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This c1775 English enamel writing casket bears the arms of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1751-55. It comes up at Sotheby’s live sale of American Furniture, Silver and Decorative Arts in New York on January 19 with an estimate of $15,000-25,000. Measuring ten and a half inches long it is thought to be probably Birmingham.
Property from the estate of American actor and producer James Garner – known for iconic roles in Maverick and The Rockford Files – will come up at Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood next June. The live and online sale will feature James Garner’s 1950s period Western-style costume on Maverick (ABC Television, 1957-1962), two of hisclassic black felt wool “Maverick” cowboy hats, the 2004 Screen Actors Guild nomination certificate for “Outstanding Performance by A Male Actor in a Supporting Role” for his role in The Notebook in 2004 and Garner’s 1993 Golden Globe award for “Best Performance By An / Actor in a Mini-Series / or Motion Picture / Made for Television” for HBO’s Barbarians at the Gate.
La Bordadora (The Embroiderer), a rediscovered masterpiece by Diego Rivera, comes up at Christie’s in New York on March 11. Painted in 1928 as part of the nation building project that fuelled Rivera’s return to Mexico in the 1920s it pays homage to folk and craft based practices and the role of Indigenous women in preserving these traditions. Known only through black and white photographs taken shortly after it was painted La Bordadora was discovered to have been in the same American family collection since the 1920’s. It is estimated at $700,000-$900,000 (€620,900-€798,535). Last November Frida Kahlo’s Diego y yo (Diego and I) sold in New York for $34.9 million (€30,967,962), a record for a work of Latin American art. The previous record of $9.76 million (€8.65 million) was set by Diego Rivera with whom Kahlo had a decades long tumultuous relationship.
A link between Botticelli and the buses, unknown to art history, has emerged on the art market. You wait for ever and then two come along more or less together. One of the last great masterpieces by the Renaissance master will highlight Sothebys annual Masters Week sale series in New York later this month. The Man of Sorrows is estimated to make in excess of $40 million (€35.4 million). It is a late period work from a time when the artist was greatly influenced by the fanatical preaching of hellfire Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola. The most distinctive features are the frontal presentation of the stunningly modern human portrayal of the resurrected Christ and a halo of angels holding the instruments of the passion.
Works by Botticelli are exceedingly rare. In January 2021 Sotheby’s sold Sandro Botticelli’s Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel for $92.2 million (€81.78 million). It is the most valuable Old Master painting ever sold at auction.
We might as well approach the New Year with hope. Ireland’s art lovers missed out on the annual Turner exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland in January 2021 because of the pandemic. In 2022 the much loved Turner watercolours at the gallery go on display for the month of January from today. A highlight of the yearly cultural calendar the paintings have been shown annually in January since 1901, except for 2021.The 120th exhibition, Turner and Place: Landscapes in Light and Detail scheduled for last year, opens today instead. With luck and a dose of optimism this might be the harbinger of a more complete cultural year in 2022 with more gallery visits, more in room attendance at auction, more fairs, more opportunities to meet and greet. Fingers crossed.
The Turner watercolours on display from today are remarkable and range from highly finished work to atmospheric sketches.In 2022 there is much to look forward to in terms of Turner. JMW Turner: The Sun is God opens at the Beit Wing in the National Gallery next October. The touring exhibition of works from the collection of The Tate will display more than 80 works in a show that explores his fascination with natural forces and the sun, moon and clouds. The exhibition, devised by the Turner scholar David Blayney Brown, showcases the artistic innovations of one of the greatest painters of the Romantic period. It will feature 25 paintings and an array of watercolours.
Meantime, back to Turner and Place. The 31 Turner works will be shown alongside a group of 19 rare topographical drawings by Francis Place, who visited Ireland in 1698.Place’s views are the earliest known depictions of Drogheda, Dublin, Kilkenny, and Waterford within the national collection. This collection was purchased almost 50 years ago through the Gallery’s Shaw fund. It is the first time the two collections have been shown together and the first time since 1972 that the Place works will be displayed as a group.The Turners were bequeathed to the gallery by the English collector Henry Vaughan (1809-1899) who stipulated that the delicate watercolours be shown every year in January when natural light is at its weakest. Subsequent generations of art lovers in Ireland have benefitted incalculably from Mr. Vaughan’s generosity.
This wooden replica of Peckham Rock by Banksy recreated by the British Museum in 2018 is Lot 43 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which runs until January 10. Unframed it measures 4.9″ x 7.2″ and the framed size if 14.6″ x 13.8″. It is estimated at 500-600. There are 447 lots on offer and the catalogue is online.
This late 17th century Italian table top in the manner of Cosimo Fanzago comes up at Sotheby’s Stone III sale online in London from January 3-19. It is estimated at £50,000-70,000. Exquisite works of art, objects and pieces furniture made of, or incorporating, marbles, hardstones and micromosaics feature in an auction which explores the incredibly rich use of these materials in European Decorative Arts, with an emphasis on their rarity, colour and craftmanship.
The practice of painting on mirrors developed in China after 1715 when the Jesuit missionary Father Giuseppe Castiglione arrived in Beijing. He found favour with the Emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong and was entrusted with the decoration of the Imperial Garden in Beijing. He learned to paint in oil on glass, a technique that was already practiced in Europe but which was unknown in China in 1715. Chinese artists, already expert in painting and calligraphy, took up the practice, tracing the outlines of their designs on the back of the plate and, using a special steel implement, scraping away the mirror backing to reveal glass that could then be painted. Glass paintings were made almost entirely for export, fuelled by the mania in Europe for all things Chinese.
This c1760 mirror in a beautifully drawn giltwood frame following the designs of London’s pre-eminent cabinet-makers such as John Linnell or Thomas Chippendale represents the ingenuity and collaboration between Chinese and British artists of the mid-18th century. From the collection of Pierre Durand it comes up at Christie’s in New York on January 27 with an estimate of $100,000-$200,000. The late philanthropist and collector co-founded The Chinese Porcelain Company. The sale offers a glimpse into a life well lived with objects and art and features the contents of his New York apartment which artistically combined walls of gallery-hung Old Master Drawings with contemporary glass by Yoichi Ohira, and contrasted Chinese paintings by Liu Dan with fine French and English decorative arts.
A previously hidden sketch has been discovered during examinations of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum. The genesis of the famous painting is revealed in an underpainted sketch discovered using new technologies. This allows researchers to look through the layers of paint with greater specificity than ever before and analyse in minute detail the materials that Rembrandt used. The artist applied a brown ‘quarts’ ground and used a beige paint with a high chalk content for his rough sketch. To date, no other paintings by Rembrandt have been discovered that were prepared using this type of paint.
A team of Operation Night Watch researchers have been meticulously mapping the painting for the past two-and-a-half years and produced an unprecedented volume of data. Rembrandt originally painted feathers for the helmet of militiaman Claes van Cruijsbergen, but later painted them over. The artist also adjusted the leg position of Rombout Kemp – the many scans revealed that the leg initially was painted in a different position at an earlier stage. There are also indications of the presence of an additional sword between the captain and the lieutenant and it has become clear that Rembrandt originally indicated have a larger number of spears projecting above of company.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 17, 2018)
This Chinese cinnabar vase is lot 56 at Matthews annual holiday auction online on December 30. It will feature 896 lots of jewellery, silver, art and collectibles. The catalogue is online and the vase is estimated at €50-€80. The sale will be followed on January 2 with a timed online vintage costume and jewellery auction.
