Three Egyptian Artifacts Recovered from Museum's Looting - 11Alive.com | WXIA | Atlanta, GA
2.09.2011
Google Art Project
Google unveils online art project
Google aims to bring the world's great art galleries into the home with a new website that offers virtual tours using Street View technology, the ability to build private collections and ultra-high resolution images.
While most big galleries have been busy making their works accessible online for years, experts told a launch at London's Tate Britain gallery today that Google's site was looking to take the online art experience to a new level.
"It could be the game changer," said Julian Raby of the Freer Gallery of Art, part of the Smithsonian in Washington DC, which is one of 17 galleries taking part in the project.
Nelson Mattos, vice president of engineering at Google, said the Art Project site (www.googleartproject.com) would allow children from Latin America, India and Africa, who were unlikely to see the originals, to come close to the experience on the internet.
"This really represents a major step forward in the way people are going to interact with these beautiful treasures of art around the world," he said, adding that Google planned to expand the site over the coming years.
Mr Mattos and art curators at the launch said they were confident that no matter how advanced the technology, the new site would never replace visiting the museums.
"We obviously don't believe this technology is going to prevent people from coming to the museums," he added. "We hope that the opposite will happen."
Mr Raby believed the Art Project would add a new layer of experience to online art viewing.
"Museums up to now have been obsessed with information, and what the Google Art Project does is to create an emotive experience," he said.
"I see this not as an alternative (to visiting a museum) but as a stimulus to come and see the real works of art."
Amit Sood, the Google employee who started Art Project from scratch during time his employer freed up for personal initiatives, explained how the company used its Street View technology to develop virtual tours.
Cameras mounted on a special trolley travelled through empty galleries after the public had left, taking 360 degree images of selected rooms which were then stitched together. So far 385 rooms are navigable, and more will be added.
Each of the 17 museums involved also chose one artwork to be photographed using "gigapixel" photo capturing technology, resulting in an image on the computer containing seven billion pixels and providing detail not visible to the naked eye.
And so by zooming in on a broken string on the instrument in Hans Holbein the Younger's The Ambassadors , from London's National Gallery, the viewer not only sees the string clearly but also where each new brushstroke has been applied.
"We're interested in getting depth of understanding of a limited amount of works," said Tate director Nicholas Serota.
As well as 17 paintings selected for "gigapixel" treatment, the museums made available images of 1,000 more works, allowing people to study them in detail using a custom built zoom viewer.
Users can create their own collections, add comments and share their experiences, opening up educational opportunities.
Mr Mattos said that there was "no commercial benefit" to Google from the enterprise, which the company paid for. He declined to say what costs were involved, however.
Among the galleries featured on the site are the Uffizi in Florence, the Palace of Versailles in France, Museum Kampa in Prague, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Reuters
1.20.2011
12.22.2010
Photography Changes the Historical Research Curators Do
A monochromatic Hillotype plate from Reverend Levi Hill’s early experiments in color photography, possibly one of the houses on the street where Hill lived or nearby in West Kill, New York, circa 1850s.
Michelle Anne Delaney, curator of the Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, investigates some controversial examples of early color photography. Follow the link below:
Conferences, Forums, and Workshops at Colonial Williamsburg : The Colonial Williamsburg Official History Site
Dear Forum Friends:
In the world of art and antiques, everything depends upon history and integrity. Who really made the object and where? What is its condition? Has it been altered? Is it the real McCoy? Advances in techniques for historical research and scientific investigation have opened new avenues of verification for curators, collectors, and scholars in recent years. At the 63rd annual Colonial Williamsburg Antiques Forum, Decorative Arts Forensics: How We Know What We Know, you are invited to learn more about this fascinating subject.
The 2011 Forum will bring together a group of widely recognized authorities on the remarkable furniture, metals, ceramics, glass, clocks, musical instruments, and buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries. More than 20 curators, collectors, conservators, and historians will present recent findings in a series of fully illustrated lectures and video-assisted workshops. Scheduled speakers include Robert Hunter, editor of Ceramics in America; Lynne Dakin Hastings, vice president for museum programs at James Madison’s Montpelier; and noted antiques dealer and auctioneer Leigh Keno.
In addition to the formal program, Forum guests may register for optional hands-on workshops with Colonial Williamsburg collections and private tours of historic homes in the region. Please plan to join us February 20–24, 2011, for Decorative Arts Forensics: How We Know What We Know.
Sincerely,
Colin G. Campbell
President and CEO
12.01.2010
New Research Reveals Missing Constable Viewpoint
The exact spot where the landscape artist John Constable painted The Stour Valley and Dedham Village [1] has been identified for the first time in almost 200 years.
Since it was painted in 1814-15, gradual changes to field boundaries meant that the exact location of the viewpoint that inspired Constable was difficult to identify, making it one of only a handful of Constable’s landscapes still to find.
However, new research by the National Trust, which owns and looks after much of the countryside surrounding the village of Dedham on the Essex/Suffolk border, has helped pinpoint the exact location where Constable once stood to paint this particular scene.
Martin Atkinson, National Trust property manager for East Suffolk, and a Constable enthusiast, used features from the painting and historic maps of the area from the Suffolk Records Office to identify the exact location.
Martin said: “It’s great to see where an old master once stood – and be inspired by the same views as them. When I discovered that I had worked out the location where Constable painted this particular masterpiece, I couldn’t believe it. All the pieces of the jigsaw finally fitted together.”
Today, the view is not easily recognisable, as hedge boundaries have moved and trees have become established, blocking out some of the buildings behind. However, the view is still as beautiful and inspiring as it was back then and visitors can peer through a gap in the hedge, which frames the landscape perfectly. It doesn’t take much to imagine what John Constable once saw.
Painted between 1814 and 1815, The Stour Valley and Dedham Village depicts Langham Church, Dedham Church, Fen Bridge and the bend in the River Stour, all of which sit within the picturesque Dedham Vale Area of Natural Beauty.
By studying these reference points and the East Bergholt Enclosure Map of 1817 Martin found that the field boundaries in place in 1817, two years after the painting had been completed, had changed drastically by 1830. Martin explained: “Many had disappeared altogether and new hedges appeared at different angles. By plotting out where the field boundaries would once have been, we were able to pin point the exact location from which Constable painted this particular view.”
He continued: “Most of Constable’s landscapes painted in the Dedham Vale are now known, but questions do remain over some. This one in particular had confused us, but once we were able to identify the changes in the landscape, many of which had been made in Constable’s lifetime, we were able to solve the 195 year mystery.”
The Stour Valley and Dedham Village is now housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, as part of the Warren Collection. It is an accurate representation of the landscape that Constable painted, for which he is not renowned in his later work. He would on occasions use artistic licence and add trees, but later on he would rely on memory and sketches, carrying out more work in the studio than on site.
The direction of light shows it to be a morning painting and from records about Constable it is strongly believed that he worked on The Stour Valley and Dedham Village in the open air, walking down to Flatford where he painted the better-known Boat Building in the afternoons.
From Constable’s documents we also know that this painting was commissioned by Thomas Fitzhugh of Plas Power, Deputy Lieutenant and High Sherriff of Denbighshire, as a present to his bride Philadelphia Godfrey of Old Hall, East Bergholt. She would have been familiar with the scene, but surprised at Constable’s version, which depicted the realism of labourers excavating a dunghill for autumn manuring.
The top five Constable landscapes at Flatford, in the heart of Constable Country, are:
- Boat-building near Flatford Mill, 1814-15
- View on the Stour near Dedham, 1822
- The Hay-Wain, 1820-21
- Flatford Mill ‘Scene on a Navigable River’, 1816-17
- Boys Fishing ‘A Lock on the Stour’, 1812
[1] The Stour Valley and Dedham Village, 1814 - 1815.
