Tonight is the night that Katherine Parr is offered at
@Sothebys
- how much will she fetch, and where will she go? The whole sale is live streamed for free on the website, join us to find out!
For Tudor fans out there, this rather fascinating oak panel featuring the insignias of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon is coming up for sale
@Sothebys
this month. Not too dissimilar to the Cleves panel found by
@JonathanFoyle
and now at
@hevercastle
To celebrate an upcoming podcast, here is my lute arrangement of the music that appears in the fifteenth cent. stained glass of the magnificent Beauchamp Chapel
@StMarysWarwick
@ourwarwickshire
I’ve written a blog dedicated to an overlooked Tudor portrait of King Henry VIII which was once part of Ralph Sheldon’s famous set at Weston House. Completed in the 1590s, this painting at Warwick Shire Hall (
@Warwickshire_CC
) should be better known!
@NPGLondon
@Sothebys
The Warwick Henry VIII painting has the same arched top and is framed in a corresponding frame as other surviving examples. Furthermore, an engraving of the Weston House frieze shows the very same composition for Henry as found in the Warwick painting.
This month's
@BurlingtonMag
features my debut article on a unrecorded photograph of Ellen Terry by Julia Margaret Cameron. The photo happened to fall out of a book whilst I was scouring through a private library in 2019.
The local Warwickshire politician and tapestry maker Ralph Sheldon’s set of 22 portraits of Kings, Queens and international figures was dispersed in 1781. They are distinctive for having rounded tops. Here are surviving images of Wolsey, Richard III and the Earl of Essex.
As the
@Sothebys
London Old Master Paintings Day Sale is about to be published, I wanted to share this rare gem of Mrs Dorothy Jordan in breeches playing Shakespeare’s Rosalinda. Beechey’s portrait might be one of the last theatrical portraits of the sitter left in private hands.
This early Portrait of Henry VIII is coming up for sale at
@ChristiesInc
later this month. Love the visible pentimento in the hat. A change of fashion perhaps? Est. £25k-£35k.
Congratulations to
@WaddesdonManor
for uploading some beautifully detailed pictures to their website. I’ve lost at least an hour looking through them. Here’s a ‘Studio of Rembrandt’, a very captivating picture despite the attribution.
Some highlights from the
@Sothebys
Old Master Paintings and Drawings sales will be on display in London until the 13th June. These examples are from the Right Hon. Earl of Jersey’s collection, including Catherine Parr, the Earl of Essex and some exquisite drawings by Peter Lely.
A particularly beautiful and melancholic Emma Hamilton head-study by George Romney which is coming up in the
@Sothebys
Old Master Paintings Day Sale. One of those paintings that truly feels like it could come alive at any moment…
A recent discovery in the upcoming
@sothebys
Old Masters Day sale is this unpublished study by Mary Beale, showing one of her son’s probably Bartholomew. IR images show that it was finished off by a later hand (in the drapery). Full catalogue note here:
The
@Sothebys
Old Master Paintings Day Sale is now live. My personal highlight is this plein air study of a Highland loch with ghillies by Edwin Landseer. It was sold from his posthumous sale in 1874 and is offered now with an estimate of £12-18k.
I’ve recorded a new podcast focusing on the life of Elizabeth Hamilton (1720-1800), 1st Countess of Warwick - her biography has never been treated in any meaningful way - (1/6)
Some painterly details from Titian’s Ecce Homo, a late work which feels centuries ahead of its time. As exciting as any impressionistic Bacon or Freud in my opinion. Will be offered in the upcoming
@Sothebys
NY Old Master Paintings sale on Thursday.
Free exhibition -
@ChatsworthHouse
have lent their magnificent Reynolds of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, with her daughter to
@Sothebys
London for a special exhibition of portraits which runs until 4th July. Get closer to this masterpiece than ever before!
As the
@Sothebys
London Old Masters Evening Sale has just been published online, I thought I’d draw attention to this immaculate portrait of Lady Catherine Bateson by Sir Thomas Lawrence. This unlined canvas even has an abandoned chalk study on the reverse.
@sixteenthCgirl
Ah yes, time to bring out this photograph from my phd research at the local record office. It was a filthy but extremely interesting time.
My pick from the upcoming
@dorotheum
sale is this fascinating Self Portrait identified as the porcelain painter Marie-Victoire Jaquotot (1772–1855). A rather interesting evocation of an artist at work! Est. €12k - €18k.
An accomplished lady lutenist, one of my favourite details of the upcoming
@Sothebys
New York Part 1 Sale. Such a prominent empty and open lute case behind it, what might it mean? Answers below, please!
