202401.advertising

JANUARY 2024

NEW RESEARCH ON ART AND ITS HISTORY

JANUARY 2024

The golden age of Avignon Avignon as ‘New Rome’ | Manuscripts and musical culture | Matteo Giovannetti restored and reassessed Treasures from Jiangnan | Rubens and women | Tiepolo in New York | Gertrude Stein and Picasso

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE NO. 1450 VOL. 166 COVER_JAN24.indd 2

15/12/2023 00:24

G-Burlington-HE-240124-OK.qxp_Mise en page 1 11/12/2023 14:13 Page 1

HAUTE EPOQUE & CURIOSITES Next sale on Wednesday, January 24, 2024 Drouot - Room 9

PUBLIC EXHIBITION - ROOM 9

Monday, January 22, from 11 am to 6 pm Tuesday, January 23, from 11 am to 6 pm Wednesday, January 24, from 11 am to 12 pm EXPERT

Laurence Fligny +33 (0)1 45 48 53 65 laurencefligny@aol.com

CONTACT

Xavier Peters +33(0)1 47 70 48 95 x.peters@giquello.net

Provenance : - This Virgin is said to have been given by Master Gilles Van den Bosche, architect of Sainte-Gudule in Brussels, to the Chartreuse of Hérinnes-lez-Enghien, where he lived for nearly thirty years and died in 1495.

- Collections of Duke Prosper-Louis d'Arenberg (Brussels 1785-1861) - Couvent des Pères Capucins, Enghien"

5, rue La Boétie - 75008 Paris +33 (0)1 47 42 78 01 - info@giquello.net

dec23guquello.indd 1

ONLINE CATALOGUE

www.giquelloetassocies.fr

DROUOT LIVE OFFERT

s.v.v. agrément n°2002 389

Virgin and Child in oak Brabant, Brussels, attributed to Jan Borman I and his workshop (active from 1479 to 1520), circa 1480/90 H. 142.5 cm

14/12/2023 12:33

AHEAD OF HER TIME

PIONEERING WOMEN FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 5 December 2023 – 10 February 2024 980 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10075

Leading international art gallery of Italian and European Masterworks Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–after 1654), The Penitent Magdalene, c. 1625/30

jan24robilant+voena.indd 1 RV-AOHT-BurlingtonAdvert-Jan2023.indd 1

14/12/2023 08/12/2023 12:36 15:23

jan24TEFAF24.indd 1

14/12/2023 12:45

BRIMO DE LAROUSSILHE

LIPPO VANNI. Sienese, active 1344-1376

A predella panel: the Marriage of the Virgin

Siena, c.1345 Tempera on wood panel 24.6 x 28.5 cm Provenance: Collection of Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), Villa Gherardesca, Fiesole.

7 Quai Voltaire – 75007 Paris – T +33 1 42 60 74 76 – galerie@brimodl.com – www.brimodelaroussilhe.com –

jan24brimodelaroussihle.indd 1

brimodelaroussilhe

14/12/2023 12:46

28th January – 4th February 2024 Brussels Expo, 1020 Brussels For more details visit: brafa.art

La fin du voyage,

by Paul Delvaux (1897–1994). 1968.

Oil on canvas, 165.1 by 145 cm.

OPERA GALLERY, GENEVA

A pierced flamboyant Gothic canopy. Northern France, 15th century. Limestone, height 30 cm.

DEI BARDI ART, BRUSSELS

Envy (Invidia) from the seven deadly sins, engraved by Pieter van der Heyden (1530–72), after Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525–69), published by Hieronymus Cock (1518–70). c.1558. Ink on paper, 29.7 by 22.6 cm. CHAMBRE PROFESSIONNELLE BELGE DE LA LIBRAIRIE ANCIENNE ET MODERN (CLAM), BRUSSELS

jan24BRAFA_round-up.indd 1

ANDRÉ BRETON’S SURREALIST Manifesto advocated for the creative power of the unconscious, and its publication acknowledged early pioneers of the movement and inspired a generation of artists rejecting traditional modes of artmaking.

100 years on, BRAFA is paying homage to the enduring impact of the manifesto, encouraging its exhibitors to inject a dash of the surreal into their presentations at Brussels Expo this month. Visitors can expect to encounter works by luminaries such as René Magritte, Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico and Paul Delvaux (who will also feature in a non-selling exhibition).

Welcoming 132 Belgian and international participants from 14 countries, the 2024 edition of the fair will showcase highcalibre objects and works of art from the Ancient period through the twenty-first century.

Female figure,

by Baule people.

Ivory Coast, 19th century. Wood, height 60 cm.

MONTAGUT GALLERY, BARCELONA

Piazza d’Italia con Arianna, by Giorgio de Chirico (1898–1978).

1950s. Oil on canvas, 70 by 100 cm.

REPETTO GALLERY, LUGANO

14/12/2023 12:27

Mearini Fine Art Sculptures and Works of Art

Pseudo-corinthian Capitals North Adriatic Late 11th – early 12th Century White marble, 47 � 40 � 40 cm

Exhibiting at BRAFA Art Fair – 28th January to 4th February 2024 – stand 75

www.mearinifineart.com mearinifineart@gmail.com

jan24mearinifineart.indd 1

14/12/2023 16:12

28th January – 4th February 2024 Brussels Expo, 1020 Brussels For more details visit: brafa.art

Figures in a wooded landscape with mountains behind, by Denijs van Alsloot (1570–1626) and the workshop of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625). Early 17th century. Oil on panel, 117 by 173 cm.

DE JONCKHEERE, GENEVA AND PARIS

A farmyard scene, by Adriaen van Utrecht (1599–1652). 1647.

Oil on canvas, 115 by 161 cm. ARS ANTIQUA, MILAN

Horizon, by Max Ernst (1891–1976). 1926.

Oil on panel, 24.2 by 18.5 cm.

GALERIE DE LA BÉRAUDIÈRE, BRUSSELS

jan24BRAFA_round-up.indd 2

Red Blue Chair, designed by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888– 1964). Designed 1919–23, made in 1970. Beechwood and plywood with stain and paint, height 86 cm.

GALERIE VAN DEN BRUINHORST, KAMPEN, OVERIJSSEL

Prometheus, by Giovanni Battista Langetti (1625–76). c.1660.

Oil on canvas, 88 by 114 cm.

GIAMMARCO CAPPUZZO FINE ART, LONDON

Crucifix. Spain, c.1550. Silver gilt and rock crystal with polychrome, height 41 cm.

