Exhibition | Isabelle de Borchgrave
From The Frick Pittsburgh:
Isabelle de Borchgrave: Fashioning Art from Paper
Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, 15 October 2017 — 7 January 2018
The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, 27 January — 15 April 2018
Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 16 June — 9 September 2018
The Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh, 13 October 2018 — 6 January 2019
The Baker Museum, Artis, Naples, February — May 2019
Curated by Dennita Sewell
Isabelle de Borchgrave, Banyan and Waistcoat, 1998; inspired by a banyan and waistcoat ca. 1730 worn by Peter the Great of Russia.
Co-organized by the Frick in collaboration with four other American museums, this major exhibition presents the full breadth of de Borchgrave’s exploration of historical costume through contemporary paper sculpture. If you’ve never seen the artist’s work, you will be delighted by these breathtaking, life-size renditions of historic clothing created completely from artfully painted, pleated, crumpled, and manipulated paper.
From replicas of Renaissance Italian gowns to recreations of the fantastical modernist costumes of the Ballet Russes, Isabelle de Borchgrave’s work is meticulously crafted and astonishingly beautiful. The artist’s interest in creating paper costumes was sparked by a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1994, where she found herself inspired by the historic costumes on display. Back in her studio, she began to experiment with creating renditions of the pieces in paper. Since then, de Borchgrave’s paper costumes have been featured in major exhibitions around the world.
This immersive exhibition celebrates the breadth of de Borchgrave’s work with costume and fashion history and is designed to introduce her work to a wider audience. De Borchgrave’s paper sculptures are masterpieces of trompe l’oeil—even upon close inspection it is often difficult to discern that the costumes are made of paper. At the Frick, de Borchgrave’s work will be exhibited throughout the museum, creating a dialogue with the museum’s collection. Joining the exhibition will be the Frick’s recently commissioned piece inspired by one of our best-known masterpieces—Peter Paul Rubens’ Portrait of Charlotte- Marguerite de Montmorency, Princess of Condé.
The exhibition will include examples from all the artist’s major series, beginning with her exploration of 300 years of fashion history in the works created for Papiers à la Mode. The works from her Splendors of the Medici series are inspired by Italian Renaissance costumes portrayed in Old Master paintings. Her next series, The World of Mariano Fortuny explored the work of the iconoclastic Spanish fashion designer, famously based in Venice, and her most recent series, Les Ballet Russes features fantastical modernist costumes designed by artists like Picasso, Bakst, and Matisse. The Frick’s recent commission will be the only new piece included in the exhibition. A fully illustrated color catalogue accompanies the exhibition.
Exhibition | The Chocolate Girl by Liotard
Notice of the exhibition appeared at Enfilade in April, but here are the details for the catalogue, published in association with Hirmer Verlag:
Stephan Koja and Roland Enke, eds., ‘The Most Beautiful Pastel Ever Seen’: The Chocolate Girl by Jean-Étienne Liotard in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie (Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2018), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-3777431369, $42.
The Chocolate Girl is one of the most famous works by the Swiss artist Jean-Étienne Liotard. This richly illustrated volume leads the reader through the age in which it was created during the French-inspired Rococo and into the Vienna of Empress Maria Theresia, where the work was painted. It also explains the art of pastel painting, in which this enchanting work has been executed. The painting had a tremendous effect in those days and still does so today. Even during Liotard’s life (1702–1789) his pastel painting was highly valued, as the description by the most famous pastel artist Rosalba Carriera as “the most beautiful pastel” demonstrates. The Chocolate Girl shows a simple, unknown domestic servant, until then a rarely chosen subject. In its sober and precise observation it reflects the art of the Enlightenment as well as anticipating the realism of the nineteenth century. Chocolate itself, always associated with pleasure, contributes further to the particular charm. Characteristic works from other creative periods complete the overview of Liotard’s oeuvre.
Exhibition | Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits
From the MFAH:
Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 7 October 2018 — 27 January 2019
Bendigo Art Gallery, 16 March — 14 July 2019
Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol sheds new light on changing ideas of monarchy and nationhood in Britain. The exhibition features portraits of British royalty spanning 500 years, by artists from Hans Holbein and Sir Joshua Reynolds to Annie Leibovitz and Andy Warhol.
In a sweeping survey, Tudors to Windsors covers the cavalcade of kings, queens, princes, and princesses who have graced the British crown. The MFAH is the only U.S. venue to host this unprecedented exhibition, part of a major partnership with the National Portrait Gallery in London. Some 150 objects—most never before seen outside of England—tell the story of Britain’s monarchy through masterworks of painting, sculpture, and photography.
