Quantcast
Channel: Alain.R.Truong
Viewing all 36084 articles
Browse latest View live

A purple-splashed 'Jun' bubble bowl, Song dynasty

0
0

A purple-splashed 'Jun' bubble bowl, Song dynasty

A purple-splashed 'Jun' bubble bowl, Song dynasty

49ae7e2f13381f6fb3ef373e7d91bf35--work-of-art-chinese-ceramics

Lot 92.  A purple-splashed 'Jun' bubble bowl, Song dynasty. Diameter 3 3/8  in., 8.6 cm. Estimate 50,000 — 70,000 USD. Lot sold 185,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

well-potted with gently rounded sides slightly curved in at the rim, resting on a neatly finished foot of wedge-shaped section, applied overall with a rich milky-blue glaze suffused with bubbles, the smoothly rounded interior with three vivid splashes and the exterior with two further splashes ranging from dark blue to purple, thinning at the rim to a buff tone and stopping in an uneven line above the foot to reveal the chocolate-brown body.

Provenance: Collection of Millicent Rogers (1902 - 1953) and thence by descent.

Note: The present bowl of classic Northern Song form is exquisite for its rich thick glaze and bright coloration that displays a range of blue and lavender tones. The purple splashes form the illusion of soap bubbles, hence the name given to vessels of this type 'bubble bowls'.

Compare two famous 'Jun' bubble bowls formerly in the collection of Edward T. Chow, sold in our London rooms, 16th December 1980, lots 264 and 265, and again in our Hong Kong rooms, the former on 19th May 1987, lot 209, and later in the collection of T.T. Tsui; the latter on 7th June 2000, lot 93. Another quite similar bubble bowl from the same collection was sold in these rooms on 20th March 2012, lot 24.

A related bowl from the collection of Sir Percival David and now in the British MuseumLondon, is illustrated in Margaret Medley, The Chinese Potter, Oxford, 1976, fig. 83. The Palace Museum in Beijing also has a similar bowl in its collection published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 225; while further two examples can be found in the Baur Collection in Geneva, included in John Ayers, The Baur Collection. Chinese Ceramics, Geneva, 1969, nos. A31 and A32.

 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. New York, 19 march 2013


Wu Bin's 'Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone' now on view at Los Angeles County Museum of Art

0
0

3

Installation photograph, Wu Bin: Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 10, 2017 - June 24, 2018, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA.

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting Wu Bin’s Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone, featuring one of the most extraordinary paintings of a stone ever created. In ancient China, strange and marvelous stones were valued for their beauty and as reflections of the hidden structures underlying the universe. Stones were seen as fluid and dynamic, constantly changing, and capable of magical transformations. Wu Bin’s Ming dynasty handscroll, painted in 1610, comprises 10 separate views of a single stone from the famous site of Lingbi, Anhui Province. Each view is rendered with exceedingly complex brushwork as fine lines twist, waver, and unravel, describing the shifting shapes of the stone’s peaks, vales, crevices, and caverns. These lines combine with subtle washes of ink to convey the sense that one is looking not at stone, but at pure energy. 


LACMA’s presentation marks the first time that all 10 sections of this rare handscroll painting are being displayed in an American museum. The exhibition features several superb examples of actual Chinese stones and contemporary Chinese ink paintings depicting stones; and explores the history of collecting strange stones in China and the relationship between stones, Daoist cosmology, and classical Chinese poetry. Wu Bin is organized by Stephen Little, the Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art and Head of Chinese and Korean, and South and Southeast Asian Art at LACMA. 

This exhibition is an exciting opportunity to examine the 2,000-year practice of collecting strange stones (guai shi) in China,” says Little. “It will be the first exhibition of its kind in Los Angeles to explore the significance of stones in China and their centrality in Chinese culture.” 

Highlights

2

Wu Bin (China, Fujian Province, Putian, c. 1543–c. 1626), Ten Views of a Lingbi Stone, China, Ming dynasty, Wanli reign, 1610. Handscroll, ink on paper
. Private collection
 © Ornan Rotam, courtesy Slyph Editions

This handscroll comprises ten perspectives of a single spirit stone from Lingbi in Anhui Province. Each view is rendered with exceedingly complex brushwork: fine lines twist, waver, and unravel, describing the shifting shapes of the stone’s peaks, vales, crevices, and caverns. These lines combine with subtle washes of ink to convey the sense that one is looking not at stone, but at pure energy. Each of Wu Bin’s paintings is accompanied by a description of the view written by the stone’s original owner, calligrapher Mi Wanzhong (1570–1628). 

1

Unknown, Taihu Stone, circa 1987, Limestone, a) Stone: 25 3/16 × 37 in. (64 × 94 cm), b) Floor stand: 35 7/16 × 22 7/16 × 19 11/16 in. (90 × 57 × 50 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of the 2017 Collectors Committee (M.2017.73a-b), photo © Museum Associates/LACMA. 

Taihu Stone, China, Jiangsu Province, Limestone, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the 2017 Collectors Committee 
In China, spirit stones have been revered since remote antiquity, when they may have been given as tribute gifts to Emperor Yu, a quasi-mythical sage-ruler. Collectors would pay as much for these stones as they would for a painting, or even a house or estate. Taihu stones are among the most famous stones collected in China. Composed of off-white limestone, they are dredged up from the depths of Lake Tai in Jiangsu Province, in eastern China. 

Mo Stone, China, Guangxi Province, Liuzhou Limestone.
Intended bequest of Hugh Scogin, Jr. 

4

Zhan Wang (China, Beijing, b. 1962) Artificial Rock No. 135, 2007. Stainless steel
, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Collection.

Fascinated by Taihu stones, artist and professor Zhan Wang created this work as part of his series Artificial Rock. He used stainless steel to mold around the surface of a stone, then removed the sheets, welded them together, and burnished the surface until the seams disappeared. The hollow form expresses the complex relationship between nature and the urban environment, and between traditional Chinese art practices and contemporary industrial manufacturing.  

5

Leung Kui-ting (Chinese, born 1945), Zan Zak Zen - 18 , 2007ink on silk, 97 x 135 cm. (38.2 x 53.1 in.).

