Fine Art Connoisseur Jan/Feb 2015

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), Paestum, Italy: exterIor of the BasIlIca, c. 1777-78, Pencil, Brown and Gray washes, and Pen and ink on PaPer, 18 3/4 x 27 1/8 in., sir John soane’s MuseuM, london; sM P71; on view in the exhiBition PIranesI and the temPles of Paestum: DrawIngs from sIr John soane’s museum at new york city’s MorGan liBrary & MuseuM (theMorGan.orG) January 23-May 17; for details, see PaGe 106. Around [Piranesi’s] work is the indescribable air of intimate friendship with the antique; he found it more difficult to be modern than to be ancient....– Arthur Samuel, 1910…

About 12 years ago, I became enamored with the art emanating from 20-year-old students who passionately drew sculptural casts, copied the 19th-century lithographic plates of Charles Bargue, and utilized techniques established 500 years before. Like the modernists just over a century ago, these youngsters were considered outcasts by the art establishment. Why? Because they were bucking postmodernist trends and returning to recognizable, well-executed imagery. My hunch was that they represented art’s future, as I recalled Andy Warhol’s prediction that “the course of art history would be changed if one thousand students could be taught Old Master drawing and painting techniques.” Around 2003, I could find only a few masters teaching these techniques, including Jacob Collins in New York, Richard Lack in Minneapolis, and Daniel Graves, Charles Cecil, and Michael John…

There has always been something compelling about the American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Even now, when the public’s interest in 19th-century art has ebbed in favor of the contemporary, Whistler is riding a new wave of popularity, celebrated for his own achievements and cited by artists and designers as an ongoing source of inspiration. Why and how has this come to pass? For one thing, Whistler was a global citizen before that term was coined. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, to the pious mother later painted so famously in her white bonnet, he grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, where his father worked as a railroad engineer. After an uncomfortable stay at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, young Whistler found his groove studying art in bohemian Paris. In…

Until modern times, inbred prejudice, ignorance, and complacency obscured the talents of women in almost every field of activity. The Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1651/53) became the first female recognized for contributing profoundly to the art of her time. However, more than 200 years would pass before American women were acknowledged as being able to compete with or outperform their male peers.1 The wealthy expatriate Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was the first American woman widely accepted as an equal. In 1866, she left the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and sailed for Paris to study. At the Salon of 1872, her canvas On the Balcony (now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art) caught the eye of Edgar Degas. Although it was considered improper for women to fraternize publicly with men…

On view through March 8 at Southern California’s Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) is an intriguing exhibition that helps visitors rethink a seemingly familiar theme, even as they enjoy unprecedented access to the private collection from which the museum has borrowed. NAKED: 20th Century Nudes from the Dijkstra Collection is the second exhibition the OMA has mounted as part of the Collectors Initiative it launched in 2012. The owners are San Diego residents Bram and Sandra Dijkstra, who have generously loaned 59 paintings, drawings, and photographs acquired over three decades. Though the female form predominates, a few male bodies are visible, too. In addition to those whose works are illustrated here, the checklist includes a rich array of artists, many of whom were (or are) Californian and widely known: James…

Most of the collectors highlighted in this issue of Fine Art Connoisseur have acquired their artworks over time. At a certain point, many have awakened to the fact that they own what other people call “a collection.” Inspiring as their stories are, there is also much to be admired when an individual commissions new works from a group of talented artists in his or her own region — with all of the resulting works adorning a space dedicated to a specific theme. This is exactly what happened when George and Donna Webb set out to honor and celebrate the people, wildlife, landscapes, and history of Maryland’s scenic Chesapeake Bay region. Flat as a pancake, Maryland’s Eastern Shore is all about the intersection of land and water; the bay and its…