Displaying items by tag: australia

The British government has placed a temporary export bar on two important oil paintings by George Stubbs (1724-1806), an English painter best know for his depictions of horses. The works, which went on display at London’s Royal Academy in 1773, gave the British public their first glimpse of a kangaroo and a dingo.

Since Stubbs was unable to paint the animals, which are native to Australia, from life, he created Kongouro from New Holland (The Kangaroo) (1772) and Portrait of a Large Dog (The Dingo) (1772) from spoken accounts. He also made sketches of the kangaroo after inflating the animal’s preserved skin. Stubbs won praise for bringing the likenesses of the foreign animals to the British public for the first time. It is believed that Sir Joseph Banks commissioned the paintings after assisting in Captain James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific.

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey announced the temporary export bar on Wednesday, February 6, 2013 following a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee On The Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. The ban will remain in place until August 5, 2013 and may be extended until November 5, 2013. Potential buyers will need $8.6 million to keep the paintings in Britain.        

Opening on Sunday, December 16 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado, will present over 100 masterpieces from one of the world’s most renowned collections of European paintings. Spanning from the 16^th century through the 19^th century, the exhibit explores the evolution of painting in Spain through the works of artists such as Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), El Greco (1541-1614), and Diego Velázquez (1599-1660). There will also be works on view by non-Spanish artists who influenced the country’s artistic development including Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804), and Titian (circa 1488-1576).

The exhibition marks the first time that Madrid’s Museo Nacional del Prado has lent such a considerable selection from their permanent collection to a museum in the United States. The loan is part of a new initiative by the museum to broaden access to its illustrious holdings.

The works, which include both paintings and works on paper, are mainly courtly and spiritual paintings that explore the realms of society, culture, politics, and religion in Spain. The exhibit was previously on view at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia, but ended its run last month. Portrait of Spain will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston through March 31.