Vendredi 21 juillet 2017
Last update on 2/11/2016
Last update on 2/11/2016
The latest news in the History of Western Art from the Middle Age to the 1930's
Newsletter 14/04/2009
The Newsletter in english is not yet available. You can subscribe to the Newsletter of La Tribune de l’Art, in French. Send us an e-mail to be informed when the English Newsletter will be (...)
Subscribe to The Art Tribune 14/04/2006
Links to art history websites 14/04/2005
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS (see also in assorted sites by art historians containing articles) Apollo : The current issue of the journal is free online (must sign up) The National Gallery of Canada’s Bulletin and Annual Bulletin (1963-1985) : All the (...)
Threat of demolition for the church of Saint Jacques in Abbeville 30/05/2010
The church of Saint Jacques in Abbeville is located in a neighborhood spared by the bombings which destroyed 80% of the city in 1940. It was built in a neo-Gothic style by the architect Victor Deleforterie, a follower of Viollet-le-Duc, on the (...)
A San Giovannino Attributed to Michaelangelo Reconstructed 10/09/2013
Rarely a year, even a month, goes by without the discovery of a so called Michelangelo, be it Buonarroti or Merisi ! The readers of The Art Tribune are well aware as we regularly denounce these media scoops, often concerning works where an (...)
Frans Hals. Eye to Eye with Rembrandt, Rubens and Titian 19/04/2013
Comparing is not enough. The Haarlem exhibition on Frans Hals, an "adoptive" native son, which attempts to associate the artist with 16th century Venetian painting and also with some of his contemporaries, is a perfect illustration of these (...)
The Burning Bush by Nicolas Froment now restored 10/08/2010
The famous triptych of the Burning Bush by Nicolas Froment, painted in 1475-1476 for the funerary chapel of Roi Rene’ in the church of the Grands-Carmes at Aix-en-Provence, has resided in the Cathedrale Saint-Sauveur since the 19th century. It (...)
The destruction of France’s churches 24/05/2007
In November 2006, we spoke out against the demolition of the church in Saint-Georges-des Gardes, in Maine-et-Loire. An article in Le Figaro May 18, 2007 informs us that two other religious buildings are to be destroyed just a few kilometres away (...)
The Duke of Luynes’ {Surtout} by Froment-Meurice Acquired by the Louvre 14/06/2013
During the remarkable exhibition at the Musée de la Vie Romantique, in 2003, highlighting the Froment-Meurice family, the Surtout commissioned by the Duke of Luynes from François-Désiré Froment-Meurice was included in the catalogue but not (...)
The Cupid attributed to Michelangelo deposited at the Metropolitan Museum 23/06/2009
he cultural services of the French Embassy in the United States are located on 5th Avenue, not far from the Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Collection.
A chronicle of planned acquisitions : Poussin for Montpellier and Ingres for the Louvre 10/11/2009
We have already mentioned several times the Musée Fabre’s project to buy a fragment of a Nicolas Poussin painting for which it already owns the right side, Venus and Adonis. The two pieces had been brought together for the exhibition Poussin and (...)
Janmot’s The Torture of Mezentius Acquired by the Musée d’Orsay 25/04/2014
The Etruscan king Mezentius : "went so far even as to mix dead bodies with humans, hand to hand, face to face, as a kind of torture, thus inflicting a slow death to these beings who liquefied themselves into pus and rot, in a miserable (...)
The "Inexpensive" Beaubourg Circus Is finally... too Expensive 21/05/2013
The Beaubourg Circus is finally over. Alain Seban had once stated that "the structure of the ’Centre Pompidou mobile’ which he [had] set up [was] ’not expensive’". Today he explains that the experiment is ending "for lack of funding needed to (...)
Péristyles, the Journal of the Amis du Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy 13/05/2013
An art history journal, especially one which has been around for some time, is so rare that we would like to point out a very discreet bulletin founded in 1992 which has appeared since then at regular intervals, twice a year. The title of the (...)
Napoléon III et la reine Victoria. Une visite à l’Exposition Universelle de 1855. 15/11/2008
Among the many exhibitions vying for the public’s attention in this particularly busy fall season, the one in Compiègne is without a doubt one of the best, spectacular as well as erudite, skillfully blending history and art history. It is (...)
A Renaissance bronze collection donated to the National Gallery in Washington 09/06/2008
From 27 January to 4 May of this year, this American museum exhibited the Renaissance bronze collection belonging to Robert H. Smith. A businessman, he is president of the Charles E. Smith Company, and has been a patron for many long years of (...)
