Elliott in Gotham

  In a bit of a variance from our main theme of old master art, I thought I would highlight another of my passions, vintage automobiles.  This sale of just a few days ago at Bonhams featured some automobiles that are of such beauty, I feel they qualify as art objects. WEST SUSSEX.- The eyes of … Continue reading →

(Denver, Colo.) – Becoming Van Gogh, an in-depth exploration of Vincent van Gogh’s unconventional  path to becoming one of the world’s most recognizable artists, will be on view at the Denver Art Museum  (DAM) from October 21, 2012, through January 20, 2013. The exhibition examines critical steps in the largely self-taught artist’s evolution through more than … Continue reading →

[Source: Philip Kennicott, The Washington Post]  As far as we know, Willem van Aelst never painted a landscape, portrait or history scene. He focused on still life, meticulous pictures of flowers, fish, armor and dead game, often arrayed on a table or marble slab, with drapery or cloth slightly pulled or rumpled in such a … Continue reading →

At the age of 41, Joana Vasconcelos has became the youngest contemporary artist and the first woman to have her work on display at Versailles, following in the footsteps of Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Xavier Veilhan and Bernar Venet. The use of the former home of the kings and queens of France as a venue … Continue reading →

In an update to our earlier post concerning the looting and restitution of Romanino’s masterpiece “Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue”, the work sold at Christie’s on June 6, as announced in artdaily.org and elsewhere. NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s Old Master Paintings sale on June 6 in New York was led by the … Continue reading →

[Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza] The American painter Edward Hopper (Nyack, 1882 – New York, 1967) was one of the foremost exponents of twentieth-century Realism. Although he did not attract the attention of critics or the public for much of his life and was forced to work as an illustrator to earn a living, his works are now icons of … Continue reading →

[examiner.com] Joan Miró (1893-1983), one of the world’s greatest and most influential 20th century artists, who used his “free and violent” works to protest fascism in his beloved Spain, is celebrated in an exhibit that opened May 6 at DC’s National Gallery, the only US venue. . . “Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape“, with some … Continue reading →

Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570) is often omitted from the discussion of Italian mannerist artists, presumably because the majority of his career was spent in France.  His heritage however is wholly Italian, and he passed that heritage on to his French counterparts, whom he strongly influenced for most of the 16th and 17th centuries.  Primaticcio’s talents knew no … Continue reading →

Two great paintings which had long languished in the shadows have now been restored to full autograph status, thanks to research and a conservator’s careful hand. . The National Gallery’s Titian . . London’s National Gallery, had, since the 1920’s, believed one of its holdings to be a 16th-century copy created ‘after Titian’, both chronologically … Continue reading →

In early March, we published an entry extolling the magnificent exhibition of the Stein collection currently on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (“The Steins Collect”). One glaring omission in the Met’s curating of the exhibition was how the collection managed to survive the Nazis’ decimation of Europe’s art collections, particularly those belonging … Continue reading →

French art expert says Louvre’s Leonardo was overcleaned La Vierge, l’Enfant Jésus et Sainte Anne by Leonardo da Vinci. Photograph: Jean-Pierre Muller/AFP [theguardian]  One of France’s most eminent art experts has criticised the Louvre Museum’s cleaning of a 500-year-old Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, The Virgin and Child With Saint Anne. Ségolène Bergeon Langle, former director of conservation … Continue reading →

Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” sold at Sotheby’s in New York this evening for a hammer price of $107 million, or $119.9 million with commission, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction.  It surpassed slightly the earlier record held by Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust,” which sold … Continue reading →

In keeping with our goal of highlighting exhibitions featuring women and women artists who created lasting legacies in eras when all odds were against that ever happening, we feature this exhibition currently on view at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.  Entitled “A Will of Their Own: Judith Sargent Murray and Women of … Continue reading →

Photographer David Stephenson was born in 1955 and received an MFA at the University of New Mexico. Stephenson has had solo exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. His work is represented in collections including, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the National Gallery … Continue reading →

The painting “Portrait of Wally” is a 1912 work by Austrian painter Egon Schiele of Valerie “Wally” Neuzil, a woman he met in 1911 when she was 17 years old and who was a model for a number of Schiele’s most striking paintings. The painting was purchased by Rudolf Leopold in 1954 and became part of the collection of the Leopold Museum when … Continue reading →

We have never before done a fashion-related posting on elliottingotham, but I could not pass up the opportunity to mark the opening of the Paris exhibition of the archives of Cristóbal Balenciaga, a designer whose work has always fascinated me. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel praised Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972) as ”the only true couturier among us” and Christian Dior referred to him as “the … Continue reading →

