304 pages, ISBN: 978-2759606177, €49.

Now on view in Tournus:

Greuze, une palette d’émotions: Dessins du Louvre et oeuvres de Tournus

Hôtel-Dieu, Musée de Tournus, 24 May — 21 September 2025

Curated by Xavier Salmon

To mark the 300th anniversary of the artist’s birth in 1725, the famous Burgundy town where he was born has joined forces with the Musée du Louvre to pay him a well-deserved tribute. Chosen from the rich collection of the Cabinet des Dessins, thirty of the master’s works reflect both his creative process and his desire to turn some of his most accomplished drawings into works in their own right, destined for a clientele of connoisseurs and collectors. All the master’s favorite themes are illustrated here: genre scenes, moralistic subjects, expressive heads, and portraits. They underline the extent to which Denis Diderot was right when he described Jean-Baptiste Greuze as a “delicate and sensitive soul” who had imposed himself on his century.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze: Les dessins du Louvre (Dijon: Éditions Faton, 2025), 80 pages, ISBN: 978-2878443981, €18.

From the press release (14 August) for the exhibition:

To the Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum

The Frick Collection, New York, 2 October 2025 — 5 January 2026

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 15 March — 28 June 2026

Organized by Xavier Salomon, with Jacques Charles-Gaffiot and Benoît Constensoux

Unparalleled masterpieces of European decorative arts to be shown at the Frick and the Kimbell.

Beginning this fall, The Frick Collection will present a stunning exhibition of more than forty objects on loan from the Terra Sancta Museum. Ranging from liturgical objects in gem-encrusted gold and silver to richly decorated vestments in velvet, damask, and other fine materials, the works were created for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and were largely unknown until their rediscovery by scholars in the 1980s. They represent the pinnacle of European craftsmanship in these fields during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and many have no parallel anywhere in the world. To the Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum offers visitors the opportunity to view these objects for the first time in North America.

The exhibition features a selection from the Treasure of the Custody of the Holy Land, established in 1309 by the Franciscan order to oversee Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and the Middle East. One of the major sites that the Custody oversees (alongside other Christian denominations) is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher—the holiest place in Christianity, believed to be the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Over the centuries, European Catholic monarchs and Holy Roman Emperors sent sumptuous gifts to the Franciscans in Jerusalem, often in the form of liturgical objects and vestments. The golden age of this gift-giving occurred from the early 1600s to the late 1700s, the range represented in the exhibition. The Franciscans have safeguarded the works ever since, using them in Mass and other religious ceremonies to the present day.

Ahead of the opening of the Custody’s new Terra Sancta Museum at Jerusalem’s St. Savior Monastery, objects from its incredible collection have been traveling to institutions in Europe and now North America. A 2013 exhibition showcased loans from the Holy Sepulcher at the Palace of Versailles, and more recent presentations have been held at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon; the Gaiás Centre Museum, Santiago de Compostela; and the Museo Marino Marini, Florence. After the Frick debuts its unique U.S. exhibition in New York, To the Holy Sepulcher will travel to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas (March 15 through June 28, 2026).

The exhibition is organized by Xavier F. Salomon, the Frick’s Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, along with Jacques Charles-Gaffiot and Benoît Constensoux, members of the Terra Sancta Museum’s Scientific Committee. The presentation continues the Frick’s strong tradition of shows centered on European gold- and silversmithing of this period. Past highlights include Gold, Jasper, and Carnelian: Johann Christian Neuber at the Saxon Court (2012); Pierre Gouthière: Virtuoso Gilder at the French Court (2016–17); Luigi Valadier: Splendor in Eighteenth-Century Rome (2018–19); and The Gregory Gift (2023). The award-winning Valadier exhibition was curated by art historian Alvar González-Palacios, who in the 1980s rediscovered and published the Custody of the Holy Land’s artistic holdings for the first time, laying the groundwork for this unprecedented project.

