Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2025 i Fine Art Connoisseur

When I was a child, an antique sepia-toned print of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun's Self-Portrait with Her Daughter Julie (1789) graced a wall in my maternal grandparents’ home. I used to stare at that image whenever we visited. I had always loved it, yet I did not realize how much it had impacted me until I found that dusty old print in storage, years after my grandparents’ deaths. Today it remains one of my most precious keepsakes, and naturally the original painting impressed me deeply when I stumbled upon it at the Louvre, hanging among some of the world's finest artworks. I still honestly believe that Vigée Le Brun's remarkable creation contributed significantly to my abiding love for art. Years later, when I was studying painting, my mentor encouraged me…

The eyes are set somewhere between wary and defiant. There's a muted tension in the torso, as if this man might suddenly rise. Painted in 1943, when his career still lay ahead of him, the self-portrait by John Wilson (1922–2015) reads unmistakably as an assertion. And if there is a hint of uncertainty in his expression, no wonder. As an artist and second-class citizen in pre-Civil Rights America, this Boston-born son of Guyanese immigrants had his work cut out for him. As he later told The Boston Globe, recalling early visits to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), “The subject matter of those works seemed to reflect the attitude of the official world around me at that time: namely, that Black people and their special experience were irrelevant and…

You may think of Bank of America as a financial institution like any other, a place where customers deposit, withdraw, and borrow money, and that certainly does happen. But the bank has also immersed itself deeply in the visual arts as a benefactor, collector, curator, and adviser. For starters, officers in the private banking department work with their collector-clients to buy, donate, and bequeath artworks, as well as secure loans collateralized by their art. And the bank makes free general admission to museums nationwide available to clients who carry its cards. More? Bank of America (“BofA”) has assembled a corporate collection of more than 30,000 artworks (mostly paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs) that it loans to museums regularly and displays in in many of its offices around the world. It…

It's surprising that the fascinating history of Poland — with all of its triumphs and tragedies – is relatively unfamiliar in the U.S. when one considers how many Poles have immigrated here over the past 150 years. Once a mighty power, Poland lost its independence in 1795 after being partitioned among three rivals: the Habsburg monarchy, the kingdom of Prussia, and the Russian empire. It regained its autonomy in 1918 when World War I ended. The first 20 years of modern nationhood were fraught, but by the time Poland opened its own pavilion at the New York World's Fair in May 1939, things looked more promising. Within four months, however, Poland was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union, and its people suffered terribly during World War II and its…

ONGOING FROM 2024 Through February 23: Dutch Impressionism: The Hague School, 1860-1930; Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College Through April 13: American Backcourts — Rob Hamer, Western Spirit/Scottsdale's Museum of the West Through April 27: Sled Dogs in America: Alaska and Beyond — Veryl Goodnight, Western Spirit/Scottsdale's Museum of the West September 2024–May 2025: Realism Now / MEAM Show 2024; MEAM, Barcelona Through October 25: People, Places, Predicaments: John Clymer's West, Western Spirit/Scottsdale's Museum of the West November 16, 2024–June 15: The Art of Work: Painting Labor in 19th-Century Denmark, The Bruce Museum Through November 2025: Courage and Crossroads: A Visual Journey Through the Early American West: Selections from the eterson Collection, Western Spirit/Scottsdale's Museum of the West Through December 14: A Fistful of Colors, Western Spirit/Scottsdale's Museum of the West…

One of the first things the California-based landscape painter Jesse Powell (b. 1977) will tell you is that he is fortunate. And it is with gratitude that he acknowledges those who lit candles all along his path to becoming an artist, starting with his father, who had followed his own father into the business. “My father has been a full-time artist for more than 55 years,” Powell says of his 94-year-old dad, John Powell (b. 1930), a still life painter whose studio was basically where Jesse grew up. “And my grandfather Jack Powell (1892–1969) was a portrait and landscape painter in Pasadena. So I have several generations of artists behind me.” Though his grandfather died before Powell was born, he says the elder painter passed down a deep respect for…

At first glance, the art and career of Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855–1919) suggest the conventional trope of the privileged American-born artist living abroad, yet a closer look defies that stereotype in several respects. From our contemporary vantage, Stewart was a product of his era and circumstance who epitomizes Belle Époque France — an American artist living in Paris within an intellectual elite and affluent social setting. His life unfolded against the backdrop of major transformations in European society and industrialization that brought about both economic prosperity and an artistic golden age, in which Stewart actively participated. The son of a sugar magnate who was an art collector, Stewart spent most of his life in France, having relocated there from Philadelphia with his family when he was 10 years old. Over…

ART WITH ATMOSPHERE DAWN & DUSK: TONALISM IN CONNECTICUT Fairfield University Art Museum Fairfield, Connecticut fairfield.edu/museum January 17–April 12 Given its location in southern Connecticut, it's appropriate that the Fairfield University Art Museum has organized the exhibition Dawn & Dusk: Tonalism in Connecticut. It explores the development of the tonalist style in American landscape painting from the 1870s — a movement that reacted against the Hudson River School's narrative of God-ordained grandeur and luminous, crystalline views by instead foregrounding humanity's spiritual connection to nature, often painted from memory and informed by the traumas of civil war and industrialization. Drawn from private and public collections, the show's 70 works range in date from 1878 to 1917, painted by 24 artists clustered primarily in and around New York and Boston. The title (Dawn…