Leung Kui-ting (China, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, b. 1945), Zan Zak Zen, 2007. Ink on silk. Promised gift of Gérard and Dora Cognié 
As a major artist of Hong Kong’s New Ink Painting movement, Leung Kui-ting was greatly influenced by his teacher, Lui Shou-kwan (1919–1975). Leung’s works synthesize classical ink painting with modern art, exploring new norms and forms but retaining traditional principles. This painting is part of the series Zan Zak Zen, in which Leung portrays fantastically shaped Chinese scholar’s stones. Although a solid object, the rock in this painting is presented as a fluid form full of energy (qi).  

Yau Wing-fung (China, Hong Kong, b. 1990), Clouds Enveloping Strange Peaks, 2014 Ink on paper Promised gift of Gérard and Dora Cognié 
This work embodies the traditional Chinese landscape-painting concept of “three distances” promoted by the Song dynasty painter Guo Xi (c. 1020–1090): horizontal, high, and deep distance. Surrounded by clouds and mist, the rock in this painting appears more like a mountain peak. It is also characterized by “strangeness” (guai), a quality widely appreciated by Chinese literati. Yau Wing-fung is an emerging artist who mostly paints classical Chinese subjects using traditional materials.  

Zeng Xiaojun (China, Beijing, b. 1954) Untitled, 2012 Ink and color on paper Promised gift of Gérard and Dora Cognié 
Trained in both Western draftsmanship and classical Chinese painting, Zeng Xiaojun is best known for using traditional Chinese materials to depict old trees, stones, and landscapes. In this work, the stone seems relatively small compared with the large sheet of paper, yet it is meticulously detailed with dots, lines, and ink washes that capture its dynamic surface. As an avid collector of stones and other scholar’s objects, Zeng believes that collecting is about discovering beauty, while painting is about creating beauty. 

Wood Sculpture of a Taihu Stone, China, Qing dynasty, Kangxi reign (1662–1722). Wood, Robert H. Blumenfield Collection 
Chinese artists have long replicated the forms of stones in other materials, particularly wood, bronze, and porcelain. This magnificent example is a rendering in wood of a Taihu stone.  

Wood Sculpture of a Stone, China, Qing dynasty, 18th century, Zitan (purple sandalwood) with huangyang mu (boxwood) base, Robert H. Blumenfield Collection 
One of the rarest and most beautiful hardwoods in China is known as zitan; here it has been used to render the image of a stone.  

Spirit Stone: Auspicious Cloud China, Qing dynasty, with inscription dated 1744. Limestone, Yuan Mi Ge (The Pavilion of Deep Mystery) Collection 
In 1744, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, this stone was inscribed on its lower surface with a poetic couplet composed by the Six Dynasties–period poet Yu Xin (513–581):  

Winds give birth to stone grottoes, Clouds arise from the foot of mountains.  

Sun Wentao (China, Heilongjiang Province, Harbin, b. 1975, active Beijing), Scholar’s Stone, 2009. Mo (foam). Intended bequest of Hugh T. Scogin, Jr.

The Nasher Museum of Art presenting the first-ever exhibition of works by Carlo Dolci

0
0

nasher-dolci-virgin-child-john

Carlo Dolci, The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, ca. 1635. Oil on wood, 31 1⁄8 inches (79 cm) diameter. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Gift of Herbert Godwin.

DURHAM, NC.- The Nasher Museum of Art is presenting The Medici’s Painter: Carlo Dolci and 17th-Century Florence, the country’s first-ever exhibition of the remarkable paintings and drawings by Carlo Dolci (1616-1687). A favorite of the Medici court, Dolci was a celebrated and popular artist in his day, but his personal and original interpretation of sacred subjects fell out of favor in the 19th century. The Medici’s Painter invites us to see this artist with new eyes. The meticulously painted and emotionally charged works that were carefully selected for this exhibition, from U.S. museums as well as important private collections and major museums in Europe, allow for a reassessment of an Old Master painter whose reputation deserves to be restored. 

Dolci was a precocious child, entering the workshop of Jacopo Vignali at the age of nine. Very early, his extraordinary gifts as a painter were discovered by Don Lorenzo de’ Medici and other powerful persons in Florence, who recognized Dolci’s remarkable ability to render details from nature, especially facial features and hands, as well as complicated drapery. As a boy and throughout his life, he was called “Carlino” (little Carlo), possibly because of his short stature and humble character. He was also extremely pious. If not diligently practicing drawing or developing his painter’s craft, he often could be found praying in Santa Maria Novella 

Dolci-Self-Portrait

Carlo Dolci, Self-portrait, 1674. Oil on canvas, 29¼ x 23 ⅞ inches (74.5 x 60.5 cm). Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Scala / Art Resource, NY. 

When it comes to the art of painting, in the future the world would be less beautiful if every century did not have its Carlino.” — Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie de’ professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, 1681-1728 

In 1632, when he was 16, Dolci opened his own workshop in Florence. One of his pupils was Filippo Baldinucci, who would become the leading connoisseur in Florence, and the author of the official biography of his “beloved Carlino.” Unlike most of his contemporaries, Dolci refused most commissions for large altarpieces and frescos. Baldinucci tells us that, rather early in his career, Dolci vowed to paint only religious works. A handful of portraits have survived, however, including the exhibition’s dashing Portrait of Stefano della Bella, which demonstrates Dolci’s skill in capturing the sitter’s personality as well as every fold and ruffled edge of the multi-layered linen collar. 

web-nasher-dolci-portrait-young-man-1-813x1024

Carlo Dolci, Portrait of Stefano della Bella, c. 1631. Oil on canvas, 22 ⅞ x 18 ⅛ inches (57.9 x 46 cm). Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy. Finsiel/Alinari / Art Resource, NY.

The Medici’s Painter also contains a rare still life, Vase of Tulips, Narcissi, Anemones and Buttercups with a Basin of Tulips. The Medici coat of arms in the middle of the gilded vase suggests it was a commission he could not turn down. Dolci’s real desire, however, and his spiritual mission, was to paint intimate depictions of divine subjects that would inflame the faith of those who viewed them. 