Commented Salomon, “This exhibition represents a completely unique opportunity for visitors, building on the Frick’s successful past presentations highlighting masters of European decorative arts. Displayed for the first time in the United States, the exquisite objects in this show are rare survivals, as similar objects were often severely damaged, melted down, or otherwise lost—nothing like them survives in the countries in which they were created. We are deeply grateful for this collaboration with the Custody of the Holy Land as we look ahead to the opening of the Terra Sancta Museum, which will offer a more permanent public display of these treasures.”

For his work on the exhibition, occurring over a period of years, Salomon has been awarded the Cross of Merit (Crucem Ex Merito) by the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. The ceremony for this prestigious honor will take place this fall. To the Holy Sepulcher will be Salomon’s final exhibition at the Frick Collection, after a tenure of more than a decade at the helm of the museum’s Curatorial Department. Following the show’s opening, in November, Salomon will take up the role of Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon.

Objects Organized by Country of Origin

The show marks the first presentation in all three rooms of the Frick’s new Ronald S. Lauder Exhibition Galleries, which opened earlier this summer. Visitors will first encounter an introduction to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, including an eighteenth-century scale model of the church, exquisite vestments, a gilded reliquary, and a monumental silver relief depicting the Resurrection. The exhibition’s display will then be organized geographically by the countries in which the objects on view were created and subsequently sent to Jerusalem.

Antonio de Laurentiis, Throne of Eucharistic Exposition, 1754, gold, gilt copper, almandine garnets, amethysts, rock crystal, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, carnelians, peridots, smoky quartzes, glass and doublets, 68 inches tall (Jerusalem: Terra Sancta Museum).

Objects from the Kingdom of France mainly comprise prestigious gifts for use in worship, commissioned and sent by Kings Louis XIII, Louis XIV, and Louis XV. Some of these are completely unique survivals, similar metallic objects having been melted down by later monarchs or during the French Revolution.

The Holy Roman Empire is represented by donations from Emperor Charles VI and his daughter, Empress Maria Theresa. These include complete sets of vestments and gold and silver objects such as a large sanctuary lamp, as well as a ewer and basin and an engraved gilt-silver dish that have secular forms but served liturgical functions.

The Kingdom of Spain was by far the leading donor to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Gifts on view from Spain trace its monarchs’ enduring devotion to holy sites, including Philip II (represented by a beautiful chalice) and Philip IV and his son Charles II (who gave a massive Throne of Eucharistic Exposition along with candlesticks and vases featuring the royal arms of Spain).

Highlights of the section devoted to the Kingdom of Portugal were given by John V, known as ‘the Magnanimous’ for his luxurious commissions. These include vestments and a gold sanctuary lamp, which have no surviving parallels in Portugal today.

Finally, gifts from modern-day Italy are divided into sections for the Kingdom of Naples and the Republics of Venice and Genoa. Venice is represented by vestments and a pair of monumental silver torchères, which stand at more than eight feet tall, while Genoa gave a beautiful cope featuring intricate embroidered floral designs and a spectacular scene of St. George attacking the dragon. The Neapolitan gifts are among the finest examples in the show and were all given by King Charles III, later king of Spain. These include an exquisite crucifix in gold, lapis lazuli, and gemstones; a highly adorned Throne of Eucharistic Exposition topped with a crown; and the magnificent crozier that graces the exhibition catalogue’s cover.

Rich Dialogues with the Frick’s Permanent Collection

The objects in the exhibition also offer illuminating connections to works from the Frick’s permanent collection. Chief among them is Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert. The saint’s spiritual vision and stigmatization depicted in the panel are believed to have taken place in 1224, just five years after Francis visited North Africa, which may have included a trip to holy sites in Jerusalem. By the 1250s, his followers had established a base there, which led to the creation of the Custody of the Holy Land. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to view Bellini’s celebrated painting in its traditional location in the museum’s Living Hall.