[AP] UPDATE, 1:00 pm EDT, April 12:  Zurich prosecutors said Thursday that the E.G. Buehrle Foundation certified that the painting is Cezanne’s “The Boy in the Red Vest” that was stolen in 2008. [Guardian, Libération]  Police in Serbia believe they have recovered an impressionist masterpiece by Paul Cézanne worth at least £68m that was stolen at gunpoint in one of … Continue reading →

[www.frick.org]  This fall The Frick Collection will present Vincent van Gogh‘s Portrait of a Peasant (Patience Escalier). The painting has not left its home institution, the Norton Simon Museum, in Pasadena, CA, in nearly forty years, making this a particularly rare and exciting viewing opportunity for East Coast audiences. This modern masterpiece will be shown in the … Continue reading →

National Museum of Women in the Arts: “Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections” on view through July 29, 2012. In keeping with its mission to rediscover and celebrate women artists of the past and demonstrate their continued relevance, NMWA presents Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, … Continue reading →

[Source, WSJ]  The 1940s were not kind to Henri Matisse. During World War II, Gestapo agents brutally tortured his daughter, and complications from an intestinal operation weakened him and left him permanently wheelchair-bound. As painting became more difficult, he focused intently on the sleek, stylized paper cutouts he had first started experimenting with in the … Continue reading →

Source: Metropolitan Museum.  By special arrangement, Rembrandt’s great “Portrait of the Artist” (ca. 1665), which has never before traveled outside Europe, will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from early April through late May, 2012. Kenwood House, the London museum that owns the painting, will close in April 2012 for renovations. This … Continue reading →

National Gallery borrows The Flight Into Egypt, not seen outside Russia since it was bought by Catherine the Great in 1768 . [guardian.co.uk]  Catherine the Great bought Titian‘s The Flight Into Egypt in 1768. Since then the large painting, described by the 16th-century art historian Giorgio Vasari as Titian’s first masterpiece, has not been seen outside Russia – until Tuesday. … Continue reading →

After demanding that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art return 18 objects of art including several highlights of the Met’s collection that are currently on display in the museum’s Ancient Near East Galleries, the Turkish government has now contacted the Getty, the Cleveland Museum of Art and Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection to present evidence … Continue reading →

Mail Online reports that an expedition has been launched in Germany to recover £500 million ($800 million) worth of missing artworks looted by the Nazis in World War Two. Monets, Manets, Cezannes and masterpieces by other artists, along with sculptures, carpets and tapestries, are believed to be buried in an old silver mine near the Czech-German border, … Continue reading →

[Press Release, Musée Marmottan Monet, February 2012]  From 8 March to 1 July 2012, the Musée Marmottan presents the first major retrospective of the work of Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) to be held in Paris for almost half a century. One hundred and fifty paintings, pastels, watercolours and drawings in red chalk and charcoal, from museums and … Continue reading →

I have just come across this extraordinary footage of Pierre-Auguste Renoir at roughly age 72, apparently in the company of his grandson, Claude Renoir.  As is clearly visible, the great master was in the advanced stages of rheumatoid arthritis, and although he could hold a brush, needed someone to place it between his fingers. . Thanks … Continue reading →

Reuters reports that a rare, pristine Paul Cezanne watercolor, which has not been seen in public since 1953, is expected to sell for as much as $20 million at Christie’s in May. The late 19th-century work on paper is one of Cezanne’s preparatory studies for his seminal Card Players series of five paintings, “Joueurs des cartes.” Its whereabouts … Continue reading →

In its issue of March 19, The Telegraph reports that metal thieves are using Google Earth and other online resources to identify Britain’s historic buildings to plunder. Historically important sites are being irrevocably damaged by criminals who plunder them for “trophies” which cannot be replaced. Mike Harlow, legal director at English Heritage, said he believed … Continue reading →

Cultural journalist Judith H. Dobrzynski recently reported in The New York Times on the shocking state of the acquisition funds of America’s major museums: Although acquiring art is a core mission, private collectors donate 80 to 90 percent of what is on view in American art museums. Fewer than two dozen museums have sizable nest eggs … Continue reading →

Artemisia: Pouvoir, gloire et passions d’une femme peintre . The paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi (on show at the Musée Maillol from March 14 to July 15) are so expressive you can practically smell the blood and sweat. They also portray women as assertive beings, capable of giving themselves over to both crime and pleasure (often both at the same … Continue reading →