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Paul Holberton
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Sur le motif : peindre en plein air en Europe 1780-1870
Jane Munro, Mary Morton, Ger Luijten
- Paul Holberton
- 22 Octobre 2020
- 9781911300830
This lavish catalogue presents sketches made en plein air between the end of the eighteenth century and late nineteenth century. It accompanies a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (USA), the Fondation Custodia (France) and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (UK).
In the eighteenth century the tradition of open-air painting was based in Italy, Rome in particular. Artists came from all over Europe to study classical sculpture and architecture, as well as masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque art. During their studies, groups of young painters visited the Italian countryside, training their eyes and their hands to transcribe the effects of light on a range of natural features. The practice became an essential aspect of art education, and spread throughout Europe in the nineteenth century. This exhibition focuses on the artists' wish to convey the immediacy of nature observed at first hand.
Around a hundred works, most of them unfamiliar to the general public, will be displayed. The artists represented include Thomas Jones, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, Achille-Etna Michallon, Camille Corot, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Johan Thomas Lundbye, Vilhelm Kyhn, Carl Blechen, Johann Martin von Rohden, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, Johann Jakob Frey, among others. The sketches demonstrate the skill and ingenuity with which each artist quickly translated these first-hand observations of atmospheric and topographical effects while the impression was still fresh.
The exhibition and the catalogue will be organized thematically, reviewing, as contemporary artists did, motifs as trees, rocks, water, volcanoes, and sky effects, and favourite topgraphical locations, such as Rome and Capri. The catalogue will present numerous unpublished plein air sketches, and contains much original scholarship on this relatively young field of art history. -
Paris 1924 : sport, art and the body
Caroline Vout, Christopher Young
- Paul Holberton
- 14 Juin 2024
- 9781913645601
Ce catalogue apporte un nouveau regard sur les jeux Olympiques de Paris 1924, souvent
considérés comme les premiers Jeux internationaux. De leurs origines dans la Grèce
antique à leur transformation moderne en événement visuellement puissant à l'échelle
mondiale, les jeux Olympiques ont conservé leur place unique dans le monde du sport
et de la culture. Le livre, qui a été publié pour coïncider avec les jeux Olympiques de
Paris 2024, accompagne une grande exposition au Fitzwilliam Museum.
L'été 2024 verra le retour des jeux O lympiques à Paris un siècle après avoir été ville
organisatrice. Les Jeux de 1924 furent sans doute les premiers vrais Jeux internationaux,
les premiers à diffuser des émissions de radio en direct et les premiers à accueillir
un village olympique. Ils associèrent compétition d'art et événements sportifs, et
cédèrent trente-cinq médailles à la Grande Bretagne, notamment au sprinter de
Cambridge, Harold Abrahams, du renommé Chariots of Fire. Ce catalogue explore les
jeux Olympiques d'une perspective visuelle en enquêtant sur les tensions entre le urs
débuts classiques et leur représentation en 1924 et à travers l'ère moderne. Comment
les jeux Olympiques de 1924 ont ils été influencés par la culture visuelle de l'époque
Et comment, à leur tour, ont-ils influencé les arts? De moulage s en plâtre des statues
d'athlètes du Vème siècle avant J.C au cinéma holl ywoodien, et des portraits classiques
des protagonistes à l'art plus abstrait, ce catalogue rassemble peintures, sculptures, films,
photographies, posters, lettres, médailles et autre s souvenirs pour raconter l'histoire
d'une entreprise sportive qui a tout autant reflété qu influencé son temps. Questions de
genre, race et classe, ainsi qu'une exploration de la célébrité et de la place du spectateur,
montrent que le débat autour du sport était aussi complexe et capital dans le passé qu'il
ne l'est aujourd'hui.
Le catalogue d'exposition offre aux lecteurs l'opportunité d'explorer en détails
quelques uns des thèmes fondamentaux du spectacle. Il comprend des essais rédigés par
des spécialistes dans les domaines des lettres classiques, de l'histoire de l'art, de l'histoire
de France, de l'histoire du sport et de la médecine, chacun d'entre eux se concentrant
sur des thèmes essentiels de l'exposition et des protagonistes clés de l'histoire des Jeux.
Le large éventail d'art attirera les fans de classicisme, modernisme, cubisme, surréalisme
et futurisme, ainsi que d'Art déco, tandis que le sujet fera également écho aux amateurs
de sport et puisera dans l'enthousiasme de tout ce qui touche aux jeux Olympiques en
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Cosmologies and biologies : Siamese Manuscripts of Death, Time and the Body
Justin McDaniel
- Paul Holberton
- 15 Janvier 2025
- 9781915401151
This is an important and ground-breaking study of rare Siamese manuscripts of two kinds, biological and cosmological. Beautiful in themselves, they are produced under unusual conditions and no one of these manuscripts is like another, though they draw on a common pool of rituals, actions and stories. This fascinating publication closely examines and contextualizes a collection of 30 of the most striking and visually unique manuscripts of this kind known, in or outside Thailand.
