Enfilade

From the press release:

Photo of Martina Droth by Nick Mead.

Martina Droth, an art historian and curator who has served in a series of prominent roles at the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) over 16 years, will be the museum’s next Paul Mellon Director, Yale President Maurie McInnis announced today.

As the museum’s deputy director and chief curator, Droth has been an integral part of the YCBA team and an active member of the university community, the president wrote in a message to the Yale community, building “an impressive record of achievement through roles of increasing responsibility, from leading the research division and serving as curator of sculpture to her current post. The YCBA will benefit from being led by an art historian and curator who has been instrumental in its success.”

Droth began her new role on January 15. Her tenure begins as YCBA prepares to reopen to the public on March 29, following a two-year renovation that will help safeguard the museum’s collections for generations to come. The museum houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom.

Droth succeeds Courtney J. Martin, who is now executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Richard Brodhead, a former dean of Yale College and former president of Duke University, has served as YCBA’s interim director since 1 July 2024.

“As interim director I’ve had the privilege to watch the Yale Center for British Art prepare for a dazzling reopening,” Brodhead said. “Martina Droth has been a key driver of this rebirth. With her warmth, breadth of knowledge, transatlantic contacts, and love of the museum’s art and its people, she will make an extraordinary leader for a unique cultural resource. I couldn’t be happier for YCBA’s future.”

Since coming to Yale in 2009, Droth has been instrumental in shaping the museum’s long-range strategy for research, collections, and exhibitions. “She is playing a vital role in reimagining the YCBA’s collection installation and conceiving a new curatorial program in readiness for the museum’s reopening,” McInnis wrote in her message.

Under Droth’s leadership, McInnis said, the YCBA will continue to advance its mission of promoting the understanding and appreciation of British art “through its exceptional collections, groundbreaking exhibitions, field-defining research, and innovative public programs.”

Susan Gibbons, vice provost for collections and scholarly communication at Yale, described Droth as “a brilliant curator with an in-depth understanding of British art history.”

“Her field-changing scholarship on British art studies and extensive experience working with partners across the university and those at external institutions demonstrate her ability to build collaborations and advance YCBA’s mission,” Gibbons said. “Having been such an integral part of the museum for the past 16 years, she will have a seamless transition into her new leadership role.”

As director, Droth, in partnership with staff, faculty, and students, will further enhance educational initiatives, expand community engagement, and foster an intellectual environment that welcomes a breadth of perspectives to be part of the discourse in art and art history, McInnis said. Droth also will build on the museum’s partnerships with Yale’s academic departments to augment its national and international collaborations and outreach.

“My colleagues and I are very much looking forward to working with Martina, who has expertly led the Yale Center for British Art’s curatorial and research endeavors over the past 16 years,” said Stephanie Wiles, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale University Art Gallery. “We are keen to advance the Art Gallery and the Center’s thriving exhibition partnerships already underway and together to explore new intellectual collaborations engaging Yale’s exceptional art collections.”

Droth has curated numerous high-profile YCBA exhibitions, including Bill Brandt | Henry Moore and Sculpture Victorious: Art in an Age of Invention, 1837–1901, along with the two upcoming exhibitions, Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until the Morning and Hew Locke: Passages, which will mark YCBA’s reopening.

Droth has also secured resources that support the museum’s scholarly initiatives, McInnis noted, including the multi-year Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grants with which she developed the research strategy at the YCBA. Her efforts to advance the museum’s mission have often involved collaborative efforts with renowned external institutions such as Tate Britain, the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University, and the Getty Museum.

“Hearing the news of Martina’s promotion is a great way to start the year,” said Locke, the British sculptor and contemporary visual artist whose work will be on display during the museum’s reopening. “Having known her for 15 years, it is certain that the institution is in a safe pair of hands. Working with her on my forthcoming exhibition, her support, intellectual rigor and instinctive understanding of the nature of working with artists, made the complex and lengthy process a pleasure. I wish her every success in her new post.”

Beyond her YCBA work, Droth has served on university committees, including the Committee for Art in Public Spaces; co-taught courses with faculty members from the Department of the History of Art in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and brought graduate students into curatorial research.

She oversaw the YCBA’s first joint exhibition with the Yale School of Architecture and facilitated projects integrating visiting artists with students at the Yale School of Art. She has also mentored numerous curators, students, and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to careers in the academy and museum fields. Her academic work includes many service roles, including co-editing the British Art Studies journal with the Paul Mellon Centre.

Droth said she is deeply honored to step into the role of YCBA director “at this pivotal moment in its history. This wonderful institution has been my home base for 16 years, and I am thrilled to lead it into its next chapter — one where we continue to push the possibilities of scholarship, exhibitions, and public programming. The YCBA’s success has always been built on collaboration—amongst our talented staff, faculty, students, and our wider community—and I look forward to working with all of these groups to continue expanding the museum’s reach, deepen its impact, and make it a vital and welcoming space of cultural exchange, inspiration, and discovery.”

Before coming to Yale, Droth taught at universities and coordinated research and curated exhibitions for major art institutes in the UK. A former chair of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History, she has a deep commitment to the field, characterized by collaborative leadership and excellence in curatorial practice, research, and education, McInnis said.