A large Throne of Eucharistic Exposition and a set of candlesticks in the exhibition were given by Philip IV of Spain, a few years after Diego Velázquez painted the Frick’s captivating portrait of the king, on view in the museum’s West Gallery. Louis XIII, who donated several silver objects and a set of fleur-de-lys vestments, and Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, who gave a gold sanctuary lamp, are both depicted in portrait medals in the Frick’s new Medals Room. Maria Theresa and her father, Charles VI, were also intimately connected to Vienna’s Du Paquier manufactory; many pieces of goldwork in the exhibition feature patterns used in Du Paquier porcelain, examples of which are shown in a new passage on the museum’s second floor.

Finally, a number of objects in the show were gifts of Louis XIV of France and his successor, Louis XV, including a set of vestments with the latter’s coat of arms. Both monarchs are the subjects of sculptures in the museum’s galleries. Louis XV’s official mistresses also have notable connections to the Frick: Madame de Pompadour commissioned François Boucher’s series The Four Seasons, in the museum’s West Vestibule, while Madame du Barry commissioned Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Progress of Love, which adorns the Fragonard Room.

Programming and Catalogue

The exhibition will be complemented by a number of engaging public programs. In mid-October, Xavier Salomon will present a ticketed lecture in the museum’s new Schwarzman Auditorium on the background and significance of the show and its objects. Musical programming will focus on liturgical pieces, bringing to life the devotional contexts for which the exhibition’s objects were intended. Finally, art-making programs, both free and ticketed, will explore metalworking techniques involved in the creation of several works in the show.

To the Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated exhibition catalogue. In addition to entries for each work on display, essays highlight the rediscovery of the Treasure of the Custody of the Holy Land, the history of the Franciscans in the Holy Land and the sites they oversee, the creation and donation of the objects in the Treasure, the use of such objects in the Catholic liturgy, and an overview of the new Terra Sancta Museum.

Xavier F. Salomon with Marie-Armelle Beaulieu, Jacques Charles-Gaffiot, Benoît Constensoux, Alvar González-Palacios, Maria Pia Pettinau Vescina, Béatrix Saule, and Danièle Véron-Denise, To the Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum (New York: The Frick Collection in association with D Giles Limited, 2025), 384 pages, ISBN: 978-1913875756, $90.

The exhibition was noted here at Enfilade in May 2024. The catalogue will soon be available from ACC Art Books and Simon & Schuster:

Luísa Sampaio, with Alberto Craievich, Mar Borobia, and Vera Mariz, Splendour in Venice: From Canaletto to Guardi (Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2025), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-9899119208, £45.

In October 2024 The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, in collaboration with the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, presented the exhibition Splendor in Venice: From Canaletto to Guardi, devoted to 18th-century Venetian painting. Artists such as Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, Bernardo Bellotto, and Giambattista Tiepolo—creators of some of the most brilliant compositions of their time and undeniable highlights in the collections of both Iberian museums—were among the artists showcased in the exhibition.

This accompanying publication is divided into two parts: the first featuring three essays and the second comprising individual catalogue entries. Mar Borobia, Chief Curator of Old Master Painting at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, opens the first part with an essay on the history of the collection of 18th-century Venetian painting belonging to the Madrid museum. Next, Vera Mariz, curator at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, reflects on Gulbenkian’s admiration for the work of Francesco Guardi, which led him to purchase 19 paintings by the Italian master for his collection. Finally, Alberto Craievich, director of Ca’ Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, explores the artistic context of the city of Venice during the 18th century. The second part consists of 34 catalogue entries written by Luísa Sampaio, the curator of the exhibition.

Luísa Sampaio is in charge of collections management at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. As a curator, she takes care of the departments of Painting, Sculpture, and the works of René Lalique. She has curated various international exhibitions devoted to artists including Turner, Fantin-Latour, Carpeaux, and Rodin. She recently curated the exhibition René Lalique and the Age of Glass (2020). She is the author of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum’s painting catalogue (2009).