Display | Masterpieces & Curiosities: The Fictional Portrait
Unknown Artist, Portraits of a Man and a Woman, n.d., oil on canvas. 30⅜ × 25¼ inches (New York: Jewish Museum, Gift of Dr. Harry G. Friedman, F 4922a). Installation view at the Jewish Museum, 2016.
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Now on view at the Jewish Museum:
Masterpieces & Curiosities: The Fictional Portrait
Jewish Museum, New York, 18 March — 14 August 2016
Curated by Stephen Brown
The latest iteration of the essay-style exhibition series studies two companion portraits in the Jewish Museum’s collection, revealing a tale far different from what has been assumed for almost a century.
If every picture tells a story then, at a glance, a portrait tells a simple one—the faithful biography of a sitter as conveyed by a named artist. This often misleading assumption lies at the heart of Masterpieces & Curiosities: The Fictional Portrait, which illuminates the complex relationship between portraiture and truth.
Stephen Brown, Associate Curator, examines two paintings in the Museum’s permanent collection: Acquired in 1957, the ‘Mears’ portraits were credited to an 18th-century American artist and thought to represent a prominent Jewish merchant of colonial New York and his wife. After a decade of research, the identities of the artist and sitters have been reconsidered through archival investigation, genealogical studies, and X-ray analysis.
“The idea of portraiture is based on the belief in some direct relation between the image and the sitter,” asserts Brown. “But every image is a representation, and all representation is fiction.”
By separating fact from fiction and unveiling the truth behind these enigmatic portraits, Masterpieces & Curiosities: The Fictional Portrait lays to rest a mystery centuries-old while challenging our notions concerning the genre of portraiture.
Conference | The Age of Luxury: The Georgian Country House
Looking ahead to the fall, from the Sussex Archaeological Society:
The Age of Luxury: The Georgian Country House and Its Setting, 1700–1820
King’s Church, Lewes, 15 October 2016
Organized by Sue Berry
J. Lambert of Lewes, detail of a watercolour showing Newick Place near Lewes, the home of Lady Vernon, 1780 (Sussex Archaeological Society)
Between 1700 and 1820, old houses were transformed and new ones built, some on a spectacular scale by owners who would now be regarded as multi-millionaires. From the later seventeenth century right throughout the eighteenth, the influence of the Grand Tour on country house owners was considerable, not least as many of them travelled abroad themselves, seeing European fashions at first hand. Some Sussex houses still have collections purchased on Grand Tours, though many have since been sold off. Architectural styles were varied, reflecting the influence of Dutch, French, and Classical inspirations as well as our home grown Gothic. Landscapes also evolved from formal to the famous landscape parks of the mid to later eighteenth century. Interiors became more showy, increasingly reflecting the high quality of British craftsmanship. Ever more servants were needed to run a lavish lifestyle which included racing, hunting and other expensive social activities. Our speakers, all specialists in their fields, will address these many aspects of the Georgian country house.
We are hoping to organise visits related to this conference during the summer of 2016, which will offer participants the opportunity to explore aspects of our themes ahead of the conference itself. These events will be advertised to Sussex Archaeological Society members in our April newsletter and details will be available to everyone online. Charges and number restrictions will apply to these. Priority will be given to those who have booked to attend this conference.
Advance booking is strongly recommended as we cannot guarantee there will be places available on the door. Registration on the day opens at 9.30am when you can sign in and collect your copy of the delegate handbook. The ticket price includes a light lunch and coffee and tea on arrival and in the breaks. If you have special dietary requirements or particular access needs, we will do our best to accommodate these if we have advance notice.
King’s Church, Brooks Road, Lewes BN7 2BY. Lewes is easily accessible by road and public transport. There is no parking on site, but there is on-street parking around the building and a long-stay car park half a mile away. Lewes station with its large car park is just under one mile away, and buses stop at the start of Brooks Road. Further details, including directions, will be sent with confirmation of your booking. Non-members are welcome. Please direct all conference enquiries to: Lorna Gartside, Sussex Archaeological Society, Bull House, 92 High Street, LEWES BN7 1XH, email: members@sussexpast.co.uk.
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S A T U R D A Y, 1 5 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6
10:00 Welcome and introduction, Maurice Howard (University of Sussex)
10:05 The English Country House, 1680–1820: Architecture and Planning, Geoffrey Tyack (Kellogg College, University of Oxford)
10:45 The Grand Tour and the Creation of the Country House in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Jonathan Yarker (Lowell Libson, Ltd.)
