Displaying items by tag: john constable

An oil painting of Brighton by noted artist John Constable has failed to sell at an auction.

A Sea Beach – Brighton, had been expected to fetch between £400,000 and £600,000 at a Bonhams Old Master Paintings sale in London yesterday(Wed).

However it did not meet its reserve price.

A Bonhams spokesman said the painting's owner, a private collector, would now have to decide whether to take it back or try again at a future sale.

Constable and his family were frequent visitors to Brighton for the sake of his wife, Maria's, health.

A John Constable oil painting of Brighton which was the subject of a BBC programme will be sold for around half a million pounds by an international art dealer.

A Sea Beach – Brighton, will be sold at Bonhams Old Master Paintings Sale in New Bond Street, London.

A BBC television programme about the painting was shown, which established its authenticity as a Constable painting.

British businessman and art collector James Stunt has loaned Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) five portraits by European masters Anthony van Dyck, Peter Lely, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Lawrence, and John Constable. Van Dyck’s  portrait of Francois Langlois, a French art dealer, publisher, and amateur musician, as an itinerant performer is on view in the museum’s Leo and Phyllis Beranek Gallery. Lely’s portrait of the notorious entertainer and socialite Moll Davis is on view in the MFA’s Hamilton Palace Room. The works by Reynolds, Lawrence, and Constable will be installed next week.  

Stunt, who has homes in Los Angeles and London, is an avid collector of British portraiture. He recently offered to buy van Dyck’s last self portrait, which he planned to loan to the MFA, but an outpouring of public support to keep the painting in England caused Stunt to withdraw his offer. there is currently an ongoing public fundraising appeal to purchase the painting so that it will remain on view in the U.K.

Malcolm Rogers, the MFA’s Ann and Graham Gund Director, said, “We’re extremely grateful to Mr. Stunt for sharing these important portraits with the MFA. The works complement the MFA’s collection of European portraiture, giving our visitors added insight into art of the period and providing an opportunity to see artists that are not found in great depth in New England collections.”

The Tate Gallery in London has agreed to return John Constable’s “Beaching a Boat, Brighton” to the heirs of a Jewish Hungarian art collector. The painting, which is listed on the University of Oxford’s looted art registry, was stolen from Baron Ferenc Hatvany while he was in hiding during World War II. Documents show that Hatvany acquired the Constable painting in 1908 at an auction in Paris.

The Tate received “Beaching a Boat, Brighton” in 1986 from a donor identified as Mrs. P.M. Rainsford, who had acquired the work in 1962. After the Tate received the painting, it failed to make its complete provenance public. Two years ago, Hatvany’s heirs learned that the Constable painting was in the Tate’s collection and in 2013, they formally submitted a claim to the Spoliation Advisory Panel, which was established by the British government to settle looting claims on artworks in public collections. The panel criticized the Tate for failing to thoroughly investigate the painting’s provenance.

The Tate released a statement saying that it was “grateful for the care with which the Panel has examined the evidence and is pleased to follow the conclusions of the report...Tate will therefore recommend to its Trustees, when they next meet in May, that the work be returned to the claimants.”

Next year, the Frick Collection in New York will loan a significant group of paintings, sculptures and decorative objects to the Mauritshuis in The Hague. It will be the first time that the Frick has lent such a substantial portion of its collection to a fellow institution. The Frick recently welcomed a number of masterpieces from the Mauritshuis, including Johannes Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ that were presented in the exhibition ‘Masterpieces of Dutch Painting from the Mauritshuis,’ which attracted record crowds.

‘A Country House in New York: Highlights From the Frick Collection’ will present works acquired by the museum after founder Henry Clay Frick’s death in 1919. In his will, Frick stated that none of the artworks that he acquired, which make up about two-thirds of the Frick Collection, can be lent to another institution. The exhibition will include works by Jan van Eyck, Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. ‘A Country House in New York’ will remain on view through May 10, 2015.

On June 27, 2014, the Mauritshuis will reopen following a two-year renovation and expansion.

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum announced that they discovered a previously unknown oil sketch by English Romantic painter John Constable. The sketch of trees, which dates back to 1821 or 1822, was found tucked beneath another work by the artist, “Branch Hill Pond: Hampstead.” Conservators had removed the painting’s lining while preparing for the upcoming exhibition, “Constable: The Making of a Master.”

Constable’s daughter donated the contents of the artist’s studio -- including 92 oil sketches, 297 drawings and watercolors, and 3 sketchbooks -- to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1888. The recently discovered sketch is currently on view at the institution.    

A painting purchased at an auction in Canterbury, England ten years ago for $50 was recently revealed as an authentic work by the English landscape painter John Constable. Robin Darvell a retired consultant ophthalmic surgeon, purchased the postcard-sized painting after spotting a faint signature that read “J Constable” on the back of its frame. Darvell kept the painting stowed away in a drawer for years and never hung the work.

It wasn’t until Darvell’s son, Rob, presented the work to the experts on the English television program Treasure Detectives that the true value of the work was revealed. The show’s host, Curtis Dowling, appraised the painting as an original 19^th century landscape by the artist and put its worth at nearly $400,000. Dowling remarked, “To add this to John Constable’s canon of work is wonderful. A large section of the art world will be salivating to get their hands on it.”

A multimillion-dollar art collection built by poet T.S. Eliot’s widow, Valerie, will be sold at Christie’s London on November 20, 2013. The collection includes works by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Lucian Freud (1922-2011), and J.M.W. Turner (1775-19851). Ms. Eliot, who passed away in November at the age of 86, amassed her collection using royalties from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music Cats, which was based on her husband’s whimsical poetry collection Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Ms. Eliot’s collection, which resided in the London home she shared with her husband, is expected to garner around $7.6 million.

Highlights from the collection include drawings and watercolors by 18^th and 19^th century British artists including Turner, Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), and John Constable (1776-1837); a sculpture by Henry Moore (1898-1986); and a lush landscape titled The Cathedral, Hackwood Park by Winston Churchill (1874-1965). There will also be portrait miniatures from the 16^th through the 19^th centuries, furniture, and jewelry for sale.

Proceeds from the Christie’s auction will benefit the Old Possum’s Practical Trust, an arts charity created by Ms. Eliot.