31 août 2008
Le beau mec du jour
A fine jade panel mounted in a wooden frame, minor wear, China, 18th century
A fine jade panel mounted in a wooden frame, minor wear, China, 18th century
Durchbrochen gearbeitete Jadetafel. Motiv von Drachen, die das Juwel jagen, Holzmontierung als Rahmen mit reliefiertem
Floraldekor, partiell besch., 5,5 cm x 16,5 cm. Estimation : 280 €
Hargesheimer & Günther. Düsseldorf. Art et Antiquités. Vente du 5 septembre 2008. Téléphone ++49 (0) 211-440 220 60
Vase en faïence à décor de chinoiseries. Wohl Frankfurt, vers 1800 (?).
Vase en faïence à décor de chinoiseries. Wohl Frankfurt, vers 1800 (?).
Fayence. Sandfarbener Scherben. Über rundem, ausgestelltem
Standfuß ovoider Korpus, kurzer zylindrischer Hals, wulstartiger, breiter Lippenrand, in Grün rundumlaufend bemalter figurativer und floraler Chinoiseriedekor, best., H. 31 cm.
Wohl Frankfurt, um 1800 (?). Estimation : 120 €
Hargesheimer & Günther. Düsseldorf. Art et Antiquités. Vente du 5 septembre 2008. Téléphone ++49 (0) 211-440 220 60
A bronze figure of a standing Guanyin, min. damaged, two fingers lost, China, Qing dynasty, 19th century
A bronze figure of a standing Guanyin, min. damaged, two fingers lost, China, Qing dynasty, 19th century
Bronze. Auf einer annähernd runden, plastischen Wolkenformation als Sockel stehender Guanyin, die langen, in weichen Falten fallenden, ornamentierten Gewänder bedecken den Kopf mit der Krone und fallen bis hinunter zu den Füßen, Urna und Kette emailliert. Hände, im Mudra, ursprünglich beweglich, rechte
Hand eingeklebt, beide Zeigefinger fehlen, besch., Boden gemarkt, H. 43 cm. Estimé : 500 €
Hargesheimer & Günther. Düsseldorf. Art et Antiquités. Vente du 5 septembre 2008. Téléphone ++49 (0) 211-440 220 60
A fine gilt bronze figure of a seated Guanyin, China, Qing dynasty
A fine gilt bronze figure of a seated Guanyin, China, Qing dynasty, probably
18th/19th century
Bronze. Auf felsförmigem Lotosthron sitzender Bodhisattva Guanyin, mit einem angewinkelten Knie sitzend, den anderen Fuß in einer Lotosblüte stehend. Dargestellt in einem faltenreichen Gewand mit viel Schmuck, die rechte Hand ruht auf dem Knie, mit der linken Hand stützt sich der Bodhisattva der Barmherzigkeit am Boden ab. Zu seiner Linken zwei
Sutrenbücher. Schöne, meditative Gesichtszüge, eine Krone mit einem zentralen
Amithaba bedeckt die Frisur. Große, zentral durchbrochen gearbeitete, kreisförmige Mandorla mit Schriftzeichen bedeckt. Feuervergoldung, guter
Zustand, H. 47 cm.
China, Qing-Dynastie, wohl 18./19. Jh. Estimé : 480 €
Hargesheimer & Günther. Düsseldorf. Art et Antiquités. Vente du 5 septembre 2008. Téléphone ++49 (0) 211-440 220 60
Le Frick Museum en rénovation
A view of the Frick Collection’s Fragonard Room as seen from the Living Hall, which was briefly closed this month for its first serious refurbishing in nearly a century. Photos: Michael Falco for The New York Times
Roberta Smith writes: "Time doesn’t quite stand still at New York’s beloved Frick Collection, but you could call the pace of change there glacial without fear of correction. Paintings have been moved around. A carpet has been taken up. There’s a new piece of maiolica in the Enamels Room. And the museum’s three Vermeers, at left, are being shown together for the first time in a decade.
