Velázquez (Self?) Portrait Rediscovered
September 29th, 2009 admin
It may be disconcerting to some, but I actually enjoy the fact that art history, like history in general, is a fluid landscape. New discoveries and the reinterpretation of existing information can make textbooks obsolete overnight and reverse the fortunes of collectors and museums; and can also lead to excitement, disappointment or simply clarification . A reversal of a reversal has led to excitement, and improved the fortunes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as the attribution of Portrait of a Man , a painting in their collection once assigned to Spanish master Diego Rodr
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As I’ve mentioned before (also here ) the attribution of works to artists from the past is often an inexact science, perhaps more of an art in itself. Attributions change, and works once identified with one artist are subsequently assigned to another, or often, to pupils of the artist. Sometimes the reverse happens, and works once assigned...
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Despite the way he has for years been dismissed by critics as a facile but emotionless society painter, I’ve long felt that John Singer Sargent was one of the great painters in the history of Western Art. Though he still doesn’t get the respect I think he deserves, Sargent’s star has risen in recent years. It would have been...
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You will sometimes hear talk of the “Van Gogh in the attic”; the thought that somewhere are lost artistic gems, set aside, forgotten or misclassified for some reason, waiting for discovery in a dusty attic somewhere in the back streets of Paris or London, perhaps sitting on a shelf in an antique store waiting for you to pick it up...
The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery was, as the name implies, held in 2009, but the exhibition of 49 works selected from the 3,300 entries is on display until September 6, 2010. The museum has posted the finalists on this page , click on the thumbnails for larger versions. The portraits encompass...
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