GALERIE BERNARD DE LEYE, BRUSSELS

14/12/2023 12:28

A Fine and Rare Ancient Kushan Northern India Uttar Pradesh Monumental Red Sandstone Torso Fragment of the Buddha Wearing his Monastic Robe ‘Sanghati’ with Traces of a Lotus Halo the Body Well Defined with a Deeply Carved Navel 1st – 2nd Century AD Provenance: Ex Private American collection Exhibited Spink & Son London ‘Treasures from the Silk Road’ no. 2, November 1999 Ex Private U.K. collection Exhibited Grosevor House London June 2009 Ex Private English collection

England: +4 4 [0]7768 236 921 Belgium: + 32 [0] 470 64 46 51

jan24finchandco.indd 1

by appointment: London and Brussels enquiries@finch-and- co.co.uk

www.finchandco.art

14/12/2023 12:49

THE QUENTIN COLLECTION MASTERPIECES OF RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE SCULPTURE AUCTION • 30 January 2024 VIEWING • 26–30 January • 20 Rockefeller Plaza • New York NY 10020 CONTACT • William Russell Jr • wrussell@christies.com • +1 212 636 2525

Auction | Private Sales | christies.com

22504_CW Burlington1DPS Print Ad3 5305256507 470mmWx308mmH_FINAL_Branded_v3.indd All Pages jan24christies1.indd

14/12/2023 12:52

GIAMBOLOGNA (1529–1608) Mars cast before 1577, probably in the 1560s by Zanobi Portignani Estimate on request

jan24christies2.indd 1

12/11/23 5:37 PM 14/12/2023 12:53

12.13.23.MDNY_AD.Burlington.FINAL.pdf

1

12/13/23

1:21 PM

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

jan24masterdrawingsNYadvert.indd 1

14/12/2023 16:21

Embroidery Workshop of the Monastery of the Escorial (Spanish, 16th Century) The Pharaoh’s Judgment, ca. 1585 Pen and brown ink with brown washes, highlighted in white on blue paper Extensively pricked for transfer throughout, 304 x 193 mm

MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK | 27 JANUARY TO 3 FEBRUARY, 2024 +1 203 494 8853 info@christopherbishopfineart.com christopherbishopfineart.com

jan24christopherbishop.indd 1

14/12/2023 12:13

MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City – 27th January to 3rd February 2024 masterdrawingsnewyork.com

A young man wearing a studio cap, by Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo (1736–76). Black and red chalk, 41.2 by 28.5 cm.

NICHOLAS HALL, NEW YORK

Two female nudes,

by Gustav Klimt (1862–1918). c.1902.

Black chalk on buff paper, 44.3 by 30.9 cm.

STEPHEN ONGPIN, LONDON

Study for the Sala di Apollo (Pitti Palace), by Ciro Ferri (1634–89). c.1659–61. Black chalk, heightened with white, on prepared blue-grey paper, 26.5 by 39 cm.

CHRISTOPHER BISHOP FINE ART, NEW YORK

jan24MDNY_round-up.indd 1

The Grey Castle; a view on the Mosel or the Rhine, by J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). c.1841. Pencil and watercolour, 15.9 by 23.5 cm.

ABBOTT & HOLDER, LONDON

Carnival at the bistrot, Paris, by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). c.1908.

Watercolour on paper, 22.5 by 21 cm.

PATRICK BOURNE & CO., LONDON

Winter landscape, by Väinö Blomstedt (1871–1947). 1904.

Oil on board, 39 by 49.5 cm.

AMBROSE NAUMANN, NEW YORK

14/12/2023 14:40

A BBO T T and HO LDER L t d

Est.1936

- T OM EDWARDS -

Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) Study for ‘The Nativity’ for St John’s, Torquay. Watercolour, gouache and gold paint. 1887. 14x21.5inches.

EXHIBITION OF BRITISH WORKS ON PAPER 26 th January - 3 rd February at 24 East 64 th Street, New York for MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK • 15 th February - 9 th March at 30 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LH ADAM, BLAKE, BONINGTON, BURNE-JONES, CALVERT, CHINNERY, COOPER, COTMAN, COX, COZENS, DANCE, EDRIDGE, ETTY, FRANCIA, GAINSBOROUGH, GILLRAY, GIRTIN, GLOVER, HAMILTON, LEAR, LEIGHTON, LINNELL, MALTON, OPIE, PAYNE, RENTON, ROMNEY, ROOKER, RUNCIMAN, SANDBY, SHOTTER BOYS, SMITH, STANFIELD, TURNER, VANDERBANK, VARLEY, WARD, WILKIE 30 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LH | www.abbottandholder.co.uk | +44 (0)20 7637 3981 | galler y@abbottandholder.co.uk

jan24abbottandholder.indd 1 Burlington.indd 1

14/12/2023 12:58 11/12/2023 16:48

Site avec quatre personnages, encre de Chine sur papier, Fondation Dubuffet, Paris, 24 12 1961© ADAGP, Paris

Palais Brongniart

salondudessin.com

Place de la Bourse 75002 Paris

Guest of honour : La Fondation Dubuffet

jan24salondudessin.indd 1

14/12/2023 14:44

jan24samfogg.indd 1

14/12/2023 15:13

LATE GOTHIC SCULPTURE IN NORTHERN ITALY:

ANDREA DA GIONA AND I MAESTRI CARONESI An Addition to the Pantheon of Venetian Sculptors Anne Markham Schulz

This book explores the sculpture dispersed throughout Northern Italy in the second quarter of the fi�teenth century by masters from the shores of Lake Lugano and identifies Andrea da Giona as the elusive author of Venice’s preeminent sculpture at the intersection of Gothic and Renaissance art, the Mascoli Altarpiece in San Marco.

2024 SCHOLARSHIP for the study of French 18th-century fine and decorative art INVITATION FOR APPLICATIONS The Burlington Magazine is pleased to announce its sixth annual scholarship which has been created to provide funding over a 12-month period to those engaged in the study of French 18thcentury fine and decorative art to enable them to develop new ideas and research that will contribute to this field of art historical study.

Applicants must be studying, or intending to study, for an MA, PhD, post-doctoral or independent research in this field within the 12-month period the funding is given.

Applications are open to scholars from any country.

A grant of £10,000 will be awarded to the successful applicant.

Deadline for applications is 17 March 2024 and the

2 vols, 660 p, 505 b/w ills, 27 col. ills, 225 x 300 mm, ISBN 978-1-912554-80-5

successful applicant will be notified by 31 May 2024.

For application guidelines and terms and conditions please visit

www.brepols.net – info@brepols.net – Tel +32 (14) 44.80.30

www.burlington.org.uk

UK Orders: direct.orders@marston.co.uk Orders North-America: orders@isdistribution.com – www.isdistribution.com

www.printquarterly.co.uk

PRINT QUARTERLY

Group subscriptions from The Art Newspaper Empower your team with one trusted source for the news, events, politics & business of the global art world

ADVERTISE SUBSCRIBE PUBLISH

xvi

jan24page16.indd 1

Contact us now to request information on a bespoke package for your organisation’s needs: groupsubscriptions@theartnewspaper.com

the burlington magazine | 166 | january 2024

14/12/2023 15:20

SLOANE STREET AUCTIONS 15 february 2024

estates sale, to include important old masters

Oil on canvas 85.25 in. (H) x 56 in. (W)

