1786- the year of a lost Turner Watercolor

1796 was an incredibly interesting year.

It was the year American painter, Asher Durand, was born in New Jersey. Durand (not Duran Duran… ‘90s music lovers!) would go on to become one of the major proponents of the Hudson River school style of painting, celebrating, realism in landscape art, and its connection to the divine.

It was the year Catherine the Great died after decades ruling Russia and expanding the Russian empire.

It was also the year than a twenty-one year old English painter, J. M. W. Turner, painted this watercolor. It was forgotten about for years in the attic of a rural country estate in England, Kinsham Court.

Turner watercolor, Hampton Court Castle, Herefordshire, courtesy of Minster Auctions

It’s going on auction in March, so if you have some spare milk money, ( the estimate is running between £30,000 to £60,000), and love Turner, then this is your chance to pick up what could be a relative bargain.

The fifth Earl of Essex hired Turner to paint Hampton Court Castle in Herefordshire after he inherited it. Herefordshire, famous for its beautiful countryside and its Hereford cows, is in the West Midlands. Hampton Court then became the property of the Arkwright family at the start of the 19th century.

After a hundred years or so, John Arkwright sold Hampton Court and then relocated to Kinsham Court. Most likely the Turner sketch made the trip along with everything else. It was discovered by Arkwright’s descendants in the attic amongst a bunch of watercolors that had been up there for decades. That makes me feel not-so-bad about not having been in my attic for months, while at the same time making me realize I should go up there and check out what’s hanging around…even though I am 100% certain I will not find a long lost Turner watercolor.

Now, while the watercolor wasn’t signed, one of Minster’s experts, James Pearn, is positive that it’s a Turner, because of the stylistic elements that Turner was known for, including the way he laid down his brushstrokes.

Patterdale, With Ullswater beyond, Turner, courtesy of Sotheby’s

It’s interesting to note that just a few days ago on January 31, at auction at Sotheby’s, two different watercolors by Turner found new owners. One, Loch Lomond, West Scotland, sold right within its estimate range of $50-$80 grand at just under $61,000 while the second piece, Patterdale with Ullswater beyond, generated a bit more interest and sold over the estimate, bringing down the gavel at a little over $95,000. In light of these numbers, Minster’s auction estimate ( 38 to 72 thousand USD) isn’t too far off what the market seems to be willing to pay. We’ll see what happens in the first of minsters three annual fine art auctions in March.

Meanwhile, go check your attics, people!

This weeks free classes: from Irving Penn to Massaccio

Happy Sunday morning to everybody!

I hope this weekly hello finds you happy and enjoying a beautiful sunny, albeit hot and soupy, day.

I am doing a few programs this week that I’d like to share with you via zoom . They are all free and open to everyone.

The first one is tomorrow morning with Peninsula public library at 11 AM and will be focusing on important Jewish artists of the 20th century

Irving Penn Self portrait; Photo courtesy Irving Penn Foundation

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ZOOM: Jewish Artists in the Contemporary Art World

Join Prof Val Franco, for a look at some of the tremendous Jewish artists of the twentieth century. The history behind their lives and work, and a comparison of their various styles. We’ll be focusing on artists whose work has pushed the boundaries while also bringing important issues to the forefront of popular culture. 

Registration is not required.

Click the link below to join the Zoom Meeting:

Meeting ID: 721 207 3003

Passcode: PenPubLib

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My second class this week is Tuesday night at 7 pm with the Crestwood Library – again via zoom, free and open to everyone. We’ll be doing slow looking, focusing on a few select masterpieces and discussing the works as a group. 

San Giovenale Triptych, Masaccio, 1422

Virtual -Tuesday, June 27, 2023. 7:00pm – 8:00pm

Event Details

Join Prof. Val Franco as we find a new way to view art. By taking our time and getting to the heart of a painting or sculpture, we can get in touch with what the artist was trying to share with us about the world around them and their subject. By looking at a few select masterpieces from Renaissance art and the Impressionist period, we’ll discuss all the elements that make an artwork great as well look at paintings in a slow, meaningful way.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://ypl-org.zoom.us/j/87381066479?pwd=UFhTL2FEMGFSQ282R0Y3ZzYwTGdiZz09

Meeting ID: 873 8106 6479
Passcode: 443085

Contact Info

Name:  Z BairdEmail: z@ypl.orgPresenter: Val Franco

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The third one of the week is our regular Wednesday night Art zoom, sponsored by me,ProfValFranco, for free at 7 pm on Wednesday. We’ll be looking at Renaissance artist Massaccio and discussing the important aspects of dimensional painting and how Masaccio’s practice changed painting forever.