Tulips

Carlo Dolci, Vase of Tulips, Narcissi, Anemones and Buttercups with a Basin of Tulips, 1662. Oil on canvas, 27 3⁄5 x 21 ¾ inches (70 x 55 cm). Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

The Medici’s Painter gives us an opportunity to study Dolci’s painstaking application of paint using ultrafine brushes, and only a few bristles, or the concentration it took to make tiny details look so real, as in the lace on the cloth beneath the Christ child’s feet in the foreground of The Virgin and Child with Lilies from Montpellier. One of the first things visitors will notice about a Dolci picture is his brilliant sense of color, achieved by his access to expensive materials, such as real gold and ground lapis lazuli, which accounts for the beautiful blues. There is often a high finish that gives the surface a smooth, enamel-like quality. 

Lillies

Carlo Dolci, The Virgin and Child with Lilies, 1642. Oil on canvas, 31.5 x 26.2 inches (80 x 66.5 cm). Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France. Scala / Art Resource, NY.

Dolci’s technique was time-consuming and exacting. He was notoriously slow, a perfectionist who might take as long as 11 years to finish a canvas to his own satisfaction. Another habit contributed to the inordinate length of time: According to his biographer, Dolci would recite the litany Ora pro nobis (pray for us) between each brush stroke and sometimes write inscriptions on the back of his canvas. The Medici’s Painter includes a fine example of such a canvas, so visitors can see Carlino’s tiny florid script. 

Dolci was an incredible colorist and an impeccable draftsman,” said Sarah Schroth, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum. “Visitors will delight in his perfect rendering of hands and faces — and will be dazzled by his colors, such as the intense blue made from ground lapis lazuli.” 

Saint-Peter

Carlo Dolci, The Repentent Saint Peter, early 1650s. Oil on canvas, 58 x 61 1/4 inches (147 cm x 155.6 cm). The Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery, Greenville, SC.

The Medici’s Painter is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, published by the Davis Museum at Wellesley College ($35, Yale University Press). The catalogue was edited by exhibition curator Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, head of the European art department and Elizabeth and Allan Shelden Curator of European paintings at the Detroit Institute of Arts. 

The Medici’s Painter features essays by Straussman-Pflanzer and other leading early modern scholars: Francesca Baldassari, Edward Goldberg, Lisa Goldenberg Stoppato and Scott Nethersole. The catalogue is available at the Nasher Museum Store.

web-nasher-dolci-virgin-and-child

Carlo Dolci, The Virgin and Child, late 1640s. Oil on canvas, 44 ½ x 39 ¼ inches (112.7 cm x 99.7 cm)
Collection of The Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery, Greenville, South Carolina.

web-nasher-dolci-poesia

Carlo Dolci, Poetry (Poesia). Oil on panel, 21 1⁄3 x 16 3⁄6 inches (54 x 42 cm). Galleria Corsini, Florence.

web-nasher-dolci-angel-louvre

Carlo Dolci, Angel of the Annunciation, early 1650s. Oil on canvas, 20 ½ x 15⅞ inches (52 cm x 40 cm). Musée du Louvre, Paris. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. Photo by René-Gabriel Ojéda.

114632415_o

Carlo Dolci, Saint Apollonia, c. 1670. Oil on canvas, 25 ½ x 21 ½ inches (63.9 x 53.9 cm). Robilant & Voena London - Milan - St. Moritz. Courtesy of Robilant + Voena

00057701

Carlo Dolci, St. Matthew Writing His Gospel, 1640s. Oil on canvas, 52 5/8 × 44 3/4 in. (133.7 × 113.7 cm). Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. no. 69.PA.29. Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.

b3026984a44f922d48cedc059fe2ae45

Carlo Dolci, Portrait of a Girl, about 1665. Black and red chalk on cream-colored paper, 6 1/16 × 4 7/8 inches (15.4 × 12.4 cm). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.

CwwFH9dWIAE5Ba4

Attributed to Carlo Dolci, The Blue Madonna, 17th Century. Oil on canvas, 21 x 15 ½ x 3/4 inches (53.3 x 39.4 x 1.9 cm). Bequest of John Ringling, 1936, SN136. Collection of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida, Florida State University. © The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

Vase à eau en forme de dôme tronqué, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Vase à eau en forme de dôme tronqué, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet

Vase à eau en forme de dôme tronqué, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine. Hauteur : 7,4 cm. Largeur : 13 cm. Diamètre : 13 cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G3361.  Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

00057701

 

Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Daniel Arnaudet

Plat à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Plat à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet

00057701

Plat à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Hauteur : 4,8 cm. Diamètre : 34,5 cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G2802.  Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Richard Lambert

Décor de trois oiseaux, l'un perché sur une tige, l'autre sur un rocher lissant ses plumes, le dernier dans l'eau, parmi les pivoines fleuries et les graminées. Fin du 17e siècle.  

Plat à décor d'oiseau, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Plat à décor d'oiseau, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722),

00057701

Plat à décor d'oiseau, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Diamètre : 25 cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G821.  Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Pièce faisant partie d'un service exécuté pour le soixantième anniversaire de Kangxi. 
Décor : oiseau perché sur une branche de pêcher chargée de petits fruits.

Plat à décor d'oiseau sur une branche de "boules de neige et papillons", règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Plat à décor d'oiseau sur une branche de 'boules de neige et papillons', règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Plat à décor d'oiseau sur une branche de "boules de neige et papillons", règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Diamètre : 25 cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G922.  Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Plat à décor d'oiseau perché sur une branche de loquat chargée de fruits, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Plat à décor d'oiseau perché sur une branche de loquat chargée de fruits, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

00057701

Plat à décor d'oiseau perché sur une branche de loquat chargée de fruits, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), 1713, fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Diamètre : 25,( cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G820. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Pièce faisant partie d'un service exécuté pour le soixantième anniversaire de Kangxi.


Plat à décor de paysage et d'oiseau, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Plat à décor de paysage et d'oiseau, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), 1713,

Plat à décor de paysage et d'oiseau, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), 1713, fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G822. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Pièce faisant partie d'un service exécuté pour le soixantième anniversaire de Kangxi.

