ART SAY WHAT?

I’m super excited about this, especially for the museums that are deciding to integrate certain works into the permanent displays. Yay for visibility!!

Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave at the British Museum (London), 25 May – 13 August 2017. 

From the British Museum’s website: 

Throughout the exhibition, outstanding examples of Hokusai’s work will show the artist’s creative breadth and depth. A selection of superb landscapes is introduced with the iconic Great Wave – itself part of a print series of views of Mt Fuji. Intimate domestic scenes capture fleeting moments in private lives. Exquisite depictions of flora and fauna display an innate skill in representing the natural world. The artist’s imagination is given full rein in the portrayal of supernatural creatures such as ghosts and deities. Through all of these works, explore Hokusai’s personal beliefs and gain a fascinating insight into the artist’s spiritual and artistic quest in his later years.

The exhibition will include prints, paintings and illustrated books, many of which are on loan from Japan, Europe and the USA. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these extraordinary works together.

Courbet was one vain man (though that’s not always a bad thing). Look at that chin! His prolific beard hasn’t grown in yet but he still exudes the swagger characteristic of his later self-portraits. 

Although this looks like an ordinary Empire gown, it actually has a bit of a bizarre history. It originally belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister-in-law, of all people, and we’re not talking about a sibling of Joséphine, either. Napoleon’s brother Jerome married a woman from Baltimore (?!) in 1803. Her name was Elizabeth Patterson and they had a son together before Napoleon stuck his nose into their business and ruined their domestic bliss. The story went a bit like this, according to the Met’s website:

Napoleon had the marriage annulled in 1805 and made Jerome the king of Westphalia in 1807. That year, Jerome married the princess of Wurttemberg. Elizabeth, banned from France by the emperor, remained in Baltimore with her son, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte (1805-1870).

Yikes. Poor things. Flashes of Ariadne stuck on the island of Naxos aside, the dress is pretty awesome. I love the sheerness of the sleeves and the fabric’s detailed embroidery. You can read more about this gown and its sordid history, plus check out more detailed pictures, here. 

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The best-known painting of the German composer – formerly in the possession of a US philanthropist – is to return to the city that Bach made his home

Exhibition: Goya in Madrid at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, closing on May 3!

More about the show in the Prado’s own words:

Goya came to Madrid in January 1775 in order to take part in the Project to Create Tapestry Cartoons for the Royal Residences, under the direction of Anton Raphael Mengs, the Chief Court Painter and Art Director at the Royal Tapestry Factory of Santa Bárbara. However, Goya's recognition at Court did not come until eleven years later, when he was appointed Painter to the King in 1786, and then named as Chief Court Painter in conjunction with Maella in 1799. The artist received seven commissions for cartoons, in whose compositions he reflected all the diversity of the common people in a series of scenes packed with merriment and enlivened with amusements, games, children and festivities, but also with violence, deception and sadness, scenes in which desire and seduction serve as the backdrop for life. Goya managed to create an extensive range of sentiments due to his extraordinary capacity to capture the rich diversity of human nature and different types of male and female attire, not to mention his ability to suggest endless situations. This exhibition brings together Goya's cartoons with those of other artists, whilst also exhibiting paintings and sculptures that served as models for his startlingly new and innovative creations. Goya did not conceive his tapestry cartoons as secondary paintings, but as a metaphoric invention of society, using them to feel his way towards subsequent creations that were to bring him fame, such as the etchings that make up the series known as the Caprichos or "Caprices". [Emphasis supplied]

I didn’t know that Goya designed tapestries? From what I can see from a quick glance-through of the exhibition checklist, no tapestries are actually on display, so I guess they weren’t ever made? Or maybe they’re just not the focus of the exhibition (fair enough). In any case, I love Goya’s early work (before he gets all painterly with his brushstrokes) and I think it’s cool that we’re getting so see more of that, rather than the later stuff that usually gets most of the attention. Bravo, Prado!