On 17 Nov, 2010 With
Was John Singer Sargent a homosexual? It has been suggested by art historian Trevor J. Fairbrother that the gentle eroticism of Sargent’s male nudes is evidence of his homosexual tendencies. This beautiful portrait of the 28 year old dandy W. Graham Robertson from 1894 has been much discussed as an example of an homoerotic aesthetic in Sargent’s portraits of elegant young gentlemen. Sargent was much sought after as a portrait painter among the elite of society because he made men look dashing and women look beautiful. The sensual beauty of his portraits of both men and women caused some comment. Some even called his portraits indecent. Because of it’s depiction of an apparently sexually liberated woman in a low cut…
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On 1 Nov, 2010 With
Émile Schuffenecker Émile Schuffenecker (December 8, 1851 – July 31, 1934) was a French Post-Impressionist artist, painter, art teacher and art collector. A friend of Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon, and one of the first collectors of works by Vincent van Gogh, Schuffenecker was instrumental in establishing the Volpini exhibition, in 1889. His own work, however, tends to have been neglected since his death—and even worse, recent season campaigns in the media have reactivated resentments virulent since the late 1920s, when Schuffenecker was suspected to haveimitated the work of other contemporary artists, among them, Van Gogh. Still a contentious issue, it has not been established whether he produced forgeries. Meanwhile, serious scholarly research at least has provided the base for a sober art historical approach…
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On 27 Oct, 2010 With
A rare self portrait by Edouard Manet’s has sold for more than £22 million at auction, in a record sale for the artist By Andrew Hough The painting, “Self Portrait with a Palette”, was bought for a record price by New York dealer Franck Giraud, who was bidding at the Sothebys sale, in central London. The Manet was among 51 lots in Sotheby’s sale of Impressionist and modern works at the start of a series of auctions in London over the coming fortnight. Three lots sold for more than £10 million including the 1878 Manet, one of only two self-portraits he painted. It shows the artist dressed as a Parisian dandy, rather than as a working artist. It was created at a…
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On 23 Oct, 2010 With
Some counterfeiters try to enter the “soul and mind of the artist.” Some delight in the chemistry of baking paint and creating wormholes. Some start with real pictures and then “restore” them until they look as if they’re by a different artist. From ancient vases to conceptual art—if someone made it, someone else has tried to bamboozle the world with a copy. by Milton Esterow In Italy,” Salvatore Casillo, who founded the University of Salerno’s Museum of Fakes, recently commented, “if you’re a good enough counterfeiter, you eventually get your own show.” Casillo was right. Several good-enough counterfeiters have recently had their own shows. Icilio Federico Joni, who was known as the prince of Sienese fakers and specialized in Renaissance…
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On 19 Oct, 2010 With
Edward Burne-Jones Tate puts costly error on display By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent Four decades ago, the Tate Gallery could have bought Edward Burne-Jones’s huge final painting, The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, for £1,000. But the Victorian Pre-Raphaelites were despised and the gallery spurned the chance. Now, the 21ft by 10ft painting is worth millions and on Tuesday Tate Britain welcomed it back – but only on loan. Stephen Deuchar, the director of Tate Britain, admitted that his predecessors made a serious error of judgment. He said: “There is not a shadow of a doubt that this is Burne-Jones’s late great masterpiece. These days it would be fought over.” Burne-Jones spent 17 years on the canvas and he was…
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On 13 Aug, 2010 With
This scene is visually based on two of Odd Nerdrum’s paintings: “Dawn” (1990) and “Sole Morte” (1987).
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