11:25 Tea and coffee
11:45 England, France, and the Netherlands: Garden Design in England, 1680–1710, Sally Jeffery (independent architectural and garden historian)
12:25 Pleasure in the Pleasure Gardens of Georgian England, Stephen Bending (University of Southampton)
1:05 Lunch
2:00 From Rococo to Neo-Classicism: Fashioning the Georgian Interior, Susan Bracken (independent historian specialising in furnishings)
2:40 ‘It gives me Reason to believe your Ladyship does not think me a servant to sute her.’ Household Management and Servant Organisation, Julie Day (independent historian of the English country house)
3:20 Tea and coffee
3:40 The Country House Guidebook in the Long Eighteenth Century: A Nuanced Message, Paula Riddy (independent art historian)
4:20 Much Spending, Not Always Afforded: The Transformation of the Country House and Its Setting in Sussex, Sue Berry (specialist in Georgian seaside resorts and the country house estates of Sussex)
5:00 Questions and end
Call for Essays | Garden Narratives in Literature, Art, and Film
From H-ArtHist:
Enchanted, Stereotyped, Civilized: Garden Narratives in Literature, Art, and Film
Proposals due by 15 October 2016
Gardens have been a crucial part of mythology and literature. Throughout English literature for example, the idea of a garden is a recurrent image; these images largely stem from the story of the Garden of Eden as found in Genesis. If gardens reveal the relationship between culture and nature—the garden can be seen as civilized and ‘shaped’ and therefore domesticated nature—in the vast library of garden literature few books focus on what the garden means—on the ecology of garden as idea, place, and action. Our volume will discuss the topic of the garden in different theoretical contexts such as ecological, botanical, literary, filmic, art historical, and cultural ones. We want to investigate the representations of and the interconnections between gardens and the above named fields over a wide timescale, with consideration of how gardens are represented and used as symbols and of how literature or visuality took form in, or influenced, gardens.
Suggested topics include, but are by no means limited to the following:
• The Biblical/Theological Garden
• The Mythological Garden
• The Renaissance Garden
• The Romantic Garden
• The Revolutionary Garden
• The Colonial/Postcolonial Garden
• Gardens in Film
• Gardens in Art History
• The Garden as… a location in general and as a place of romanticism specifically, or a crime scene, or a labyrinth and therefore as a mirror of psychological conditions
• Ecological Aspects on Garden Culture
The timetable for the volume is as follows
• Deadline for abstracts: 15 October 2016
• Feedback: 31 October 2016
• Submission for articles (completed): 30 April 2017
• Double peer review process and feedback due to: 30 May 2017
• Articles sent back to editors: mid of June 2017
• A publication is planned during autumn/winter 2017.
Chapters may explore different media (literature, movies, art, visual arts, television, etc.) and address topics on gardens. If you are interested in proposing a chapter, please email an abstract of 500 words and a short CV to both Dr. Feryal Cubukcu (cubukcu.feryal@gmail.com) and Dr. Sabine Planka (planka@phil.uni-siegen.de). Your abstract should outline your hypothesis and briefly sketch the theoretical framework within which your chapter will be situated. All submissions will be acknowledged. If you do not receive a confirmation of receipt within 48 hours, you may assume that your email was lost in the depths of cyberspace. In that case, please re-submit. Please note that we will not include previously published essays in the collection.
New Book | Italian Watermarks, 1750–1860
From Brill:
Theo Laurentius and Frans Laurentius, Italian Watermarks, 1750–1860 (Leidin: Brill, 2016), 175 pages, ISBN: 978-9004310612, €175 / $210.
The knowledge of papermaking spread slowly over Italy from the start of the 13th century. Scholarly interest in the history of Italian paper manufacture has concentrated especially on the earliest period. Research into Italian paper from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries has lagged somewhat behind.
Watermarks are extremely important for investigating the origins of paper. Until quite recently watermarks were copied and reproduced by placing them on a light source and then tracing them over onto some kind of transparency. It should be clear, however, that in many instances this technique could never achieve reproductions that were one hundred per cent accurate. Italian Watermarks, 1750–1860 offers x-rays and descriptions of approximately three hundred Italian watermarks. A selection of paper produced in different areas of Italy is presented with an identification.
Theo Laurentius has been active as a paper researcher for over fifty years. He has published several studies on watermarks and paper, including two important catalogues: Watermarks 1600–1650 Found in the Zeeland Archives (Hes & De Graaf, 2007) and Watermarks 1650–1700 Found in the Zeeland Archives (Hes & De Graaf, 2008).
Frans Laurentius, Ph.D., is an art historian. He has published several studies on graphic arts, Dutch pottery, and watermarks, as well as a monograph on the Dutch print dealer Clement de Jonghe: Clement de Jonghe (ca. 1624–1677): Kunstverkoper in de Gouden Eeuw (Hes & De Graaf, 2010).
Exhibition | Italian Landscape of the Romantic Era
Ferdinand Oehme, Villa d’Este in Tivoli, detail, 1833
(Dresden: Albertinum, Galerie Neue Meister)
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From the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden:
Italian Landscape of the Romantic Era: Painting and Literature
Italienische Landschaft der Romantik: Malerei und Literatur
Neues Schloss, Bad Muskau, 11 May — 21 August 2016
The whole sky was covered with a whitish haze of cloud, through which the sun, without its form being distinguishable, gleamed over the sea, which displayed the most beautiful sky blue hue that one ever could see. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1787
Tivoli and the Roman Campagna, Capri and the Bay of Naples, majestic silhouettes of lofty mountains, glittering expanses of sea, dignified ancient architecture and Mediterranean flora: il bel paese (‘the beautiful country’) as seen by writers and artists, is at the focus of this special exhibition.
Neues Schloss in Bad Muskau (Photo by David Pinzer)
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries travelers to Italy increasingly focused on the perception of nature. Their encounters with southern climes promised a substantial impetus for artistic development and regeneration. Hence, the Italian landscape became a new ideal for landscape gardens which spread more or less simultaneously from England over the whole continent of Europe. One of the most important protagonists of this movement in Germany was Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau (1785–1871), whose park and castle in Bad Muskau are an ideal venue for the exhibition. His landscape park, which was begun in 1815, is now one of the most beautiful in Europe and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2004. Indeed, the park itself was originally conceived as a kind of museum: “A park must be like an art gallery: every few steps you should see a new picture” (Pückler-Muskau).
The special exhibition in the New Castle (Neues Schloss) features more than 20 masterpieces—landscapes full of light by painters such as Jakob Philipp Hackert, Ludwig Richter, Ernst Ferdinand Oehme, Carl Rottmann, and Carl Blechen. All these paintings reflect the poetry of nature, the rich colours, and forms found in the south. Most of them are usually housed in the Dresden Albertinum and are among the highlights of the Galerie Neue Meister; thanks to the restoration of several paintings from the store room, their original radiance has been revitalized.
Selected writings by contemporary authors who also traveled around Italy—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Gottfried Seume, Madame de Staël, and Wilhelm Waiblinger—enable the Italian landscape to be experienced in a combination of genres. The most important starting point for such painted and written projections of this land of longing, Goethe’s Italian Journey was first published in installments in 1816, and so the year 2016 marks the 200th anniversary of its publication. It initiated a period of German fascination for the “land where the lemon trees bloom” (Goethe), a fascination which—with few exceptions and several interruptions—extended into broad social circles and whose effect is still felt today.
New Book | Silver in Georgian Dublin
From Routledge:
Alison FitzGerald, Silver in Georgian Dublin: Making, Selling, Consuming (New York: Routledge, 2016), 256 pages, ISBN: 978-1472427878, $150.
Georgian Dublin is synonymous with a period of unprecedented expansion in the market for luxury goods. At a time when new commodities, novel technologies, and fashionable imports seduced elite society, silver enjoyed an established association with gentility and prestige. Earlier studies have focused predominantly on the issue of style. This book considers the demand for silver goods in Georgian Ireland from the perspectives of makers, retailers, and consumers. It discusses the practical and symbolic uses of silverware, interpreted through contemporary guild accounts, inventories, trade ephemera, and culinary manuscripts. For the first time the activities of Dublin’s goldsmiths and their customers are considered in the context of the British Isles, acknowledging Dublin’s ‘second city’ status in relation to London. How did the availability of new products like English porcelain and Sheffield Plate affect the demand for silver in Dublin, and how did silver imports from London affect the Dublin trade? To what extent do the practices of Dublin goldsmiths mirror their North American counterparts seeking to infer associations with the fashionable metropolis of London? Drawing on an extensive range of documentary and object evidence this wide-ranging analysis considers the context in which silver goods were made, used, valued, and displayed in Georgian Ireland.
Alison FitzGerald is a Lecturer in the Department of History at Maynooth University, Ireland.