Masaccio self portrait from Brancusi Chapel Fresco

The lecture is free and open to everyone everywhere, and starts at 7 pm. Zoom is my standard Art zoom : Topic: ProfValFranco’s Armchair Art

Zoom 
Meeting ID: 878 0879 9248
Passcode: 683628

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Finally, back by popular demand, we are doing our monthly museum visits in person! The next trip is Monday, July 10 in New York and you can send an email for further info if you are interested!

This week’s art & film posts will go up in a few days and will focus on the art collection of Catherine the Great & the incredible film Eadweard about the man behind the beginnings of the modern moving image!

Looking forward to seeing you this week.

Regards

ProfValFranco

Swedish painter Hilma af Klint & Lasse Hallstrom’s new feature…

so much going on in the art & film worlds this week so I thought I’d share one of my favorite artists and the film that’s bringing her to life for many who don’t know her.

This week’s news of note: Many of you have taken art history class with me in the past and might remember a series I did on the life & work of Swedish artist Hilma af Klint.

While we know and appreciate her today for the numerous large scale, often symmetrical, color filled abstracts and geometric works she painted, many of which she said were inspired directly by spiritual forces, this aspect of her creative life was relatively unknown to the general public during her lifetime.

Her work was years ahead of Kandinsky’s abstracts, yet she kept them hidden from the public, because they were so vastly different than her floral illustration work. Because she felt the abstracts would not be well received by a public that was not ready yet, she stipulated that nothing could be shown to the public for DECADES after her death…a sad delay that resulted in her being overlooked for her incredibly galvanizing, ground breaking work.

She began working on The Ten Largest in October 1907 after a vision inspired her to create beautiful images that explained the stages of life. Curiously, October seemed to be play a role in her life and its creative flow, as she was born and died in October ( 1862-1944) and created her first massive series of large scale works a month after having a vision about the process.

Hilma af Klint, part of series The Ten Largest. Begun October 1907

Still from 2022 feature Hilma, courtesy Nordic Entertainment Group

Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom has brought her story to the screen and the reviews at festivals are quite positive with tour de force Lena Olin as Hilma.

If your looking for a rapid paced, quick fire action film, this will not be for you…but if you’re looking for a finely crafted film that makes a connection to a tremendously, talented female artist who was overlooked and disrespected during her lifetime, then this film has your name, well actually Hilma’s name, all over it.

From Billionaires, Scottish Dukes, Rothschilds, Dutch Masters & American Watercolorists: My Rembrandt & Jerry Pinkney

Hello All & a happy December to you! 

Thanks to all for a great discussion this past Friday on the intriguing documentary MY REMBRANDT. This film, with its incredible insider access to some of the most glorious Rembrandt paintings in the world, explores why people are so fascinated with the Dutch Golden Age painter, centuries after he created incredible, world-changing images. The inner machinations behind the joint Louvre-Rijksmuseum $160 million purchase of a pair of portraits from current Baron de Rothschild were especially fascinating. 

The life size portraits that Rothschild had on either side of his bed for years were created in 1634 and depict Amsterdam trader Marten Soolmans and his wife Oopjen Coppit. 

Notice the texture, palette, expression & emotion…when compared to Rembrandt’s portrait of her husband, she seems to have a bit more spirit and brightness in her image. Was Rembrandt a bit more taken by her personality, or does this reflect the difference in purpose of representation between the pair of portraits: the husband, serious, a force to be reckoned with in his contemporary society; the wife, embodying the hallmarks of a good Dutch wife of her class?

Consider this: If you owned a Rembrandt as part of your massive collection of centuries of art from the Old Masters through to the twentieth century, would you lend it (or any of your collection, for that matter) out to museums around the world, or would you keep them in your residence for your personal, private enjoyment?

The film explores this question in presenting various private collectors and public institutions, including American collector Thomas Scott Kaplan, who owns the largest privately held collections of Rembrandts (15) and Dutch masterworks ( 250) in the world; and Richard Scott, the Duke of Buccleuch, whose his 80,000 acres of ancestral lands in Scottland houses a massive collection of Old World masterpieces, including Rembrandt’s Old Woman Reading from 1665.

