Detail of Nicolaes van Verendael (1640–1691) Still life with flowers Signed lower right: ni. v .veerendael fe. Oil on canvas: 30 x 24 ½ in / 76 x 62.5 cm Painted circa 1665–70
Introduction
In the twenty-six years of its existence, The European Fine Art Fair Maastricht has grown into an unmissable event, enticing private collectors and museum curators from across the globe to view objects presented by the cream of the world’s art dealers. Richard Green has been a participant from the beginning. In 2013 we are bringing an outstanding group of seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish paintings to a fair that has always had Netherlandish Old Masters at its heart. Eighteenth century Italian vedute, another glory of TEFAF, are represented on our stand by superb Venetian views by Bernardo Bellotto and Francesco Guardi. The vibrant colour and dazzling experimentation of nineteenth and twentieth century art are reflected at Richard Green in paintings ranging from works by Corot and Boudin, to Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley, to the Post-Impressionists Bonnard and Le Sidaner. Picasso’s still lifes both encapsulate and shatter previous art history, while works by Henry Moore and Josef Albers trace the march of Modernism. We welcome you to what promises, as always, to be an exhilarating journey through four centuries of painting.
Jonathan Green and Matthew Green
A golden age TEFAF began as a fair for Dutch Golden Age paintings and remains unrivalled in this field. Richard Green’s stand displays the cultural achievements of the seventeenth century when the Netherlands powered trade in Europe, explored the East and the Americas and were at the forefront of science. Among the Old Masters is A still life with a tazza by Willem Claesz. Heda, who spent all his life in Haarlem. This painting of 1630 is a superb example of the ‘tonal’ works favoured by artists of that city, combining exquisite attention to details of texture with a soft green, grey and lemon palette that harmoniously binds the elements of the still life together. Jan Davidsz. de Heem’s Still life of a glass of wine with grapes, painted in 1653 when he was living in Antwerp, reflects the singing colours and greater flamboyance of Southern Netherlandish taste, along with de Heem’s genius for describing with intense realism objects both natural and man-made.
Water was the element that floated the Dutch economy and, in the actions of the ‘Sea Beggars’, had originally helped them to win independence from Spain. Salomon van Ruysdael’s Estuary scene from the early 1660s is a poetic evocation of the beloved Dutch homeland with its huge, cloud-filled skies and waterways traversed by trading boats. Melchior de Hondecoeter’s A shoveler, a Muscovy duck and other birds is influenced by the fascination of the seventeenth century with the natural world, when colonisation brought many new species to Europe. Hondecoeter’s dramas of bird behaviour remained fashionable in the following century; this painting was bought by John Warde of Squerryes Court, Kent in the mid-eighteenth century and remained there until recently.
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1. Salomon van Ruysdael (1600/03–1670) An estuary scene with smalschips on a broad reach before a gentle breeze Signed with monogram Oil on panel: 14 1/4 x 12 3/4 in / 36.2 x 32.4 cm 2. Willem Claesz. Heda (1594–1680) A still life with a tazza, a peeled lemon and a roemer on a draped table Oil on panel: 15 1/2 x 22 1/2 in / 39.4 x 57.2 cm 3. Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606–1683/4) A still life of a glass of wine with grapes Signed and dated 1653 Oil on panel: 13 x 19 1/2 in / 33 x 49.5 cm
Melchior de Hondecoeter (1636–1695) A shoveler, a Muscovy duck and other birds by a river Signed Oil on canvas: 43 7/8 x 56 in / 111.4 x 142.2 cm