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C O N T E N T S
Introduction
1 The Business of Becoming a Goldsmith in Eighteenth-Century Dublin
2 Goldsmiths and Market Forces in Eighteenth-Century Ireland
3 Shopping for Plate in Dublin and London
4 Silver and Its Meaning in Georgian Ireland
5 The Silver Trade in Post-Union Ireland
Conclusion
Exhibition | Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in Prints and Drawings
Charles Thévenin, The Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789, etching, 1790, sheet: 41.6 × 58.5 cm
(The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2015.21)
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From the The Cleveland Museum of Art:
Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-Century Prints and Drawings
The Cleveland Museum of Art, 16 July — 6 November, 2016
Curated by James Wehn
Sumptuous designs, classical tales, political zeal, and erotic rendezvous pervade this selection of more than ninety prints, drawings, and decorative objects from the final decades of the ancien régime through the French Revolution and the early years of Napoleon’s empire.
Jean François Janinet, after Antoine Coypel, Zephyre and Flore, ca. 1776, color wash-manner etching and engraving with applied gold leaf; 33.3 × 26.5 cm (The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987.91)
In celebration of the CMA’s centennial year, Elegance and Intrigue: French Society in 18th-Century Prints and Drawings showcases works from the museum’s collection, including a rare impression of Jean-Antoine Watteau’s etching The Clothes Are Italian, several prints and drawings by court favorite François Boucher, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s ravishing drawing Invocation to Love.
At the heart of the exhibition is a selection of color etchings and engravings meticulously crafted to imitate chalk and gouache drawings, a trend in elite home décor at the time. Charles Thévenin’s expressive etching The Storming of the Bastille captures a sense of revolutionary spirit, while Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier’s Tureen, a quintessential masterpiece of silverwork fashioned for the English duke of Kingston, is displayed alongside Gabriel Huquier’s etching featuring two views of the tureen set in a lavish rococo interior.
James Wehn’s extended description of the exhibition is available here.
Exhibition | A Civic Utopia: France 1760–1840
The display is part of Somerset House’s larger celebration Utopia 2016: A Year of Imagination and Possibility, marking the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s inspirational text, Utopia—with a varied and vibrant programme of special events, exhibitions, new commissions, and activities across the entire site, spanning the realms of art, literature, society, fashion, design, architecture, theatre, and film.
A Civic Utopia: France 1760–1840
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 8 October 2016 — 8 January 2017
Curated by Nicholas Olsberg
Jean Charles Delafosse, Project for a Prison (exterior view, rear), 18th century (London: Courtauld Institute of Art)
A Civic Utopia: France 1760–1840 examines the place of architecture in establishing the notion of public life. Bringing together a number of drawings of public buildings and spaces from the late Ancien Régime through to the early years of King Louis-Philippe in France, the display explores the idea of a ‘scientific’ city, in which rational and symbolic expressions of civic life established a pattern for the improvement of society. If Utopia is defined as the imagining of a comprehensive ideal system or pattern of civil organisation, then we can see this French vision as utopian, in which public places and buildings function to encourage the moral character of society.
Exhibition | Versailles and the American Revolution
Now on view at Versailles:
Versailles and the American Revolution / Versailles et l’Indépendance Américaine
Château de Versailles, 5 July — 17 October 2016
Curated by Valérie Bajou
Louis-Léopold Boilly, Portrait de La Fayette, 1788 (RMN-Grand Palais / Château de Versailles)
From 5 July to 2 October 2016, on the occasion of the 240th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Palace of Versailles dedicates an exhibition highlighting the war during which the fate of three countries met: the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.
As the first country to recognise the United State of America as a new nation, it was France’s duty to commemorate the event, especially at Versailles where this decision was taken, where the War of Independence was supported, and where the peace treaty with England was signed in 1783. The exhibition aims to remind viewers of facts that are often forgotten but which bear testimony to the circumstances, scale, and consequences of France’s involvement in the war.
The exhibition recounts the events and highlights the context of French and English rivalry after the Seven Years’ War as well as internal divisions in the French side, the American side between ‘patriots’ and ‘loyalists’, and the English side due to some opposition to the way the settlers were treated. It recounts the decision-making process at Versailles, the personalities of key figures—notably Benjamin Franklin—and the exact locations in the palace where discussions were held. Finally, it explains the international spread of the fighting—from India across the Mediterranean Sea, to the shores of America—and the human losses due to the violence and scale of the battles, the largest of both the 18th and 19th centuries.
The War of Independence has been interpreted by artists from all three countries; so iconic works seen for the first time outside the USA will illustrate the exhibition’s discourse. The generosity of the loans granted must also be stressed, a key example being the Diamond Eagle of George Washington from the Society of the Cincinnati.