Plat à décor de cinq oiseaux parmi les rochers et les fleurs, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Plat à décor de cinq oiseaux parmi les rochers et les fleurs, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

00057701

Plat à décor de cinq oiseaux parmi les rochers et les fleurs: un paon et une grue sur un rocher un oiseau perché sur un arbuste fleuri, une grue, un faisan sur un rocher, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), 1713, fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Diamètre : 25,5 cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G823. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Pièce faisant partie d'un service exécuté pour le soixantième anniversaire de Kangxi.

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

1

00057701

 Vase à décor de sept oiseaux (pies ?) perchés ou voletant parmi un arbuste fleuri de pivoines, au-dessus d'un rocher percé, auprès duquel vole un papillon, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), , fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Hauteur : 53 cm. Diamètre : 22,2 cmAncienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G484. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Benjamin Soligny / Raphaël Chipault

The Amsterdam Museum to present its restored masterpieces at TEFAF Maastricht

0
0

1

Bartholomeus van der Helst (c.1613-1670), The Headmen of the Longbow Civic Guard House, 1653. Oil on canvas, 183 x 268 cm, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam.

HELVOIRT.- The Amsterdam Museum is currently restoring one of its masterpieces, The Headmen of the Longbow Civic Guard House (1653), by Bartholomeus van der Helst (c.1613 – 1670), which will form the centrepiece of the loan exhibition within TEFAF Paper at TEFAF Maastricht 2018. For the first-time, visitors to the Fair will be able to admire not just the results of the restoration but also compare actual examples of 16th-century silverware, the same objects that are depicted in the 17th-century painting, a unique situation in Dutch art. TEFAF Maastricht, the world’s leading fine art and antiques Fair, takes place from 10 - 18 March 2018 at the MECC (Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre), Maastricht, The Netherlands. 

The group portrait depicts several prominent sitters: former burgomaster Jan van de Poll (15971678), brewer Albert Dircksz Pater (1602-1659) and the famous cartographer and publisher Joan Willemsz Blaeu (1598-1673). Together, they were responsible for the keeping of the Longbow Civic Guard House, including its collection of group portraits and historic artefacts. 

They are depicted at a meeting table, while on the right their sons are exercising their shooting skills at the range. The four men are surrounded by opulent silverware: in the background, a cupboard filled with cups, tazzas and spoons, Banninck Cock on the left holds a richly decorated goblet, and his fellow headmen show the civic guard house’s chain and staff, both crowned by birds. In the background, the inn-keeper’s wife introduces the drinking horn on its silver foot, also belonging to the inventory of the house. The presence of these precious objects on the meeting table refers to the illustrious history of this civic guard house, underlining the continuation of good government, carried out by the right honorable gentlemen in the painting. 

Apart from its painter, who was one of the greatest portraitists of the Dutch Golden Age, its famous sitters or its much-praised sott’-in-sù perspective, this group portrait stands out for the fact that three of the applied arts objects shown still exists. 

The beautifully ornamented mid-16th-century chain, staff and ceremonial drinking horn from the collection of the Longbow Civic Guard were not only cherished by the headmen of 1653, but can still be admired by the visitors of the Amsterdam Museum, being the property of the city of Amsterdam. Substantial 16th-century masterpieces of silverware are a rarity in any public or private collection, as in many cases these objects were adapted to changing taste or even melted down. It is all the more exceptional to have such valuable artworks portrayed in paintings of such a high quality. 

Van der Helst’s masterpiece will be surrounded by five other group portraits that have been recently restored. Together they bear witness to the flourishing and quality of group portraiture in Amsterdam during the Golden Age. 

Two of the paintings are by Ferdinand Bol (1616 – 1680), both restored in 2017, depict the governors and governesses of the Amsterdam Lepers’ Asylum. They are currently on show in the exhibition on the artist at the Amsterdam Museum. Another Van der Helst group, The Headmen of the Arcquebusiers’ Civic Guard House, has been on loan for five years at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, following its 2011 restoration, and will now be on show for the first time since it was returned to the Netherlands. Finally, two Anatomy Lessons, one by Aert Pietersz (1550 – 1612), the other by Adriaen Backer (1635 – 1684), have also been restored in collaboration with institutions that subsequently had the paintings on loan for exhibitions. Since 2016 the latter work has been on view in the Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age, a permanent exhibition in the Hermitage Amsterdam centred around the impressive collection of Amsterdam group portraits. These works will complete the loan exhibition at TEFAF Maastricht.

2

 Bartholomeus van der Helst (c.1613-1670), The headmen of the Longbow Civic Guard House, 1653. Oil on canvas, 183 x 268 cm, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam.

3

Aert Pietersz (1550 – 1612), The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Sebastiaen Egbertsz, 1603. Oil on canvas, 147 x 392 cm, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam.

4

Adriaen Backer (1635 – 1684), The anatomy lesson of Dr. Frederik Ruysch, 1670. Oil on canvas, 168 × 244 cm, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam.

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G833. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Sur la panse : rinceaux fleuris sur fond or, quatre grandes réserves en panneaux indentés déclinant le thème "fleurs et oiseaux", représentant chacune un oiseau perché sur une branche fleurie parmi quelques bambous.

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Hauteur : 46 cm. Diamètre : 19 cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G832. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier

Sur la panse : rinceaux fleuris sur fond or, quatre grandes réserves en panneaux indentés déclinant le thème "fleurs et oiseaux", représentant chacune un oiseau perché sur une branche fleurie parmi quelques bambous.