Fleeting impressions, permanent delights The international appeal of Impressionist painting draws collectors from all over the world to Maastricht. The selection of paintings at Richard Green spans from the important precursors of Impressionism, Corot and Boudin, to works by Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley, to the heirs of the Impressionist movement, among them Pierre Bonnard, Henri Le Sidaner and Achille Laugé. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Eugène Boudin were pioneers in painting en plein air. Corot’s La sieste au bord de l’eau of 1865–70 has a feathery softness of touch that evokes a languorous summer day, with one figure drowsing and another lost in reverie on the riverbank. Boudin’s Trouville, scène de plage, 1889, is one of the celebrated series of ‘Crinolines’ by the artist who was Monet’s first teacher and who exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. The dancing lightness of brushwork in this beach scene reveals that Boudin learned from the Impressionists as well as inspiring them. Henri Le Sidaner (1862–1939) La table de la maison fleurie Signed. Oil on canvas: 36 x 29 in / 91.4 x 73.7 cm
Camille Pissarro was the most faithful of the Impressionists, showing at all eight of their exhibitions, while remaining constantly open to new artistic experiences. Le grand noyer dans le pré, Eragny depicts the view from an upper window of his house, with the village of Bazincourt on the ridge and the magnificent walnut tree in early summer leaf. Painted in 1885 at the zenith of his first Impressionist phase, the richlyimpasted, varied greens of the landscape form a pattern on the picture surface, suggesting a fecund landscape ruffled by the breeze. The love of a familiar landscape, evidenced in Pissarro’s many views of Eragny, is echoed in Henri Le Sidaner’s La table de la maison fleurie of 1928. Depicting the garden of his house at Gerberoy, where he lived for four decades, Le Sidaner employs a Post-Impressionist technique to evoke the ‘silent harmony of things’ and a gentle family life lived among the graceful rhythms of the natural world.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875) La sieste au bord de l’eau Signed. Oil on canvas: 18 x 21 ¾ in / 45.7 x 55.2 cm
Above Eugène Boudin (1824–1898) Trouville, scène de plage Signed and dated 89 Oil on panel: 5 3/4 x 10 7/8 in / 14.6 x 27.6 cm Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) Le grand noyer dans le pré, Eragny Signed and dated 1885 Oil on canvas: 15 x 18 1/8 in / 38.1 x 46 cm
Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) Abstraktes Bild [763-5] Signed Richter, dated ‘92 and inscribed 763-5 on the reverse Oil on canvas: 14 ¼ x 16 ¼ in / 36.2 x 41.3 cm
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Verre et pichet Signed Picasso lower right; signed, dated 21 juillet 44 and numbered II on the reverse Oil on canvas: 15 x 21 5/8 in / 38.1 x 54.9 cm
Interaction of colour Representing the power and innovation of twentieth century European painting, Richard Green will be exhibiting the work of three unparalleled pioneers of figurative and geometric abstraction: Pablo Picasso, Josef Albers and Gerhard Richter. Having masterminded the Cubist deconstruction of traditional western art, Picasso’s wartime return to still life subject matter vividly reflects not only the restricted circumstances imposed by the tumultuous events of the era, but also the inner turmoil of the artist in their dramatic use of colour. Painted just before the start and the end of the Second World War, these striking and intimate representations of domestic objects are richly inventive in technique, with impasted and incised paint taking on an almost sculptural complexity. Also demonstrating the abundant variations possible when limited to a constant theme, Study for Homage to the Square: ‘Wet and Dry’, belongs to Josef Albers's most iconic series of work, which explored the chromatic relationship between
concentric squares of colour, demonstrating the optical effects produced by adjacent hues. Balancing three distinctive tones of red, the artist revels in their varied characteristics; the lush brilliance and opacity of scarlet and cadmium red making the matte, translucent vermillion appear dry by comparison. In another arresting, incandescent colour experiment, the contemporary master, Gerhard Richter, delights in the properties and possibilities of paint in his Abstraktes Bild [7635]. Part of an equally inventive series of abstract pictures, also arranged along geometric lines, Richter’s varied application of paint adds an element of intuition and spontaneity, involving both action and erasure, chance and intention in the work’s creation. The irregularity of the bands and the various textural effects the controlled movements produce (revealing previous layers and in places segments of canvas), demonstrate the potency and unpredictability of the artist’s practice.