LITERATURE: W. Field, ‘An Historic and CIRCLE OF PAOLO VERONESE Descriptive Account of Possibly a portrait of Isabella Andreini (1562 - 1604) PROVENANCE: the Town and Castle of By descent to the 7th Earl of Warwick, Warwick Castle; Warwick’, Warwick, 1815, page 194, as Titian (hung in the State Christie’s, 21 June 1968, Lot 72, as Veronese (750 guineas); Bedroom, over the chimneypiece); Hackwood Park, Christie’s sale, 22 April 1998 Henry T. Cooke, ‘An Historic and Descriptive Guide To Warwick Castle’, Warwick, 1847, page 46, as by Veronese (hung in the red EXHIBITION HISTORY: drawing room, opposite the window to the left); Gustav F. Waagen, ‘Treasures of Art in Great Britain’, London, 1854, ‘Fair Women’, London, Grafton Gallery, 1894, No. 28, as page 215, No. 3, as by Titian (‘the conception and colouring rather Veronese indicate a fine work by Veronese’) 158-164 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9PR And private sales at 69 Lower Sloane Street, London, SW1W 8DA WWW.SLOANESTREETAUCTIONS.COM

Burlington Ad A150224.indd 1 jan24sloanestreet.indd 1

£50,000-£80,000

Zero Seller’s Fees

+44 (0)2039158340 INFO@SLOANESTREETAUCTIONS.COM

14/12/2023 18:09 17:27 14/12/2023

feb22page6.qxp_Internet and Contacts 18/01/2022 10:52 Page 1

feb22page6.qxp_Internet feb22page6.qxp_Internet and and Contacts Contacts 18/01/2022 10:52 Page 1

C O N T @ C T S

C O N T @ C T S

T R I N I T Y F I N E A RT

T R I N I T Y F I N E A RT

15 old bond street london w 1s 4 a x

15 old bond street london w 1s 4 a x

info @trinityfineart.com +44 (0)20 7493 4916

C O N T @ C T S

www.trinityfineart.com

T R I N I T Y F I N E A RT

Daniel Katz Gallery

15 old bond street 8 &c3e9nDt Uu K Ery S T R E E T, f r o m a n t i q u i t y t o t h e 2o t3 h london w 1s 4 a x S T@ JA MES’S, LONDON info trinityfineart.com +44 2078395666 +44 (0)20 7493 4916

www.trinityfineart.com www.katz.art

W W W. P E T E R F I N E R . C O M

TDaniel R I N I TKatz Y FG IN E A RT allery

f rold o m bond antiq u i t y t o t h e 2o t h c e n t u ry 15 old street 15 london w 1s 4 a x london info @trinityfineart.com www.katz.art www.trinityfineart.com www.trinityfineart.com +44 (0)20 7493 4916

A RT

N E W R AKatz R I T EG Tallery G A L L E RY Daniel O L D M A S T E R PA I N T I N G S

ry

Daniel Katz Gallery

f r o m a n t i q u i t y t o t h e 2o t h c e n t u ry

www.katz.art

owse andIbT uy Y F I N E A RT TBr RI N one-of-a-kind items ms online 15 old bond street london w 1s 4 a x

Browse and buy NEW RA R TET one-of-a-kind items msIonline

G A L L E RY Daniel Katz G allery O L D M A S T E R PA I N T I N G S

Time to Renew From Renaissance to the 20th Century

f r o m a n t i q u i t y t o t h e 2o t h c e n t u ry

www.katz.art www.katz.art www.newraritetgallery.com

www.katz.art

N E W R A R I Tday E T G&A faber L L E RY

Browse and buy one-of-a-kind items ms online old master drawings

O L D M A S T Eold R PAmaster I N T I N Gdrawings S

n t u ry

Don’t be late! www.newraritetgallery.com

Renew now for Vol. 62 (2024)

day & faber

From Renaissance to the 20th Century m

www.dayfaber.com

Br uy R I T E T G A L L E RY Nowse E WandRbA old master drawings one-of-a-kind online O M A S T PA I N T I N G S L D items ms E R

N E W R A R I T E T G A L L E RY

11 Duke Street | St James’ | London SW1Y 6BN From Renaissance to them 20th Century Tel. +44 207 930 1144 | Fax. +44 m 207 976 1596

11 Duke Street | St James’ | London 1Y 6BN From Renaissance to the 20thSWCentury

www.rafaelvalls.co.uk | info@rafaelvalls.co.uk www.newraritetgallery.com

www.dayfaber.com

L L E RY

GS

day & faber

old master drawings

11 Duke Street | St James’ | London SW1Y 6BN Tel. +44 207 930 1144 | Fax. m +44 m 207 976 1596 m www.rafaelvalls.co.uk | info@rafaelvalls.co.uk www.dayfaber.com

Century

om

O L D M A S T E R PA I N T I N G S

John Tenniel, The White Rabbit holding his watch c. 1866, New York Public Library

O L D M A S T E R PA I N T I N G S

Tel. +44 207 930 1144 | Fax. +44 m 207 976 1596 www.rafaelvalls.co.uk | info@rafaelvalls.co.uk www.newraritetgallery.com

day & faber old master drawings m masterdrawings.org

www.dayfaber.com

www.dayfaber.com

faber

drawings

To advertise please visit:

XVIII

11 Duke Street | St James’ | London 1 6 burlington.org.uk Tel. +44 207 930 1144 | Fax. +44 m 207 976 1596

11 Duke Duke Street Street || St St James’ James’ || London London SW SW1 1YY 66BN BN 11 Tel. +44 +44 207 207 930 930 1144 1144 || Fax. Fax. +44 +44 207 976 976 1596 1596 m 207 Tel. m www.rafaelvalls.co.uk || info@rafaelvalls.co.uk info@rafaelvalls.co.uk www.rafaelvalls.co.uk

aber.com

Browse and one-of-a-kin

m

www.newraritetgallery.com www.dayfaber.com

day & faber

Browse and one-of-a-kin

info@trinityfineart.com +44 (0)20 7493 4916

www.trinityfineart.com

om m a n t i q u i t y t o t h e 2o t h c e n t u ry ffrro

From Renaissance to the 20th Century

nityfineart.com 0 7493 4916

info @trinityfineart.com +44 (0)20 7493 4916

www.trinityfineart.com

SW Y

BN

www.rafaelvalls.co.uk | info@rafaelvalls.co.uk

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE | 166 | JANUARY 2024

W1Y 6BN

76 1596

jan24page18.indd 1

m

14/12/2023 15:37

JOURNAL

ISSUE 9 LIVE NOW contemporary.burlington.org.uk/journal

From ‘The smoking mother’, by Laure Prouvost. 2023. (Commissioned for Burlington Contemporary Journal 9).

jan24BC_house_issue_9.indd 1

14/12/2023 15:11

A sculpture of the Virgin of the Assumption Attributed to Alejo de Vahía, active in Palencia around 1473-1515 Gilt and polychromed wood, around 1509 Gift of Sir Michael Craig-Martin R.A.

The Auckland Project Market Place, Bishop Auckland County Durham, DL14 7NP

7475_SAG_advert_v4.indd 2 dec23auckland.indd 1

Using the sculpture as a starting point for discussion, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, converses with Sir Michael Craig-Martin RA at the Spanish Gallery.