Visitors have an extraordinary opportunity to come face-to-face with the fascinating figures of British royalty. Tudors to Windsors explores four royal dynasties: the House of Tudor (1485–1603), the House of Stuart (1603–1714), the House of Hanover (1714–1901), and the present-day House of Windsor. Among the many works of art on view are portraits featuring King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, King George I, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana, and Prince William.
Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits, with an introduction by David Cannadine (London: National Portrait Gallery, 2018), 240 pages, ISBN 978-1855147560, $50.
Print Quarterly, September 2018
The eighteenth century in the current issue of Print Quarterly:
Print Quarterly 35.3 (September 2018) . . .
N O T E S A N D R E V I E W S
• Jean Michel Massing, Review of the collection of essays, Suzanne Karr Schmidt and Edward Wouk, eds., Prints in Translation, 1450–1750: Image, Materiality, Space (Routledge, 2016), pp. 305–08. “The eleven most interesting articles in Prints in Translation . . . developed from a two-day conference panel at the 2014 meeting of the College Art Association on ‘Objectifying Prints: Hybrid Media 1450–1800’ (305).” [Of particular interest to Enfilade readers will be the article by David Pullins, “The State of the Fashion Plate, circa 1727: Historicizing Fashion Between ‘Dressed Prints’ and Dezallier’s Recueils,” discussed briefly by Massing on pp. 307–08.]
• John Roger Paas, Review of the exhibition catalogue Tiphaine Gaumy, ed., Images & Révoltes dans le livre et l’estampe, XIVe–milieu du XVIIIe siècle (Bibliothèque Mazarine & Editions des Cendres, 2016), pp. 308–10. “This catalogue with its thirteen scholarly essays and numerous images—many not widely known—focuses on political events, but more importantly it underscores the seminal importance of all visual material for our general understanding of the past. It is clear that these images are not of secondary historical importance” (310).
• Julia McHugh, Review of Pedro German Leal and Rubem Amaral, eds., Emblems in Colonial Ibero-America: To the New World on the Ship of Theseus (Glasgow University Press, 2017), pp. 311–13. “The three sections of the book correspond to the three main colonies of the New World [New Spain, Peru, and Portuguese America]. In each section, two case studies follow a general survey of emblematic and symbolic culture, which foregrounds the distinct historical and geographical conditions of each administrative territory. These three preliminary essays by Víctor Mínguez, José Júlio García Arranz, and Rubem Amaral Jr. are extremely systematic and comprehensive and would be excellent additions to syllabi for colonial Latin American courses” (311).
• Thomas Döring, Review of Jef Schaeps, Edward Grasman, Elmer Kolfin, and Nelke Bartelings, eds., For Study and Delight: Drawings and Prints from Leiden University (Leiden University, 2017), pp. 313–15. “The book was published to mark the 200th anniversary of the 1814 bequest of Jan Theodore Royer’s print collection to the University of Leiden. This gift became the basis of the university’s Print Room founded in 1825. . . The publication aims to offer a representative cross-section of the collection. Carefully conceived and handsomely produced, it fully lives up to this claim and to its well-considered title” (313).
• Stephanie Dickey, Review of the exhibition catalogue, Victoria Sancho Lobis, with an essay by Maureen Warren, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and the Portrait Print (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016), pp. 315–17. “This compact, handsomely produced publication documents an exhibition that featured 116 prints, two albums, and twenty portraits in other media, dating from 1522 to 1993, most from the Art Institute of Chicago’s own collection” (315).
• Rena Hoisington, Review of the exhibition catalogue, Anne-Lise Desmas, Edouard Kopp, Guilhem Scherf, and Juliette Trey, Bouchardon: Royal Artist of the Enlightenment (Getty Publications, 2017), pp. 318–21. “Prefaced by essays written by each of the four contributing curators, this beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated catalogue includes images of hundreds of sculptures, drawings, prints and illustrated books (and a few paintings) discussed according to theme or project, including Bouchardon’s work on two celebrated landmarks in eighteenth-century Paris: the elegant Grenelle Fountain that still graces the street from which it takes its name, completed in 1745; and the equestrian statue of King Louis XV that once presided over the Place Louis XV, begun in 1748, completed after Bouchardon’s death by the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle and destroyed in 1792” (318).