Vase dit "aux Cent oiseaux", règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Vase dit 'aux Cent oiseaux', règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase dit 'aux Cent oiseaux', règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase dit 'aux Cent oiseaux', règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Vase dit "aux Cent oiseaux", règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Hauteur : 43,5 cm. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G4979. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Thierry Ollivier


Plat à décor "fleurs et oiseaux", règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Plat à décor 'fleurs et oiseaux', règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Plat à décor "fleurs et oiseaux",  règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Hauteur : 6,4 cm. Diamètre : 34,5 cmAncienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G483. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Richard Lambert

Pot à pinceaux à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

0
0

Pot à pinceaux à décor de fleurs et oiseaux, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722)

Pot à pinceaux à décor de fleurs et oiseaux accompagné d'un poème sur les fleurs de pêcher, règne de Kangxi (1662-1722), fours de Jingdezhen, porcelaine de la famille verte. Hauteur : 15,3 cm. Diamètre : 18,5 cmAncienne collection Ernest Grandidier, Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques, G4217. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (MNAAG, Paris) / Richard Lambert

Sebastiano Ricci (Belluno 1659-1734 Venice), Sofonisba accepting the poison

0
0

1

Lot 66. Sebastiano Ricci (Belluno 1659-1734 Venice), Sofonisba accepting the poison, oil on canvas, 67.5 x 84.5cm (26 9/16 x 33 1/4in), unframed. Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 (€68,000 - 91,000)Sold for £50,000 (€56,453) inc. premium. Photo: Bonhams. 

ProvenanceWith Derek Johns, March 2001
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, 27 January 2005, lot 194

LiteratureL. Muti and D. de Sarno Prigano, A tu per tu con la pittura. Studi e ricerche di storia dell'arte, Faenza, 2002, pp. 263, 269 (under note 46), fig. 38
A. Scarpa, Sebastiano Ricci, Milan, 2006, pp. 259-260, cat. no. 333, p. 604, ill., pl. 525

NoteThe present work can be dated to circa 1710, shortly before Ricci set sail for England in the following year. Painted in Venice, with its theatrical setting and depiction of sumptuous historical costumes it is characteristic of those mythological, Biblical and history paintings on canvas that he produced at that time. Like Ricci's Continence of Scipio, now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, it looks back to Veronese's comparable tale of military clemency, The Family of Darius before Alexander (in the National Gallery, London). As in the Continence of Scipio, in Sofonisba accepting the poison, the main protagonists similarly form a pyramidical group in the shallow foreground. The pose and appearance of Sofonisba also bear a striking resemblance to Scipio's young prisoner in the artist's earlier painting at Windsor.

The story of Sofonisba, probably much embellished, is best known from a few late manuscripts by Livy. She was the daughter of the Carthaginian general, Hasdrubal Gisco Gisgonis, during the Second Punic War against Hannibal (218-201 BC). She was a great beauty, who had been betrothed to the eastern Numidian king Massinissa in 206 BC as part of an alliance with Syphax, king of the Masaesyli (or western Numidians). Although Massinissa subsequently fell in love with Sophonisba and married her, following his defeat and the capture of Syphax in 203 BC at the Battle of the Great Plains at Bagradas, the powerful Roman general, Scipio Africanus refused to agree to the marriage, insisting on the immediate surrender of the princess so that she could be taken to Rome and appear in the triumphal parade. Masinissa was persuaded to leave her, fearing the Romans more than he loved Sophonisba. He told her that he could not free her from captivity or shield her from Roman wrath, and so he asked her to die like a true Carthaginian princess. With great composure, Livy tells us that she drank the cup of poison that he offered her without hesitation.
Bonhams. OLD MASTER PAINTINGS, 6 Dec 2017, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET

Lorenzo Veneziano (active Venice, 1356-1379), The Crucifixion

0
0

Lorenzo Veneziano (active Venice, 1356-1379), The Crucifixion

2

Lot 53. Lorenzo Veneziano (active Venice, 1356-1379), The Crucifixion, tempera on gold ground panel, shaped top, 55.7 x 40cm (21 15/16 x 15 3/4in). Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 (€450,000 - 680,000)Sold for £1,688,750 (€1,906,727) inc. premium. Photo: Bonhams. 

ProvenanceBaron de Cosson (1846-1929), the British-born antiquarian collector,
acquired circa 1915, and by descent through his family in the U.K. to the present owner.

NoteThis splendid newly discovered Crucifixion by Lorenzo Veneziano is a very exciting addition to our knowledge of Venetian painting in the third quarter of the Trecento. A remarkably inventive artist of extraordinary talent, Lorenzo Veneziano was indisputably the leading Venetian painter of the second half of the 14th century and his impact on later Venetian painting was both profound and widespread. He was instrumental in instigating the significant move in Venetian art towards the Gothic style, turning away from those old fashioned Byzantine models that had previously dominated the culture of La Serenissima. Having gathered inspiration from his travels in mainland Italy, his work was in as much demand there as it was in Venice. Lorenzo's influence, moreover, was as diffuse as it was significant: he introduced a naturalism, a fluency of draughtsmanship and a vitality in his figure poses that had never before been seen in Venetian art. All of these elements are emphatically evident in this ornate, colourful and animated panel.

This panel which, since its acquisition a century ago has been the property of the same family, had hitherto remained concealed from the eyes of art historians and had never been published until it was the subject of the recent research conducted by Professor Gaudenz Freuler of Zürich University, whose significant conclusion is shared on the basis of photographs by both Cristina Guarnieri of the Università degli Studi di Padova and Andrea De’ Marchi of the University of Florence. This enables us to place it within Lorenzo’s oeuvre by highlighting a number of similarities to certain other works of his, which Freuler outlines in an article dated October 2017. In this analysis Professor Freuler writes of this “stunning” painting: “Despite its tragic content and its high emotional temperature, the animated scene of the Crucifixion is rendered here with the utmost elegance and finesse amazingly producing an appearance of sophisticated grace and dignity.”

Given its dimensions the Crucifixion could have surmounted a central panel of a large polyptych. Its style is derived from the tradition of the great founder of Venetian 14th century painting, Paolo Veneziano, who was the undisputed leader among Venetian painters of the first half of the 14th century. Paolo's influence is particularly evident if we compare our Crucifixion with the former's interpretation of the subject in the National Gallery in Washington (Kress, fig.1), or that in the Galleria Nazionale in Parma, both painted in relatively early years of Paolo's career, in the fourth decade of the Trecento

021902795974d3597d62ddb133298a4a

Fig. 1 Paolo Veneziano, The Crucifixion, c. 1340/1345, tempera on panel, 31 x 38 cm, Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington

In the figure of Christ, for example, we encounter a similarly designed facial expression within finely cut features, together with the wonderfully rendered cloth around Christ's waist, the delicate transparency of which allows Christ's thighs subtly to show through. Equally the highly sophisticated rendering of Christ's body is painted with the most delicate of brushstrokes. 