These manuscripts are religious in nature, containing several genres of Buddhist texts including liturgical, narrative, historical, grammatical, psychological, ritual, and magical material, but, compared to other Thai and other South-East Asian examples they are particularly strong in the realms of medical, biological and cosmological Thai thought. A recurrent feature is the story of Phra Malai, a monk whose travels to various heavens and hells are described and illustrated. A number of rare medical manuscripts serve to reveal how mythology, biology, astrology, physiognomy and pharmacology are blended together in the pre-modern Siamese/Thai tradition.
These and other such illuminated manuscripts were produced in 18th- and 19th- century Siam (as Thailand was then known) and are richly illustrated both with delightful and evocative depictions of the Buddha, Hindu deities, Bodhisattvas, nuns, monks, and laypeople, and with some grotesque and terrifying ones - they attest to a particular interest in corpses and their implications among some of their readers.
The author, who has both lived the Buddhist life in Thailand and researched in Thai monasteries, has an extensive knowledge not only of the history but of the dynamic of Thai religion, studying not just older texts but continuing rituals and contemporary media. He was inspired to write this book by the very great value he saw in these particular manuscripts, a most unusual collection amassed with a discriminating eye.
The book consists both of an explanation and a detailed catalogue of this collection of exemplary manuscripts and of a fascinating introductory essay discussing the belief systems and activities they represent. -
Inspired by the recent identification of a third autograph version of Gainsborough's masterpiece The Cottage Door, this book examines the significance of the multiple versions of designs that the artist produced during the 1780s. It demonstrates that without the pressure of exhibiting his work annually at the Academy and without a string of sitters waiting for their finished portraits, Gainsborough's work became more personal, more thoughtful. This study of the last phase of the artist's work is a totally fresh interpretation of not only The Cottage Door but other key works such as Mrs Sheridan and Diana and Acteon.
Gainsborough's creative energies changed around 1780. He became restless and wanted to promote his landscape painting more effectively. He started to paint coastal scenes using an innovative painting technique to depict the water and he embarked on a series of 'fancy' pictures that he would position him as a descendant of an Old Master tradition. He was never happy with the constraints of the Royal Academy and he was at odds with the dictatorial opinions promoted by its president, Sir Joshua Reynolds. Removing himself from the Academy enabled him finally to do what he wanted.
He began to turn to portrait compositions that he had developed and refined over a number of years. With subtle alterations they could be made suitable for a variety of sitters. The subtlety of his skilled observation was less easy to accommodate in standard-sized full-length canvases and in these portraits he sometimes resorted to rhetoric gesture that fought against the closely observed likenesses in his best portraits. The margin between 'fancy' pictures and portraits became blurred and the categorization of some of these paintings changed while they were on the easel. Always finding composition difficult, rather than begin something new he often revisited earlier designs that had pleased him. He would paint them again and make slight changes of tone and emphasis that would radically change the concept and intention of the design. The subject matter in some of his late paintings veers towards the autobiographical and shows a certain rift between him and his family.
Hugh belsey is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art with the task of writing the definitive catalogue of portraits by Thomas Gainsborough.
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Deaf, dumb and brillant ; Johan Thopas, masterdraughtsman
Rudolf E.O Ekkart
- Paul Holberton
- 1 Mars 2014
- 9781907372674
Until recently, the Dutch draughtsman Johan Thopas, who was born in 1626 both deaf and dumb, was only known to a small group of connoisseurs, dealers and collectors. However, his remarkable, subtle and technically refined portrait drawings on parchment deserve a wider audience. This handsome publication, the first devoted to his work, will prove to be an eye opener for many art lovers.