For more than 90 years, most of the paintings in the grand living room, or Living Hall never left their perches. But last year it could no longer be denied that the 90-year-old carpet was worn out. Replacing it would require removing all the furniture, which led Joseph Galbo, the Frick’s conservator, to suggest also removing the paintings so that both the floors and the wood-paneled walls could be waxed. Photos: Michael Falco for The New York Times
The Living Hall at the Frick Museum. Photos: Michael Falco for The New York Times
And so for the last two weeks and through this weekend, the Living Hall’s masterpieces have been hanging in the Oval Room, free and clear of furniture, closer to eye level and bathed in natural light. In Frick time, the chance to see the stripped-down room is not likely to happen again until the new carpet wears out.
The Frick's Oval Room. Photos: Michael Falco for The New York Times
The paintings formerly of the Living Hall, which were made within 50 years of one another, present an almost classic opposition of tight and loose surfaces. The gleaming meticulous oil-on-panel surfaces of the Holbeins and the St. Francis play off the soft but commanding brushiness of the El Greco and the Titians.
Two paintings by Hans Holbein hang side-by-side in the Oval Room. Photos: Michael Falco for The New York Times
“St. Francis in the Desert” is arguably Bellini’s greatest painting, a familiar staple of Art History 101. Seeing this painting in the Oval Room reveals details you may have missed: the rabbit nestled in a hole in the wall, just beneath St. Francis’s left hand; the spindly tree just behind him, whose spindly branches form a delicate cross at what appears to be the composition’s exact center.
Photo: Frick Collection
In contrast, El Greco’s tall, peak-like rendition of “St. Jerome” is an Everest of brushy, stroke-by-stroke fabulousness: his pink Cardinal’s robes, white red-trimmed cuffs, elongated hands planted lightly on an open Bible, pointing to a passage in an open Bible. Everything seems subtly alive, with the face being the most fluid point. St. Jerome’s look is quizzical, his lips are slightly parted. He could be on the verge of delivering a stern bit of wisdom or about to think out loud.
Photo: Frick Collection
Another aspect of these paintings that, to my embarrassment, did not occur to me until they changed rooms is that they are all portraits of men, some of them great men, the kind of men that Frick would have wanted to be associated with. Each portrait represents, in its very form and execution, a manly attribute that Frick would probably have liked to think he possessed: the noble devotion of St. Francis, the benign erudition of St. Jerome, the resolution of Holbein’s More.
"Sir Thomas More" by Hans Holbein Photo: Frick Collection
By next Wednesday afternoon, the Frick says, both the Living Hall’s furniture and its paintings will be back in their usual places and life will go on. But there are other longer-lasting changes that are worth noting, such as the new lighting in the Fragonard Room. Photos: Michael Falco for The New York Times
The Frick has acquired its first work of maiolica, a large, radiant charger depicting “The Judgment of Paris” that is a gift from Dianne Modestini in memory of her husband, Mario Modestini. At the moment it can be seen in the small Enamels Room, holding its own against the gleaming dark greens and blues of the Limoges enamels that Frick bought from the estate of J. P. Morgan.
Photo: Frick Collection
And then there are the three Vermeers, hanging side by side for the first time in a decade. The large luminous “Mistress and Maid” outshines two smaller, mousier works — “Officer and Laughing Girl” and “Girl Interrupted at Her Music.” Both show a man and a young woman in an interior, and suggest that Vermeer was at his best when he painted women.
“Mistress and Maid” (circa 1666-7) by Vermeer Photo: Frick Collection
Still, not all change is welcome. I for one would like to see Ingre’s 1845 “Comtesse d’Haussonville” taken from its cramped quarters in the North Hall and returned to its rightful, regal place at the center of the east wall of the East Gallery There it was featured, essentially, as the last work in what remains an astounding march through European painting. The countess’s quietly imperious gaze could engage the eye almost from the Enamels Room, through the wide doorways of the Oval Room and the long West Gallery. It would be great to see her there today, a presence nearly equal to six men.