“Martina’s success over the years is due in large part to her dedication to fostering a culture of collaboration and inclusion,” the president wrote. “A proponent of building partnerships with local communities, Martina has developed programs to connect broad audiences with Yale’s collections.”

At YCBA, Droth initiated “The View from Here: Accessing Art through Photography,” a program for New Haven high school students, in collaboration with the Lens Media Lab at the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. And she has introduced students from New Haven Promise into the Curatorial Division of the YCBA and created internship opportunities for undergraduates through, for example, the Association of Research Institutes in Art History. (New Haven Promise is a college scholarship and career development program that supports New Haven Public School students.)

“Martina appreciates how much Yale artists and students are engaged in New Haven, and she partners on and off campus to increase educational opportunities,” said Kymberly Pinder, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art. “She has been a great collaborator with the School of Art, connecting YCBA curators and visiting artists with our students and high school students. She knows the value of the arts to inspire young scholars and create connections within communities. I am excited for how the YCBA, with her leadership, will continue to make these connections and advance the work artists do across Yale and within the city and beyond.”

Droth’s appointment reinforces the YCBA’s dedication to innovative scholarship, teaching, and community engagement, said Paul Messier, the founder and Pritzker Director of the Lens Media Lab at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. “As an energetic and insightful leader, she combines a collaborative spirit with a distinct vision for the YCBA’s future and its role within Yale, New Haven, and the international landscape of museums and cultural institutions,” he said.

In McInnis’ message, the president thanked Brodhead for providing “exceptional leadership” as interim director. She also thanked members of the search advisory committee, which was chaired by Ned Cooke, the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts in the FAS, and members of the Yale community who offered suggestions and ideas during the search process.

“Over the course of the search, the committee learned a great deal about the strengths and untapped potential of the YCBA,” Cooke said. “We gained insight into the established reputation of the institution — its strong collections, ambitious exhibitions, and leading research program — but we also learned about popular perceptions and different audiences.

“The center holds a pivotal role for the Yale community, local audiences, and national and international visitors with a keen interest in British art,” he added. “Martina Droth offers a unique blend of experience at the center, close ties to British art circles, and commitment to a balance of exhibition, research, and outreach. Her experience at the center, collegiality, and passionate insistence on reaching the various potentials of the center give us great confidence in her appointment.”

McInnis said she and the advisory committee benefited from comments they received during the international search. “Based on the insights we gathered, Martina is the ideal leader for the YCBA. I look forward to working with her as she steers the museum toward new heights in realizing its mission and makes it an ever more welcoming space that offers inspiring experiences with art and deepens our engagement with students, scholars, New Haven residents, and visitors from around the world.”

Plate, Wedgwood and Bentley, Etruria, Staffordshire (made in) and Chelsea (decorated in, 1773–74, creamware, OH: 7/8” OH 9-7/8” (Williamsburg: Museum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund, 2024-241). View of Dunnington Cliff on the River Trent, engraved by Francois Vivares after work by Thomas Smith, London, 1745, etching and line engraving on laid paper (Williamsburg: Museum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund, 2024-242).

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

From the press release (16 December 2024) . . .

A rare pair of related 18th-century objects were recently acquired by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: a creamware plate, made by Josiah Wedgwood in 1773–74 as part of a service commissioned by Catherine the Great to be used at her castle, La Grenouillère or Kekerekeksinen (Frog Marsh); and a fine copy of a 1745 print engraved by François Vivares after work by Thomas Smith. The print depicts Dunnington Cliff on the River Trent in England, which is the motif seen in the center of the plate. By adding the plate to its ceramics collection, the Foundation becomes one of the few American institutions to own a surviving piece from this famous dinner service.

“Colonial Williamsburg’s collection of British-made ceramics is one of the finest in the United States,” said Ronald Hurst, the Foundation’s senior vice president and chief mission officer. “The acquisition of this plate and its printed design source brings new prominence to the collection. We are deeply grateful to the Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections for funding both purchases.”

Royal patronage within England and abroad helped Josiah Wedgwood secure a well-respected reputation as a manufacturer of ceramics for all levels of society. Catherine the Great of Russia was a patroness who commissioned two dinner services from his firm; the Frog Marsh service was the second. It encompassed an astounding 952 pieces, each of which was hand painted in monochrome with distinct views of England and bore a splayed frog within a shield to signify the name of the palace for which it was made. To this day, the service remains the most ambitious endeavor by a British ceramics manufacturer. It was more than a mere dinner service; it was a symbol of British diplomacy and shared with the larger world all that England could offer from ancient architectural ruins to imposing country homes in bucolic landscapes to industrial achievements, such as the view of Dunnington Cliff on River Trent shown on this plate. It also symbolizes the importance of the Baltic region in British and American trade in the 18th and early 19th centuries as well as the production of ceramics through the plate’s central image.

“This plate will be very much at home alongside other important Wedgwood-made holdings already in Colonial Williamsburg’s ceramic collection, including a prized Portland vase and a piece from the Husk service, the earlier service commissioned by Catherine the Great,” said Angelika Kuettner, Colonial Williamsburg’s curator of ceramics and glass. “This Green Frog service plate provides so many layers of interpretation for us. Other pieces from the service depicting grand houses are truly lovely, but this example allows us to talk about waterpower in the 18th century and ceramic production, not to mention Wedgwood’s industrial and entrepreneurial influence throughout the world.”