Beginning with his earliest works (two beautiful miniatures of 1646 in the Fondation Custodia in Paris), Thopas produced incredibly refined drawings, usually with lead point on parchment. He had an almost magic control of the lead point, and his sense of texture and the way he was able to achieve this with minimal means is astounding, setting him apart from other draughtsmen in the Dutch Golden Age. Thopas was also able to capture brilliantly the characters of his sitters - such as the sulky husband and trouser-wearing wife in the 1684 companion pieces in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Apart from lead-point drawings, Thopas made several drawings in colour, on parchment and on Japanese paper. In most cases these drawings were done after life, although we do know that the large commission he received from the Bas- Kerckrinck family in Amsterdam included several drawings that were done after existing portraits. Furthermore, he produced at least one brilliant copy after a painting by Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, Venus, Mars and Cupid, and even a painting, portraying a dead child. He must have made more paintings and certainly more drawings than the seventy we know today (all of which are catalogued and illustrated here). In this exhibition his only known painting and the one mythological drawing are accompanied by thirty of his most beautiful portraits, from private collections in the US, Canada, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as well as well-known museums and print rooms, such as the Albertina in Vienna, the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, the Städel in Frankfurt or the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
The author of the catalogue, Prof. Dr Rudolf E.O. Ekkart, is regarded as the most important connoisseur in the field of Dutch sixteenth- and seventeenth-century portraiture and the author of many important monographs and other publications in the field of Dutch portraiture. He was Director of the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) in The Hague between 1990 and 2012 and gained momentum as Chairman of the Committee that carried his name and proved responsible for the return of many looted works of art that were returned to the heirs of many Jewish collectors in The Netherlands.
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Lapis and gold ; exploring chester beatt's ruzbihan qur'an
Elaine Wright
- Paul Holberton
- 23 Mai 2018
- 9781912168040
The Chester Beatty Library's 16th-century Ruzbihan Qur'an-produced in the city of Shiraz in southwest Iran-is one of the finest Islamic manuscripts known. In terms of both materials and workmanship, it is exquisite: lapis lazuli and gold, the two most expensive pigments available, are used on every page, while the rendering of the decoration is exceptionally fine. This is the most detailed and comprehensive study of any Islamic manuscript-and it is well worthy of such scrutiny.
Praised in a 16th-century account as one of the finest calligraphers of his time, Ruzbihan Muhammad al-Tab'i al-Shirazi would have produced numerous Qur'ans during the course of his career, but only five signed by him have survived. Much of the study of this, surely his finest manuscript, is focussed on understanding the processes and procedures involved in the production of the manuscript and thus on gaining an insight into the problems faced by Ruzbihan and the other artists and how they resolved them. Certain surprising and never-before-seen techniques of production and 'tricks-of-the trade' have been uncovered. A large portion of the information presented is the result of very close examination, under high magnification, of the manuscript's 445 folios (890 pages). Many of the reproductions included are of minute details of the decoration that are difficult, or even impossible, to see with the unaided eye.
The book follows the order in which work on the manuscript would have progressed, beginning with an examination of Ruzbihan's calligraphy, the various scripts he used to copy the text and the problems he faced, such as the spacing of the text and his errors and omissions. Additions, such as marginal notations, recitation marks and decorative devices indicating the divisions of the text, all of which guide the reciter in his reading of the Qur'an, are also considered.
Although the manuscript's renown has traditionally rested with the name of its calligrapher, it is equally the quality, extent, diversity and complexity of its superb decorative programme-the work of a team of highly skilled, yet anonymous artists and artisans-that sets the manuscript apart from most other 16th-century Persian Qur'ans.
Fittingly, therefore, the bulk of the study focuses on this aspect of the manuscript. Major aspects of the illumination, such as its lavish beginning, middle and end illuminations, are examined as well as more minor elements such as the 'rays' that emerge from the frontis- and finispiece; even the tiniest of details are revealed, such as what are, in the book, termed 'squiggles and eyes', hidden amongst the illuminations and a challenge to find for the even the most eagle-eyed viewer. However, while many of the secrets of the production of the manuscript were revealed, many mysteries remain. Chief among these is the startling change in aesthetic evident in the illuminations of the final ten openings of the manuscript. Why such as change was undertaken-and then halted-is not known. As was increasingly revealed as study of the manuscript progressed-and as the reader of the book will quickly come to realise-Chester Beatty's Ruzbihan Qur'an is an intriguing and very special manuscript.
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Renaissance and Baroque bronzes ; from the hill collection
Collectif
- Paul Holberton
- 17 Février 2014
- 9781907372636
This richly illustrated and beautifully produced scholarly catalogue of the superlative collection of Renaissance and Baroque bronze figurative statuettes from the Hill Collection, accompanies an exhibition of the collection at The Frick Collection, New York opening late January 2014.
Spanning from 1470-1740, the bronzes presented are of exceptional quality and exemplify the development of bronze statuettes from 1470 in Renaissance Italy to their dissemination across the artistic centres of Europe. The Hill Collection is distinguished by rare, autograph masterpieces by Italian sculptors such as Andrea Riccio and Giambologna, and has the most important collection of Baroque bronzes by Giuseppe Piamontini in the world. Its holdings of works by Giambologna and his school is the strongest found in any single collection, with the sole exception of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, and evokes the splendour of the late Renaissance courts, while the richness of the international Baroque is represented by religious themes by Alessandro Algardi, northern bronzes by Adriaen de Vries and Hubert Gerhard, and a remarkable assemblage of French 116th-and early 17thcentury bronzes in the classical mode, by Barthélemy Prieur and from the circle of Ponce Jacquiot.
