Writing to his brother, on Sunday 25 March 1888, Van Gogh remarked: “it might be interesting to save correspondence between artists.” This letter, which deserves to be preserved and studied, had been sent to him by the painter John Russell whom he had met two years earlier in Cormon’s workshop. Another “stranger” with ties to Emile Bernard and Toulouse-Lautrec, the Australian is the author of a superb portrait of Van Gogh as lord of the Netherlands, confident of his vocation. But, for us, Vincent’s advice to Theo is a foreshadowing and applies first to his epistolary activity which was precocious, untiring, admirable, fruitful in countless manners.  continue

The Musée de Blois organized a long-term exhibition at the same time it published its catalogue of 16th to 18th century paintings, starting in late 2008 and continuing until 20 October of this year. This is the perfect chance to discover a collection which is in fact little known and no doubt under-estimated. The volume is divided into two parts. The first covers major works, all with in-depth studies and with the necessary scholarly apparatus (historical and bibliographical). The second, which includes what are considered minor works, is different only in the fact that the entries and reproductions are smaller.  continue

Some books defy critical review. It would be easier to simply not even attempt it and brush them off politely but this has not been our choice of solution. The lack of a monographic study on Louise Moillon (we continue to prefer this traditional spelling) might induce readers to buy this work without asking themselves any questions first. They will perhaps purchase it, but will now be fully informed  continue

The Association du Salon du Dessin now organizes every year, at the same time as the Salon itself, a scientific colloquium which brings together the outstanding specialists in the field. After two editions devoted to collector artists, the theme of the 2008 program was drawings by sculptors.  continue

The Syndicat National des Antiquaires has just awarded its art book prize to Nicolas Régnier by Annick Lemoine. It rewards a remarkable monographic study, both erudite and pleasantly readable, which is the fruit of many long years of research and of a very subtle knowledge of the period. This publication offers many new findings on the artist’s life as well as his work.  continue

Organizing sculpture exhibitions is a difficult task as the size and weight of the works make them difficult to transport, sometimes even impossible, at other times highly unadvisable. Baroque sculpture is even harder to present outside of its context, as it generally is an integral part of it.  continue

The Kunsthaus in Zurich published the catalogue of its collections in the form of two complementary works late in 2007 and early 2008 for its different translations: the complete catalogue of paintings and sculptures and in another volume a beautiful book which assembles the museum’s masterpieces.  continue

Fortunately, the development of databases on Internet in no way hampers the publication of museum catalogues, which continue to flourish. The following is an overview of the most recent ones on French museum collections, except for the one on French drawings in Darmstadt, part of which were presented recently at the Louvre.
Catalogue of Italian paintings at the Musée du Louvre
The last concise catalogue of Italian paintings in the Louvre dates back to 1981 (a complete list of its holdings, (...)   continue

Every year, the Societe du Salon du Dessin organizes a colloquium on drawings. The ones to be held in 2008 and 2009 will be devoted to those by sculptors. We met Guilhem Scherf, head curator for the Department of Sculptures at the Musee du Louvre, who is the scientific organizer for these meetings.
What is the thread linking these colloquia?
The idea, which was suggested by Pierre Rosenberg, is to explore the characteristics of drawings by sculptors. Is there something specific about a (...)   continue

While XVIIth century French painting has often been highlighted in the past few years in several publications, these tend to reproduce the same works. The major virtue of this issue of Dossiers de l’art is to offer a new perspective on paintings found in Paris but often unpublished or rarely reproduced.  continue

By: Bruno Foucart and collected authors
A volume of texts selected by Bruno Foucart was expected in early 2008, but now Norma editions has pleasantly surprised its readers, as well as the author himself, by presenting two big volumes instead of one in a boxed set. Besides the fifty-some texts by Bruno Foucart a Mélanges has been added as a gift from his students, his friends and admirers. In leafing through the two books, it is easy to appreciate the considerable work carried out by this (...)   continue

Author: Petra ten-Doesschate Chu
The Courbet retrospective and its catalogue will not be covered in this article as both present an excellent account of current knowledge and, except for laboratory exams, do not claim to offer any new information. Their work provides a complete range of sources and includes findings by Hélène Toussaint, Jean-Luc Mayaud, Michèle Haddad and Henri Loyrette as well as interpretations by Linda Nochlin, T. J. Clark, James Rubin and Michael Fried. But the dominant (...)   continue

Cataloguing, publishing, displaying its collections as much as possible to the largest number of people is one of the major missions of any museum and also allows for unknown works to find their way back into scientific circles as Jérôme Delaplanche reminds us. This can never be repeated often enough.  continue

Author: Clémentine Gustin-Gomez
This two-volume work is the result of a Doctoral thesis submitted by the author at Paris-IV Sorbonne in June 2003. The first tome is prefaced by Marc Fumaroli (L’Académicien Charles de La Fosse et la genèse de l’art rocaille français), and covers the artist’s life and work in two long sections. His early training with the engraver François Chauveau, then his apprenticeship to Charles Le Brun, his trip to Italy (1659-1664), ending with his stay in Venice are in turn (...)   continue