The exhibition is the result of scientific collaboration with researchers from American museums and universities, the Congress, and the Society of the Cincinnati, as well as French, Spanish, and English historians. It aims to present different points of view in order to avoid presenting a perspective of the events which is too narrow.
The exhibition will be held in an unusual location, the Battles Gallery, near The Battle of Yorktown, which represents the deciding battle of 1781. Commissioned in 1835 by Louis-Philippe, a year after the death of Lafayette, this commemorative painting indicates that the memory of the war and the sacrifices made had not been forgotten but were kept alive on the other side of the Atlantic like a debt of blood, also explaining the fervour in the famous expression of 1917: “Lafayette, here we are!”
Valerie Bajou : Curator in chief at the national museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon
Scenographer : Loretta Gaïtis
A symposium opened the exhibition on July 5; the programme is available as a PDF file here.
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The catalogue is available from ACC Distribution:
Valérie Bajou, ed., Versailles and the American Revolution (Montreuil: Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2016), 208 pages, ISBN: 978-2353402465, £35 / $40.
Published to accompany an exhibition at the Palace of Versailles, this catalogue is a collective work bringing together contributions from French, American, and British specialists in this field, which together shed light on the importance of the relationship between France and America in the closing years of the Ancien Régime. During the reign of Louis XVI, the Palace of Versailles—the seat of power and government in France—played a crucial role in the history of America, in its struggle for independence, and in the recognition of the United States by the great European powers. In tracing this remarkable story, the catalogue demonstrates the constant interest displayed in the fledgling United States by the French monarchy.
Richly illustrated throughout, it documents the events of the War of Independence, before exploring the consequences of the entry of France into the war, the siege of Yorktown, and the peace treaty signed at Versailles in 1783. Finally, it analyses the origins and development of the mythology of the ‘American Revolution’ in both France and the United States, a source of enduring inspiration for artists and history painters.
New Book | Una Rivoluzione di Cera: Francesco Orso
Published by Officina Libraria and available from Artbooks.com:
Andrea Daninos, Una Rivoluzione di Cera: Francesco Orso e e i «cabinets de figures» in Francia (Milano: Officina Libraria, 2016), 160 pages, ISBN: 978-897737759, 20€ / $35.
Con questo studio Andrea Daninos riporta alla luce per la prima volta la figura dello scultore piemontese Francesco Orso, attivo nella seconda metà del Settecento. Unico tra gli scultori piemontesi ad essersi specializzato nella realizzazione di ritratti in cera policromi raffiguranti membri della corte sabauda, opere dall’impressionante realismo, Francesco Orso fu anche l’unico scultore italiano a trasferirsi stabilmente dal 1785 a Parigi, vivendo in tal modo in prima persona negli anni successivi, i momenti cruciali della Rivoluzione francese. A Parigi Orso, che aveva mutato il nome in Orsy, aprirà un’esposizione di figure in cera, che sarà talvolta al centro degli eventi rivoluzionari. Di Francesco Orso viene ricostruita per la prima volta la vita, unitamente al catalogo delle sue opere, sia in cera che in terracotta, molte delle quali sinora inedite. Per meglio delineare la presenza di Orso a Parigi il volume si propone di analizzare la storia delle esposizioni di figure in cera a grandezza naturale in Francia alla fine del Settecento, all’origine dei moderni musei delle cere. Una storia sinora mai studiata compiutamente e che attraverso le biografie dei principali protagonisti di questo genere di esposizioni riporta alla luce un fenomeno che godette di grande popolarità per più di due secoli. In particolare vengono analizzate estesamente la vita e le opere di Philippe Curtius, padre della futura Madame Tussaud, che operò a Parigi negli anni della Rivoluzione francese vivendone alcuni momenti chiave in prima persona. Suoi erano i busti in cera di Necker e del duca d’Orléans portati in trionfo dalla folla il 12 luglio 1789 negli scontri alle Tuileries che diedero il via ai moti rivoluzionari. Completano il volume il catalogo delle opere di Francesco Orso e la trascrizione di numerosi documenti inediti, frutto di capillari ricerche negli archivi francesi e italiani.
Andrea Daninos dedica da anni allo studio della ceroplastica e sul tema ha pubblicato vari articoli. Nel 2009 ha tenuto un corso di specializzazione all’Università Statale di Milano sulla storia della scultura in cera. Vive e lavora a Milano.
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