This includes the identification of the painting’s original inscription, now covered with overpaint, which is another characteristic of the Sheldon set.
This can’t have been taken on Saturday morning, you sold that table at Sotheby’s for £1.6m in 2015, remember? That carpet is now missing from the room too.
The Cafe Mozart Waltz by Anton Karas, in preparation for my career as a busker on the backstreets of Vienna when the wheels fall off this journey into Old Masters…
Completely blown away by this lutenist that is coming up for sale in Cologne. Sitter is unidentified...how wonderful to speculate if this is a lost portrait of someone like SL Weiss?
Thrilled that the British Art Journal have published my article on the artist John Westbrooke Chandler (1763/4-1807). Included is a checklist of works (most useful).
There are some extremely beautiful and strange pictures coming up for sale
@dorotheum
later this month. This gardener by Giovan Battista Cartei is my pick.
Will any UK cultural institution be willing to find £50m to keep Joshua Reynolds's Omai in the country? (ps. It sold for a mere £9.4m (hammer) at Sotheby's in 2001)
The morning commute soothed by these exquisite watercolours of Vesuvius stone samples painted by Pietro Fabris in 1776 for Sir William Hamilton. Recently uploaded on the fantastic
@watercolour_tww
For the early birds - The
@sothebys
Old Master Paintings Evening Sale has just been published online! One of the highlights is this outstanding Saint Sebastian by Rubens, which carries an estimate of £4 - £6m
This is a rare portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds’ favourite niece Mary Palmer, Marchioness of Thomond. Long known for being a copyist, this particular canvas of Lord Eliot coming up
@Sothebys
bears an old inscription on the back identifying the work as hers.
Felt like a rather historic day today. Firstly, that I got to play the lute in Haslemere, the spiritual home of the Early Music revival in Britain. Secondly, that it was to a live audience - the first time since Feb/Mar 2020!
@TheArtsSociety_
One of the most serene watercolours I’ve ever encountered by Thomas Rowlandson on the fabulous
@watercolour_tww
. Now part of
@CourtauldGall
collection.
Venice, painted by the British artist David Roberts, R.A. (1796–1864) for his daughter’s 33rd birthday. So good that it doesn’t even need a frame. Coming up in the
@Sothebys
OMP Evening Sale.
Exciting news that
@ChristiesInc
London will be selling Leonardo's Drawing of a Bear in their upcoming July sale. Estimated at £8m - £12m. Formerly owned by Thomas Lawrence too!
There is a beautiful display of highlights from the Grasset Collection currently on display
@Sothebys
in New Bond Street. Still lifes by De Heem, Van Kessel and Beert alongside floral displays and contemporary art. Running till 14 Sept.
A glorious time had adding sound to Holbein's Ambassadors at the
@NationalGallery
this afternoon. (This piece containing lyrics supposedly penned by François I).
The most mysterious painting of the
@Sothebys
Old Master Paintings Day Sale is this rediscovered work by the elusive Monogrammist IS, a Rembrandtian artist of poss. German origin who may have travelled in the Baltic countries and Scandinavia. All theories welcome on this idea!
This Elizabethan looking gentleman made $40,625 over an estimate of $300-500 yesterday
@skinnerinc
. Reminds me a little of John Donne, or the Earl or Essex perhaps. Larkin’s portraits come to mind too...
#sleeperalert
Currently day dreaming about how this rare unlined Thomas Lawrence will appear once conserved. Dating to the 1790s, this was painted when he was in his twenties. Can you imagine? Coming up at
@Sothebys
New York.
Come and visit the galleries of
@Sothebys
London to see one of the most exciting and rare pictures by William Hogarth in the upcoming Old Master sales. This is the last major satirical painting by the artist left in private hands. More to be announced soon!
@NicolaTallis
@Sothebys
The portrait will be in a special Summer Highlights display, which runs
@Sothebys
London from Tuesday 30th May until Tuesday 13th June. Completely free, all welcome to come and see her!
I once had the great pleasure of visiting this picture, whilst researching the armour in it for my MA dissertation. A very fine Greenwich armour, if it ever existed!
Some of my favourite details from a recently rediscovered Self Portrait of David Martin (1737-1798) coming up in the
@Sothebys
Old Master Paintings July Day Sale. It might be the same portrait described as being given by the artist to Allan Ramsay.
This lady organist, sporting clothing that all organists should aspire to, is my pick from the
@Sothebys
OMP day sale. Yours for a mere £8-12k
#earlymusic
This fine musical scene, attributed to Ambrosius Benson, is my pick from the
@ChristiesInc
OMP sale. It must be the companion to the fabulous and very curious Benson in
@kunstmuseumbs
Would look wonderful after a delicate clean!