To watch, visit aucklandproject.org/spanish-gallery

15/11/2023 11:00 16:35 17/11/2023

Girodet’s ‘Coriolanus taking leave of his family’

JUNE 2023

Liotard, Boucher and ‘A woman reading’

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE

Artemisia Gentileschi’s ‘Susanna and the elders’

Exhibitions

by paul smith

C

ezanne looked long and hard at his own paintings in what he described in a letter of 25th January 1904 to Louis Aurenche as a ‘painfully’ difficult attempt to achieve the ‘realisation’, or satisfactory expression in paint, of his ‘sensation’.1 Émile Bernard recalled a conversation with Cezanne on this topic, which took place in 1904 in front of the still life that was the last painting in the London iteration of the recent Cezanne exhibition, the heavily reworked Three skulls on a patterned carpet (cat. no.140; Fig.25). His valuable account is worth quoting at length: He was at work on a canvas representing three skulls on an oriental rug. He had been working on it for a month, every morning, from six o’clock until ten-thirty [. . .] ‘What eludes me’, he told me [. . .] ‘is realisation’ [. . .] I saw him agonise, for the entire month I was in Aix, over this painting of skulls, which I consider his testament.

The colours and shapes in this picture changed on an almost daily basis, but when I arrived in the studio it could have been taken from the easel as a finished work all the same. In all truth, his way of working was a meditation with the brush in hand.2 Given the attention Cezanne bestowed on his paintings, it is appropriate that they were displayed in this exhibition in a manner calculated to facilitate what Frances Morris, director of Tate Modern, described in her speech at the opening of the exhibition in London as ‘slow looking’.3 The wall space devoted to each work was accordingly more generous than usual, and often considerable. Sometimes only one pair of paintings occupied an entire wall, and in the first room there was only one painting I am grateful to Gloria Groom, Caitlin Haskell, Kimberley Muir and Richard Shiff for sharing their observations on the works in the Chicago exhibition, and to Anna Gruetzner Robins, Paul Hills, Jason Gaiger and Elisabeth Reissner for their thoughts about those in the London iteration. I must also thank all at the Art Institute of Chicago, and Natalia Sidlina and Michael Raymond at Tate Modern, for making it possible for me to examine the paintings at my leisure. I am

422

greatly indebted to the Leverhulme Trust for awarding me a Major Research Fellowship for my project ‘Unfolding vision: Cezanne’s “way of seeing”’, some of the research for which appears in this article. The catalogue for the exhibition contains an embarras de richesses in the form of valuable contextual essays by the curators, searching technical analysis by the Chicago conservators, a set of provocative responses by contemporary artists, a series of subtle

on each. This was a bold and laudable strategy, particularly as the visitor was offered over one hundred works to look at (several of which have never been exhibited in the United Kingdom before). It is, of course, no more possible to take in all of these in one visit than it is to read (let alone digest) a similar number of verses by Cezanne’s favourite poet, Baudelaire. So, what follows will take its cue from the hang, and will dwell instead on a few typical works, or on paintings that demonstrate something important about seeing or painting to the artist.

The exhibition was organised along broadly chronological lines (with the exception of the first room), but it focused attention on particular genres – landscape, still life, portrait, figure subjects and bathers – for the most part by assigning separate rooms, or walls, to each. This clever strategy made it possible both to follow Cezanne’s development (inasmuch as this is possible with something so sporadic) and to pick out the similarities that gave each genre some measure of cohesion.

Room 1 (‘Introduction’) featured Basket of apples (no.56; Fig.1), one of a relatively small number of paintings that Cezanne signed. This he normally did only when he sold them or gave them away, or exhibited them – in this case at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in Paris in 1895. A signature is therefore a good indicator that Cezanne considered a painting had reached a stage where it gave reasonably good shape to his ‘sensation’, without implying that it was finished in the normal sense. It is no great surprise, then, that this painting is relatively thinly painted in many places, and notably around the signature itself. It nevertheless exhibits several features that typify Cezanne’s still-life practice. Most obviously, it contains a discontinuous horizontal edge in the form of the tabletop, which is lower at the left than where it emerges at the right from behind and delightful writings by contemporary poets, and a number of helpful charts and tables. In this article all translations are the author’s own. In line with recent scholarship on the artist, the acute accent has not been used on Cezanne’s name since he wrote his name as ‘Cezanne’ rather than ‘Cézanne’. The older usage is retained in references.

1 ‘réalisation’, ‘péniblement’, ‘sensation’, J. Rewald, ed.: Paul Cézanne: Correspondance, Paris 1978, p.298. See

built up the paint.4 (The underdrawing of the tabletop is still visible in the area of the tablecloth, but this is too patchy to allow conclusions about its relationship to the final painted object.)

Although such idiosyncratic features are pronounced in Cezanne’s work, they have attracted little serious attention – if, that is, formalist arguments about the decorative ambitions they embody cannot be taken

also É. Bernard: ‘Paul Cézanne’, L’Occident 32 (1904), pp.17–30, at p.23; and A. Vollard: Paul Cézanne, Paris 1914, p.87.

2 ‘Il était à l’ouvrage d’une toile représentant trois têtes de mort sur un tapis d’Orient. Il y avait un mois qu’il y travaillait tous les matins, de six heures à dix heures et demie [. . .] “Ce qui me manque, me disait-il [. . .] c’est la réalisation” [. . .] je le vis peiner, durant tout le mois que je fus à Aix, sur ce tableau des têtes de mort, que je

considère comme son testament. Ce tableau a changé de couleur et de forme presque chaque jour, et quand j’arrivai dans son atelier on eût pu cependant le retirer du chevalet comme un ouvrage suffisant. Véritablement son mode d’étude était une meditation le pinceau à la main’, É. Bernard: ‘Souvenirs sur Paul Cézanne et lettres inédites’, Mercure de France (1st October 1907), pp.386–404, at p.394, and (16th October 1907), pp.606–27.

3 The exhibition was at Tate Modern, London, 5th October 2022–12th March 2023. It was previously shown at the Art Institute of Chicago, 15th May–5th September 2022. Catalogue: Cezanne.

Edited by Achim Borchardt-Hume, Gloria Groom, Caitlin Haskell and Natalia Sidlina. 244 pp. incl. 219 col. ills. (Art Institute of Chicago and Tate, distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2022), £32.

ISBN 978–18–497–6805–4.

4 On this phenomenon, see R. Ratcliffe: Cézanne’s Working Methods and their Theoretical Background, unpublished PhD thesis (University of London, 1960), pp.129–59.

5 A. Ehrenzweig: ‘Cézanne’s distortions EXHIBITIONS_OCT23.indd 1128 and peripheral vision’, in idem: The Psycho-Analysis of Artistic Vision and Hearing, London 1953, pp.193–215. For an analysis of Ehrenzweigs’s ideas on Cezanne, see P. Smith: ‘Cezanne’s unconstructive line’, in J. Geskó, ed.: exh.

