Art du XVIIIème siècle / 18th century art

Joseph Wright of Derby, A.R.A., An Academy by Lamplight. Oil on canvas, 50 by 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm), est. £2.5-3.5 million. Courtesy Sotheby’s. LONDON.- The genius of Joseph Wright of Derby A.R.A. (1734-1797) will come under the spotlight this winter, when one of the artist’s most important candlelit pictures, and one of his last major works remaining in private hands, appears at auction at Sotheby’s. Painted in 1769, An Academy by Lamplight is a supreme example of Wright’s dramatic rendering of light and shade and his... [Lire la suite]

Giovanni Antonio Canaletto (Italian, 1697-1768), The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola, c. 1740. Oil on canvas. Bequest of Miss Tessie Jones in memory of Herschel V. Jones. Minneapolis Institute of Art. Minneapolis— The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) presents the first-ever exhibition to focus on view paintings as depictions of contemporary events. “Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe” features approximately 40 paintings from the golden age of European view... [Lire la suite]

Agustín Esteve [1753–post. 1820], Manuela Isidra Téllez-Girón, future Duchess of Abrantes, 1797. Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 86 cm. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. Adquirido con fondos de la Donación Óscar Alzaga Villaamil MADRID.- The recent addition to the Museum’s collection of Portrait of Manuela Isidra Téllez-Girón, future Duchess of Abrantes by Augustín Esteve y Marqués, acquired with funds from the Óscar Alzaga Villaamil donation, will allow for greater knowledge of this interesting painter who was in his day considered... [Lire la suite]

  Giacomo Casanova, by his brother Francisco Giuseppe Casanova, 1750-1755. FORT WORTH, TX.- Notorious today for his amorous pursuits, Giacomo Casanova (1725–98) was esteemed by his contemporaries as a charming conversationalist, expert on many topics, and an international man of letters. He traveled widely throughout the continent, with extended sojourns in his native Venice, Paris, London, and much of Eastern Europe, mingling with royalty, popes and luminaries such as Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin along the way. This... [Lire la suite]

Bernardo Bellotto, The Fortress of Königstein from the North, About 1756-8. Oil on canvas, 132.1 x 236.2 cm © The National Gallery, London. LONDON.- The Fortress of Königstein from the North by Bellotto, which was due to be exported from Britain, has been saved for the nation and went on display in Trafalgar Square today (Tuesday 22 August 2017). Bernardo Bellotto’s works are among the very greatest of 18th-century view paintings, and The Fortress of Königstein from the North is undoubtedly one of the finest examples. It... [Lire la suite]

Daniel Schmidely, Maria Theresia in the Hungarian coronation dress, 1742. Oil on canvas, 237.5 x 157 cm © Galéria mesta Bratislavy VIENNA.- The Belvedere has seized Maria Theresa’s 300th birthday as an occasion to elucidate her relationship to the visual arts. For the exhibition, curator Georg Lechner has brought to light a number of exciting details. For example, Maria Theresa was extremely openminded and unbiased in her approach to art. Comprising some 120 works, the show traces the impact of the Austrian... [Lire la suite]

Your Majesty's Poster © KHM-Museumverband  VIENNA.- The Kunsthistorisches Museum’s Coin Collection holds both the largest and by far the most important collection of coins minted under Maria Theresa; it is the best place, and now is the best time, to host an exhibition that presents the monarch’s life in medals to celebrate what would have been her 300th birthday. The exhibition focuses on the most important topoi in Maria Theresa’s private and public life. It presents her in the company of her large... [Lire la suite]

Adriaen Coorte (Dutch, c. 1660-aft 1707), Gooseberries on a Table, 1701, oil on paper mounted on wood, Framed: 45.5 x 38.5 x 4.5 cm (17 7/8 x 15 1/8 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 29.7 x 22.8 cm (11 11/16 x 8 15/16 in.). Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund, 1987.32 © The Cleveland Museum of Art. Coorte worked in Middelburg, a wealthy maritime city in the southern part of the Netherlands, which fostered a poetic, scientific, and spiritual examination of the natural world. Gooseberries - a modest, local pleasure - could be picked in the wild,... [Lire la suite]

Luis Paret y Alcázar (1746-1799), View of Bermeo, 1783 © 2017 Bilbao Fine Arts Museum BILBAO.- The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum is presenting View of Bermeo of 1783 by Luis Paret y Alcázar (Madrid, 1746-1799), acquired from the heirs of José Luis Várez Fisa. The painting has been obtained with an interest-free loan thanks to the sponsorship of BBK, to be repaid over the following years with the contribution from the Friends of the Museum. In addition to its undoubted artistic value, View of Bermeo of 1783... [Lire la suite]

A black chalk drawing of a landscape, showing trees beside a road, squared for transfer in pencil. Lindsay Stainton has noted that this drawing is a squared-up study for Thomas Gainsborough's (1727-88) early landscape painting of Cornard Wood, 1748, now in the National Gallery, London. Photo: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017. LONDON.- An album of 25 landscape drawings in the Royal Collection, which have been contained in an album lettered 'Sketches by Sir E Landseer', have now been... [Lire la suite]