The Hill Collection reveals the range of artistry, invention and technical refinement characteristic of sculptures created when the tradition of the European statuette was at its height.
The catalogue includes detailed biographies of each of the artists represented, and is introduced with essays by the distinguished authors. Patricia Wengraf is one of the world's leading dealers in bronzes, sculpture and works of art, and in her particular speciality, bronzes of the 15th-18th centuries, her knowledge and connoisseurship are of world repute. Denise Allen is Curator of Renaissance Paintings and Sculpture at the Frick Collection. Claudia Kryza-Gersch, formerly Kunstkammer, Vienna, is an independent scholar renowned for her studies of North Italian bronzes of the 16th and 17th centuries. Dimitrios Zikos, Florence, an independent scholar is renowned for his knowledge of the Florentine archives from c. 1550-1740, he has curated many exhibitions at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
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Accompanying a landmark exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, this book examines the remarkable drawings made by Dürer as a young man from 1490 to 1495, especially those made during his journeyman years, or Wanderjahre - considered the final part of a craftsman's training - and a second shorter trip which immediately followed and seems to have brought the artist to Italy. These trips form the framework for the book, which focuses on the young artist's figure studies and has at its heart the Courtauld Gallery's double-sided drawing of a Wise Virgin and Two studies of the artist's left leg. This superbly ambitious work serves as a springboard to explore in depth the role of drawing at this stage of Dürer's career. It allows us to address a series of crucial questions: how Dürer formed 'his hand', how he responded to artistic challenges presented by contemporary and earlier art (both on a stylistic and an iconographic level), how his pursuit of professional success was linked with the quest for an individual artistic identity, and how the strategy of recording his own creative achievements in drawings dovetails with his claim for a new status for the artist in his city.
The scholarly and beautifully illustrated catalogue is introduced with five essays by distinguished experts. Stephanie Buck examines the documentary evidence and attempts to reconstruct the motivations and activities of Dürer's travels as a young man. David Freedberg discusses Dürer's obsessive observation and recording of himself in portraits and in studies of his limbs. These represent the first critical steps in the artist's developing understanding of the body, and of the ways in which its movements could not just show emotion, but rouse the equivalent sense of torsion, tension and pathos in the bodies and minds of his viewers. Stephanie Porras looks at Dürer's copies of drawings or prints circulating in Nuremberg workshops or acquired during the Wanderjahre, which were used as a means of seeking inspiration, of challenging himself to draw more sophisticated figures and dynamic compositions.
Michael Roth asks the question of how the three strands of the art of the line - drawing, engraving and woodcut - structurally correspond in Dürer's work and, consequently, how drawing merges with certain manual aspects of printing. A final essay presents new technical research on Dürer's early drawings undertaken collaboratively in a number of leading collections of the artist's work, and aims to enrich our understanding of the young Dürer's approach to the medium of drawing.
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Medival and later ivories in the Courtauld gallery ; complete catalogue
John Lowden
- Paul Holberton
- 7 Novembre 2013
- 9781907372605
In 1966 Mark Gambier Parry bequeathed to the Courtauld Gallery the art collection formed by his grandfather Thomas Gambier Parry, who died in 1888. In addition to important paintings, Renaissance glass and ceramics, and Islamic metalwork, this included 28 medieval and Renaissance ivories. Since 1967 about half of the ivories have been on permanent display at The Courtauld, yet they have remained largely unknown, even to experts. This catalogue is the first publication dedicated solely to the collection. There are examples of the highest quality of ivory carving, both secular and religious in content, and a number of the objects are of outstanding interest. They are a revealing tribute to the perceptive eye of Thomas Gambier Parry, a distinguished Victorian collector and Gothic Revival artist responsible for a number of richly painted church interiors in England, such as the Eastern part of the nave ceiling, and the octagon, at Ely Cathedral.
The earliest objects in date, probably late 11th century, are the group of walrus ivory plaquettes set into the sides and lids of a casket, portraying the Apostles and Christ in Majesty surrounded by the symbols of the Evangelists. The style leaves little doubt that they should be associated with a group of portable altars at Kloster Melk in Austria. A gap of some two centuries separates the casket panels from the next important object - the central portion of an ivory triptych, containing a Deesis group of Christ enthroned between angels holding instruments of the Passion in the upper register, and the Virgin and Child between candle-bearing angels below.