Victorine Meurent

By the 1860s the ‘distinction between an actress and a woman who sold her body had [. . .] been established as negligible and irrelevant: they were one and the same and both were public property’.66 Many posed for photographers and for artists and were thus exposed, often unclad, directly before the elite clientele of the Paris Salons. The young Meurent began in this situation. When she first posed for Manet in 1862 she was eighteen, a cancan dancer and the mother of a one-year-old daughter. When the journalist and writer Paul Eudel described her in 1884 in a book prefaced

by Manet’s old friend Champfleury that detailed the posthumous sale of works by Manet, he described how Meurent was this ‘old type of model’ (‘le type de l’ancien modèle’). Yet he also wrote that she had ‘managed to overcome a situation’ (‘qui a réussi à conquérir une situation’).67 He contrasted her professionalism as an artist’s model with the courtesan actors who Manet was then also painting.

Meurent seems not to have been engulfed by life as a courtesan. She educated herself in literature as well as painting. Eudel wrote that she was ‘very intelligent’ and added that she passionately loved literature and ‘would write it when needed with some talent’ (‘Elle en ferait au besoin avec un certain talent’).68 Nothing written by her has yet come to light.

1075

the burlington magazine | 165 | october 2023

19/09/2023 16:56 19/09/2023 23:21

COVER_JUN23.indd 2

cat. Cezanne to Malevich: Arcadia to Abstraction, Budapest (Museum of Fine Arts) 2021–22, pp.44–55.

6 ‘je ne fais pas l’ensemble’, R.P. Rivière and J. Schnerb: ‘L’atelier de Cézanne’, La Grande revue (25th December 1907), pp.811–17, at p.813.

The theory of the ‘ensemble’ was elaborated in C.H. Watelet: Art de peindre: Poëme. Avec des reflections sur les différentes parties de la peinture, Paris 1760, pp.74–83.

the burlington magazine | 165 | april 2023

20/03/2023 15:03

6. Crucifixion with Mary Magdalene,

by Luca Signorelli. c.1490–98. Oil on panel, 247 by 165 cm. (Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence; exh. Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca e della Citta di Cortona).

20/05/2023 18:36

SMITH_Cezanne.indd 423

20/09/2023 07:46

20/03/2023 15:10

OCTOBER 2023

icly credit Wirth-Miller with introducing him aphic motion studies when they visited the um, London, together in 1949, with important s art.34 With very few exceptions, Wirth-Miller discreet silence about their famous friend all

41 MBA Item 543: cut-out frame, E. Muybridge: Animals in Motion, London 1899, p.63, series ‘The Walk’, ‘Some phases in the Walk of a Dog from series 14’ and, for example, RM98F105:147: page, overpainted, E. Muybridge: The Human Figure in Motion, New York 1955, plate 124, ‘Woman walking downstairs, picking up pitcher, and turning’; MBA Item 889: R. Manvell, Film, London and Aylesbury 1944 and RM98F1A:39: page from ibid., black-and-white photographic illustrations, scenes from Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin, 1925; MBA Item 679: page from M. Maxwell, Stalking Big Game with a Camera in Equatorial Africa, London 1925, plate 13 (chapter VII) ‘Face to Face with Rhinoceros Bicornis’; and RM98F1A:38:

them for backlit transparencies.

Among the newly discovered works is an innovative self-portrait (Fig.21) that demonstrates Yevonde’s interest in ‘art of the past and present’ (p.28) as well as in establishing her own status as an artist. The first work to greet the visitor in the form of a photographic wallpaper, it shows Yevonde staring directly into the camera, which she has propped up on a copy of Herbert Read’s Art Now (1933). Wearing a bright red jacket against a sky blue background, the artist herself appears to be emanating a glow. The rich colours in these

21. Self-portrait with Vivex OneShot Camera, by Yevonde. 1937. Tricolour separation negative, modern print exhibited.

(National Portrait Gallery, London).

images are characteristic of the Vivex colour process, a technique Yevonde adopted in the early 1930s. Developed by the inventor Douglas Arthur Spencer in 1929, it requires ‘threecolour separation negatives, capturing colour using red, green and blue filters on the camera under natural light conditions’ (p.82). The separate filters, which combine to form one high-quality colour print, leave their traces along the photograph’s edges; usually cropped off for reproduction, they are visible in a number of works in the exhibition, alternating in strips of phosphorescent reds and blues, but also brilliant greens, yellows and pinks.

In the 1930s colour was not particularly popular in the photographic community; not only was it, as Yevonde observed, ‘very complicated’ and ‘vilely expensive’ (p.78), but it was not considered a serious medium. There was, especially among male practitioners, what the artist and writer David Batchelor has identified as ‘chromophobia’, a ‘fear of corruption through colour’ that he has traced back through generations of Western artists, art historians and cultural theorists.4 Parallels have often been drawn between colour and the feminine, ‘the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential or the cosmetic’.5 Although such prejudices are occasionally hinted at in the exhibition’s wall labels or catalogue texts, they were never an obstacle to Yevonde’s grand ambitions. On the contrary, colour was not only popular among the readership of women’s magazines, it also helped Yevonde to secure commissions from members of the royal family. Among softer pastel portraits, the reds and blues of the robe of Lord Mountbatten (1937) and the aquamarines of Princess Krishna’s sari (1937) leap off the surface of the prints. A noteworthy work in this section is Yevonde’s portrait of the grandsons of Muhammadu Dikko, the 47th Emir of Katsina (Fig.20). Like her photographs of George Bernard Shaw (1937) and Edward James (1933), patron of the Surrealists, her portrait of the two boys is strikingly contemporary in feel, both in the manner in which they have been posed as well as the

1062

the burlington magazine | 165 | october 2023

MUNZ_Artemisia.indd 1062

page from ibid., ‘Appendix B. Plate 2 Assembling a troop of scurrying rats’ and ‘A truculent individual facing the camera (Indian jungle elephants)’.

42 A photographic illustration of a soldier kicking in a door from the article ‘Horreur a Kolwezi’, on the rescue of European hostages taken by rebel and militant groups in the city of Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Paris Match (2nd June 1978), p.99 (RM98F23:6: torn-out page) fed into Bacon’s Oedipus and the Sphinx after Ingres (1983; Museu Coleçao Berardo, Lisbon), see K. Günther: Francis Bacon – In the Mirror of Photography: Collecting, Preparatory Practice and Painting, Berlin and 1142 Boston 2022, p.199–201.

COVER_OCT23.indd 2

Exhibitions

20/09/2023 EXHIBITIONS_OCT23.indd 114210:41

20/09/2023 08:58

20/09/2023 05:17

The first museum exhibition to explore the relationship between Leon Kossoff and Chaïm Soutine is a study in affinity and difference

Soutine | Kossoff Hastings Contemporary 1st April–24th September by james cahill

the burlington magazine | 165 | october 2023

shop.burlington.org.uk/ promotion/giftsub

GTON MAGAZINE | 165 | SEPTEMBER 2023

en dismissed as decadent or ive. William Watson’s threee The Arts of China (2007) does not ention the nineteenth century. he present exhibition, its ue and an accompanying ation aim to cover this gap in a anging manner. It presents the of a four-year research project cted by the British Museum e University of London.1 Key in historical, political and life are introduced throughout, hting local and international who shaped major changes in s cultural universe. Beautifully eatrically staged, the exhibition es three hundred exhibits d between seven thematic s: an introductory section is ed by ‘Court’, ‘Military’, ‘Artists’, day Life’, ‘Global Qing’ and

celebration of all the ‘women that have contributed as writers, editors, models, as fashion designers and critically as readers’ (p.170).