The Louis XIV sculpture returns to Versailles 30/04/2009
The return of the equestrian bronze statue of Louis XIV is excellent news.
What Lies in the Future for the Hotel-Dieu in Lyon ? 01/08/2012
The Hotel-Dieu in Lyon, built by Soufflot in the 18th century, though founded in the 12th, is one of the most beautiful and most important monuments in this city but also one of the least well known. The reason for this is that it was (...)
Free Downloading Offered by the Metropolitan Museum for its Out-of-Print Publications 15/10/2012
The Metropolitan Museum is innovating by launching MetPublications which offers free PDF downloading of a part, and eventually all, of its out-of-print publications (exhibition catalogues, colloquia proceedings, collection catalogues...). Anyone (...)
Gustave Doré, Born a Painter 14/08/2012
No man is a prophet in his own country. Despite his success as an illustrator, Gustave Doré must have often reflected on this age-old maxim. The artist thought of himself above all as a painter but he was never acknowledged as such in France (...)
From Botticelli to Titian. Masterpieces of Two Centuries of Italian Art 14/01/2010
This is the first time that such an extensive exhibition on the Italian Renaissance has ever been organized in Hungary. This type of retrospective often is cause for skepticism, as it tends to cover too wide a field on already well-known (...)
The restoration of the Hôtel Lambert goes to court before the Tribunal Administratif 06/09/2009
Louis Le Vau Hôtel Lambert, courtyard Photo : SCI Hôtel Lambert / M. Lombard This summer the Hôtel Lambert case took a surprising legal turn. The authorization permit issued by the Ministry of Culture (see news item of 23/6/09) was appealed (...)
The Dusseldorf School 22/11/2011
When German museums set up an exhibition, they usually do not do things halfway. After the sweeping retrospective on the Master of Naumburg which we discussed here, the current one on the Dusseldorf school, organized by the Kunstpalast which (...)
Jean-Léon Gérôme 12/11/2010
With the Cabanel retrospective still on in Montpellier, the Musée d’Orsay is highlighting Jean-Léon Gérôme while also presenting an exhibition on Claude Monet at the Grand Palais. This is no coincidence, simply proof that French museums are finally (...)
Death Comes to the Table by Giovanni Martinelli Acquired by Raleigh 03/03/2014
We had already pointed out the acquisition of two paintings presented at the Sarti art gallery in a Caravaggesque exhibition last year : a Daniele Crespi purchased by LACMA and an Andrea Vaccaro by the Musée Fabre in Montpellier. A third canvas (...)
Recent acquisitions of drawings by the Musée Paul-Dupuy in Toulouse 02/04/2009
The Musée Paul-Dupuy, which houses the graphic arts cabinet room in the city of Toulouse, has for many years applied an active and coherent policy for enriching its drawing collections. Purchases correspond to two main (...)
A copper by a « follower of Rembrandt » auctioned at £2.2 million 30/10/2007
It is not unusual for an anonymous work to be sold far over its original estimate. We have given some examples on
Jean Barbault (1718-1762). Le théâtre de la vie italienne. 17/06/2010
Jean Barbault remains relatively unknown despite a retrospective held in Beauvais (then Angers, Valence and Dijon) in 1974 and 1975. His fantasy figures, Italian women in local costume or resident artists at the Académie de France in Rome (...)
Exclusive Report : the Caravaggio Drawings Are in fact by Strozzi, Mignard and Elsheimer ! 09/07/2012
Articles repeated a hundred times over, thousands of tweets, the information concerning the discovery of Caravaggio’s pseudo drawings fell like a bomb in the art world, spreading its ripple effects particularly on internet. Fortunately, some (...)
The Eiffel railbridge in Bordeaux saved by proceedings for listing 29/06/2008
After having been threatened with immediate demolition by the RFF (Réseau Ferré Français-French Rail Network), this bridge which was recently abandoned has just been saved by the Ministry of Culture which has decided to institute proceedings for (...)
Bodies and Shadows. Caravaggio and European Caravaggism 13/08/2012
With the sole exception, almost forty years ago now, of the exhibition organized by Jean-Pierre Cuzin and Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée , which in fact included only French artists (or, some thought to be so at the time), there has not been a show (...)
A New Authentic Replica of Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque 12/11/2013
We are always quick to point out the pseudo-discoveries announced by the media in sensational articles so this time have carefully measured our steps before speaking out on a previously unknown work, all the more so as it is attributed to a (...)
Recent acquisitions of Symbolist works by the Musée d’Orsay 21/05/2008
The many publications and exhibitions devoted to Symbolism prove how important the movement was and the interest it has generated recently among art historians and curators.
