Restored Rubens masterpiece goes back on public view at The Courtauld Gallery

LONDON.- The newly-conserved masterpiece Cain Slaying Abel by Sir Peter Paul Rubens went back on public display at The Courtauld Gallery, today. The magnificent painting, widely considered to be one of the most important in the Gallery’s world-class collection of works by Rubens, has been restored as part of the Bank of America Art Conservation Project which was launched in 2010. The Flemish master Rubens (1577-1640) was one of the most exciting and explosive artistic talents of early modern Europe . His [...]

Over half the United Kingdom’s collection of paintings now online in Your Paintings

LONDON.- Your Paintings is the first national online museum of all publicly owned oil paintings in the UK. It was launched in June of this year (2011) by the Public Catalogue Foundation and the BBC. It has been announced that a further 40,000 paintings have been uploaded to the site since the launch, taking the total to 104,000 paintings, over half the national collection. Among the latest painting images uploaded to the site are works by Thomas Brooks (RNLI Grace Darling Museum, [...]

Magnificent Vision: two centuries of European masterworks from the Speed Art Museum

TULSA, OK.- After two exhibitions focusing primarily on work from 20th century America, Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art makes a dramatic shift in both time and setting. For the Museum’s final and biggest show of the year, the Museum is taking a look back at Europe in the 17th and 18th-centuries. Magnificent Vision: Two Centuries of European Masterworks from the Speed Art Museum features more than 70 major works by the likes of Rembrandt, Rubens, Tiepolo, and Gainsborough. Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640),The [...]

Masterpieces by the giants of the Antwerp School on view at the Hermitage Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM.- From 17 September 2011 to 16 March 2012, the Hermitage Amsterdam will present a stunning selection from the Flemish art collection of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. With 75 paintings and about 20 drawings, this definitive survey will include numerous masterpieces by the three giants of the Antwerp School – Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens – accompanied by the work of well-known contemporaries. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) will be a special focus of the exhibition, represented by 17 [...]

Greece: Authorities say Couple who had Peter Paul Rubens stolen work were ‘amateurs’

ATHENS (AP).- A leading Greek art expert has described two suspects who received a stolen 17th century artwork and were then arrested when they left the museum label on the back as “amateurs.” The painting — one of several versions of “The Calydonian Boar Hunt” by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens — was stolen in Belgium a decade ago and recovered in Athens in a Sept. 1 police raid. A cameraman records at the National Gallery a stolen 17th-century Pieter Paul [...]

Bank of America Art Conservation Project To Restore Global Cultural Treasures in 2011

LONDON.- Bank of America Merrill Lynch has today announced that its 2011 Art Conservation Project is open for applications from arts and cultural institutions. Following the success of the inaugural 2010 project that was launched in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, this major initiative will provide grants to restore cherished art works in order to preserve their cultural value for future generations. Applications are welcome from non-profit cultural institutions across EMEA, the U.S. and Asia Pacific. The [...]

Christie’s Backs Stubbs to Join Old Masters Elite, Painting Expected to Fetch $33 Million

LONDON (REUTERS).- Christie’s will offer a George Stubbs horse painting for sale in London on July 5 and expects it to make more than 20 million pounds ($33 million), potentially putting it in the Old Masters auction elite. “Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath, with a Trainer, a Stable-Lad, and a Jockey” was painted by Stubbs, renowned for his anatomically precise portrayals of horses, in 1765, and is described by the auctioneer as “a true masterpiece.” It depicts Gimcrack, one of the [...]

Newly-Discovered Works to Lead Sotheby’s Sale of Old Master Drawings in New York

NEW YORK, NY.- Three major discoveries will lead Sotheby’s sale of Old Master drawings in New York on 26 January 2011: a newly discovered drawing by Sir Peter Paul Rubens; and two exceptionally rare composition studies by Rembrandt van Rijn and Perino del Vaga, neither seen by scholars since the early 20th century. The discovery of Rubens’s Venus nursing Cupids adds an important and beautiful work to the artist’s oeuvre that has long eluded scholars and collectors (est. $500/800,000). Rembrandt’s [...]

Gemäldegalerie Celebrates 400th Anniversary of Caravaggio’s Death with Exhibition

BERLIN.- Two paintings by Caravaggio can be found in German collections: the Gemäldegalerie‘s ‘Amor Vincit Omnia’ (or ‘Amor Victorious’) and ‘Doubting Thomas’ in the Picture Gallery at Schloss Sanssouci. Both paintings were created for the marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani and were brought to Berlin when the Giustiniani collection was acquired in 1815. The 400th anniversary of Caravaggio’s death is good cause to place these two works on show together. Thanks to the loan of ‘Doubting Thomas’ by the Prussian Palaces and [...]

The Prado Offers a Clear Appreciation of the Evolution of Rubens’ Style in New Exhibition

MADRID.- The Museum’s Rubens galleries are temporarily closed for re-modelling as part of the Prado’s “Second Extension” plan. As a result, and over the course of more than two months, the Museum is inviting the public to enter into the vibrant artistic universe of this great and highly prolific Flemish painter through an innovative type of display of its important holdings of autograph works by Rubens and works by his studio. In addition, it is the first time for a decade [...]

Hungarian Artists Alongside Greats in London Show at Royal Academy

LONDON (REUTERS).- Hungarian artists hang alongside some of Europe’s greatest painters in a new blockbuster exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts put together at the 11th hour after the original show fell through. “Treasures from Budapest: European Masters from Leonardo to Schiele” opens on Friday and features around 230 works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest and Hungarian National Gallery. The London exhibition was scrambled together in only a few months when a show featuring treasures from the [...]

Oberlin’s Masterworks at the Phillips Collection

WASHINGTON, DC.- Twenty-five old master and modern works from the Allen Memorial Art Museum are juxtaposed with works from The Phillips Collection, underscoring the relationship of art through the ages and Duncan Phillips’s belief in “the antiquity of modern ideas… the modernity of some of the old masters.” Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640), The Finding of Erichthonius, 1632-33. Oil on canvas. R. T. Miller Jr. Fund, 1944 Paintings by Erhard Altdorfer, the Cavaliere d’Arpino, Cézanne, Monet, Picasso, Kirchner, Rothko, Barnett [...]

Scottish Government: Titian’s Diana and Actaeon Draws in Crowds

DUNDEE.- More than 140,000 people have seen Titian’s Diana and Actaeon since the painting’s tour of Scotland commenced in May this year. The 16th century masterpiece is currently on display at the recently refurbished The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum, where it was viewed by almost 2,500 people during the exhibition’s opening weekend. The painting has already been on show in Glasgow and Aberdeen in celebration of the first anniversary of its acquisition for the nation. Culture Minister Fiona [...]

Works of Art from the Spencer Collections Realise $32 Million at Christie’s

LONDON.- Christie’s offered a selection of works from the Spencer Collections this week at their London salerooms. The auctions realised a total of £21,076,288 / $31,989,353 / €25,360,494. The top price was paid for A Commander being armed for Battle by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) which sold for £9,001,250 / $13,663,898 / €10,846,506 at the evening auction of Old Master & 19th Century Art on 6 July. The Trustees of Althorp Estate: “For the sales this week we carefully [...]

Rubens painting found in a rubbish bag

Mr Ten Vergert identified it as a canvas by the 16th century painter Peter Paul Rubens. It is estimated to be worth around 70 million euros. The painting was one of ten valuable works removed from Sanssouci Castle in Berlin at the end of the World War II to prevent them falling into the hands of the Russians. The Dutch art dealer was paid a finder’s fee for his discovery and the paintings are now back in the castle.

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