• Wendy Wassyng Roworth, Review of the exhibition catalogue, Bettina Baumgärtel, Anmut und Aufklärung: Eine Sammlung von Druckgraphik nach Werken von Angelika Kauffman (Harrassowitz, 2016), pp. 321–23. “An exhibition at the Winckelmann Museum in Stendhal, Germany . . . presented a selection of prints after Kauffman’s work . . . The exhibition catalogue includes examples of engraved reproductions by British and other printmakers . . . There is a detailed chronology of Kauffman’s life and work; an essay on prints after Kauffman and eighteenth-century printmaking; another essay on the Winckelmann portrait and its influence; a numbered catalogue of works exhibited; and a bibliography of cited sources. The catalogue of works exhibited is divided into sections according to subjects and themes Kauffman portrayed: self-portraits, portraits, mythology, scenes from Shakespeare and other poetry, Roman and early English history, allegory and genre” (322).
• Monika Hinkel, Review of the exhibition catalogue, Timothy Clark, ed., Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave (Thames & Hudson, 2017), pp. 323–25. “The superb selection, incorporating paintings, woodblock prints, drawings, manuals and illustrated books selected from collections around the world illustrate well the versatility of Hokusai’s striking work. They not only portray the ingenious way in which he amalgamated Japanese-, Chinese- and European-inspired techniques, but also reveal his profound knowledge of mythology, history, the natural world and religion and his strong interest in draughtsmanship” (324–25).
• Stephen Clarke, Review of the book Lucy Peltz, Facing the Text: Extra-illustration, Print Culture, and Society in Britain, 1769–1840 (Huntington Library Press, 2017), pp. 353–55. “Peltz’s book is the product of some fifteen or more years of research, during which period she has published a number of related articles, most notably the correspondence of Granger and Bull in the Walpole Society volume for 2004. The result of her labours is by far the best and most detailed study of a phenomenon that has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. She divides the subject into three broadly chronological sections, using exemplars to tease out meanings and connections rather than aspiring to an impossible vision of encyclopaedic completeness” (354–55).
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Note (added 11 September 2018) — The original posting did not include quotations from the reviews.
Exhibition | Manufacturing Luxury
Opening next month at the Cognacq-Jay, from the press release:
La Fabrique du Luxe: Les Marchands Merciers Parisiens au XVIIIe Siècle
Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, 29 September 2018 — 27 January 2019
Curated by Rose-Marie Herda-Mousseaux
Du 29 septembre 2018 au 27 janvier 2019, le musée Cognacq-Jay organise la toute première exposition consacrée à cette corporation particulièrement codi ée et incontournable dans la diffusion de l’art et du luxe français. À travers les destins de marchands comme Gersaint ou Duvaux, le musée présente une centaine d’œuvres d’art, de documents et d’archives illustrant les origines du luxe à la parisienne.
À la fois négociant, importateur, collecteur, designer et décorateur, le marchand mercier occupe un rôle majeur dans l’essor de l’industrie du luxe à cette époque. Personnage atypique, il entretient des liens dans la haute aristocratie et s’appuie sur un réseau international d’artistes comprenant les meilleures spécialités techniques et artistiques, qu’elles proviennent de Lyon ou de Chine. Les marchands merciers se trouvent au cœur d’un réseau à trois pôles : le commanditaire, l’artisan ou artiste et, phénomène nouveau à la puissance croissante, la « mode ». Aussi, pour se faire connaître et agrandir leurs réseaux, ils développent les mécanismes de la promotion publicitaire, avec le concours de dessinateurs anonymes ou d’artistes comme Boucher ou Watteau.
Dissoute durant la période révolutionnaire, cette corporation suscite encore aujourd’hui l’intérêt des historiens de l’art et d’universitaires qui en font leur sujet de recherches. Le parcours de l’exposition explore le contexte propice à l’épanouissement de ce réseau, les clefs de leur succès et leurs innovations, et s’attache à dépeindre quelques-uns de ses illustres représentants.
Les marchands merciers : une corporation unique
L’appellation “marchand mercier” provient du terme « mercerie » qui, s’il désigne de nos jours les articles liés à l’habillement et à la parure, était synonyme au XVIIIe siècle de « marchandise ». Les statuts de la corporation, codi és en 1613, permettent aux marchands de vendre des objets enjolivés ou assemblés par leurs soins ou de seconde main. Ainsi, au XVIIIe siècle, les marchands merciers deviennent incontournables dans la diffusion des arts et du luxe hors de la cour. Ils acquièrent auprès des manufactures de porcelaine ou des grandes compagnies de transport des objets qu’ils font monter à l’aide d’orfèvres, de bronziers ou d’ébénistes pour créer des pièces décoratives aux formes nouvelles.
