Power and Portraiture

Jul12

Power and Portraiture: painting at the court of Elizabeth I, Waddesdon Manor, Waddesdon, Near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, until 29^th October 2017 (Wed-Sun)

Nicholas Hilliard’s portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Amias Paulet at the Hamilton Kerr Institute.
Rothschild Family. Photo Tristan Fewings, 2017 © Getty Images

Power and Portraiture: painting at the court of Elizabeth I is an intriguing display because it reveals these two portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Amias Paulet and makes an attribution to Nicholas Hilliard (?1547-1619) as their creator. Hilliard is of course celebrated for the exquisite miniatures executed in watercolour and vellum but documents exist that refer to his making pictures ‘in greate’ which means full-scale oil portraits. The Pelican and Phoenix portraits of Elizabeth I are thought by scholars to be examples of works he painted or was involved with.

Power & Portraiture, Waddesdon Manor.
Photo Derek Pelling (c) National Trust, Waddesdon Manor

This is arrived at by comparing the depiction of faces, jewels and lace with Hilliard miniatures but the difference in scale between the two types of work must be factored in. These two portraits, which come from a branch of the Rothschild family, share the same similarities in style and technique. However scientific analysis at the Hamilton Kerr Institute reveals that rather than being painted on Baltic oak used in England they are on French oak. Sir Amias Paulet was England’s ambassador to France between 1576-79 and during part of his posting Hilliard was part of his household. The presence of Hilliard in France and the stylistic similarities with his other known works allows these ‘in greate’ pictures to be confidently attributed to him.

waddesdon.org.uk

The Artist Depicted!

Feb15

Portrait of the Artist, The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London SW1, until 17^th April 2017

Daniel Mytens,
A Self-Portrait, c.1630
Royal Collection Trust /© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2016.

This extensive exhibition encompasses portraits of artists from the reign of Charles I to the present day. A whole variety of disciplines have been used in creating these works of art, including Hockney’s 2013 self-portrait created on an iPad. It was a gift to Her Majesty The Queen to mark his receiving the Order of Merit.

Giovanni Battista Cipriani,
Bartolozzi Sleeping,c.1770
Royal Collection Trust /© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2016.

Several portraits were in the collection of Charles I such as the Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura) (c.1638–9) by Artemisia Gentileschi. The Rembrandt portrait was acquired by George IV. Dating from the 1950s are the reciprocal portraits of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and Edward Seago.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh,
Seago Painting, 1956-57
© HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

Displayed in their entirety for the first time are the 224 miniatures created by the Italian artist Giuseppe Macpherson for Lord Cowper in the 1760s who presented them to George III. They depict the artists’ self-portraits hung in the Vasari Corridor of the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence and which are the most important such group in the world.

Attributed to Francesco Melzi,
Leonardo da Vinci, c.1515-18
Royal Collection Trust /© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2016.

I can only give a taste of what awaits you in this exhibition but I feel sure you will want to visit more than once – so don’t forget your ticket allows you free re-admission for a year if you ask them to treat your ticket purchase as a donation.

Johann Michael Wittmer,
Raphael’s First Sketch of the ‘Madonna della Sedia’, 1853
Royal Collection Trust /© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2016.

Lucian Freud,
Self-Portrait: Reflection, 1996
Royal Collection Trust /© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2016.

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk

A Cautionary Tale

Jan6

Emma Hamilton: Seduction and Celebrity, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London SE 10, until 17^th April 2017

‘Emma as La Penserosa’, 1791-92 by Sir Thomas Lawrence
® The Abercorn Heirloom Settlement Trustees; Bryan F. Rutledge B.A.

This is an exhibition that has exceeded my expectations and one I had been looking forward to since I learnt of it.

It is I think very much a story of a beautiful young woman that has resonance today – a tale of humble beginnings, of becoming a “celebrity” but ending in disillusionment and obscurity.

Berlin service: Teapot depicting Emma Hamilton
® National Maritime Museum, London. From the Clive Richards Collection

Born in Cheshire in 1765, daughter of a struggling blacksmith Emma came to London in her thirteenth year and became part of the Covent Garden world which mixed high society with the sexual underworld. Aged sixteen she became the mistress of Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh and as readers of my blog ‘Unravelling Uppark’ (06/06/14) will know Emma danced naked on the dining room table there to entertain his friends. However when she fell pregnant Fetherstonhaugh chucked her out and she returned to Cheshire and gave birth to a daughter.