Although her determination, creativity and collaborative nature undoubtedly played a part when it came to commissions, it was Yevonde’s use of colour that established her reputation in her lifetime and secured her place in the history of photography. Her brightly hued images impart a striking glow, with electric blues and fiery reds impressing themselves on the eye with such insistence that one could mistake

NO. 1447 VOL. 165

Gallery The Hugh Lane (hereafter cited as FBA), nos.RM98F136:7, RM98F235:4 and RM98F137:7.

39 FBA RM98F11:52, RM98F137:6 and RM98F12:26.

40 MBA Item 663 page from an unknown book, black-and-white reproduction, Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-portrait with beret, 1661, caption: ‘91. Self-Portrait. About 1661. Aix-enProvence, Museum’; MBA Item 699: page from an unknown book, black-and-white reproduction, Alberto Giacometti, Head of the Artist’s Mother, 1947, p.25; MBA Item 661: page with colour reproduction, Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912, from ‘The Great Armory Show of 1913’, LIFE (2nd January 1950), pp.58–63, at p.60.

In 1943 – the same year that a sixteenyear-old Leon Kossoff (1926–2019) enrolled at Saint Martin’s School of Art, London – Chaïm Soutine (1893–1943) died at the age of fifty. Although the two artists never met, they shared a heritage: both were Russian Jews living in Western Europe. Kossoff grew up in London as the son of Ukrainian parents, and Soutine, who was born in the small Belarusian town of Smilavičy, settled in France. They also shared an artistic sensibility – expressionist and yet realist – which is the primary focus of the exhibition under review. Curated 1002

EXHIBITIONS_ERs_SEP23.indd 1002

by James Russell, it forms a European counterpart to the exhibition Soutine / de Kooning: Conversations in Paint at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, in 2021.1 Including some forty paintings, the present display is a study in affinity – a tracing of analogous styles and rhyming moods – and a demonstration, at the same time, of difference. There are many ways in which the two artists are not alike, Soutine’s realism tipping towards the picaresque at times, while Kossoff’s is always closer to the kitchen sink. It is perhaps on this basis – a desire to underline the distinctness of each – that the exhibition proceeds as a series of discrete presentations, focusing on one artist in each of the seven galleries.

The opening room includes the paintings that Soutine made after discovering Céret, a town in the

1. Paysage aux cyprès, by Chaïm Soutine. c.1922.

Oil on canvas, 64.8 by 83.8 cm. (Private collection; exh. Hastings Contemporary).

foothills of the Pyrenees, in 1918.

The artist had left his hometown at the age of twenty to study at Vilnius Drawing School, before joining the great migration of Jewish artists to Paris in 1913. His fluid, metamorphic scenes of the southern French landscape caught the eye of Albert C. Barnes, who bought fifty-two works

by Soutine in 1922, securing the artist’s reputation. Having been instructed in Vilnius to paint from life, he began to twist and distort the reality of what he saw. There is a lurching, almost drunken topsy-turvydom to the trees and houses in Paysage aux cyprès (Fig.1), for example, and yet the sense of a real place – witnessed and felt – persists.

The buildings seem to spring from the turbulent foliage, cavorting like animate beings amid nature. In Le mas passe-temps, Céret (c.1920–21; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh), dark trees overrun a huddle of houses like a tidal surge. The colours are redolent of ‘rather dark semi-precious stones, peridot green and jargoon brown, bloodstone and a suggestion of amethyst’, as Monroe Wheeler wrote in his text for the catalogue of Soutine’s exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1950.2 Soutine’s Modernism, then as now, came with a romantic glister.

More conventional, at a glance, is L’Arbre de Vence (c.1929; private collection), in which an ancient ash tree looms in deep-blue silhouette against a cobalt sky, recalling the complex structures of Piet Mondrian’s trees, but striking a wilder, more emotive note. The external world provides a correlative for the artist’s interior. The private significance of the Vence paintings – Soutine made around twenty of the same tree – finds confirmation in an anecdote related by his chauffeur at the time. When an onlooker in the Riviera town approached Soutine too closely, the artist destroyed the unfinished picture. Eventually, he worked in a secluded corner of the town square, with his car parked as a barrier to keep gawkers away: ‘this tree is like a cathedral’, he confessed.3 An altogether different sense of place is established by the works of Kossoff. In the second gallery are

2. Railway landscape near King’s Cross, dark day, by Leon Kossoff.

1967. Oil on board, 123.5 by 170 cm. (Private collection; exh. Hastings Contemporary).

three large paintings from the 1960s and 1970s that bear witness to the post-war decimation and rebuilding of London. As in Soutine’s visions of France, each scene appears subject to a destabilising metamorphosis that transcends the literal subject.

And yet Kossoff ’s paintings feel of a piece with the everyday. He excavates the disorder that lurks everywhere in the ordinary world, or rather in the workings of perception.

Buildings fractured by bombing are modelled in granular impasto, but the paint – in all its furrowed, pitted physicality – has a way of assailing the image, subjecting it to a heatripple distortion. Kossoff discovered the work of Soutine around the same time as that of Willem De Kooning (1904–97), in the 1950s. This was also the decade in which, with Frank Auerbach (b.1931), he began to depict

bomb sites. Kossoff admired Soutine’s Céret paintings and Railway landscape near King’s Cross, dark day (Fig.2) carries an echo, incidental yet vivid, of the sky that filters through the branches of Soutine’s ash tree. Both artists treated landscapes – and to some extent human subjects – as sites of visual and emotional turbulence.

But is there much more to be said? The separation of the two artists into discrete galleries may spring from a desire to avoid too-easy comparisons, demanding that viewers regard each artist on his own terms, but this has the effect, ultimately, of undoing the show’s premise. The singularity of each artist, his immersion in his own place and period, begins to outweigh any deep or material sense of likeness.

The strength of the exhibition, which is sensitively selected and deftly hung, is also its weakness, with each gallery

possessing a stronger logic and unity than the show overall.

One point that the show affirms is that Kossoff is a London painter. The highlight of the display, and perhaps of his career, is Children’s swimming pool, autumn afternoon (1971; Tate), in which crowded bodies are interspersed with blue to suggest a mundane riposte to Tiepolo. The noise, light and turmoil of the pool pulse out, undimmed after five decades – intensified, if anything, by the jolt of nostalgia that the scene produces.

The exhibition provides concise yet vivid selections of each artist’s portraits, which are selected from different moments in their lives.