Yet, despite Lorenzo's apparent indebtedness to Paolo Veneziano, the author of our painting clearly employs a more progressive artistic response to his Venetian precursor, based, as it would seem, on the models of Paduan interpretations of the innovations that Giotto introduced to Northern Italy in the first decade of the 14th century, as developed by painters such as Guariento and later Altichiero, whose paintings executed for the Doge's Palace from circa 1408 established the International Gothic style in Venice. 

Clear comparisons might be made between the present Crucifixion and such earlier models by Giotto as the panel of the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (fig.2) or a fragmentary frescoed derivation by a Paduan follower of Giotto in the Museo Nazionale Atestino in Este from which one can recognize the ultimate Giottesque source for our painting. This can be discerned in the compositional conception of the paintings where the figures are similarly arranged as compact groups around the cross; and in certain figures such as the towering figure of the high priest seen from behind lower right, a concept which resurfaces in various paintings conceived by Giotto and his workshop and which was later to be employed by Altichiero in his fresco of the Crucifixion in the church of Sant' Antonio Santo in Padua.

Giotto_di_Bondone_-_Crucifixion_-_WGA09337

Fig. 2 Giotto di Bondone, The Crucifixion, 1330s, tempera on wood, 58 x 33 cm / © bpk / Gemäldegalerie, SMB / Jörg P. Anders.

At a time when painting in early Trecento Venice was still very much dominated by the conventions of Byzantine art, this distinct awareness of the innovations introduced by Giotto to northern Italian regions, such as Padua and Rimini, was first discernible in the works of Paolo Veneziano, who turned his eyes to Padua and Giotto's artistic concepts. This is apparent in the latter's scenes of the Life of the Virgin in the Pinacoteca Civica in Pesaro, dateable to the third decade of the 14th century. It is probably within this artistic milieu, albeit not necessarily within the workshop of Paolo Veneziano himself, that the author of our impressive Crucifixion must have learnt his art. This is easily discernible with respect to the repertoire of figures with slightly chubby faces and protruding chins, as well as with the distinctive round fierce-looking eyes, together with certain stylistic characteristics, such as the painting of the flesh tones under a dark preparation, or the way in which the hair of his figures is highlighted with white to render them a quality somewhat like cotton wool. These qualities are also distinctive features of the art of the artist who was presumably youngest son of Paolo Veneziano, Marco di Paolo, who signed a Madonna of Humility with donor in the Museum of Western Art in Kiev and whose oeuvre has been convincingly linked by Andrea De Marchi with a group of works surrounding an altarpiece in the church of San Silvestro in Venice. 

Such stylistic features resurface in various of Paolo's paintings, such as the little known panel with the Flight into Egypt in a New York collection. This reveals a distinct influence of Lorenzo Veneziano's works painted during the final years of the 1360s. Nevertheless, the author of the present magnificent Crucifixion, in Freuler's view, "goes far beyond the possibilities of Marco di Paolo Veneziano and reveals the artistic concerns of the undisputed protagonist of Venetian painting of this period: Lorenzo Veneziano." Taking all these features into account, Freuler considers the present painting to be "probably one of the most elegant and most fascinating Venetian interpretations of Giotto's older archetypes." 

Since the early part of his career Lorenzo expressed in his works an overt awareness of Guariento's Paduan interpretations of Giotto's art. This resulted in a common approach between the two artists in the narrative of their paintings, where, much as with Guariento in his Crucifixion (the central element of a triptych for private devotion in a private collection in Düsseldorf), Lorenzo engaged his active figures in lively communication, illustrating their narratives with a highly emotional intensity. This interest is easily recognised if our Crucifixion is compared to an early interpretation of this subject that features in a sadly damaged small early altarpiece in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston which has recently been assigned to Lorenzo Veneziano's early phase (fig. 3, see Andrea De Marchi, "Una tavola nella Narodna Galeria di Lublijana e una proposta per Marco di Paolo Veneziano", in: Il Gotico in Slovenia, Janez Höfler [ed.], atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Ljubljana, Ljubljana 1995, p.244; id., 2005, p. 35-36). Undoubtedly the earlier interpretation of the Crucifixion in Boston appears to be the prototype, to which Lorenzo Veneziano returned some 20 years later in the present painting, where he also repeated the model of his mourning Saint John, who appears here in a more lively and at the same time looser pose. Apparently in Lorenzo's later version he generally moderated the agitated dynamics which are visible in his earlier paintings in favour of a more restrained, if no less dramatic account of Christ's supreme sacrifice, within a more structured composition.

Lorenzo Veneziano, The Virgin and Child and the Crucifixion with Six Saints, Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum

Fig. 3 Lorenzo Veneziano, The Virgin and Child and the Crucifixion with Six Saints, 1300-1350, Tempera on panel, 82.55 x 73.66 cm, Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum.

This freshly discovered panel crucially displays a number of the more modern elements that Lorenzo had come to adopt by the 1360s: as seen, for example, in the painting of the figures which display a more physical presence, coupled with the artist's growing interest in elaborate decoration, as is visible in the ornate garments of the figures and on the soldier's armour. The interaction between the figures has moved away from the earlier, almost violent manner in which Lorenzo had tended to arrange them, so that they now interact in a more subtle fashion, united here in groups: on one side a family in its common grief; on the other a group of sceptics amazed by Christ's sacrifice. This new emotional intensity was Lorenzo Veneziano's great gift to Venetian art. Hence this panel incorporates a number of subtleties worthy of the great artist that he was: such as the imposing figure of the high priest seen from behind and in the foreshortening of his face while conversing with his companions. All these features can be accounted for by Lorenzo's having witnessed those artists on the mainland and in the Po Valley who attempted to refashion the art of Giotto and create more modern artistic solutions. 