‘Emma dancing the tarantella’ c.1791 by William Lock
® The Jean Kislak Collection

Fortunately she had made the acquaintance of Charles Greville, a son of the Earl of Warwick, and he took her under his wing, installing her in his house just off the Edgware Road in London, an area more rural then than it is today. It was there that Greville introduced her to the painter George Romney. She was, as the wonderful paintings shown in the exhibition amply prove, a perfect Muse for the artist.

Emma as Circe, 1782, by George Romney
® The National Trust, Waddesdon Manor

She also met Greville’s uncle Sir William Hamilton and it was on to him that Greville passed Emma when he tired of her by sending her to Naples where Hamilton was British envoy. Naples was a major stopping-off place on the Grand Tour and thanks to Hamilton’s patient teaching and her own talent she created her famous “Attitudes” which brought scenes from paintings and sculpture to life. She achieved even more of a celebrity status which was crowned when Hamilton married her in 1791.

Gold and micro-mosaic necklace belonging to Emma
® National Maritime Museum, London

Her new position as an envoy’s wife meant that she had to play a political role too and in this Emma was fortunate that the Neapolitan King’s wife Maria Carolina, a sister of Marie Antoinette, liked her and made a confidante of her.

Horatio Nelson, 1758 -1805, Vice Admiral of the White by Johann Heinrich Schmidt
® National Maritime Museum, London

However in 1798 the arrival of Admiral Nelson, following his victory at the Battle of the Nile, was the beginning of what would be one of the great love affairs of history. It was one fraught with dangers as her infidelity rocked society and it was not helped by Emma’s giving birth to Nelson’s child whom they named Horatia.

Emma, Lady Hamilton, 1761 – 1815 by Johann Heinrich Schmidt
® National Maritime Museum, London

They acquired a house at Merton in Surrey and set up home their but because of Nelson’s naval duties he was frequently away. His death at the Battle of Trafalgar 21^st October 1805 brought it all crashing down. Life became difficult in every way and her attempts to maintain her lifestyle and position led to her being imprisoned for debt in 1813 in the King’s Bench Prison. Thanks to funds being provided she was released but had to flee to Calais to escape her creditors and it was there in January 1815 she died after months of illness in the same poverty as she had been born.

Gold ‘fede’ or betrothal ring, one of a pair exchanged by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson and Emma
® National Maritime Museum, London

This somewhat salutary tale is beautifully told through pictures, objects, jewellery, furniture, prints, costumes and personal letters. It really does give a wonderful insight into her life and times and explains why she remains so beguiling a figure. She is one of those people from history you would really want to meet!

‘View of Merton House showing Lady Hamilton and Horatia in the grounds’
® National Maritime Museum, London

http://www.rmg.co.uk/emmahamilton

Picasso in London and Warwickshire

Nov18

Woman in a Hat (Olga) by Pablo Picasso, 1935;
Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d’art moderne
Copyright: Succession Picasso/DACS London, 2016 Photo: Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Rights reserved

There is no doubting the enduring popularity of Picasso with all age groups and I thought I would share these ongoing exhibitions with you. In the National Portrait Gallery is Picasso Portraits which is exciting in that the portraits – in various media – come from all stages of his career and while some of them are well-known others are not.

Portrait of Olga Picasso by Pablo Picasso, 1923;
Private Collection
Copyright: Succession Picasso/DACS London, 2016

They are all of people he knew, including friends, lovers, wives and children such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Carles Casagemas, Santiago Rusiñol, Jaume Sabartés, Jean Cocteau, Olga Picasso, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Lee Miller, Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Picasso. You will also discover caricatures and portraits inspired by earlier masters such as Rembrandt and Velazquez. (www.npg.org.uk)

Picasso
Le peintre et son modèle IV 1970
Ink on cardboard
Courtesy Omer Tiroche

At Omer Tiroche in Conduit Street you will discover Picasso on Paper (until 16^th December 2016) with more than thirty works from the early 1900s onwards. They reveal how he used any piece or scrap of paper to capture his thoughts and ideas. (http://www.omertiroche.com).