Photo: Frick Collection
Lire l'article "Change Arrives on Tiptoes at the Frick Mansion " de Roberta Smith http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/arts/design/29fric.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Ivan Baj, The Ficus Vase
The Ficus Vase, by Ivan Baj, is hand-blown Murano glass decorated with hand-engraved fine lines. The color of each vase varies slightly, as does the height (9 to 12 inches). This signed piece from a limited edition is $1,183 from unicahome.com
Chaumet, "Le Grand Frisson" @ Musée Chaumet
Médaillon Coeur, 1850-1860. Provenance : Impératrice Eugénie. ©D.R
A l’occasion du lancement de sa nouvelle collection de haute joaillerie, Le Grand Frisson, Chaumet présentera du 3 octobre au 7 novembre 2008 une rétrospective joaillière de la Renaissance à nos jours. Sur le thème de la rencontre amoureuse, cette exposition a été réalisée par l’historienne du bijou, Diana Scarisbrick et le conservateur du Musée Chaumet, Béatrice de Pinval. Dans les salons du premier étage de la maison Chaumet, au 12, place Vendôme, 150 bijoux de sentiments – empruntés pour la plupart à des collections privées – jalonnent un parcours chronologique de la Renaissance à nos jour. Parmi les pièces les plus marquantes, on note les bijoux offerts par Napoléon 1er aux impératrices Joséphine et Marie-Louise. C’est au Moyen-âge que le bijou de sentiments apparaît et aujourd’hui encore, le langage amoureux est toujours aussi présent dans la création joaillière. Le serpent symbolise de l’amour éternel ou la violette, l’amour innocent. L'exposition Le grand frisson donne lieu à la publication d'un catalogue. Julie De Los Rios www.vogue.
A rare large blue and white dragon dish. Qianlong seal mark in underglaze blue and of the petiod (1736-1795)
A rare large blue and white dragon dish. Qianlong seal mark in underglaze blue and of the petiod (1736-1795)
With rounded sides rising to a slightly everted rim, the interior well painted with a ferocious horned five-clawed dragon shown full face and with wings spread as it leaps amidst composite foliate meander in pursuit of a flaming pearl, with two dragons striding amidst further composite foliate meander in a band below a border of wind-tossed waves, the exterior decorated in similar fashion with two striding dragons amidst a similar foliate scroll. 20 in. (50.8 cm.) diam., box - Estimate: $150,000 - $200,000 - Adjugé: 134 500 USD
Provenance : Sotheby's, New York, 23 October 1976, lot 325.
Property from the Estate of Alice Brooke McReynolds; Sotheby's, New York, 22 March 2000, lot 133.
Notes: Large dishes of this particular design, painted in the center with a powerful and ferocious front-facing, winged dragon, first appeared during the reign of the Yongzheng emperor, however the prototype for these dishes may be found in porcelains of the Ming dynasty. For a Xuande period example (19.3 cm. diam.) painted with a central dragon amidst a floral scroll beneath two dragons in profile in the cavetto, see A. D. Brankston, Early Ming Wares of Chingtechen, 1938, pl. 21a.
A large Qianlong-marked dish of this type, and of similar size (50.5 cm. diam.), is illustrated by A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, New Jersey, 1984, p. 203. Another Qianlong-marked dish of this type, also of similar size (51 cm. diam.) was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 2 May 1994, lot 657.
Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 17 September 2008. New York, Rockefeller Plaza. www.christies.com
Louis Vuitton par Rei Kawakubo
Sac Papillon de Louis Vuitton par Rei Kawakubo
La saison 2008-09 sera celle de Rei Kawakubo, D.A. de Comme des Garçons. Après une collaboration avec H&M – sortie de la collection en novembre -, la créatrice s’associe à la maison Louis Vuitton et vient poser sa griffe sur la fameuse toile Monogram. De ce partenariat est née une collection capsule de 6 sacs. Sur la toile en cuir, outre un sac enrichi de franges et grigris colorés, des modèles plus sobres comme un retour aux sources dont deux rééditions. Les classiques s'offrent l'extravagance d'anses fantaisistes, multiples ou graphiques ou des animaux charms en toile Monogram. Ces créations spéciales seront lancées en septembre à l’occasion d'une boutique éphémère de Louis Vuitton dans l'espace Comme des Garçons à Tokyo, du 4 septembre à la mi-décembre. "Il est impossible de minimiser l'influence de Rei Kawakubo dans la mode actuelle" a déclaré Marc Jacobs, D.A. de la maison Vuitton. Cette collaboration s’inscrit dans l’inspiration japonaise de Louis Vuitton qui a déjà fait appel à l’artiste Takashi Murakami pour revisiter à plusieurs reprises sa toile Monogram. Julie De Los Rios www.vogue.fr