Josef Albers (1888–1976) Study for Homage to the Square: ‘Wet and Dry’ Signed with monogram and dated ‘69; signed, dated and inscribed on the reverse Oil on board: 16 x 16 in / 40.6 x 40.6 cm
Detail of Henri Le Sidaner La table de la maison fleurie
Forthcoming events Master Paintings Week 28th June to 5th July During Master Paintings Week, London, Richard Green will be exhibiting an exceptional display of Old Masters, particularly seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish works and eighteenth century Italian vedute painters, as well as important Impressionist paintings, at our 147 New Bond Street gallery. A full list of exhibited works will be online at www.richard-green.com from 28th June. For more information on events during Master Paintings Week, co-founded by Jonathan Green, visit www.masterpaintingsweek.co.uk
New Richard Green iPad App By combining centuries-old artistic brilliance and twentyfirst century technology, Richard Green’s brochure for The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), Maastricht, will be viewable – along with the Gallery’s other exhibitions and collections – on the iPad using the new Richard Green app. The fast-loading, high quality images are zoomable, allowing the fine detail and brushwork of each painting to be seen clearly. Tap the image and it flips over to show full information about each work – its provenance, literature and exhibition history – as well as the option to add it to a favourites list. Tap the star on the top right of any page to access the favourites list instantly. Another particular feature of the iPad app is that catalogues are displayed in both portrait and landscape formats, allowing the reader to view publications page by page, or by double-page spreads. The Richard Green iPad app can be downloaded free from iTunes.
Richard Green has assisted in the formation and development of numerous private and public collections, including the following:
UNITED KINGDOM Aberdeen: City Art Gallery Altrincham: Dunham Massey (NT) Barnard Castle: Bowes Museum Bedford: Cecil Higgins Museum Canterbury: Royal Museum and Art Gallery Cheltenham: Art Gallery and Museum Chester: The Grosvenor Museum Coventry: City Museum Dedham: Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum Hampshire: County Museums Service Hull: Ferens Art Gallery Ipswich: Borough Council Museums and Galleries Leeds: Leeds City Art Gallery Lincoln: Usher Gallery Liskeard: Thorburn Museum London: Chiswick House (English Heritage) Department of the Environment The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood The Museum of London National Maritime Museum National Portrait Gallery National Postal Museum Tate Britain The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum Lydiard Tregoze: Lydiard House Norwich: Castle Museum Plymouth: City Museum and Art Gallery Richmond: London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and Orleans House Gallery St Helier: States of Jersey (Office) Southsea: Royal Marine Museum Stirling: Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum York: York City Art Gallery
CANADA Fredericton: Beaverbrook Art Gallery Ottawa: The National Gallery of Canada UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts Cincinnati, OH: Art Museum Gainesville, FL: Harn Museum of Art Houston, TX: Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Los Angeles, CA: J Paul Getty Museum New Haven, CT: Yale Center for British Art New York, NY: Dahesh Museum Ocala, FL: The Appleton Museum of Art Omaha, NE: Joslyn Art Museum Pasadena, CA: Norton Simon Museum Rochester, NY: Genessee County Museum San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library St Louis, MO: Missouri Historical Society Sharon, MA: Kendall Whaling Museum Toledo, OH: Toledo Museum of Art Ventura County, CA: Maritime Museum Washington, DC: The National Gallery The White House Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Winona, MN: Minnesota Marine Art Museum Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum BELGIUM Antwerp: Maisons Rockox Courtrai: City Art Gallery
IREL AND Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland FR ANCE Compiègne: Musée National du Château GERMANY Berlin: Staatliche Kunsthalle Darmstadt: Hessisches Landesmuseum Hannover: Niedersachsisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe: Staatliche Kunsthalle Speyer am Rhein: Historisches Museum der Pfalz HOLL AND Amsterdam: Joods Historisch Museum Rijksmuseum Utrecht: Centraal Museum SOUTH AFRICA Durban: Art Museum SPAIN Madrid: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Sun Fernando Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional del Prado SWIT ZERL AND Zurich: Schweizerisches Landesmuseum THAIL AND Bangkok: Museum of Contemporary Art
DENMARK Tröense: Maritime Museum
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