Fundraising drive to buy a Jules Dupre painting by L’Isle-Adam 17/12/2010
Jules Dupré (1811-1889) The Surroundings in Southampton, 1835 Oil on canvas - 115 x 184 cm Private collection Photo : Musée Louis Senlecq 17/12/10 – Fundraising drive – L’Isle-Adam, Musee d’Art et d’Histoire Louis Senlecq – After the success of (...)
A Frans Hals portrait banned for export from France 08/12/2008
The Journal Officiel of last 29 October announced the decision to reject the request for an export certificate for
Saint Rufina by Velázquez returns to Sevilla 06/07/2007
Saint Rufina by Velázquez up for auction July 4 in London (see News of June 9, 2007) was acquired by a Foundation in Seville, created by Abengoa, a company specialized in waste management and renewable energy (...)
Jean-Antoine Houdon. La sculpture sensible 22/06/2010
Although sculpture is not often taken into consideration by museums, alas, Houdon is an exception to the rule. The exhibition at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier is the third one highlighting the artist in the last few years. Versailles had (...)
Louise Le Gall appointed as head of the Musée Thomas-Henry in Cherbourg 16/02/2010
A young curator and recent graduate of the Institut National du Patrimoine, Louise Le Gall has just been named as director of the Musée de Cherbourg. At the same time, she will act as head of the other municipal museums since the city is also (...)
The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection : Renaissance & Baroque 12/09/2007
We have spoken twice about the painting in the British Royal Collection attributed to Caravaggio by Sir Denis Mahon. The exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery in London, which is currently showing part of the Italian paintings and drawings of the (...)
News from the Louvre in Fukushima 17/01/2012
Our article on the exhibition to be sent by the Louvre to Fukushima was echoed in the media. We can now add more information : The exhibition is in fact a bit richer than we had originally announced and it also contains drawings ; a list dated (...)
Corinth, by Jean-Léon Gérôme, preempted by the Musée d’Orsay 05/07/2008
This strange and disturbing masterpiece has just been acquired by the Musée d’Orsay at the Sotheby’s sale in Paris on 25 June 2008 for 456,750€ (including charges).
The Hôpital Richaud, soon in ruins in the heart of Versailles 30/04/2009
Visitors to the château de Versailles who arrive at the Rive-Droite train station walk by a superb 18th century monument, the Hôpital Richaud.
Mexico at the Louvre. Masterpieces from New Spain, 17th and 18th centuries. 09/05/2013
Among the positive actions exerted by Henri Loyrette as head of the Louvre there is the undeniable effort to extend the scope of the painting and sculpture collections to previously unexplored territories. This was notably the case first for (...)
The Resurrection of Lazarus by Jean Le Clerc Acquired by the Louvre 29/10/2011
Following its appearance at an auction on 10 July 1987 at Christie’s London, then entering a private collection in New York, The Resurrection of Lazarus by Jean Le Clerc, acquired by the Louvre this year from the art dealer Richard Feigen, was (...)
The Coaches from Versailles on View at Arras 24/09/2012
We must admit : at first the partnership between Versailles and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Arras seemed to be a sensationalist operation, presumably useless and prejudicial, as are many of those initiated or approved by the president of the (...)
The Palais de la Porte Dorée threatened by a Tadashi Kawamata construction 08/10/2009
One of the most beautiful buildings from the 1930’s, the former Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens, and today the « Cité de l’Immigration » is in serious danger.
Jean-Luc Martinez, President-Director of the Louvre 03/04/2013
Although everyone was predicting Sylvie Ramond - the French Minister of Culture’s choice -, the official appointment will name instead, according to our sources, Jean-Luc Martinez, 49, as President-Director of the Louvre, during the Council of (...)
Ribera and Hubert Robert : Two Successful Fundraisers 13/01/2014
Two French museums recently succeeded in reaching their fundraising goals to acquire important works for their collections. The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes which wanted to purchase an early work by Ribera thus raised the needed 300,000€ for (...)
Two New Acquisitions for the Getty Museum 09/02/2012
The Getty has just announced the acquisition of two very different works. One is a 16th century German panel, the other an 18th century French drawing. However, both are of the finest quality. The painting, representing the Trinity surrounded (...)
No colour, just nuance ! Trompe l’œil and grisailles from Rubens to Toulouse-Lautrec 25/05/2008
Strangely enough, grisaille, the technique by which an artist works without colour, using only the resources of white and black, has been rarely studied. And yet the subject is fascinating, raising many questions about the very act of painting. (...)
