Fine Art Connoisseur Jul/Aug 2015

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), Roman Soldier, 1720-22, brush and red chalk wash, over black chalk, on paper, 10 3/8 x 7 1/8 in., Princeton University Art Museum, Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895. On view through August 24 at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center in the exhibition 500 Years of Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum. For details, visit museum.stanford.edu. Tiepolo ... is full of spirit ... of an infinite fire, an astonishing coloring, and an amazing speed. He paints a picture in less time than it takes another to grind his colors.— Count Carl Gustaf Tessin (1695-1770), writing to the King of Sweden, Adolf Frederick…

“How can I know what’s good?” asks my friend, who has recently grown fascinated by the idea of collecting art. “I know what I like, but what if it isn’t good?” His question stirs a valid debate, because each collector has distinct objectives. For most, there is the passion for art and the need to be surrounded by it. For others, it’s about filling their homes with pieces that impress visitors. Still others want a hedge against inflation, something that rises in value as currency falls. In all these cases, the best thing a collector can acquire is the ability to assess an artwork’s quality. Today I shudder to recall what I loved at age 20, and I’m thankful I did not get it tattooed on my arm, because my…

Completely by chance, we picked the perfect moment to highlight sculpture in this summer issue. In May, Christie’s New York sold what is (as far as anyone knows) the most expensive sculpture ever. The Connecticut-based hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen paid $141.3 million for Man Pointing, a life-size bronze made in 1947 by the Swiss master Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966). This is a breathtaking price in any regard, especially when you consider that Giacometti made six casts of this subject, plus his artist’s proof. In other words, Mr. Cohen’s new possession is not unique, yet it brought a huge price not only because Giacometti is revered, but also because his best works have become blue-chip investment assets, as reliable as a vault of gold or a penthouse on Park Avenue.…

Whether their day was spent hunting or weaving, repitching the teepee or grooming the horse, Indians of the Montana prairie regarded evening as a time to rest, talk, and take in the sunset over a seemingly infinite expanse. “In this scene, Maynard Dixon captured the vibrant pinks, greens, and blues of that hour,” says Mike Overby, a managing partner of Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, which is featuring this gouache on paper in its July 25 sale in Reno. “This is a rare work for Dixon, who usually painted Southwestern scenes,” he adds. “He packs so much into this piece — a horse, figures, the teepee, fireweed in the grass, a lot of sky. It’s as strong an image of his as I’ve ever seen — and we’ve sold hundreds of…

Every summer, Kenneth Jay Lane says goodbye to one of his favorite people. But this handsome, mustached, and elaborately garbed man, a bashibazouk (mercenary fighter in 19th-century Ottoman Turkey’s army), doesn’t venture far from Lane’s opulent Park Avenue apartment, which could easily charm a sultan. “In the summers, I loan Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Bashi-Bazouk to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he takes his place next to the other great example of such fighters, another Gérôme given to the museum by Jayne Wrightsman.” There the two figures reside for the season, each wearing, ironically, the same coiled headgear and similarly enigmatic expression, until Lane returns from his summer travels. Though he made his reputation designing faux jewels worn by such glittering personalities as the Duchess of Windsor, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Vreeland,…

CHRISTOPHER POTHIER (B. 1973) grew up just north of Boston, in a house where stories were told well, especially by his mother. He inherited that impulse and headed to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to study philosophy, which itself tells the story of why humans do what they do. There, however, Pothier discovered painting, which better enabled him to convey his own stories. He was mentored by William Patterson, whose devotion to Old Masterly techniques equipped Pothier to plan and execute oil paintings on panel with fine brushes. Having earned his B.F.A., Pothier dabbled with construction work before committing to art full-time. Though he has made murals and still accepts commissions, now he focuses on painting easel-sized pictures and on teaching art; with his wife and three sons,…