The style of the ivory relates it securely to the atelier of the Soissons Diptych in the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Gambier-Parry fragment employs bold cutting of the frame to accentuate the three-dimensional quantities of the relief. Somewhat later in date, towards the middle of the 14th century, is a complete diptych of the Crucifixion and Virgin with angels, the faces of which Gambier-Parry described as "worthy of Luini". The extraordinary foreshortening of the swooning Virgin's head can happily be paralleled to a diptych in the Schoolmeesters Collection, Liège, by the "aterlie aux visages caractérisés", as named by Raymond Koechlin. The Gambier- Parry diptych, must rank with the finest productions of the workshop.
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John Carr of York (1723 - 1807) était l'un des architectes les plus prolifiques et les plus importants du XVIIIème siècle avec une production de plus de 400 projets dont la plupart furent réalisés. Ces derniers vont de simples entrées aux projets les plus majestueux tels que le grandiose hôpital de Porto au Portugal, le domaine de Harewood House et le village dans le Yorkshire et le Basildon Park dans le Berkshire.
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The James de Rothschild bequest at waddesdon manor
Giles Barber
- Paul Holberton
- 3 Octobre 2013
- 9780954731083
The outstanding collection of late 17th- and 18th-century books, together with their sumptuous bindings, built up by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the last 20 years of the 19th century, match his other extraordinary collections (covered by earlier catalogues in the series), and is among the best of its kind outside Paris. This catalogue reveals for the fi rst time the riches of his book collection.
The 790 books refl ect Baron Ferdinand's interests as a refi ned connoisseur and amateur historian. Not interested in fi rst editions or rare texts, he collected instead books with a distinguished provenance, those with magnifi cent bindings and ones illustrated by celebrated artists. Many of these also related to his interest in the history of this period, documenting social culture, costume, travel, architecture and, in particular, royal entertainments and ceremonies. Among coats-of-arms are those of Louis XIV, Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour and Marie-Antoinette. The magnifi cent bindings are by renowned artisans working at the pinnacle of their craft: Padeloup, the Derome family and Le Monnier, who are known for lavish dentelle and mosaic styles.
The two volumes provide introductory surveys of the collecting of ancien régime books, of Baron Ferdinand's life, historical interests and manner of book collecting (using important and unpublished trade documentation), an overview of the collection by subjects, a more detailed description of the illustrated books, and another of the wide range of royal, bibliophile and other important provenance. Seven substantial chapters describe and discuss the late 17th- and 18th-century Parisian bookbinding trade and techniques of decorative gilding. They include particular studies on the work and production of leading bookbinders. The evolution of the various styles of the period are discussed, including the bindings of the Cabinet du Roi, and lists are provided of all the examples in the collection, before a fi nal section of bookbinders' 'signing' of their work, and lists of English and other bookbindings at Waddesdon.
Of special important is the classifi ed index of French bookbinders' tools, some 1000 of those on the Waddesdon books being reproduced digitally, thus providing an authoritative reference fi les on the best French bookbinding of this period. All 790 books are described in full detail, with titlepage transcriptions, collations, lists of plates, details of provenance, descriptions of bindings, and notes on the importance of the works involved. A provenance index lists all identifi ed past owners, with brief biographical notes on them. There is also a select bibliography.
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Painting in 18th-century France was centred on the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris, where the drawing of the male human figure was at the core of the curriculum. Only after mastering the copying of drawings and engravings, and then casts of antique sculptures, would the student be allowed to progress to drawing the nude figure in the life class. The drawings produced there were so associated with the Academy that they came to be known as 'académies'.
Accompanying a groundbreaking exhibition at the Wallace Collection, this publication includes remarkable drawings by Rigaud, Boucher, Nattier, Pierre, Carle van Loo, Gros and Jean-Baptiste Isabey. Variety and beauty are omnipresent.
The works show figures - sometimes single, sometimes two together - in an enormous variety of poses and in various degrees of light and shade. The study of physiognomic expression was also taught at the Academy, and the facial expressions of the figures always complement the poses they adopt, whether they show serenity, exertion, pleasure or anger.
The catalogue of over 40 masterpieces from the Academy collection - now belonging to the École des Beaux-arts - is introduced with 3 essays by distinguished scholars. Emmanuelle Brugerolles and Camille Debrebant write about the teaching methods at the Academy, to which no female artists were admitted and all models were male. (This practice in itself went on to create problems for artists, who lacking the necessary training to portray the female form, were compelled to search out models, not always in the most respectable settings.) They consider the complete collection of 600 drawings made over a period of some 150 years.
Exceptional in its size and consistency, the collection remains an extraordinary testimony to teaching methods and artistic doctrines that, although they are no longer current, still offer food for thought.