This same narrative trait was to be further refined in Lorenzo's later panels, depicting the Story of Saint Peter in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Freuler suggests that these panels, which date from circa 1370, indicate the approximate period when our Crucifixion was painted: that is, in the mature period of Lorenzo's brilliant artistic career. It is, however, to a slightly earlier work, the Proti Altarpiece, which is signed and dated 1366, in the cathedral of Vicenza (fig. 4), that our painting reveals the strongest stylistic ties. The artistic relationship is quite evident if we compare the present Crucifixionto that which surmounts the central panel of the Proti Altarpiece - one of Lorenzo's most complete altarpieces which has come down to us. Even though restricted to three main components - Christ on the Cross and the mourning Virgin and John the Evangelist and the two angels hovering above - this concise version of this subject which is bare of all superfluous narrative elements reveals a similar iconographic model. This is particularly evident with regard to the mourning Saint John, who, as in the present painting, is turned to the viewer in order to engage him in his grief; while the attitude of the angels with their arms joined has further parallels in this version. The Saviour on the Cross himself reveals the same form: even though in our version his physical appearance is slightly more slender and elegant, the execution of his body is articulated in both paintings with the same meticulous care and with equally delicate brushstrokes, underlining the artist's capacity to render minute anatomic details to perfection with the tension of the hanging body. 

Lorenzo Veneziano, The Proti Altarpiece, Vicenza Cathedral

Fig.4. Lorenzo Veneziano, The Proti Altarpiece, 1366, Vicenza Cathedral.

Another technical feature, which betrays Lorenzo's authorship, is the detail of what Freuler terms the sgraffito execution of the mourning angels, which is something that is rarely seen in earlier Venetian Trecento painting and echoes the translucent grisaille angels in his paintings of the Madonna of Humility, in Verona (Sant Anastasia) and Trieste (Santa Maria Maggiore). These concepts were later to inspire the artists of the International Gothic who were active in Lombardy, such a Gentile da Fabriano, and illuminators like the Master of the Franciscan Breviary, for example. 

Lorenzo Veneziano's authorship for our Crucifixion might further be endorsed through comparison of the youthful face of our Saint John, slightly inclined towards the left, with two saints of a comparable nature and pose included in Lorenzo's Proti Altarpiece in Vicenza: the Prophet Daniel and Saint Carpoforo, who appear in their anatomical construction as twin brothers of our saint. Lorenzo Veneziano's authorship for our Crucifixion can be yet further established by comparing the profile of Longinus, whose features with its characteristic protruding chin reveal an impressive emotional intensity, with the two mourners in the foreground of the Death and Assumption of the Virgin depicted on the central panel of the Proti Altarpiece. The common hand becomes particularly evident if we consider the face of the elder mourner of the Proti altarpiece, which is slightly turned from full profile – here illustrated in inverted view - back to full profile. Not only is it executed in the same refined manner, but the high emotional intensity resulting from this delicate figural expression corresponds in both paintings.

Taking all our observations into consideration, there remains little doubt about Lorenzo Veneziano's authorship for the present Crucifixion. Not only is this newly discovered painting an astonishing addition to the oeuvre of the most innovative Venetian painter of the 14th century, but it also allows a new insight into Lorenzo Veneziano's artistic direction towards the middle of the 1360s. Maybe due to his continuous contacts with the artistic currents and cross-currents in the Po valley and the north Italian mainland, he returned in this period to reflect anew on the artistic possibilities of Giotto's innovations in the first third of the Trecento. By doing so he temporarily moderated the dynamics of his compositions which were evident in his earlier works, and by incorporating more substantial figures in his compositions he created scenes of greater harmony and less tension. This tendency appears to have been short-lived, since only a few years later Lorenzo was to return to the artistic world which, as early as around 1370 - in, for example, the altarpiece of the Traditio Clavis, Venice, Museo Correr and the panels with the Lives of Saint Peter and Paul in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin - heralded in Italy the first signs of the movement towards an International Gothic which was further developed at the turn of the century and the following decades by Gentile da Fabriano and other artists in his tradition. This can be illustrated by comparing our mourning Saint John with the youthful Saint Lawrence on one of the lateral panels of Lorenzo Veneziano's 1371 altarpiece with The Annunciation in the Accademia in Venice (fig.5) - one of his most accomplished and most innovative works painted in the final years of his extraordinary career. Freuler thus regards the present Cruxifixion as a new cornerstone in Lorenzo Veneziano's middle period, dateable towards the middle of the seventh decade of the 14th century, probably around 1366-70. It also reveals Lorenzo's ability to adjust his art to the taste of different patrons, as had been accurately observed by Cristina Guarnieri, and his versatility in adopting a variety of artistic trends, fusing them into his own highly personal artistic language (see Cristina Guarnieri, "Le polyptyque pour l'église San Giacomo Maggiore de Bologne dans l'œuvre de Lorenzo Veneziano", in: Autour de Lorenzo Veneziano. Fragments de polyptyques vénetiens du XIV siècle (cat. Tours Musée des Beaux-Arts 22 October 2005- 23 January 2006), Milan 2005, p. 57-79 speciatim p. 68). It is therefore the recent emergence of this crucial work by Lorenzo Veneziano that allows us a far better understanding of a significant period in the artist's eventful career.

Lorenzo Veneziano, Polyptych of the Annunciation

Fig. 5 Lorenzo Veneziano (fl. 1356-1372): Polyptych of the Annunciation, 1371. Tempera on panel. 111 x 54 cm (centre). 94 x 24 cm (sides). Venice, Accademia. © 2017. Photo Scala, Florence - courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali e del Turismo

We are grateful to Professor Gaudenz Freuler for his assistance with the catalogue entry for this lot.

Bonhams. OLD MASTER PAINTINGS, 6 Dec 2017, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET

Claude Joseph Vernet (Avignon 1714-1789 Paris), Clair de lune, 1772

0
0

1

2

Lot 87. Claude Joseph Vernet (Avignon 1714-1789 Paris), Clair de lune, signed and dated 'J. Vernet/ f.1772' (on rock, lower left), oil on canvas, 114.8 x 164cm (45 3/16 x 64 9/16in).Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 (€110,000 - 170,000)Sold for £752,750 (€849,911) inc. premium. Photo: Bonhams. 