- Oil on canvas, 553 x 781.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Warren Collection-William Wilkins Warren Fund.
- Inscribed ‘No2 View of Dedham – John Constable’ on a label on the back, presumably applied at the time of the 1815 exhibition.
- Provenance: Commissioned by Thomas Fitzhugh of Plas Power (1770 – 1856), Deputy Lieutenant and High Sherriff of Denbighshire, as a present for his bride Philadelphia Godfrey of Old Hall, East Bergholt 1814; she died 1869; acquired by James McLean, USA, c.1885 -1900; his daughter, Mrs Alice T McLean; John Mitchell, New York, from whom bought by Boston Museum of Fine Arts 1948.
- Exhibited: Royal Academy 1815; Tate Gallery 1976; Romance and Reality: Aspects of Landscape Painting, Wildenstein, New York 1978, New York 1983.
- Information taken from the Tate Gallery’s Constable, by Leslie Parris and Ian Fleming-Williams, published in 1991.
8.06.2010
Researcher Seeking Women Artists, 1840–1940, White Mountains, NH
Martha Safford (1850–1912), “White Mountains.”
CORAL GABLES, FLA. — There is a growing body of evidence that women were actively painting landscapes in the White Mountains, as well as the Catskills and the Hudson River Valley. in the Nineteenth Century. Dolly MacIntyre, who first began to research this overlooked component of American history in 1989, wrote her master’s thesis on the topic and curated a small show at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College in 1990.
The topic was put on the back burner in the intervening years, but MacIntyre has recently rekindled her research, inspired by the work of independent filmmaker Andrea Melville, who is making a documentary on the artists and writers of the White Mountains and by the current exhibit at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site called, “Remember the Ladies: Women Artists of the Hudson River School,” which reveals the tip of the iceberg and displays work by women quite as glorious as that of their male counterparts.
MacIntyre is now planning an exhibition and catalog of White Mountain art to further debunk the myth that there were no women landscape painters. She wants to locate work by such women, much of which she is sure is stored in basements and attics of the artists’ descendants.
If you have any information or possibly works by women artists of the Nineteenth Century, please contact MacIntyre at 409 Viscaya Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33134 or macbirch@aol.com.
7.18.2010
Diego Velazquez Masterpiece Identified At Yale Art Gallery
Attributed to Diego Velazquez, “The Education of the Virgin,” circa 1617–18, oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery.
NEW HAVEN, CONN. — Based on the research of John Marciari, currently curator of European art and head of provenance research at the San Diego Museum of Art and formerly the Nina and Lee Griggs associate curator of early European art at the Yale University Art Gallery, the Seventeenth Century Spanish painting portraying the “Education of the Virgin” in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery has been reattributed to Diego Velazquez.
The painting was donated to the gallery in 1925 by Henry Hotchkiss Townshend, BA 1897, LLB 1901, and Raynham Townshend, MD, BS 1900s. It is thought to have been in the Townsend family for at least 40 years and was in poor condition when it arrived at the gallery. Prior to the current attribution, the painting was considered to be by an unknown artist from Seville, Spain. The work is now believed to have been painted by Velazquez in Seville around 1617, making it one of the artist’s earliest works. The painting is currently being studied in advance of conservation treatment and is not on view.
As part of the gallery’s renovation and expansion project — which began with the renovation of its 1953 Louis Kahn building in 2003 and continues now with the renovation and expansion of the 1928 Egerton Swartwout building and the 1866 Street Hall, designed by Peter Bonnett Wight — the gallery completed a thorough and extensive review of its collections. Curators, working closely with the gallery’s conservation staff, have been studying works both with the naked eye and with conservation techniques that make visible the underlayers of the objects. In some instances, this research has resulted in new attributions, a long process involving technical and documentary research, visual analysis and consultation between curators and their specialist colleagues throughout the world.