THE TOAST OF DENVER COORS WESTERN ART EXHIBIT & SALE Denver coorswesternart.com January 6–7 Featuring more than 80 artists from across America, the 32nd annual Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale will again tempt collectors with an eclectic mix of contemporary artworks capturing the Western way of life. The participating artists include Bill Anton, Teal Blake, Nocona Burgess, Shawn Cameron, Jill Carver, G. Russell Case, S.M. Chavez, Scott Christensen, Sushe Felix, Danny Galieote, Whitney Gardner, Starr Hardridge, Quang Ho, Jennifer Johnson, Greg Kelsey, Amy Lay, William Matthews, Jim Morgan, Ken Peloke, Billy Schenck, Matt Smith, Joshua Tobey, Jeremy Winborg, Star York, and Dennis Ziemienski. This year's featured artist is Duke Beardsley. The curator, Kate Hlavin, notes that Beardsley is a longtime veteran of the show and adds, “As a native…

WESTERN SPIRIT/SCOTTSDALE'S MUSEUM OF THE WEST ONGOING EXHIBITIONS: Dazzling Array: the Richard A. Gates Native American Jewelry Collection Canvas of Clay: Hopi Pottery Masterworks from the Allan and Judith Cooke Collection Collecting Stories: John Coleman Bronzes from the Collection of Frankie and Howard Alper The Abe Hays Family Spirit of the West Collection Christine and Ted Mollring Sculpture Garden Silver Parade Saddle CURRENT EXHIBITIONS: Through April 13: American Backcourts — Rob Hamer Through April 27: Sled Dogs in America: Alaska and Beyond — Veryl Goodnight Through October 25: People, Places, Predicaments: John Clymer's Through November 2025: Courage and Crossroads: A Visual Journey Through the Early American West: Selections from the eterson Collection Through December 14: A Fistful of Colors MUSKEGON MUSEUM OF ART February: Museum Expansion Opening. Doubling the size of…

Sarah Bracey White recognizes the natural beauty of cotton fields while acknowledging the complicated history they represent. As a Black girl growing up in Sumter, South Carolina, during the latter years of Jim Crow, she was well aware of the cotton fields that spread beyond the town's boundaries. Her mother, who taught in segregated public schools, often needed extra money to raise her five children. “After school, my two older sisters would sometimes pick cotton to make money for my mother,” says White, a noted memoirist, arts consultant, and former librarian who now lives in New York's Westchester County. “When I was old enough to do so, my mother said, ‘No, you're not picking cotton.’ Because I'm familiar with cotton fields, the moment I saw this painting, I was struck.”…

Most of us eat at a table three times per day, and we use or see tables all day long: coffee tables, bedside tables, check-in tables, and more. It makes perfect sense, then, that many artists regularly turn their attention to what rests on top of a table: of course it could be a still life “set-up,” but it could also be the glinting glassware on a restaurant's corner table, or a child's sippy cup resting on the kitchen table. Regardless, our team has really enjoyed discovering the many ways artists tackle this feature of life that is so familiar we almost forget to think about it. We congratulate them on their fresh perspectives, and we invite you to send us comparable images that you admire. MAX GILLIES is a…

Last year a conservation treatment of the painting Lamentation of Christ, which had been much altered by prior interventions, revealed that it was signed and dated Jusepe de Ribera / Español / 1644, bringing to light a hitherto lost work by this Spanish master (1591–1652).1 The Ribera painting's whereabouts were unknown in 1903 when it was first published by the French critic Henri Frantz,2 who quoted observations made about it in 1850 by Camillo Guerra, a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Naples.3 At the end of a precise description of the painting, Guerra mentioned that it was signed and dated “1644,” which, in fact, appeared once layers of overpainting and discolored varnish were removed recently. Furthermore, Frantz wrote that Matteo Schilizzi, a banker living in Naples,…

Editor's Note: The artist William A. (“Bill”) Suys, Jr., is a longtime friend of Fine Art Connoisseur. Recently he alerted us to a fascinating painting he made two decades ago, Self-Thoughtrait, which contains the text you see below. He recalls, “I decided to include the blank canvas in my composition. As I began painting, I was filled with an array of thoughts and feelings while the blank area was also calling for attention, so I decided to include an essay as an integral part of the self-portrait. I built the frame with a piano hinge and mirror so that people can read the copy when viewing the piece in person.” Bill not only wrote these wise words to convey his personal take on artistry, he also painted them backward so they…

ARTISTS & GALLERIES New York City hirschlandadler.com January 9–February 21 Hirschl & Adler Galleries is presenting the exhibition Winold Reiss and the New American Portrait. This German American artist (1886–1953) created hundreds of portraits that evoke the spirit of his sitters, offering a unique mix of innovative design and uncanny psychological depth. During the 1920s and '30s, Reiss depicted fascinating individuals active in the Harlem Renaissance, Mexican revolutionaries, Native Americans, artists, fashion models, and other cultural icons. New York City salmagundi.org January 7–24 The Salmagundi Club has been presenting its annual Black and White Exhibition since 1878, and this year is no exception. The juried show of club members’ art features not only drawings and prints, but also subtly toned photographs, paintings, and sculpture. AUCTIONS & FAIRS Brussels brafa.art January…