Kossoff ’s subjects, even more so than his urban scenery, could be described as sculpted; they are modelled and pared into schemata. In Sally in armchair, no.1 (Fig.4), the crudeness

Exhibitions

the burlington magazine | 165 | september 2023

the burlington magazine | 165 | september 2023

17/08/2023 23:02

1003

EXHIBITIONS_ERs_SEP23.indd 1003

The achievements of Van Gogh’s final two years are explored in exhibitions in Amsterdam and New York

17/08/2023 23:03

17/08/2023 16:13

‘Reform to Revolution’. Atmospheric audio sets the scene in certain parts; spoken in Manchu, Chinese and English, the thoughts of such figures as a Manchu woman, a bannerman, the artist Ren Xiong (1823–57), the revolutionary Qiu Jin (1875–1907) and the powerful Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), provide context for the works on display.2 One of the most intriguing exhibits is the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, on loan from the National Archives, London (no.2.23). The Treaty marked the end of the First Opium War and the defeat of the Qing by British warships on a punitive mission to force China to continue importing opium produced in British India. It obliged China to pay a large indemnity to Great Britain and to cede the island of Hong Kong to the British, under

the burlington magazine | 165 | august 2023

ON A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION THIS FESTIVE SEASON

OCTOBER 2023

Exhibitions

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE

least a cursory knowledge of Bacon’s collection . He knew that Bacon ‘had a distinct core of uld be packed into a couple of suitcases’,36 and in ntary he can be seen in the Reece Mews studio his lover George Dyer.37 The survival of both e material – on Wirth-Miller’s side at least in

826

FAIRHEAD_VMeurent.indd 826

40%

part – and the way this material provided pictorial springboards for their paintings allows for a comparison between their approaches to their art.

Both Wirth-Miller and Bacon were interested in publications on physical exercise and body-building. Wirth-Miller’s books on this topic are matched

by Bacon’s copies of Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding (1977), History of the Olympics in Pictures (1972) and an issue of the magazine Physique Pictorial from 1961.38 Themes of books owned by Wirth-Miller, such as archaeology, ornithology and violent conflict, correspond, for example, to The Concise Encyclopaedia of Archaeology (1960), Birds of the Night by Eric J. Hosking (1945) and The True Aspects of the Algerian Rebellion (1957), which Bacon kept in Reece Mews.39 Like Bacon, Wirth-Miller owned printed reproductions of works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Alberto Giacometti 40 Sometimes theapainters even owned copies of and Marcel Duchamp.

Artemisia in England: royal rediscovery the same books.

Unsurprisingly, both Wirth-Miller and Bacon possessed A Bellini in Croatia? | Girodet’s ‘Coriolanus taking leave of his family’ | Recent books on Surrealism A portrait of Pierre Jean | Signorelli in Cortona Ingres at Chantilly |photographs, Gwen John in Chichester publications containingMariette reproductions of| Muybridge and both owned the books Stalking Big Game with a Camera in Equatorial Africa (1925) by Marius Maxwell and Film (1944) by Roger Manvell.41 Although to some degree such overlaps in their collections are a manifestation of the two men’s shared visual interests, many of the book’s topics, such as war photography, that are prominent in Bacon’s collection of material and sometimes fed into his paintings, played no role in Wirth-Miller’s art.42 It NEW RESEARCH ON ART AND ITS HISTORY

11. The railway (or Gare Saint-Lazare), by Édouard Ma Oil on canvas, 93.2 by 111.6 cm. (National Gallery of Art, Bridgeman Images).

423

SAVE

n. 1952. Oil on canvas, 198.1 by 137.2 cm.

Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS 2023; ; Tate Britain, London).

By contrast, the name of Victorine is absent from the newspapers and books of the doings of courtesans. It is has made her biography so hard to tell. She is absent, to the secret police who spied on courtesans from 1861 and her peers Rigolboche, Blanche, Alice la Provençale, M many others.69 By contrast, by 1868 she was a gifted wat newly discovered profile suggests, and by the mid-1870s sufficient talent to be exhibited repeatedly at the Salon These more detailed biographical insights duri Meurent posed for Manet may prove significant for u paintings of her and his broader works. The Meurent wh from Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe was a teenage who had given birth a year or so before. The Meurent V. . . in the costume of an espada had most probably just the Hippodrome in such a costume. The Meurent wh Columbine in A young lady in 1866 had likely just performe

look before we group their parts together into seamless perceptual wholes corresponding to continuous objects.5 And indeed, Cezanne told the artists R.P. Rivière and Jacques Schnerb, who visited him in 1905: ‘I do not make 1128 the burlington magazine | 165 | october 2023 an ensemble’, by which he meant a well-proportioned unity.6 Ehrenzweig surmised that Cezanne succeeded in disassembling the ready-made character of perception by staring fixedly at things. And it

the burlington magazine | 165 | april 2023

SMITH_Cezanne.indd 422

other works might have conclusively settled the attribution. However, three tondi displayed together in this room demonstrate that in the 1490s Signorelli responded to Florentine taste in art for the domestic setting and that he experimented with compositions in tondo form by including half-, three-quarter- or

NO. 1443 VOL. 165

Looking slowly with Cezanne

Dread, by Eadweard Muybridge. (From comotion, Philadelphia 1887, plate 704).

blin City

and canvas (one was withdrawn at entry is a Presentation in the temple the last moment), but it nonetheless (1464–65; private collection) on canvas, affords the best opportunity in a which has traditionally been given to generation to view the paintings of this a follower of Piero della Francesca, extraordinarily vibrant and original but is considered by Henry to be the artist. In so doing, it successfully earliest autograph work of Signorelli. justifies Henry’s advocacy.

Unfortunately, the painting had to be The impressive selection of withdrawn; a loss to the exhibition, loans from both public and private as to see it alongside Signorelli’s collections includes eleven of Signorelli’s early works and magazine therefore the burlington | 165 | october 2023 1100 complements the permanent collection in the Museo Diocesano, Cortona, which contains works by the artist made after 1502. One of these, a Communion of the Apostles from 1512, is included in the exhibition. Guides distributed on entry to the exhibition WILE_Coriolanus.indd 1100 encourage visitors to extend their experience by exploring a Signorelli TANZI_Bellini.indd itinerary that includes not only the 1075 Museo Diocesano but also the works that remain in situ in churches in Cortona and the surrounding region.

The exhibits include gonfaloni, heraldic flags or banners made to be carried through the streets at the head of processions, altarpieces for both high altars and for small chapels, tondi for private devotion and predella scenes – a broad selection that effectively demonstrates Signorelli’s ability to design in all these formats.

An excellent video opens the exhibition and provides a useful introduction to Signorelli, but the lesser-informed visitor might find the spare labelling too minimal. The inclusion of a brief timeline of life and works would have been helpful.

The comprehensive catalogue compensates for this, forming an up-to-date assessment of the current state of scholarship.2 Its ten essays, by Laurence Kanter, Claire Van Cleave, Federica Papi, Sophia Chiappa, Serena Nocentini, Paolo Brushchetti, Eleonora Sandrelli and Patrizia Rocchini, as well as Henry, make it a crucial addition to the literature on the painter.

The first of the exhibition’s two rooms is devoted to early works, made before 1500. Signorelli’s youthful production remains relatively obscure.

His earliest universally accepted the white cloth. The large black bottle also slopes alarmingly towards the 1. Basket of apples, by Paul Cezanne.