Georges Brunel's essay 'Art and Manner', highlights some features of the artistic doctrine, which, while remaining stable for a century and a half, from 1650 to 1800, was nevertheless modified over time, each period reflecting its own sense of form and artistic expectations. The foundation of academic teaching in the imitation of nature, the quest for beauty, and the study of the Antique did not change. But these notions can all be interpreted in many different ways. Is nature simply what is there to be seen, does beauty lie in the faithful reproduction of what is seen, does the Antique constitute the ultimate artistic reference point and touchstone of artistic merit and, ultimately, can there be art without 'manner'?
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A dialogue with nature ; romantic landscapes from Britain and Germany
Collectif
- Paul Holberton
- 7 Janvier 2013
- 9781907372667
"The artist should not only paint what he sees before him," claimed Caspar David Friedrich, "but also what he sees in himself". He should have "a dialogue with Nature". Friedrich's words encapsulate two central elements of the Romantic conception of landscape: close observation of the natural world and the importance of the imagination.
Exploring aspects of Romantic landscape drawing in Britain and Germany from its origins in the 1760s to its final flowering in the 1840s, this exhibition catalogue considers 26 major drawings, watercolours and oil sketches from The Courtauld Gallery, London, and the Morgan Library and Museum, New York, by artists such as J.M.W. Turner, Samuel Palmer, Caspar David Friedrich and Karl Friedrich Lessing.
It draws upon the complementary strengths of both collections: the Morgan's exceptional group of German drawings and The Courtauld's wide-ranging holdings of British works. A Dialogue with Nature offers the opportunity to consider points of commonality as well as divergence between two distinctive schools.
The legacy of Claude Lorrain's idealizing vision is visible in Jakob Hackert's magisterial view of ruins at Tivoli, near Rome, as well as in a more intimate but purely imaginary rural scene by Thomas Gainsborough, while cloud and tree studies by John Constable and Johann Georg von Dillis demonstrate the importance of drawing from life and the observation of natural phenomena.
The important visionary strand of Romanticism is brought to the fore in a group of works centred on Friedrich's evocative Moonlit Landscape and Samuel Palmer's Oak Tree and Beech, Lullingstone Park. Both are exemplary of their creators' intensely spiritual vision of nature as well as their strikingly different techniques, Friedrich's painstakingly fine detail contrasting with the dynamic freedom of Palmer's penwork.
The most expansive and painterly works include Turner's St Goarshausen and Katz Castle, the luminous simplicity of Francis Towne's watercolour view of a wooded valley in Wales, and Friedrich's subtle wash drawing of a coastal meadow on the remote Baltic island of Rügen. Three small-scale drawings reveal a more introspective and intimate facet of the Romantic approach to landscape: Theodor Rehbenitz's fantastical medievalizing scene, Palmer's meditative Haunted Stream, and lastly, Turner's Cologne, made as an illustration for The Life and Works of Lord Byron (1833).
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The Art of the Medieval Potter aims to demystify the art of the Middle Ages by highlighting the beauty and familiarity of ceramic pots and tiles from Medieval Europe, with an emphasis on 13th-16th century England.
Medieval ceramics were the subject of great interest in the early and mid- 20th century - bought about in part by the boom in rescue archaeology and discovery of kiln sites - but not since. Though there has been a great deal of scholarly research in recent years it has been technical and archaeological rather than treating the subject as art. Informed by all the latest archaeological research, this handsome volume is illustrated with brilliant new photography and detailed examination of the decoration of each object, revealing each remarkable pot and tile in all its glory.
A highlight will be the Kedleston Hall pitcher, a magnificent and enormous late-Norman period glazed pitcher, c. 1220-50, which is one of the most important and interesting early medieval relics of the potters' art which has ever been exhumed, and certainly the centrepiece of the foremost kiln site to have been discovered in the North Midlands.
Often highly decorated, the jugs and pitchers examined here would have been symbols of the status of the owners and were much prized accordingly.
The tiles would have been in abbey churches, royal palaces, parish churches and the homes of wealthy citizens. Despite their simple tools and kiln equipment, the medieval tile makers proved extremely skilful in the production of different types - ranging from variously shaped plain tiles, which were assembled into complex mosaic floors, to two-coloured inlaid tiles, and stamped-relief and line-impressed tiles, all decorated with a wealth of different patterns and designs.
Accompanying an exhibition in April 2014 at Sam Fogg, London, a specialist in the art of the European Middle Ages. For 30 years then the gallery has presented a series of exhibitions and publications, breaking new ground in the fields of medieval sculpture, stained glass, works of art, illuminated manuscripts, Ethiopian and Armenian Art, Islamic manuscripts and calligraphy and Indian paintings.
