Watteau and ‘cutting and pasting’ in the 18th century
A new book and a Watteau exhibition prove complementary in revealing an artistic world in the 18th century in which ‘cutting and pasting’ – using and re-using visual sources – was habitual
Edward Burra
Edward Burra was one of the most distinctive and imaginative figurative painters in Great Britain in the 20th century. The present exhibition at Tate Britain has many loans from private, as well as public, collections, and presents a rare opportunity to assess the work of this true eccentric
Hiroshige at the British Museum
In the world of popular prints 19th-century Japan was infinitely more colourful than the West, where almost all printed matter was monochrome.
Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone
The only previous joint exhibition of Mainie Jellett (1897–1944) and Evie Hone (1894–1955) was held in Dublin in 1924, with a rather overwhelmingly negative response. Arriving fashionably late, 101 years on, this new major exhibition of nearly 100 works on canvas, stained glass, and paper by Hone and Jellett at the National Gallery of Ireland seems likely to attract a different reaction.
Sussex Modernism
‘Sussex Modernism’ Towner, Eastbourne, 23 May–28 September 2025 Hope Wolf, Sussex Modernism, Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2025 Julian Freeman 1 ‘Sussex Modernism’, part of the exhibition, including (centre) Ivon Hitchens, Day’s Rest, Day’s Work, 1960, University of Sussex (see Pl 2); (l/h corner) Jacob Epstein, ROM, 1910, […]
Castle Howard Preserv’d
The precocious British mania for foreign recreational and educational travel made the wealthier natives of these islands the Grand Tourists par excellence. Castle Howard, in North Yorkshire, which still stands, as Horace Walpole described it, amid ‘the grandest scenes of rural magnificence’, became over several generations one of the most outstanding products of this enthusiasm for Continental and especially Italian travel.
Jenny Saville
‘Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting’ National Portrait Gallery, London, 20 June–7 September 2025 Lorraine Bacchus ‘Try and stay ignored for as long as possible.’[1] At the time Cy Twombly (1928–2011) gave this advice to Jenny Saville, she had already attracted the kind of attention that is the stuff of dreams for most […]
Edvard Munch portraits
‘A painter like Munch is rooted in the psychological with all his fibres,’ wrote the German critic Franz Servaes in the 1890s. ‘He cannot even depict a landscape without making its soul his own. For the same reasons, he is also a highly sensitive portrait painter.’
Siena
‘Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300–1350’ National Gallery, London, 8 March–22 June 2025 Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300–1350. Edited by Joanna Cannon, with Caroline Campbell and Stephan Wolohojian. National Gallery Global, London. Distributed by Yale University Press. 304 pages ISBN 9781857097160 £40 Robin Simon This is a glorious exhibition, as well displayed […]
José María Velasco
This is the first proper exhibition of the work of José María Velasco (1840–1912) in the UK and the first in the National Gallery to be devoted to a Latin American artist of the period. For anyone unfamiliar with Velasco, and that includes me, this show will come as a glorious revelation. What a painter!