Oil on canvas, 60Sistine by 85 cm. works arec.1893. the frescos in the (Art Institute of Chicago). left, as objects routinely do in Cezanne’s paintings. Looking attentively Chapel (1481–82), yet payment records at the surface of the paintings sometimes reveals the marks that embody at face value. Perhaps the most fertile explanation of them is the one confirm that he wasessay painting leastis the decisions motivating so-called distortions of this kind. And here, it is Anton Ehrenzweig offered in an unjustly ignored of 1953,at which a decade earlier. first catalogue clear that the leftward slant became increasingly pronounced as Cezanne that they express an almost ‘gestalt-free’ form ofThe perception, or how things

The recent retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago and Tate Modern, London, raised fundamental questions about the ways that Paul Cezanne expressed in paint the sensations aroused in him by his subjects, or ‘motifs’. This personal response to a selection of works shown in the exhibition endeavours to suggest some answers.

ement’, by Denis Wirth-Miller. c.1953. ate of Denis Wirth-Miller; courtesy undation / MB Art Collection, Monaco).

p.262. n when 1999 for on Francis only two ed in M. on paper’, acon te 3 and 23. , p.23. lnik, de,

JUNE 2023

Poussin and opera | A self-portrait by Gillis Van Tilborgh | Roubiliac and Sprimont Manet and Degas in Paris | Berthe Morisot in Dulwich | Recent acquisitions by the Detroit Institute of Arts

udio collection

991’, ews .30–39,

NEW RESEARCH ON ART AND ITS HISTORY

14. Kesi robe with Japanesestyle decoration. c.1880–1900.

Woven silk with embroidery, 134.6 by 134.6 cm.

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; exh.

British Museum, London).

HALL_VanGoghObelisk.indd 281

21/02/2023 05:32

Exhibitions

Van Gogh in Auvers: 843 His Final Months Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam 12th May–3rd September

the burlington magazine | 165 | august 2023

ber 2023 HALL_Prince_Albert.indd 843

18/07/2023 18:13

by richard thomson

Without doubt this is a remarkable exhibition. It focuses closely on the final ten weeks of Vincent van Gogh’s

20/09/2023 11:09

890

life, from his arrival in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise on 20th May 1890 until his death by suicide on 29th July. During those weeks Van Gogh worked determinedly, producing seventy-four paintings and more than fifty drawings, an output as ambitious as it was frantic. The exhibition is a fruitful collaboration between the Van Gogh Museum and the Musée d’Orsay,

1. Adeline Ravoux,

by Vincent van Gogh. 1890. Oil on canvas, 67 by 55 cm.

(Private collection; exh. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam).

Paris, where it will be on show between 3rd October 2023 and 4th February 2024. Mingling the reserves of the home museum with key works from the Orsay that once belonged to Paul Gachet, the artist’s physician and friend in the village, as well as international loans, this splendidly selected display takes the visitor deep into Van Gogh’s creative processes, encouraging close attention to the energetic brushwork and strong chromatics of the canvases and the looping energy of the drawings.

The first gallery shows that, on arrival in Auvers, Van Gogh concentrated on village scenes. In part these were symptomatic of a reassuring return to the familiar architecture and vegetation of the north after more than two years in Provence. Several of these paintings deliberately use the perspectives of lanes or paths, which allow his directional brushwork to articulate space while other patches or marks give dense surface activity. What is noticeable in these village canvases is that about half have no staffage and, in those that do, the figures appear to have been added at a late stage, suggesting perhaps that Van Gogh found the sense of community more difficult to grasp than he had hoped.

Two smaller sections follow. One is on the friendship with Gachet, combining the self-portrait Van Gogh brought from Saint-Rémy (1889; Musée d’Orsay, Paris; cat. fig.158) with the likeness he painted of the doctor (Orsay; cat. no.22).1 It also includes his copy (1889; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; cat. fig.161) after Eugène Delacroix’s Pietà (c.1850; National Museum, Oslo), one of the images of grief, pity and despair that echo the state of mind Van Gogh hoped Gachet could ease but instead found the doctor shared. The second shows the flower still lifes, some painted at the doctor’s house, using his vases.

Detailed research has suggested that the substantial chestnut branch loaded with blossoms (no.6; Fig.2) was probably painted following damage caused by the heavy storms of 24th and 25th May. On the upper floor the section ‘Youthful Portraits’ brings together paintings of young village women and girls, the most arresting being two portraits of Adeline Ravoux, daughter of the innkeeper (Cleveland

the burlington magazine | 165 | august 2023

EXHIBITIONS_AUG23.indd 890

the burlington magazine | 165 | april 2023

VANDER_AUWERA_Jordaens.indd 367

19/07/2023 08:01

367

20/03/2023 22:12

24. Untitled, by Mark Rothko. c.1944–45.

Transparent and opaque watercolour and ink on paper wrapped around cardboard, 53.6 by 71.3 cm. (Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge).

CHRISTMAS2023_Page.indd 1 the burlington magazine | 165 | september 2023

977

Rothko (1903–70), Philip Guston (1913–80) and Dorothy Dehner (1901–94) experimented with all the distinctive watercolour properties – and, indeed, the freedom of expression that it fostered – to represent personal visions and emotions. Rothko diffused his colours, rotated his sheets to paint individual sections and allowed drips of paint to imbue his early Surrealist composition (Fig.24) with a sense of the spiritual. Alternatively, George Grosz (1893–1959) layered washes of blue, red, yellow and green to convey a sense of tension in Uprooted (The painter of the hole) (1948), a work that underscored his belief in the futility of the artist following the Second World War. A number of works enhance the syntax of watercolour;

for example, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (1900–48) added graphite and ink to opaque and transparent watercolours (Girl Mystary; c.1932–34); Bill Traylor (1853–1949) painted on odd-shaped sheets of paper (Mule and plow; c.1939– 42); Beauford Delaney (1901–79) laid in wet-in wet washes (Untitled; 1964); and Robert Motherwell (1915–91) and Romare Bearden (1911–88) used collage with watercolour in their respective works, Collage no. 1 (1945) and Colombier (c.1960s–1970s).

Fittingly, the last room, ‘Presence/Vulnerability: 1960s–90s’, contains works that question the nature of the medium itself. Richard Tuttle’s The table and a chair #30 (1990) and his nine Loose leaf notebook drawings (1980–82), exhibited in a display case, convey both sensual

and conceptual sensibilities with diminutive colour washes; LeWitt’s large-scale Wavy brushstrokes is displayed alongside Elena Prentice’s diminutive and moving Sky studies (1981). The exhibition offers one more insight: the revelation of the role that frames play in a number of these works, such as the off-white frame with pairs of painted thick and narrow stripes in brown and black, which Marin designed and decorated for The cove, Cape Split, Maine (1936).

One leaves this exhibition recognising that American artists shifted watercolour away from its polite pictorial status to one of expressive statements. They discovered, as visitors do here, that the medium’s fleeting unpredictability and sensuality suited experimentation

17/11/2023 10:36

BRUSSELS EXPO I 28 JAN — 4 FEB 2024

ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING FAIRS IN THE WORLD

GUEST OF HONOUR: BRUSSELS EXPO PAUL I 28DELVAUX JAN —FOUNDATION 4 FEB 2024 www.brafa.art

jan24BRAFAadvert.indd 1 BRAFA2024_Adv_Burlington_235x308-2.indd 1

15/12/2023 13:02 13:08 15/12/2023