The plate’s molded rim is painted with a meandering oak leaf and acorn border interrupted by a shield enclosing a green painted splayed frog. The cavetto is painted with a neoclassical, scalloped border between concentric lines. The plate’s well is painted with a bucolic scene of a lock on a river, grazing cattle in the background, a sailing vessel on the meandering waterway, and a church spire painted faintly in the distance. The reverse bears a black enamel painted number ‘221’ and an impressed circle.

Of the pieces in the original dinner service, the majority remain in Russia today and have been there since their delivery in the 18th century. A few pieces were not sent and were divided between Wedgwood’s Etruria manufactory and Alexander Baxter, the agent for the purchase. To date, there are 26 extant pieces known that were not delivered to Catherine the Great because, as Wedgwood noted, they were either duplicates or considered by Wedgwood not up to his high standard of quality. Of those, 17 are in museum collections, only 5 of which are in American museums. This acquisition brings that number to 6 in museums in the United States; the remaining 8 pieces are still privately owned.

The view of Dunnington Cliff, located southeast of Derby, is significant as it was the site of King’s Mills, Britain’s largest water-powered manufacturing area in the mid-18th century and home to numerous mills associated with a variety of manufacturers, including flint grinding for the ceramic industry, paper making, iron forging and flour production. The representation of Dunnington Cliff on the plate comes from a 1745 print, View of Dunnington Cliff on the River Trent engraved by François Vivares after the painting on the subject by Thomas Smith. The opportunity for the Foundation to acquire both the source print with the hand-painted ceramic plate from the Frog Marsh service is significant.

“Together they tell an incredible story. Prints like this one were imported in the 18th century from England to decorate the walls of Virginia houses and also served as inspiration for an important dinner service used in a Russian Palace. Being able to show a printed design source alongside the ceramic plate helps us draw connections between mediums within the decorative arts,” said Katie McKinney, Margaret Beck Pritchard Curator of Maps & Prints

The lock at the center of the plate shows the same lock in the print. While the artists painting the plate adapted the print to the circular format, they maintained accuracy with great precision to include even the wispy clouds and a church spire seen faintly in the background.

From the press release (25 September 2024) . . .

Jean Baptiste Greuze, Portrait of a Man, said to be Louis-François Robin, 1790, oil on walnut panel, 26 × 22 inches (South Bend: Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, 2024.008.006).

The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is the beneficiary of a significant gift of paintings, sculptures, and decorative art objects from the estate of Ernestine Morris Carmichael Raclin (1927–2024). Iconic masters from Gainsborough and Reynolds, Houdon to Guillaumin, among many others, are included.

A life-long supporter of the arts, Raclin began collecting in earnest in the 1980s and 1990s, assembling the highest quality works that reflected her taste for old master and nineteenth-century aesthetics. A devoted supporter of the University of Notre Dame, and its first female Trustee, and committed to cultural institutions in and around her home of South Bend, Indiana, Raclin planned the donation to further the University’s mission to foster an appreciation for the greatest human achievements and intellectual exchange. She sincerely wished to encourage the growth of the museum that now bears her name, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.

“Our mother loved the arts and was devoted to the community in which she lived,” shared daughter, Carmi, and son-in-law, Chris Murphy. “She collected and displayed beautiful things in her home and joyously shared her art collection entertaining people from across the region and country. It is only appropriate that this gift can now be shared with the community she loved through the beautiful new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art and the University of Notre Dame.”

Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Miss Barwell, 1785, oil on canvas, 30 × 25 inches (South Bend: Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, 2024.008.014).

The Raclin Bequest includes works from the fifteenth through the early twentieth centuries but is especially strong in eighteenth-century art. A portrait by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, a landscape sketch by Hubert Robert, and a fête champêtre by Nicolas Lancret, for example, offer further depth to holdings by French masters Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun and François Boucher already in the University’s collection. Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds bolster the representation of British art in the collection with impressive demonstrations of costume and technique. Jean-Antoine Houdon’s patinated terracotta portrait bust of his infant daughter is the first of its kind in the collection.

The University’s nineteenth-century collection is best known for its French academic works and oil sketches. The Raclin gift complements those holdings with proto-Impressionist, Impressionist, and post-Impressionist examples. Landscapes by Camille Corot and Johan Jongkind are the types of paintings that inspired the Impressionists and heralded a new approach to painting founded on advances in color theory. Hippolyte Petitjean, for example, is most closely aligned with Pointillism, a technique of placing dots or very short strokes of pure color next to each other recognizing that the human eye will combine the colors when viewed at a distance. In his painting of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, he uses a seemingly mechanical technique and further suggests the angst of an increasingly industrialized world by juxtaposing the buttresses of the medieval church with the crane in the foreground loading cargo onto a barge. The lone American work in the gift, John Alexander White’s Reflection, is notable for its synthesis of various avant-garde trends that make it difficult to categorize his work. He combines sinuous lines, abstract shapes, the limited, muted tones of his American compatriot J.A.M. Whistler, and a deep interest in psychological effects and technical experimentation to arrive at a unique revelation of the fin-de-siècle spirit.

