29 Dec 2020
The Hanging of Myra Hindley
The Moors Murders resonate in British minds of the post-war generation. Myra Hindley killed 5 children with her boyfriend and sexually assaulted four of them. Myra’s mug shot and the horrific crime is burnt into the memory of many. So by 1995 wh
26 Feb 2015 | 2 Comments
Picasso on EPPH
At the small but excellent Museu Picasso in Barcelona, a repository for much of Picasso's early work and the complete series of paintings on Las Meninas, they sell a pencil (above). Draw your own conclusions. No comment.
08 May 2014
Dutch Royals Are Artists
I received a message from the Rijksmuseum that their superlative site, the Rijkstudio, now has a collection of Dutch royal portraits. Anyone who has seen on EPPH how portraits of British, Italian and French royalty resemble the artist might wonder
09 Oct 2013 | 1 Comments
Artist Crucified in his Studio
No-one you know thinks of themself as Christ which may be why most people find it so impossible to believe that artists do. My continual harping on this theme can sound like madness. One new reader, clearly dedicated to her Church, complained vo
29 Jan 2013 | 5 Comments
2nd Self-Portrait Found in Same Met Gallery!
After discovering a self-portrait by Picasso four days ago (see blog), I think I've discovered another one, this time by Bonnard.....hanging right opposite the other one at the Metropolitan Museum! The "coincidence" demonstrates, if nothing else
20 Nov 2012 | 1 Comments
Bellows’ River Rats At the Metropolitan Museum.
George Bellows’ exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum opened last week and is well-deserved, showing us for the first time in modern memory the full scale of what he achieved in twenty-something years. He died at 42. The success of h
21 Sep 2012
Impressionism and Fashion
Impressionism and Fashion is the title of a new exhibition opening at Paris' Musée d’Orsay this coming Monday. The key image on the catalogue’s cover and the Museum’s website is Manet’s Young Lady of 1866
28 May 2012
Coins, tablets and Dürer
Coins draw groans. Walk into a roomful of coins in a museum and even the most ardent art lovers hurry through in the hope of finding some painting or sculpture on the other side. Nevertheless the designs on coins are one of the glories of Greek
27 Feb 2012
Degas on Reflection and the Great Masters
At the entry to a small, mildly interesting exhibition of Rembrandt’s engravings and their influence on Degas, the Metropolitan Museum has highlighted the following quote:
“What I do is the result of reflectio
21 Dec 2011
The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini #5
Continuing our series in honor of the Metropolitan Museum's current exhibition of Renaissance portraits we have Botticelli's portrait of Michele Marullo Tarcaniota on the left compared to Botticelli's earlier self-portrait on the rig
10 Dec 2011
Portraits: Icons of America
Portraits make popular art exhibitions because we all think we can “read” a face. It’s part of being human. Everyone is his or her own expert on other people’s faces. Besides, portraits help satisfy our natural inquisitiv
13 Oct 2011
Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus
America’s a religious and largely Christian country so an exhibition titled Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, currently in Philadelphia and soon to travel to Detroit, ought to be a popular hit. It caught my interest because – face it
11 Sep 2011
The Kimbell Gets a Surprise
Nicolas Poussin’s Sacrament of the Ordination (1640's) is one of the masterpieces of Western art. I wrote about it last year when it failed to sell at auction. Now the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas has acquired it for $24 m
11 Apr 2011
Free Museums
If you're in Italy this week or on your way, take advantage of the free museums. All state-owned museums in Italy are offering free entrance (except for special exhibitions). That means all the best permanent collections are yours for the vi
13 Mar 2011
Google’s Art Project
The image above is the right eye of Botticelli's Venus, a mere inch or two of canvas. It's taken from the Google Art Project, an amazing site where you can zoom into a hundred or so major masterpieces and see exquisite detail. If you hav
09 Mar 2011
How Museums Rob the Public
Do you know who owns the copyright on the Mona Lisa? No-one, of course, because Leonardo is long dead. Try telling that to the Metropolitan Museum, though. A few years ago they started to claim copyright on the images of everything in their coll
25 Feb 2011
The Spell of Gossaert
The Jan Gossaert (c.1478-1532) exhibition that was on at the Met in New York last year has now moved in truncated form to London’s National Gallery. There are 37 of his 63 extant paintings in London. The Met had 50. Yet there i
29 Dec 2010
Me! Me! Me! and the Identity Museum
“Me! Me! Me! That is the cry, now often heard, as history is retold. Tell my story, in my way!” That’s how The New York Times begins an account of a new phenomenon, the “identity museum”.1 An “identity museum&
21 Dec 2010
Velazquez and the King’s Left Eye
The Metropolitan Museum announced yesterday that it has re-attributed the earliest known painting of King Philip IV by Velazquez (left) to the master. In 1973 during a reconsideration of all their European holdings they downgraded this portrait
04 Dec 2010
Steve Martin’s Artworld Fiasco
People may have more schooling nowadays but they seem no more educated. According to the New York Times, Steve Martin was at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan this week to talk about his latest novel on the artworld and there was a large audience o
21 Nov 2010 | 2 Comments
Basquiat in Paris
Basquiat at the Musée de L’Art Moderne in Paris is well worth seeing for anyone who wants to come to grips with this difficult artist. It is amazing to see how much one man can produce in a short time, especially if one considers that what’
30 Oct 2010
The Frick’s Fiction
The Frick Collection's Portrait of Philip IV by Velazquez is described as one of the best portraits he ever painted. It is indeed magnificent and has just opened as a one-painting exhibition, accompanied by new explanations of what
12 Sep 2010
Putin’s Portraits
Recent news from Russia suggests that Vladimir Putin is not a regular user of this website. According to The Art Newspaper he has approved plans to create the first National Portrait Gallery. “Society has a huge interest in our national hi
07 Sep 2010
Fusion Confusion at The Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection in London, an august institution, has a painting by Van Dyck of Paris, the mythological judge of beauty, posing by himself. A detail of his face is illustrated above (left). Whatever else one has to say about this pa
10 Aug 2010
Train Stations or Museums?
It’s somewhat fitting that twenty years ago the French transformed an unused train station into a major museum because, ever since, major museums have been turned into train stations. The Musee D’Orsay is no less crowded now than it
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