The Velazquez painting discussed in Marciari’s article for the July–September 2010 issue of Ars magazine is the result of six years of research and analysis.
Yale University Art Gallery is at the corner of Chapel and York Streets. For information, www.artgallery.yale.edu or 203-432-0600.
- from Antiques and The Arts Weekly - July 16, 2010
additional information here:
http://artobserved.com/2010/07/ao-news-summary-new-haven-yale-university-basement-yields-possible-velazquez/
5.09.2010
Misidentification of Fernando Wood as William R. King Snowballs on the Internet
This digital image of a daguerreotype (LC-USZ62-109926) in the collection of the Library of Congress has been misidentified as a portrait of Vice President William R. King. Rather, it is a portrait of New York Mayor Fernando Wood, taken in the studio of Matthew Brady about 1855. Unfortunately, the daguerreotype's erroneous identification as William R. King has spread to dozens of internet sites and might also be published in print.
How do we correct misinformation once it has spread? The internet has become an invaluable tool for research. It enables us to find critical information in seconds that might have taken months, years or even a lifetime in the past. Yet how do we prevent the dissemination of false information?
My guess is that the former identification had been made many years ago and it had simply stuck. It is understandable how mistakes had been made in the past; students, staff and scholars doing the best they could with limited and formidable resources. The internet has changed how research is done now and makes it much easier to access images, fact check and dialogue with others... many thanks to Google!
Fernando Wood (1812-1881)
after a daguerreotype by Brady
Fernando Wood (June 14, 1812 - February 14, 1881) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who is most famous for being one of the most colorful mayors in the history of New York City; he also served as a United States Representative (1841–1843, 1863–1865, and 1867–1881) and as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in both the 45th and 46th Congress (1877–1881).
-from Wikipedia
William R. King (1786-1853)
after a daguerreotype by Brady, lithograh by N. Currier
William R. King (1786-1853)
engraving after a daguerreotype by Whitehurst
William R. King (1786-1853)
sculpted posthumously in 1896 by William C. McCauslen (1860 - 1929)
William Rufus DeVane King (April 7, 1786 – April 18, 1853) was the 13th Vice President of the United States, and earlier a U.S. Representative from North Carolina, Minister to France, and a Senator from Alabama. King died of tuberculosis after 45 days in office. With the exceptions of John Tyler and Andrew Johnson—both of whom succeeded to the Presidency—he remains the shortest-serving Vice President. - from Wikipedia
... and finally... the drum roll please...
Fernando Wood (1812-1881)
engraved by J. C. Buttre from a daguerreotype by Brady
The internet has its limits... sometimes old fashioned printed material proves its relevance as boldly as does this image of Fernando Wood that I scanned. Many thanks to Clifford and Michele Krainik for the great illustrated article entitled "Engraved Portraits from Daguerreotypes Published in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, 1842-1857" that appeared in the 2008 Daguerreian Annual. It is apparent that a variant daguerreotype from the same sitting in the Brady Studio as the one in question was the source of this engraving by J. C. Buttre published in 1855.
5.05.2010
Mystery Solved!!!
I had this pair of American expatriate paintings hanging around for years without an attribution that would stick... until a friend offered me the painting below by Walter Eben Nettleton. Mystery solved!
Walter Eben Nettleton (1861 - 1936)
46" x 50", exhibited 1893 Paris Salon, exhibition sticker verso
from AskArt:
Walter Eben Nettleton (1861-1936)
Born in New Haven, Connecticut. Graduate of Yale University in 1883. Studied under Lefebvre and Boulanger, and afterward under Carolus Duran and Alexander Harrison. Honorable Mention, Paris Salon, 1892. In 1900 he was living in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Source:
Official Illustrated Catalogue, Fine Arts Exhibit, United States of America, Paris Exposition of 1900. Noyes, Platt & Company, Boston, 1900.
Information provided by Edward P. Bentley, researcher of Lansing, Michigan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)