ProvenanceCommissioned November 1771 by Henry, 8th Lord Arundell of Wardour (1740-1808), Wardour Castle, Tisbury, Wiltshire and by descent until the
Arundell sale, L.W. Arnett of Darlington, Wardour Castle, 10 September 1952, no. 144 (paired with La Tempête)
With Galerie Popoff, Paris, by 1957

LiteratureJ. Britton, Beauties of Wiltshire, London, 1801, vol II, p.10
G. Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London 1857, p. 392, letter VIII
L. Legrange, Les Vernets. Joseph Vernet et la peinture au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1864, p.350, no. 253, and p. 367, no. 163
F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Paris, 1926, vol. II, p. 23, cat. no. 954-955 
P. Conisbee, 'The Shipwreck, 1772, by Claude-Joseph Vernet', in Mélanges en Hommage à Pierre Rosenberg: Peintures et dessins en France et en Italie XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles Paris, 2001, pp.153-158
P Conisbee et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009, p. 432, under no. 92, ill. fig.1

NoteTypical of Vernet's work at the height of his success, the present Clair de lune was almost certainly commissioned from the artist by Henry Hoare (1705-1785) on behalf of Henry, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour (1740-1808), as one of a pair to hang at his newly built New Wardour Castle near Tisbury in Wiltshire. The pendant, known as The Shipwreck now hangs in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (see fig. 1, no. 2000.22.1). The works were sold as a pair in the Arundell sale at Wardour Castle on 10 September 1952 (lot 144) and the Washington picture is then recorded as being with Galerie Popoff, Paris, by 1957. On the reverse of the present painting is a storage label with a pencil inscription which reads 'Popoff', suggesting that this Clair de lune was also with Galerie Popoff making it the most likely candidate to be the partner of The Shipwreck in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

2

Fig. 1 Claude-Joseph Vernet, The Shipwreck, 1772, oil on canvas, 113.5 x 162.9 cm, Patrons’ Permanent Fund and Chester Dale Fund. National Gallery of Art, Washington.

The commission on behalf of Lord Arundell came via Vernet's agent and patron, the banker Henry Hoare. In his Livre de Verité, Vernet's record of all commissions and payments, he writes that 'In a letter of 25 November 1771 M. Henry Hoare commissioned from me two paintings for Milord Arnundell [sic] a Moonlight and a Storm at Sea; he offered me 200 pounds sterling for each and did not indicate the size. I proposed to him to make them 5 feet wide by 3 feet 6 inches high, or 5 feet by 3'1 . The paintings were completed by the summer of the following year and, again in his Livre de Verité under 'Receipts', Vernet writes that 'Around the last days of the month of August 1772 I received from M. le chevalier Lambert 9000 livres as payment for two paintings that I made for Milord Arnundell' 2

That Arundell's request for a 'Storm at Sea' and a 'Moonlight' is so open in its particulars is typical of commissions coming to Vernet by this stage in his career. His reputation as a marine and landscape painter was so well established that any potential patron knew exactly what a work by the master would be like. Also typical of this commission is that it was for a pair of works. Vernet often depicted his landscapes or marines in pairs, or even fours, with contrasting aspects of nature, for example Night and Day or Storm and CalmThe Shipwreck in Washington shows a ship running ashore during a dramatic storm. The strong winds are indicated by the bending trees on the cliff and the sharp angle of the lurching ship's mast. This drama is contrasted with the calm of the present Clair de lune with the cool silver light of the moon illuminating the sea and the warm glow of the campfire lighting the foreground. John Britton chose to mention them amongst the highlights of paintings hanging at Wardour Castle during his visit in 1801, when the pair is recorded as hanging on the staircase along with a view of Lake Nemi by Richard Wilson. 

Henry, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour was an avid patron of the arts. At the age of 16 Henry inherited Wardour Castle which had been greatly damaged during the Civil War. He borrowed the funds to build New Wardour Castle and the original castle was left in the grounds as a romantic ruin. Built in the Palladian style, the new castle, or house, was designed by James Paine with some additions by Giacomo Quarenghi, the architect best known for his work in Imperial Russia and more particularly in Saint Petersburg. The building was completed by 1776 and it is recorded that in 1801, the present work and its companion were hanging on the staircase. By Gustav Waagen's visit half a century later, they were in the Drawing room when he noted they were 'distinguished for careful execution as well as poetic invention'. 

A native of Avignon, Claude Joseph Vernet first trained in France but then moved to Rome aged 20 where he joined the studio of the successful marine landscape painter Adriaen Manglard. He made numerous visits to Naples but remained in Rome until 1753. During his time in Italy he forged a very successful career as a marine painter with his works proving popular with both French diplomats and Grand Tourists. The English were among his most consistent patrons, no doubt encouraged by Vernet's English wife, Virginia Cecilia Parker, daughter of a captain in the papal navy. By 1746 he was approved by the Académie Royale in Paris, enabling him to exhibit at the annual Salons. Vernet's most prestigious commission came in 1753 from the marquis de Marigny, Surintendent des Bâtiments on behalf of King Louis XV. The artist was summoned back to his native country to paint twenty views of the Ports de Frances, one of the most significant commissions of the king's reign. Vernet returned to France to commence work on the series but it was left incomplete 10 years later when he abandoned the project having completed only 15 of the proposed 20 views. 

1. (Par une letter du 25 novembre 1771 M. Henry Hoare me demandé deux tableaux pour milord Arnundell [sic] un Clair de Lune et une Tempête de mer, il me propose 200 livres sterlins pour chaque et ne fixe pas de mesure. Je luy ay propose de les faire 5 pieds de large sur 3 et six pouce de haut ou 5 pied sur 3' (Legrange, ibid, p. 350, no. 250)
2. Vers les derniers jour d'aoust 1772 j'ay reçu de M. le chevalier Lambert 9000 l. pt prix de deux tableaux que j'ay fait pr Milord Arnundell[sic] ordonnez part M. Hoare' (Legrange, ibid p. 367, no. 163)

Bonhams. OLD MASTER PAINTINGS, 6 Dec 2017, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET

Viewing all 36084 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images