Cartographie du luxe parisien
Paris réunit les ingrédients indispensables d’un marché du luxe en plein essor : capitaux, clientèle nombreuse, fournisseurs hautement quali és, large réseau artistique, proximité avec la cour… Il est possible d’identi er des quartiers privilégiés dans l’organisation de ce commerce : la rue Saint-Honoré, bien sûr, mais aussi le Palais de Justice et les rues Saint-Martin et Saint- Denis, où les marchands disposaient d’adresses physiques.
La naissance des stratégies publicitaires
Dans un secteur concurrentiel, les marchands doivent faire preuve d’une stratégie permanente. C’est ainsi que l’émergence des enseignes ou « marques » s’appuient sur des ressorts marketing novateurs : contrats d’exclusivités ou monopoles, identi cation de clients prestigieux dans les réclames ou encore création d’identité visuelle dont témoignent les enseignes et cartes de visite.
L’exemple de Gersaint : un marchand-mercier emblématique
En 1720, Antoine Watteau peint en seulement « huit matins », pour la boutique de son ami Gersaint, une enseigne remarquable qui fait l’admiration du Tout-Paris. Ce coup de publicité fait de Gersaint un des premiers marchands merciers à développer une image publicitaire soignée. Le musée Cognacq-Jay conserve une étude préparatoire de cette œuvre et présente une reconstitution du tableau original à grande échelle.
Commissariat
Rose-Marie Herda-Mousseaux, Conservateur en chef du patrimoine, directrice du musée Cognacq-Jay
La Fabrique du Luxe: Les Marchands Merciers Parisiens au XVIIIe Siècle (Paris-Musées, 2018), 176 pages, ISBN: 978-2759604005, 30€.
The Burlington Magazine, August 2018
The eighteenth century in The Burlington:
The Burlington Magazine 160 (August 2018)
A R T I C L E S
• Alessandro Spila, “Ferdinando Fuga’s Proposals for Displaying Relics in S. Maria Maggiore, Rome,” pp. 646–53. Recently identified drawings show Fuga’s initial design [produced in the 1740s] for a pair of nave platforms in S. Maria Maggiore intended for the display of relics displaced by the recent reorganization of the choir. They were not executed, almost certainly because they conflicted with Benedict XIV’s wish to see a radical simplification of the church’s interior.
R E V I E W S
• Claudia Bodinek, Review of the exhibitions 300 Years of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory (MAK, 2018) and Eternally Beautiful: 300 Years of Vienna Porcelain (Augarten Porcelain Museum, 2018), pp. 674–75.
• Philippe Bordes, Review of the exhibition Napoleon: Power and Splendor (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2018), pp. 676–78.
• Jonathan Yarker, Review of the exhibition The Great Spectacle: 250 Years of the Summer Exhibition (Royal Academy of Arts, 2018), pp. 678–81.
• Roberto Valeriani, Review of Teresa Leonor M. Vale, ed., The Art of the Valadiers (Umberto Allemandi, 2017), pp. 703–05.
Exhibition | 300 Years of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory
Claudius Innocentius, Du Paquier, Panther Bowl, ca. 1730, glazed, painted, and gilt porcelain, 8 × 25.5 × 10.3 cm
(Vienna: MAK)
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Now on view at Vienna’s MAK:
300 Years of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory
MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna, 16 May — 23 September 2018
Curated by Rainald Franz and Michael Macek
With its wide-ranging jubilee exhibition 300 Years of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory, the MAK is drawing attention to the history and significance of the second-oldest porcelain manufactory in Europe. Founded in May 1718 when the imperial privilege for porcelain production was granted to Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier, the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory set new aesthetic standards over the following decades. Some 1000 objects from the holdings of the MAK as well as national and international collections offer a formidable overview of Viennese developments in the context of Asian precursors and European competitors.
The MAK has housed the legacy of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory—under imperial ownership from 1744 and closed in 1864—and has been dedicated to researching porcelain since its founding years. With examples from all eras of production, the legacy provides an overview of some 150 years of porcelain production in Vienna. Viennese porcelain production covered a wide spectrum of ceramics: from dinnerware sets and vases to clocks, from high-quality porcelain sculptures to scenic and floral miniatures, from porcelain paintings with cobalt blue and gold decorations in relief to large-format porcelain pictures with floral still lifes.