Picasso
Femme Debout et Femme Assise 1939
Gouache and brush and black in on lined paper
Courtesy Omer Tiroche

Pablo Picasso
Sprung mit dem Stab, 1957
Jumping with the pole, 1957
Blatt 8 aus Die Tauromaquie oder die Kunst des Stierkampfes
Sheet 8 from Tauromachy or the Art of Bullfighting
Aquatinta im Zuckeraussprengverfahren
Sugar-Lift Aquatints
35 x 49,5 cm
Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf,
© Succession Picasso
Foto: Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Horst Kolberg, ARTOTHEK

Outside of London at Compton Verney there is another exhibition of Picasso on Paper (until 11^th December 2016) featuring prints from the collection of the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf. The show gives us an ideal opportunity to look at Picasso as a printmaker with over 70 works from the 1920s-1960s and includes various media – etching, lithography, aquatint and linocut. Although not formally trained he became very adept at printmaking and regarded it as important as painting. In all he created over 2000 prints during his lifetime. Alongside the prints is a selection of his ceramics. They echo themes found in his prints and highlight how the relationship between the two was an important part of Picasso’s artistic output. The ceramics have been loaned by Leicester Arts and Museums Service by kind permission of The Estate of Lord and Lady Attenborough. (http://www.comptonverney.org.uk)

Pablo Picasso
Kopf des Fauns, 07.02.1962
Head of the Faun
Farblinolschnitt, Auflage 19/50
Colour Linocut, Edition 19/50
64 x 53 cm
Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
© Succession Picasso, Foto: Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Horst Kolberg, ARTOTHEK

Lord & Lady Attenborough: A Life in Art
The Celebrated Private Collection of Picasso Ceramics
Sotheby’s London, 22 November 2016

Other Picasso ceramics from Lord and Lady Attenborough’s collection come under the hammer at Sotheby’s London on November 22^nd (Lord & Lady Attenborough: A Life in Art – The Celebrated Private Collection of Picasso Ceramics). The Attenborough’s used to visit the Madoura pottery, where Picasso worked, in the South of France on their summer holidays when staying at their summer house near the town of Vallauris and built up a collection which reflects Picasso’s artistic development in working in this medium.

Lot 30
Grand vase aux femmes nues
Terre de faïence vase, 1950
numbered 8/25
height: 26in
Estimate: £250,000-350,000

Their son Michael Attenborough CBE recalls that “Vallauris was a great annual pilgrimage. In those days I remember wrapping pots up in brown paper for the drive back to England. At Old Friars, our family home, there was a huge, long table in the hall and the top surface of it would have four or five Picasso pots and underneath it there would be another four or five. Dad scattered them liberally everywhere; he adored them and just loved their extraordinary combination of beauty and wit.”(sothebys.com)

Amuse Bouche: Hockney

Sep2

David Hockney RA: 82 Portraits and 1 Still Life, Royal Academy of Arts, The Sackler Wing of Galleries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1, until 2^nd October 2016

David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts
(c) David Parry/ Royal Academy of Arts

Go! See!

Exhibition tickets for David Hockney RA: 82 Portraits and 1 Still-life must be pre-booked.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk

Fairfax Gallery’s London Exhibition

Apr19

Shaun Ferguson Solo Show, Gallery 8, 8 Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1, 20^th – 23^rd April 2016

‘Boxer’
Oil on Canvas 66 x 61 cm

Fairfax Galleries bring this new exhibition of paintings by Shaun Ferguson to London. The Royal Academy-trained artist is showing eighteen new works. Each figurative work has a subtly expressed and atmospheric ambience that engages the viewer. Ferguson says of his work that ‘a good painting works because of its abstract relationships’.

‘Books’
Acrylic on Canvas 66 x 61 cm

http://www.fairfaxgallery.com

‘Must not be Shook’

Mar4

A Handful of Dust – Georgian Pastels from the Permanent Collection, The Holburne Museum, Great Pulteney Street, Bath BA2, until 18^th September 2016

Unknown Artist, eighteenth century A Market Woman with Fruit Pastel on paper, 81.3 x 66cm © The Holburne Museum

This year the Museum celebrates its centenary a 100 Years Here with a series of exhibitions. One is quite delightful, featuring rarely seen 18^th century portraits in pastel. Pastel is a mixture of china clay, plaster and pigment which are rolled into sticks. However it is fragile and can deteriorate quite easily. Indeed Thomas Lawrence wrote on the back of one of his pastels ‘to be kept from the Damp &sun/and must not be shook.’

Be that as it may the effect of pastel when applied to paper is quite luminous especially for portraits as the examples here amply show. It became a medium adopted by British artists for about a hundred years from the 1730s. Unlike portraits in oils pastels required no time for drying so Bath painters such as William Hoare and a young Thomas Lawrence often used it when depicting short-term visitors to the city.

Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702 – 1789)
James Nelthorpe (c. 1718 – 1767), 1738
Pastel on paper, 62 x 50cm
© The Holburne Museum

The technique was revived by Impressionist artists as we will discover in another exhibition at the Holburne.

http://www.holburne.org

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