Hubert Robert, The Washerwomen of Charenton, 1767–70, oil on cradled panel, 15 × 11 inches (South Bend: Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, 2024.008.011).

“Throughout her extraordinary life, Ernestine Raclin demonstrated time and again her commitment to her local community and to increasing accessibility and appreciation of the arts,” said Rev. Robert Dowd, C.S.C., University president. “We are grateful for her generous support that enabled the creation of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, as well as this additional gift which will delight museum attendees for many generations to come.”

With origins that date to 1875, the University’s art museum is among the first and most esteemed academic art museums in the nation. The Raclin Bequest is cornerstone to a major initiative, 150 for 150: Art for Notre Dame the Sesquicentennial Campaign, to strategically build the collection for students, faculty, researchers, and the nation. The goal is to achieve 150 gifts for 150 years. A gift could be a single object or, as with the Raclin Bequest, an entire collection.

The campaign is focused on Museum collecting priorities including: Art of the Indigenous Americas, European and American Art before 1900, International Modern and Contemporary Art, Irish Art, Sculpture, and Works on Paper (prints, drawings and photographs). Such extraordinary generosity is not limited to the Notre Dame family. Friends, old and new, have stepped forward with great care. The Raclin Bequest and other gifts will debut at the end of the campaign in a major celebratory exhibition in early 2026.

“Although Ernie had long been a supporter of the Museum and generously gifted numerous works to the collection over decades, this gift is quite special,” shares Joseph Antenucci Becherer, PhD, Director and Curator of Sculpture. “To know that she lived with and found profound enjoyment and inspiration in these objects, and wanted to share that with the world, fills the Museum with her spirit of grace, passion, and love of others.”

It is critical to note that art is central to learning and research across the academy, and the Museum collections are available to the region, the nation, and beyond. At Notre Dame, the collections are annually utilized by more than forty departments, representing nearly every college and school on campus. Recent research shows that 91% of graduating seniors had visited the museum—an astonishing number. Additionally, the Museum welcomes more than 11,000 K-12 students yearly from a three-state area. Beyond those outreach efforts, the Museum lends works to the highest caliber exhibitions nationwide and worldwide; recently, works were lent to venues in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Washington, DC, among others.

From the press release (19 September 2024):

Axel Rüger (Photo by Cat Garcia).

The Board of Trustees of The Frick Collection today announced the appointment of leading museum director Axel Rüger as the museum’s next Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director. He will start in the position in the spring of 2025. Rüger will join the Frick after successful tenures guiding the acclaimed Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Throughout his career as a two-time museum director, he has been recognized as an accomplished arts leader and visionary, with distinct expertise in developing audiences, engaging stakeholders, fundraising, building institutional brands, and producing critically acclaimed exhibitions. Previous curatorial positions have included London’s National Gallery, where he was responsible for the collection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch paintings.

“On behalf of the Board, I am thrilled to welcome Axel to The Frick Collection,” said Board Chair Elizabeth Eveillard. “Axel is a rare museum director who embodies a complex set of skills, all of which are of great importance, particularly at this pivotal moment for cultural organizations. As an established museum director, he brings steady, strategic insight, as well as a proven ability to inspire and guide dynamic teams to great achievement. A brilliant mind in the field, he also holds a highly relevant curatorial background. As we prepare to embark on a new era for the Frick, I am confident in his ability to steer us well. I extend my deepest gratitude to Ian Wardropper for his steady leadership of our organization. Ian’s vision and tireless work serve as our foundation as we move forward. I also thank the Search Committee for their support and assistance in this process.”

“The Frick is a uniquely special place, and there is not another museum in the world quite like it,” said Rüger. “Since the early 1990s, I have always made a point to visit and admire the museum any time I was in New York City. Leading the Frick—with its spectacular collection of stunning masterpieces, rich history of exhibitions, intimate residential setting, library, and location in such an exciting city—is an irresistible proposition, particularly at this milestone moment. Following the largest renovation in the institution’s history, it’s an exciting time to re-open, develop exciting programs for loyal visitors, and welcome new audiences who have not yet discovered this treasure trove of a museum.”

Rüger’s appointment concludes an extensive, global search for the Frick’s next director, which began in spring 2024 after the announced retirement of Ian Wardropper. During fourteen impactful years at the Frick, Wardropper led the museum and research library through a period of strategic planning and growth, which included the first comprehensive renovation and upgrade of the Frick’s historic buildings in nearly ninety years, an acclaimed series of exhibitions, and a focused acquisitions program that enhanced the institution’s art and library collections. After a temporary relocation to the widely admired Frick Madison, the Frick will reopen its historic buildings at 1 East 70th Street in early 2025.

Rüger currently serves as Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Founded more than 250 years ago, it is the world’s most prominent artist-led institution with a membership of 120 prominent artists and architects, and a collection that includes work by Joshua Reynolds, Angelica Kauffman, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, and contemporary artists such as David Hockney, Tracey Emin, and Antony Gormley. Appointed in May 2019, he steered the organization through the Covid-19 pandemic, including a significant restructuring that steadied the institution. An accomplished fundraiser, he surpassed fundraising goals during his five-year tenure. He also oversaw the £23 million re-development of the Royal Academy Schools and curated two acclaimed exhibitions, including Souls Grown Deep Like the Rivers, Black Artists from the American South in 2023, and a retrospective of the work of British artist Sir Michael Craig-Martin RA, which opened this week. He also oversaw the realization of two Summer Exhibitions, the world’s oldest open-submission show that combines works by Royal Academicians and emerging talents in art and architecture.

Prior to his time at the Royal Academy, Rüger served as Director of Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum and sister institution, The Mesdag Collection, in The Hague, which showcases the art assembled by the nineteenth-century seascape painter Hendrik Willem Mesdag and his wife. In these joint capacities, from April 2006 through April 2019, Rüger supervised a staff of 400 and oversaw the two venues, which together attracted more than 2.1 million visitors annually. During his tenure, his many achievements included growing the audience by a third, implementing three strategic plans, realizing a rich program of exhibitions, notable acquisitions and the completion of two major research projects: the new edition of Van Gogh’s letters in 2009 and the Van Gogh Studio Practice Project methods in 2013. He also expanded the capacity of the building by adding a spectacular new entrance hall and a new conservation studio.

From May 1999 to March 2006, Rüger served as Curator of Dutch Paintings 1600–1800 at the National Gallery, London. In this role, he was a member of the senior curatorial team responsible for the display, interpretation, and research of one of the largest collections within the National Gallery, as well as its exhibitions. His specific activities include the reinstallation of the Dutch paintings collection, three major exhibitions (Vermeer and the Delft School, with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001; Aelbert Cuyp, with the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2002; and The Dutch Portrait, with the Mauritshuis, The Hague, 2006–07). During this time in London, Rüger was also part of the first cohort of the then newly established prestigious Clore Leadership Programme for leaders in the cultural sector.

Rüger is a Trustee of the Art Fund (UK) and serves on the Advisory Board of Van Lanschot Kempen Bankiers (The Netherlands). He previously served on the Commissie Collectie Nederland (a Dutch government commission), TEFAF Showcase, Apeldoorn Conference series, and the Stitching Praemium Erasmianum. He studied Art History at the Freie Universität in Berlin (Germany), the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), and Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario (Canada). Rüger is fluent in German, English, and
Dutch.

From the press release (28 August 2024) . . .

Antoine-François Callet, Portrait of the Comte de Cromot, Superintendent of the Comte de Provence, at an easel, accompanied by his two daughters-in-law, 1787, oil on canvas, 78 × 64 inches (San Marino: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens).

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens has acquired an ambitious, large-scale masterpiece by 18th-century French portraitist Antoine-François Callet (1741–1823), the official painter of Louis XVI. The work is the fourth in a series of acquisitions made possible by The Ahmanson Foundation.

Painted at the height of the artist’s career, Portrait of the Comte de Cromot, Superintendent of the Comte de Provence, at an easel, accompanied by his two daughters-in-law is a unique Old Master work that contains a painting within a painting. The small landscape on the easel adjacent to the sitter was painted on a separate canvas and signed by the Comte de Cromot himself, known to be an amateur painter, and then inserted into the overall composition by Callet. The complex portrait will go on view in the Huntington Art Gallery this fall as an important counterpart to the institution’s world-class collection of 18th-century French decorative arts, complementing the recent addition of Joseph Hyacinthe François-de-Paule de Rigaud, comte de Vaudreuil by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, which also became part of the collection through a gift from The Ahmanson Foundation.

“This historically significant work by Antoine-François Callet is an extraordinary addition to our signature portrait collection and will be vital in our interpretive work as we draw connections to our related French holdings,” Huntington President Karen Lawrence said. “We are immensely grateful to The Ahmanson Foundation for their support in strengthening The Huntington’s collection of European art with this masterpiece.”

Antoine-François Callet was born in Paris in 1741. In 1764, at the age of 23, he won the Prix de Rome and completed his artistic education at the Académie de France in Rome. In the late 1770s, he returned to Paris to begin work on a ceiling painting for the Louvre, which earned him admission to the Académie Royale. He received patronage and the protection of King Louis XVI and the monarch’s brothers. As the official painter of Louis XVI, he painted the famous portrait of the king in his coronation robes. Callet was also the First Painter to ‘Monsieur’ (Comte de Provence) and the official painter to the Comte d’Artois, who were the king’s brothers. During the turbulent 18th and 19th centuries, Callet regularly exhibited at the Salon of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

“The portrait of the Comte de Cromot is exceptional both historically and artistically,” said Christina Nielsen, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Museum at The Huntington. “It has tremendous presence—great not only in scale but also in ambition as it contains four portraits in one: that of the Comte de Cromot, his two daughters-in-law, and the future King Louis XVIII, seen in a roundel on the wall in the background.”

The primary sitter, the Comte de Cromot, was Jules-David Cromot du Bourg, superintendent of finances to the Comte de Provence, who was the brother of Louis XVI and the future king of France. The frame of the portrait of the Comte de Provence is inscribed with the words “Donné par Mr. frère du Roi au Grand Surintendant de ses finances,” acknowledging that the monumental work was commissioned by the future king for the model. The Comte de Cromot died in 1786, which makes the portrait the last representation of this important 18th-century figure. The two daughters-in-law in the painting are Marie Sophie Guillauden du Plessis and Sophie de Barral. “The Comte de Cromot is rendered as an accomplished artist, while his daughters-in-law are pictured reading letters and books and considering drawings, signifying the importance of the arts across the spectrum of intellectual life in French society,” Nielsen said.