Kaplan believes it is his responsibility to lend these masterworks out to public institutions so they can be enjoyed by the world at large, while The Duke, like other Uber wealthy collectors, keeps various works by the Old Masters in his private residence for his enjoyment only.

Portrait of Opjen Coppit, 1634 by Rembrandt courtesy of the Rijksmuseum 

It’s an interesting question to consider, and I’m quite sure, a much better one to actually have irl.

Next week we’ll discuss the work of Jerry Pinckney and his beautiful, striking important water colors on view at the Katonah Museum in New York.

Go, She Cried, from Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman, 1996, by Jerry Pinkney. Watercolor, graphite, and gouache on paper. 12 3/8 in. x 20 3/8 in.

We’ll also look at the work of the incredible Winslow Homer and his use of various media in creating his awe inspiring images of America and her various, glorious landscapes.

Nor’easter, Winslow Homer, 1895/1881 courtesy of the Met

In search of a little nosh? Israeli Cuisine might be just the thing… the film, that is…

I might argue that good food, wine, and the arts are the cornerstones of society. This documentary, follows Michael Solomonov ( of Phillie’s eponymous Israeli restaurant Zahav), as he explores the contributions of various cultures in Israel and how they have come together to create a diverse, delicious culinary tradition that is almost impossible to define but mouthwatering to explore.

In a country comparable to the size of New Jersey, he zips from coast to desert to mountains, through orchards & kitchens, from farms to foraging expeditions, all in the effort to define a cohesive, unified food culture in a relatively young country that has an ancient lineage.

Courtesy of Menemsha films

This duality of existence is well mirrored in its relationship to food. As Jews from all over the world come to Israel, done to settle permanently, some temporarily, they bring with them the food and tastes of their homelands. They isolate these recipes, while at the same time merging it with middle eastern culinary traditions, tastes, spices and produce. Over time, the results have lead ( and, it can be argued- are still leading to) foods that are follow traditional recipes while becoming dishes unique to the palate of Israel. 

From country to country, family to family, recipes for staples like hummus, couscous and za’atar vary, as do the political and cultural significance that accompany each dish and spice. 

Solomonov shies away from issues like kosher food ( there’s lots of delicious but traif foods in this doc), and the politics of the Middle East as exemplified by culinary appropriation of hummus and couscous, as well as the legislation against foraging for za’atar ( wild hyssop, a wildly popular spice in both Palestinian and overall Middle Eastern tradition). But you can only cover so much in ninety minutes, and the film, to its credit, doesn’t pretend to dig into the the psychology behind generations-old political strife as it is exemplars in gastronomy.

Courtesy of Menemsha Films

While certain industries in Israel, like wine, may be non-starters, or possibly late-bloomers, other foods, tied into the tradition of farm to table, and freshly harvested produce, allow for an incredible explosion of taste and delight for the consumer, whether they are shopping in markets or eating in local restaurants.

It does explore the melting pot of various cultures that people from all over the world create as they settle in Israel, mix and even marry. Jewish, Christian and Muslim, European, East European, Middle Eastern -all merging… at least their food.

As the film ends everyone interviewed reminds us of the countries they come from and the food culture that they bring with them as their contribution to a new Israel, their contribution to the creation of a unique and expansive Israeli cuisine. It’s a pleasant way to remind us of the importance the next generation may play in bringing the world together, one bite at a time.

Film & Wine pairings- elderberries & Revolution – unexpected deliciousness for the 4th of July

twitter.com/ProfValFranco/status/1408573457009463306

Leap into Italian heritage month- il divo

So- since October is Italian heritage month-let’s talk about some fantastic Italian films- all with English subtitles -so no excuses for not watching!!

This week’s film –il Divo – incredible depiction of events leading up to the trial of former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, senator for life & all around lil Jack Horner . When you talk about back-door politics, political intrigue & corruption, he’s you’re go-to guy.

This 2008 fast moving gem directed by Paolo Sorrentino & shot with an incredible eye by director of photography Luca Bigazzi is a must-see if you want an inside look at the underbelly of Italian politics.

In fact, do a double-header with Nanni Moretti’s 2006 election year game changer il Caimano/em> on the career of another former Italian P.M. Silvio Berlusconi, and you have yourself a quick education into just how hard politicians with integrity in Italy have it when working against these guys. Makes the U.S.election season seem like a farm team training season in comparison.