Burlington Contemporary is the Burlington Magazine’s free online platform for reviews and research on international contemporary art.
Burlington Contemporary is the Burlington Magazine’s free online platform for reviews and research on international contemporary art.
READERS OF THIS MAGAZINE will be aware that it has long condemned the disposal of works from public museums and galleries. This position has hardened since the 1980s with the emergence of a growing culture of de-accessioning, although not always from within the institutions themselves. The public perception of overstocked museums, their stores bursting with masterpieces, and the recognition that museum underfunding means shortage of display space and staff reductions have inexorably led to a call for disposal.
Two overdoors by J.-B.-M. Pierre at the Château de Menars have a provenance that goes back to Madame de Pompadour. A third in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery may also have been painted for her.
Two superb garnitures of Sèvres vases were commissioned by Louis XV in 1768 as gifts to two of his ministers. One set is identified as at Chatsworth.
A letter of 1773 by Benjamin Franklin may suggest he influenced the development of transfer painting on tiles in England.
A review of Geoffrey de Bellaigue’s new catalogue of Sèvres porcelain in the Royal Collection.
The author casts new light on Mignard’s portrait of The Marquise de Seignelay and two of her sons (1691) in the National Gallery, London, and identifies the volcano as Mont Pelée in Martinique.
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