Through its partnership with The Ahmanson Foundation, The Huntington has acquired Portrait of José Antonio Caballero, Second Marqués de Caballero, Secretary of Grace and Justice (1807) by Francisco de Goya in 2023; Portrait of Joseph Hyacinthe François-de-Paule de Rigaud, comte de Vaudreuil (ca. 1784) by Vigée Le Brun, the most important female artist of 18th-century France, in 2022; and the monumental Portage Falls on the Genesee (ca. 1839) by Anglo American painter Thomas Cole in 2021.

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

On 25 January 2023, the portrait was sold at Christie’s in New York as lot 55 of Remastered: Old Masters from the Collection of J.E. Safra for $201,600, well under its low estimate of $300,000. –CH

Pierre Subleyras, The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine de’ Ricci, 1746, oil on canvas, 75 × 250 cm
(Florence: Uffizi)

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

From the recent press release (as noted at Art History News)  . . .

A majestic masterpiece of 18th-century French art is set to become a highlight in the Uffizi collection: the large canvas The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine de’ Ricci, signed by the renowned Occitan painter Pierre Hubert Subleyras (1675–1758) and dated 1746. Historians attribute significant importance to this painting for its quality, prestigious commission, and collection history. It was acquired by the museum director, Simone Verde, at the international TEFAF fair in Maastricht in February 2024. Upon its arrival in Florence, it will be restored and prominently displayed in the gallery spaces dedicated to 18th-century painting.

In 1763, the canvas—created for the canonization of Saint Catherine de’ Ricci—was part of Girolamo Colonna di Sciarra’s collection, then Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna’s, followed by Filippo III Colonna’s. Between 1812 and 1935, it was housed in the Barberini collection in the namesake Roman palace. That same year, it was auctioned and bought by the Marquis Sacchetti, from whom it was inherited by the current owners.

Pierre Subleyras, Portrait of Pope Benedict XIV (Prospero Lambertini, 1675–1758), 1746, oil on canvas, 64 × 49 cm (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.145).

As was customary, religious orders presented the Pope with artworks celebrating the figures about to be canonized, but the choice of subject and artist was reserved for the Pope. In this case, Pope Benedict XIV Lambertini chose Subleyras, a painter gaining great success in Rome. The Bolognese Pope had entrusted him with his portrait in 1746, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

Subleyras’ purism, the monumental quality of figures with marble-like white complexions still retaining a rocaille style, is already moving towards Neoclassicism, aligning with modernity. The solemn yet composed sacred scene in The Mystical Marriage owes much to the classicism of Poussin and his interpretation of Roman Baroque models. The reference to 17th-century classicist masters is enriched by the airy colors typical of the 18th century. The movement around the mystical marriage scene is conveyed through a multitude of putti and cherubic heads, where the artist showcases his virtuosity with still life elements such as the white lily branch or the floral arrangement held by the winged putto depicted in profile.

Subleyras distinguished himself as a painter of histories and portraits, but among his greatest masterpieces is one of the most beautiful nudes in art history, the Female Nude kept in the Barberini Gallery in Rome (ca. 1740). The French painter, who later died in Rome, was trained by his father (also a painter) and went to Paris in 1726, where he won the prestigious Prix de Rome scholarship in 1728 as a resident of the French Academy in Rome. In 1736, he married Maria Felice Tibaldi, a miniaturist who often reproduced her husband’s works in miniature. In 1748, Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga introduced the artist to Pope Benedict XIV, for whom he painted not only his portrait but also the Mass of Saint Basil for St. Peter’s Basilica (now in Santa Maria degli Angeli). During the same period, he painted the Miracle of Saint Benedict for the Olivetani church in Perugia (Rome, Santa Francesca Romana) and Saint Ambrose and Theodosius (Perugia, National Gallery of Umbria).

Pierre Subleyras, Female Nude Seen from the Back, ca. 1732, oil on canvas, 74 × 136 cm (Rome: Palazzo Barberini).

The Director of the Uffizi Galleries, Simone Verde, stated: “The Mystical Marriage is a work of primary importance for 18th-century art and will be a prominent new addition to the museum’s 18th-century rooms. Besides its refined aesthetics and compositional elegance, it significantly reflects the taste of the circle of nobles and intellectuals around the Roman Curia in the mid-18th century. It is a true masterpiece, rare to find on the market, that will enrich the Uffizi’s 18th-century collections, filling a significant gap and representing another step towards completing the pictorial history of Italy pursued by Luigi Lanzi, a mission that remains central to the museum today due to its national and international collection significance.”

City of Charleston ‘Free’ Badge with Phrygian Cap and Pole, marked ‘No. U’, engraved by Thomas Albernethie, ca. 1787–89, copper
(Colonial Williamsburg: Museum Purchase, The Friends of Colonial Williamsburg Collections Fund and Partial Gift of John Kraljevich, 2024-171).

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

From the press release (30 July 2024). . .