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French bronzes in the wallace collection
Robert/ Wenley
- Paul Holberton
- 12 Décembre 2012
- 9780900785788
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The Discovery of Paris charts the remarkable contribution of the British to the iconography of the French capital. Paris had been painted many times before, but never more beautifully than by 19th-century British artists, and very rarely by artists of such high standing in their own countries. There are many similarities between some of their views and those painted later by the Impressionists. Their styles also varied widely, from the crystalline precision of Thomas Shotter Boys, whose superb watercolours will be some of the stars of the show, to the incomparable verve of Turner at his most intense.
With the ending of many years of war, first with the Peace of Amiens of 1802-03 and then after the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, Paris became an irresistible attraction for thousands of British tourists, among whom were many painters. Before the French wars, the city had been an important early stop on the Grand Tour, and it quickly re-assumed its key position. As steam-powered transport became available, the Grand Tour, and Paris, in particular, became increasingly popular for the middle classes, as well as the aristocracy. British artists lived in the city and both fuelled and responded to this demand. There was an unprecedented interest in views of Paris, and artists, from the obscure, such as Robert Batty and John Gendall, to the eminent, such as Turner, Bonnington and David Cox, responded to this excitement with an extraordinary range of works, from simple pencil views to the most elaborate watercolours, some for sale and exhibition, but many also for engraving as illustrations in guides and souvenir publications.
Accompanying an exhibition at the Wallace Collection, this in-depth and beautifully illustrated catalogue of 70 rarely seen works (from Tate, the V&A, the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam, amongst others) is introduced with an essay by Wallace curator Stephen Duffy. He begins with an examination of watercolour in Britain in the first half of 19th century, when it enjoyed unprecedented popularity and prestige, and the tradition of urban view painting extending back to the 17th century. British attitudes to Paris, and the differing emphasis and omissions made by artists in their depictions of the city are then discussed. Finally, Duffy looks at Paris in the aftermath of this wave, in the second half of the century, when the most arresting views of this fast-changing city were to be found in photographs and in a variety of other media, very largely in works by native artists - notably Manet and the Impressionists. Earlier in the century, however, when Paris was also changing but at a slower pace, it had been those curious neighbours from across the Channel who had produced some of the finest and most memorable paintings of the city, and in a medium which they claimed as peculiarly their own.
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Magnificent marble statues ; british sculpture in the mansion house
Julius Bryant
- Paul Holberton
- 7 Novembre 2013
- 9781907372551
The Mansion House, the palatial city residence of the Lord Mayor of London, is home to one of the capital's finest collections of British sculpture from the 18th and 19th centuries. Forming part of the spectacular setting for official functions, as well as the background to busy offices and the home of the Lord Mayor and his family, the sculpture ranges from handsome chimneypieces and elaborate stuccowork wall decorations to heroic single statues of figures from British literature and history.
Described by the architectural historian Nicolaus Pevsner as "magnificent marble statues", the sculptures are almost unknown to the general public.
Their significance, however, is much greater than as an example of the changing fortunes of Victorian sculpture and of the fluctuating attitudes of the Corporation of London to art patronage. Taken as a whole, the sheer range and variety is exceptional. After the monuments in Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral and the galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Mansion House presents the most extensive permanent exhibition of British sculpture in London. It differs from these rival collections in the range of its sculpture, from Palladian chimneypieces carved by City stonemasons and virtuoso Rococo plasterwork by anonymous stuccadors to heroic ideal statues made to rival the greatest works from antiquity and the Renaissance.
The time has come for a fresh appreciation of these "magnificent marble statues". The first book on the sculpture ever published, this beautifully illustrated study reveals the subjects of the sculptures, the stories behind the commissions and the importance of the artists themselves. New photography highlights the qualities of the individual sculptures in their historic settings.
A unique insight to the challenges and delights of living, working and raising a family in Mansion House is given in an introductory essay by the Lady Mayoress, Clare Gifford. The sculptures and architecture are described by Julius Bryant, Keeper of Word and Image at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This beautifully produced new handbook provides a companion volume to The Harold Samuel Collection, Dutch and Flemish Pictures at the Mansion House (Paul Holberton Publishing, 2012) by Michael Hall and Clare Gifford.
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Richard Serra ; drawings for the Courtauld
Barnaby Wright
- Paul Holberton
- 7 Novembre 2013
- 9781907372643
Richard Serra is one of the most important and revered artists working today.
Rising to prominence on the New York art scene more than forty years ago, Serra (born 1939) is now celebrated internationally for his unprecedented monumental steel sculptures and for his radical approach to drawing. Richard Serra: Drawings for the Courtauld accompanies the fi rst museum exhibition of Serra's most recent drawings, which mark an exciting new departure for the artist. Made using thick black pigment applied to both sides of a clear plastic sheet, these drawings, which he calls 'transparencies', are extraordinary objects that challenge preconceptions of what constitutes a drawing.
