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'Intriguing discoveries about French art ranging from the medieval period to the late nineteenth century are published this month. We present a rediscovered stained-glass border fragment from Abbot Suger’s sanctuary at Saint-Denis, made in the early 1140s, which is now in a private collection. Elements of the border, including its style and materials, demonstrate that, originally, it formed part of this important glazing programme.
Moving on to the eighteenth century, paintings by Jean-Baptiste Greuze made for Madame de Pompadour are analysed afresh. Stylistic and technical analysis of two early compositions by the artist, ‘Simplicity’ (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth) and ‘Young shepherd holding a flower’ (Petit Palais, Paris), in conjunction with another version of the latter in a private collection, expands what is known about their provenance in a fascinating way.
An article on early nineteenth-century British press reactions to exhibitions in London of works by French artists, such as Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Baptise Wicar and Guillaune Guillon-Lethière, provides an eloquent external perspective on their work, albeit one that is often negative in tone and politically motivated.
Joséphine-Arthurine Blot was a technically accomplished yet little-known French enamellist; her achievement is acknowledged for the first time in a detailed study of a bowl (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) that depicts a perilous balloon journey made by Gaston Tissandier in 1870, at the height of the Franco-Prussian War, to deliver mail from the besieged city of Paris. Art, heroism and the creation of a cult of celebrity elide.
A wide spectrum of reviews is published in May; they cover exhibitions on medieval pocket calendars, Cimabue, Caspar David Friedrich, Futurism and art and technology before the internet, as well as the reopening of the Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand. Exhibition catalogues assessed include studies of the Groupe de Saint Luc, Jusepe de Ribera and Orphism in Paris. Books discussed include new scholarship on Nicolas Besnier, a study of private collectors in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent, c.1780–1914, and a monograph on the ceramics of Julian Stair.'