Colonial Williamsburg Acquires Rare Charleston ‘Free’ Badge

New research shows the previously unknown numismatic origins of ‘U’ and ‘X’ badges.

Weeks after the Revolutionary War ended by the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the newly incorporated city of Charleston, South Carolina began to pass laws. The population of the city was overwhelmingly African American with more than 8,000 people in the community, and the vast majority of them were enslaved; only about 600 were living there as free citizens. Ever fearful of insurrection, the city’s administration continued to implement policies designed to constrain the lives of all of its African American residents. An ordinance from 22 November 1783 regulated the employment or ‘hiring out’ of skilled and unskilled enslaved workers in which an individual went to work for an entity other than their enslaver, who was paid a fee for the service provided. An annual fee of five to forty shillings was to be paid to the city by the enslaver for the right of an enslaved person to be hired out, and a badge or ticket was required to be worn by the laborer. [The law also required free African American residents to wear badges.]

While no examples of ‘slave’ badges dating to 1783 are known to exist today, 10 ‘free’ badges from later in the 1780s have been identified in museums and private collections. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has recently acquired one of these ‘free’ badges, and it is now on view in the Lowcountry section of the exhibition A Rich and Varied Culture in the Nancy N. and Colin G. Campbell Gallery of the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, one of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.

“It’s an important piece—and an emotional one,” said J. Grahame Long, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s executive director of collections and deputy chief curator. “Obviously, it’s a terrific addition to Colonial Williamsburg’s permanent collection, but it goes much further than that. It’s a critical component in telling America’s whole story.”

The Charleston ‘hiring out’ law pertained not only to enslaved workers. It went further to affect the free African American population as well, stating that
“…every free negro, mulatto or [mestizo] living or residing within this City, shall be obliged … to register him, her or themselves, in the office of the City Clerk, with the number of their respective families and places of residence … every free negro, mulatto, or mestizo, above the age of fifteen years, shall be obliged to obtain a badge from the Corporation of the City, for which badge every such person shall pay into the City Treasury the sum of Five Shillings, and shall wear it suspended by a string or ribband, and exposed to view on his breast.”

Through these dehumanizing requirements, the city of Charleston levied a fee on the right of free people of color to live and work there—a stinging irony given the root causes of the American Revolution. The penalties for breaking this law were harsh: failure to comply could cause a free person to be fined £3, which if not paid within 10 days could force the person to the workhouse (jail) and work for up to 30 days. Enslaved individuals caught wearing a ‘free’ badge were subject to whipping, by up to 39 lashes, followed by an hour in the stocks.

“I can’t help but see the parallels between these 18th-century ‘free’ badges and the yellow stars worn by Jews during the Holocaust,” said Erik Goldstein, Colonial Williamsburg’s senior curator of mechanical arts, metals, and numismatics. “Both survive as reminders of horrific ideologies, and how humanity must do better going forward.”

City of Charleston ‘Free’ Badge with Phrygian Cap and Pole, marked ‘No. X’, copper (Winston-Salem: Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts; acquired in 2024, photo by Lea Lane).

Of the 10 known ‘free’ badges, with one exception, all are made of copper. Their iconography is misleadingly uplifting: they featured the ‘Phrygian’ cap and pole, symbolizing the lofty ideals of liberty since ancient times and were rendered in high relief and emblazoned ‘FREE’. Each of these badges carries a unique sequential designator as they were intended to be instruments of tracking, control, and a revenue source. The badge acquired by Colonial Williamsburg is engraved ‘No. U’ and is part of a succession, possibly limited to 26 or fewer badges with letters instead of numbers. To date, the only other badge inscribed with a letter is ‘No. X’, and the other eight examples are numbered between 14 and 341.

Research conducted by Goldstein at Colonial Williamsburg reveals new insights into how these badges were made. What further unites badges ‘U’ and ‘X’ are the copper pieces, or planchets, that they were struck on. Both exhibit portions of text engraved in retrograde or ‘mirror image’ on their backs, showing that they had previously been part of a printing plate relating to money. Once reversed, the readable portions contain words like ‘PENCE’, ‘TREASURY’, ‘DEPOSIT’, and ‘RENTS’. This detail offers a surprising clue to their numismatic origin; the only paper currency circulating in South Carolina in the 1780s that carried these specific terms were the City of Charleston’s emissions of 12 July and 20 October 1786, only current until 21 July 1788. It can therefore be said with certainty that the badges ‘U’ and ‘X’ were made of copper recycled from the out-of-date printing plates for these two issues. As of mid-2024, unique examples of only the ‘Two Pence’ and the ‘Five Shillings & Three Pence’ bills from the 1786 issues of Charleston’s paper money have been recorded. Given that the text engraved on the reverses of badges ‘U’ and ‘X’ match neither, they were for the printing of bills of unknown denominations that are not known to survive.

“The fact that two of the ‘free’ badges were made from re-used copper printing plates is an exciting discovery, since few printing plates from 18th-century American currency issues survive, in any form. But it also makes sense, using governmentally owned material for an official purpose,” said Goldstein.