For Serra, drawing has always been an essential way of exploring new creative impulses, materials and working methods. His consistent ambition has been to make discoveries through the process of drawing itself, rather than to execute preconceived ideas. To this end, about two years ago Serra developed the innovative technique by which his 'Drawings for the Courtauld' are made. The forms that emerge are monumental: spiralling, circular or rectangular, they convey a sculptural sense of weight and balance. They also confront basic assumptions about drawing.
Our perceptions of front and back, surface and depth, and most importantly the distinction between the drawn design and the material it is made from, are all challenged by these works.
Serra has long admired The Courtauld Gallery's collection and it is particularly fi tting that these radical new works should be shown for the fi rst time at a museum with such a renowned and rich historical collection of drawings. But it is one of the Courtauld's great paintings, Cézanne's Still Life with Plaster Cupid, c. 1894, which has been a major touchstone for Serra throughout his career. The way Cézanne pushed the boundaries of perspective and space in the painting threw down a challenge for the young Serra that continues to drive him. "I looked at that painting and the hair on the back of my neck stood up," Serra recalled recently. "You realize that someone has extended their vision in such a way that if you are going to make any contribution at all, you have to break new ground." Serra's 'Drawings for the Courtauld' are the latest expression of this life-long pursuit.
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Paths to reform ; things new and old
Sandra Hindman, Laura Light, David Lyle jeffrey
- Paul Holberton
- 1 Mai 2013
- 9780983854654
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Court and craft ; a masterpiece from northern Iraq
Collectif
- Paul Holberton
- 1 Février 2014
- 9781907372650
Accompanying a major scholarly exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, this book explores one of the most beautiful and enigmatic objects in The Courtauld's collection: the so-called 'Courtauld wallet', a brass container richly inlaid with gold and silver, imitating a lady's textile or leather bag, and probably made in Mosul in northern Iraq around 1300.
No other object of this kind is known. Decorated all round with courtly figures and on the top with an elaborate banqueting scene featuring an enthroned couple, it has long been recognised as a masterpiece of Arab metalwork. Yet, despite the superb quality of its design and craftsmanship and its status as a unique object, this exceptional metalwork bag has never been properly published. Thus it remains little known outside a small circle of specialists, and little understood even within that circle.
Encompassing a variety of multidisciplinary essays by distinguished historians and art historians - on subjects ranging from music at the Mongol court, Mosul under Mongol governorship and Mongol marriage customs to the role of women under the Ilkhanids -this publication aims to explore the origins, function and iconography of this splendid luxury object as well as the cultural context in which it was made and used. It will bring together other images of enthroned Mongols with female consorts, as well as scenes of hunters, revellers and musicians in a variety of media, including illustrated manuscripts, ceramics, textile, and metalwork.
By presenting the bag alongside carefully selected contemporary material, it will provide an insight into courtly life under the Mongols in the newly conquered areas of their empire, and will also provide an unrivalled opportunity to investigate the inlaid brass tradition in Mosul after the Mongol Conquest. Objects made before and after this seismic event will be reproduced side by side to demonstrate how the Mosul metalworkers adapted their work for their new patrons.
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Prized possessions : dutch paintings from national trust houses
Quentin Buvelot, David Taylor
- Paul Holberton
- 29 Mars 2018
- 9789113002439
This catalogue will be published to accompany the fi rst ever exhibition of Golden Age Dutch pictures in the collection of the National Trust, which will be shown at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, the Holburne Museum in Bath and at Petworth House in West Sussex (2018-19).
Celebrating the enduring British taste for collecting Dutch paintings from the long seventeenth century, the publication will explore why and how this particular type of art was desired, commissioned and displayed through the consideration of masterpieces from a number of National Trust houses. It will feature portraits, still lifes, religious pictures, maritime paintings, landscapes, genre paintings and history pictures, painted by celebrated artists such as Rembrandt, Lievens, Hobbema, Cuyp, Hondecoeter, De Heem, Ter Borch and Metsu, as well as less well-known artists such as De Baen and Van Diest. With over 350 heritage properties in the UK, the National Trust cares for one of the world's largest and most signifi cant holdings of art and its collection of Dutch Old Masters is particularly impressive.
The catalogue will include essays by Quentin Buvelot (chief curator at the Mauritshuis) and David Taylor (curator of pictures and s culpture at the National Trust). The authors will also discuss other aspects of the infl uence of Dutch culture in British country houses (using National Trust examples) - on furniture, garden design and print and ceramics collecting.