The exhibition 300 Years of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory presents the latest research findings with as yet unpublished documents on major works by the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory, such as the porcelain room from the Palais Dubsky in Brno (ca. 1740) and the centerpiece from Zwettl Abbey (Vienna, 1767/68). Both the ‘Dubsky Room’, one of the first rooms to be decorated with European porcelain, and the centerpiece from Zwettl Abbey are on permanent display in the MAK Permanent Collection Baroque Rococo Classicism, designed by Donald Judd.
The catalogue is distributed by ACC Art Books:
Christoph Thun-Hohenstein and Rainald Franz, eds., 300 Jahre Wiener Porzellan / 300 Years of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory (Stuttgart, Arnoldsche Art Publishers 2018), 272 pages, ISBN: 978-3897905306, 48€ / $85.
With contributions by Rainald Franz, Andreas Gamerith, Michael Macek, Errol Manners, Waltraud Neuwirth, Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, A. Philipp Revertera, Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, Ulrike Scholda, Leonhard Weidinger and Johannes Wieninger and a foreword by Christoph Thun-Hohenstein.
C O N T E N T S
• Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, Viennese Porcelain as a Resonance
• Rainald Franz, Three Centuries of Viennese Porcelain and Three Centennials
• Rainald Franz and Michael Macek, The Dubsky Chamber and the MAK: An 18th-Century Aristocratic Porcelain Room and its History
• Andreas Gamerith, At a Loss for Words: The Zwettl Centerpiece and its Origins
• Rainald Franz, The Viennese Porcelain Set for the Duke of Wellington
• Errol Manners, The Travels of an Arcanist, Joseph Jakob Ringler
• Johannes Wieninger, Exemplars from East Asia
• Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, Porcelain versus Silver
• Michael Macek, The Hülfswerk von Engelhardtszell 1798–1809 and its Impact beyond 1809
• Waltraud Neuwirth, Johann Poysel, First Modelleur of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory: His 1858 Journey to Limoges, Paris, Sèvres, Wallerfangen, and Nymphenburg
• Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel and Ulrike Scholda, The Museum as the Administrator of an Estate: The Closure of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory and Transfer of Its Holdings to the Imperial Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry
• Leonhard Weidinger, The Viennese Porcelain Scene: The Museum and Private Collections
• Rainald Franz, Paul Wittgenstein’s Porcelain Room
• A. Philipp Revertera, Etcetera: Random Thoughts on Collecting (and) Viennese Porcelain
• Rainald Franz and Michael Macek, History of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory 1718–1864 in its Cultural and Political Context
A Visual History of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory
Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier, 1718–1744
Imperial Porcelain Manufactory Phase 1, 1744–1749
Imperial Porcelain Manufactory Phase 2, 1750–1783
Conrad Sörgel von Sorgenthal, 1784–1805
Matthias Niedermayer, 1805–1827
Benjamin von Scholz, 1827–1833
Andreas Baumgartner, 1833–1842
Franz von Leithner, 1842–1855
Alexander Löwe, 1856–1862
Alois Auer von Welsbach, 1862–1864
Augarten Porcelain Manufactory, since 1923–24
Exhibition | Eternally Beautiful: 300 Years of Vienna Porcelain
Now on view at the Augarten Porcelain Museum in Vienna:
Eternally Beautiful: 300 Years of Vienna Porcelain, 1718–2018
Augarten Porcelain Museum, Vienna, 20 March — 13 October 2018
The central theme of the Augarten Porcelain Museum’s jubilee exhibition is the dialogue between the designers and the users of Vienna porcelain since 1718. Select exhibits from the hands and minds of innovative artists and designers from the various eras enter into dialogue with their respective cultural context, distinctive creative styles thus being paired with their era’s distinctive mood. The historical spectrum ranges from astounding miracles of Baroque craftsmanship to light-hearted Rococo objets d’art, from the golden glory of Neoclassical porcelain through the simplicity of Biedermeier to the allusive reminiscences of Historicism, and then continues up to the present day via the delicate creations of Art Déco, the bright colours of the 1950s and the fascinating world of modern design.