A law passed on 16 June 1789, eliminated both of Charleston’s badge programs for African Americans. When the city reimplemented a significantly enlarged system of regulation in 1800, it required the purchase and wearing of badges for enslaved people only. Between then and the end of the Civil War in 1865, more than 187,000 ‘slave badges’ were made, sold, and worn by Charleston’s ‘hired out’ enslaved workers. Though ‘free’ badges were never again mandated by the city, the poor condition of some of the surviving examples suggests they may have been worn well past their obsolescence. It is speculated that their owners sought to display their status as dignified, free individuals in an open and proud manner for all to see.

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

As reported by Michaela Ratliff for WGHP Fox News 8 (27 July 2024), the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, also recently acquired a Charleston ‘free’ badge (as pictured above); theirs is marked ‘No. X’. More information is available at MESDA’s Facebook page.

George Stubbs, Mares and Foals Belonging to the 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, ca. 1761–62, oil on canvas, 99 × 187 cm
(Fort Worth: Kimbell Art Museum, acquired in memory of Ben J. Fortson)

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

From the press release (28 June 2024), as noted at Art History News:

The Kimbell Art Museum today announced the acquisition of George Stubbs’s Mares and Foals Belonging to the 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, painted between about 1761 and 1762. Widely regarded as the finest painter of animals in the history of European art, Stubbs is best known for his paintings of horses, which transcend historical genres to achieve rare pictorial refinement and emotional resonance. The painting entering the Kimbell’s collection is one of the principal, and likely earliest, in a celebrated, innovative series that has been called the artist’s crowning achievement: paintings depicting friezes of brood mares and their offspring. The acquisition, along with that of Thomas Gainsborough’s painting Going to Market, Early Morning (ca. 1773), purchased by the Kimbell in 2023, significantly elevates the Kimbell’s holdings of eighteenth-century British paintings, which Velma and Kay Kimbell favored when initially building their collection. The painting will be on view in the Kimbell’s Louis I. Kahn Building beginning 28 June 2024.

“With a mandate to collect only works of major historical and aesthetic importance, the Kimbell is the natural home for this masterpiece,” said Eric Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum. “I am sure that it will become an audience favorite. Visitors to the museum will relish the multidimensional depiction of mares and foals—alive with subtle drama, imbued with tenderness, and fascinating in its expression of the individual personalities of each horse.”

In this picture, which is slightly more than six feet long by three feet tall, a mature bay mare commands the center of a group of two other mares and three foals, who nuzzle close to their mothers. The composition is set within a springtime landscape at what is probably the viscount’s family estate of Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire, now Borough of Swindon, with verdant green parkland, cloudy sky, and a broad, dark gray stretch of water providing spatial interest beyond the long, slender legs of the horses. Highly naturalistic, the horses are lifelike in their anatomical forms and poses. While the overall mood is tranquil and domestic as the horses gently commune with each other, the cloudy sky and the wide, sparkling eyes of the mares add an element of drama and nobility to the composition.

The titular 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, Frederick St. John (1732–1787), was one of Stubbs’s most important early patrons. The Kimbell painting seems to be the earliest commission of this virtually unprecedented subject; it is probably the work that Stubbs exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1762. Soon, other members of Bolingbroke’s circle of aristocratic horse enthusiasts and fellow statesmen of the Whig political party commissioned similar compositions on the theme of brood mares and their offspring, many doubtless depicting the patrons’ own horses. Stubbs’s equestrian paintings—along with his portrayals of rural life and of other animals—were an especially delightful and sophisticated expression of the pastimes of the British nobility and landed gentry. Patrons could hang such works alongside fashionable portraits and Old Master paintings in their town or country houses, where vast fields, parklands, stables, and studs reflected their love of hunting and sporting life.

Stubbs was then, and is today, recognized for his unrivaled understanding of equine anatomy and unsurpassed ability to record not only the appearance of individual animals but also their temperaments. His genius in understanding the horse arose from anatomical study and from his apparent empathy for the character of each horse and his ability to express its exquisite beauty. His skill extended to landscapes that enhanced the mood, composition, and legibility of the animal subjects.

Mares and Foals Belonging to the 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke remained in the family collection at Lydiard Tregoze until it was sold at auction in 1943 and shortly thereafter entered the collection of Mrs. John Arthur Dewar, of the whisky distillery family, who also owned Henry Raeburn’s Allen Brothers (Portrait of James and John Lee Allen), which entered the Kimbell collection in 2002. The Kimbell acquired Mares and Foals Belonging to the 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke from a private collection through London-based art dealers Simon C. Dickinson Ltd. At the museum, the painting joins Stubbs’s Lord Grosvenor’s Arabian Stallion with a Groom, a work acquired by the Kimbell in 1981. Mares and Foals Belonging to the 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke was previously on view at the Kimbell in 2004–05, when it was on loan to the exhibition Stubbs and the Horse.

The Kimbell Art Foundation acquired Mares and Foals Belonging to the 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke in memory of Ben J. Fortson (1932–2024), who passed away in May and whose leadership was instrumental in the Kimbell’s growth. Mr. Fortson served on the Board of Directors of the Kimbell Art Foundation from 1964 until his death and was the Foundation’s longtime Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He will be forever remembered for stewarding the Kimbell’s investments and finances and for being the driving force behind the building of the museum’s Renzo Piano Pavilion, which opened in 2013 and houses the museum’s temporary exhibitions and permanent collections of Asian, African, and ancient American art.