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5 days ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey
Hong Gyu Shin, now a New York-based gallery owner, became the first named Korean to purchase a Van Gogh when he acquired Head of a Peasant (January-March 1885) at Sotheby’s in May 2024. Shin paid $787,000 for the work—a bargain, since the estimate was £1.5m-$2.5m. Head of a Peasant has just gone on display in an exhibition of Shin’s collection in the city of Daejeon (south of Seoul), in the newly opened KAIST Museum. It is on the campus of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
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1 week ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey
Water from a hailstorm leaked into the Musée du Louvre on Saturday (3 May), almost dripping on Cimabue’s Maestà, arguably the greatest early Western European painting. Dating from 1280-85, it is the centrepiece of the exhibition A New Look at Cimabue: At the Origins of Italian Painting (22 January-12 May). I was in the gallery, noticing the drops before the guards were alerted.
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1 week ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey
On 10 May the National Gallery in London is to unveil the first full rehang of its collection since the opening of the Sainsbury Wing in 1991. The wing has been closed for just over two years, to create an enlarged and more welcoming entrance foyer. The Art Newspaper was given an early tour by Christine Riding, the director of collections and research, who has overseen the rehang. She describes her task as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.
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1 week ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey
It has just been revealed that one of Pablo Picasso’s grandchildren, Marina, owns a Van Gogh—and that she is selling it at Sotheby’s in New York on 13 May. Woman in a Wood (September-October 1882) has an estimate of $600,000-$800,000. The watercolour depicts a woman with a shawl walking by a glade near The Hague, where Van Gogh lived for nearly two years. On the reverse is a depiction of a fishing boat on the beach at the nearby coastal town of Scheveningen.
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2 weeks ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey
The National Gallery is celebrating its bicentenary with the acquisition of a most mysterious painting, an altarpiece with the Virgin and Child and two saints, dating from 1500-10. Although the subject matter is common, the icon-ography reveals that it was produced by an artist with a sense of humour. Not only do we not know the name of this master, but it is even unclear whether the artist was Netherlandish (from the Low Countries) or French.
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2 weeks ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey
One of the more surprising of Van Gogh’s still lifes is a colourful depiction of two crabs. According to an authority at London’s Natural History Museum they are both probably the same individual—and female. Paul Clark, a specialist in various decapods (ten-legged crustaceans), was able to confirm the specimen's sex because it is lying on its back, displaying a broad abdomen. The crab is a Cancer pagurus, an edible species, so Van Gogh probably bought it in a food market.
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3 weeks ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey
The British Museum’s exhibition on the Japanese master printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) will include Van Gogh’s own copy of a print which he used in a painting in homage. Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road (1 May-7 September) is to showcase the work of one of the 19th-century’s greatest Japanese artists, with over 100 prints (many from the American collector Alan Medaugh).
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3 weeks ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey |David D'Arcy
London’s Imperial War Museum owns a highly sensitive painting: one of the most important official portraits of Adolf Hitler, a work by the Nazi artist Heinrich Knirr. Last month The Art Newspaper viewed the work, which is currently off view and held on a rack in the museum’s art storeroom. In 1937 the Nazis entitled the portrait Adolf Hitler, Creator of the Third Reich and Renewer of German Art. Today, the museum now simply calls it Der Führer (The Leader).
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1 month ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey
Vincent van Gogh had conflicting emotions when he heard that his brother Theo had got engaged to Jo Bonger in December 1888. The two brothers were very close and he was delighted that Theo had found happiness. But it was this very closeness that created problems: Vincent was dependent on his brother and feared that he would lose his financial and emotional support. The wedding took place on 18 April 1889, so next week marks the anniversary.
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1 month ago | 
theartnewspaper.com | Martin Bailey
Evidence of 17th-century air pollution has helped date a rare Vermeer painting. Conservation of Young Woman seated at a Virginal has revealed the presence of feldspar particles between layers of paint. These deposits probably came from the production of Delftware ceramics in the artist’s home town. The newly conserved Young Woman seated at a Virginal has just gone on display in an exhibition of the collection of the American entrepreneur Thomas Kaplan.