In all the most important phases of the Vienna porcelain manufactory first founded by Claudius Innocentius du Paquier in 1718, production has been characterized by an interplay between the vision of the porcelain-makers and the actual lifestyle of the porcelain-users. Conrad von Sorgenthal (1733–1805), the most successful director of the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, sent staff out as ‘lifestyle scouts’ to sound out the habits, fashions, special preferences and opinions of his customers, so that the findings could then be reflected in the design process. When the Augarten manufactory was founded in 1923 as the successor to the imperial works, it strove to achieve a similar closeness to contemporary lifestyle. The craft of fine porcelain was enriched with significant formal and emotional input not only from designers of the Wiener Werkstätte and but also from a host of excellently trained graduates from the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. By putting innovative creations from three centuries under the spotlight, the exhibition is intended to stimulate fresh debate and generate a new discourse. As part of the presentation, the Museum has invited the designers currently cooperating with the Augarten manufactory to take part in designing the present-day exhibition space.
Claudia Lehner-Jobst, Ewig Schön: 300 Jahre Wiener Porzellan (Vienna: Residenz Verlag, 2018), 192 pages, ISBN: 9783701734498, 35€.
Exhibition | The Furniture of Isaac Vose
Now on view at the Massachusetts Historical Society:
Entrepreneurship and Classical Design in Boston’s South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose and Thomas Seymour, 1815–1825
Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 11 May — 14 September 2018
Virtually forgotten for 200 years, Isaac Vose and his brilliant furniture are revealed in a new exhibition and accompanying volume. Beginning with a modest pair of collection boxes he made for his local Boston church in 1788, Vose went on to build a substantial business empire and to make furniture for the most prominent Boston families. The exhibition and catalog restore Vose from relative obscurity to his rightful position as one of Boston’s most important craftsmen.
Robert Mussey and Clark Pearce, Rather Elegant Than Showy: The Classical Furniture of Isaac Vose (Boston: David R Godine, 2018), 312 pages, ISBN: 978-1567926194, $50.
C O N T E N T S
Dennis M. Fiori
Foreword
Robert D. Mussey, Jr.
• Introduction: Isaac Vose Forgotten, Rediscovered
• Early Career and Partnerships, 1788–1819
• Boston’s Classical Style Matures: The Salisbury Group
• The Global Elite: Vose & Son and the World of Imports
• Demanding the Finest
• A Hero Returns, an Era Ends
Clark Pearce
• By These Signs You Will Know Them: Connoisseurship and Construction of Vose Furniture
Appendix 1: Labeled, Signed, and Documented Furniture by Isaac Vose
Appendix 2: Vose’s Partners, Journeymen, Subcontractors, and Apprentices
Index
Colophon
Exhibition | Laurent Amiot: Canadian Master Silversmith
Now on view at the National Gallery of Canada:
Laurent Amiot: Canadian Master Silversmith
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 11 May — 23 September 2018
Curated by René Villeneuve
Laurent Amiot: Canadian Master Silversmith brings together an exceptional selection of silver pieces from the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, as well as from various public and private collections around the world. Considered one of the most influential Canadian silversmiths of the 18th and 19th centuries, Laurent Amiot (1764–1839) completely redefined his craft, turning it into an art form. Visitors to the National Gallery of Canada can explore the brilliance and delicacy of his work through the presentation of nearly a hundred key works, most exhibited for the first time. In addition to religious vessels, accessories, and commemorative and domestic objects, the exhibition features a unique set of preparatory drawings by the artist, as well as several portraits of patrons and paintings providing further context for Amiot’s life and work.
More information is available here»
René Villeneuve, Laurent Amiot: Canadian Master Silversmith (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, In partnership with the National Gallery of Canada, 2018), 240 pages, ISBN: 978-1773270418, $50. Also available in French.
Laurent Amiot was born in Quebec City in 1764, and after a first apprenticeship stayed in Paris for five years, just before the French Revolution, to perfect his artistic training. He returned to his hometown in the spring of 1787, acquainted with the latest European stylistic trends, mastering the art of composition and possessing a solid technique. He opened a workshop in the Old City the following year, inaugurating a fruitful practice that spans five decades. This illustrated catalog, containing some 80 works on display, is published on the occasion of the presentation of the first retrospective devoted to the artist. Three chapters highlight the fundamental role of Amiot’s contribution to the development of art in Canada. The first two scrutinize his training, his practice, the operation of the workshop, the role of the collaborators and relationships with patrons. The third analyzes the work, trying to advance knowledge of the society in which it blossomed.
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