Tag Archives: Goya

From the Bowes to the Wallace

El Greco to Goya – Spanish Masterpieces from The Bowes Museum, The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, W1, until 7th January 2018

Jose Antolinez
The Immaculate Conception, 1650-75
Credit @ The Bowes Museum

While we usually think of the Wallace Collection as a haven of French 18th century art and taste it is of course much more than that as its works by Murillo and Velazquez testify. It is therefore appropriate that this group of Spanish paintings, spanning three centuries, should come on loan from the Bowes Museum in County Durham and mark the start of a partnership between these two remarkable places. The museums have similar origins as they are both the gifts of illegitimate sons of aristocratic fathers to the British nation.

Francisco Jose Goya
Interior of a Prison, 1793-94
Credit @ The Bowes Museum

Xavier Bray, Director of the host museum says: “El Greco to Goya is not only an unprecedented opportunity to see Spanish art of extraordinary power and significance in London, but also the beginning of an exciting relationship between the Wallace Collection and The Bowes Museum. Both institutions share a commitment to making great art accessible to wider audiences and we are looking forward to working closely together to develop a long term connection between London and the North East.”

Domenikos Theotokopoulos ‘El Greco’
The Tears of St Peter, 1580-89
Credit @ The Bowes Museum

His counterpart at the Bowes Museum, Adrian Jenkins, says: “In 1892, when The Bowes Museum first opened its doors to the public, it had the largest public collection of Spanish paintings in the UK. As we mark 125 years since the creation of the museum, it is highly appropriate that the key works from this collection should be shared with London audiences, in keeping with John and Joséphine Bowes’ belief that great art should be made accessible to all. Neither John nor Joséphine Bowes survived to realise their vision, and they would be delighted to think that the best of their acquisitions would be shown at the Wallace Collection during this anniversary year, recognising that their gift to the people of County Durham is also a gift to the nation.”

Well worth a peek!

Antonio Pereda y Salgado
Tobias Restoring his Father’s Sight, 1652
Credit @ The Bowes Museum

wallacecollection.org / @WallaceMuseum / #ElGrecotoGoya

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga Requests The Pleasure of Your Company

GOYA: THE PORTRAITS, The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2, until 10thJanuary 2016

One of the pictures in this show is well-known to me through my interest in interior decoration.  It is the famous portrait of Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga, who in this exhibition is reunited with Goya’s portraits of his father and mother and sister.

Francisco de Goya Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga 1788 Oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 (49.7.41) © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Francisco de Goya
Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga
1788
Oil on canvas
127 x 101.6 cm
Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 (49.7.41)
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The portrait was bought from the famed art dealer Joseph Duveen by the American banker Jules S Bache in 1926 and it is believed that his daughter Kathryn was the driving force behind this purchase.  The latter was better known as Kitty Miller, wife of the renowned theatre producer Gilbert Miller, and she employed the noted designer Billy Baldwin to decorate their homes in New York, London and Mallorca.

It is her New York home that is the focus of this story for when Bache donated his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1949 there was a specific condition and that was that the picture could hang in Kitty’s drawing room for half the year.  In his book Billy Baldwin Remembers Baldwin recalls that when the painting was first hung in the drawing room the Millers sent out cocktail party invitations to New York society to come and meet Don Manuel Osorio de Zuñiga. So each year it hung there to Kitty’s great delight until her death in 1979, although in Legendary Decorators of the 20th Century, the famous interior decorator Mark Hampton says that “As she grew older, it became annually more difficult for the Met to get the painting back”.

Well, one can totally understand why she had such affection for this painting and now it is our turn to go and meet him.  While there are no cocktails being served there is the delicious treat of seeing more than sixty of Goya’s remarkable portraits.  It is such a good show you will most likely want to visit more than once – just like visiting the Miller’s!

 

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk

 

The Courtauld Gallery

GOYA: THE WITCHES AND OLD WOMEN ALBUM, The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2, until 25 May 2015

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) Pesadilla (Nightmare) 'Black Border' Album (E), page 20 c. 1816-20 Brush, black ink with wash and scraping 364 x 181 mm New York, The Morgan Library & Museum, 1959.13

Francisco Goya (1746-1828)
Pesadilla (Nightmare)
‘Black Border’ Album (E), page 20
c. 1816-20
Brush, black ink with wash and scraping
364 x 181 mm
New York, The Morgan Library & Museum, 1959.13

This is a very special exhibition as it brings together all the known surviving drawings from one of Francisco Goya’s (1746 – 1828) private albums. It allows us to see his interpretations and thoughts on human nature, madness, mortality, superstitions and nightmares whether they be humorous or grotesque.

Francisco de Goya (1746- 1828) Bajan riñendo, (They descend quarrelling) 'Witches and Old Women' Album (D), page 1 c. 1819-23 Brush, black and grey ink 235 x 143 mm Private Collection

Francisco de Goya (1746- 1828)
Bajan riñendo, (They descend quarrelling)
‘Witches and Old Women’ Album (D), page 1
c. 1819-23
Brush, black and grey ink
235 x 143 mm
Private Collection

These albums, there were eight in all, were created after a near-fatal illness at the age of fifty which left him deaf.  Even though he continued as the Spanish court painter his life and work changed after this.  The albums were never meant to be seen outside a small group of friends and so as one might expect they have a greater freedom of expression.

Francisco Goya, (1746- 1828) El sueno de la razon produce monstruos (The sleep of reason produces monsters) 'Los Caprichos' 43, in the Cean Bermudez trial (first edition) set, 1799 c. 1797-98 Etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin 217 x 153 mm London, The British Museum, 1975,1025.420.48

Francisco Goya, (1746- 1828)
El sueno de la razon produce monstruos (The sleep of reason produces monsters)
‘Los Caprichos’ 43, in the Cean Bermudez trial (first edition) set, 1799
c. 1797-98
Etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin
217 x 153 mm
London, The British Museum, 1975,1025.420.48

Dr. Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen, Head of The Courtauld Gallery says: “I am sure that visitors will be enthralled by this view of a very private and personal Goya.” I couldn’t agree more, it is an exquisite show.

Francisco de Goya (1746- 1828) Hasta la muerte. (Until death.) c. 1797 - 98 'Los Caprichos' 55, trial (first edition) set, 1799 Etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint, 215 x 151 mm London, The British Museum

Francisco de Goya (1746- 1828)
Hasta la muerte. (Until death.) c. 1797 – 98
‘Los Caprichos’ 55, trial (first edition) set, 1799
Etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint, 215 x 151 mm
London, The British Museum

www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery