May 1, 2014 - Auction Central News

Van Dyck self-portrait will remain in Great Britain

Self-portrait by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, 1640-41 © Philip Mould & Co.

LONDON – The National Portrait Gallery and Art Fund’s fundraising campaign to help the gallery acquire Van Dyck’s last Self-portrait (1640-1) has been successful thanks to a major grant of £6,343,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

This substantial support follows the success of a public appeal involving 10,000 individuals donating over £1.44 million in addition to £1.2 million from two generous private trusts and £1.35 million from the Art Fund and National Portrait Gallery’s funds.

In total, £10 million has been raised to purchase the portrait, and a further £343,000 to support a national tour of the painting (including £150,000 from the Art Fund). The extraordinary generosity of so many individuals and trusts makes this one of the most successful campaigns for a work of art of the last 100 years.

The portrait will remain on display at the gallery until Aug. 31 before research and conservation work are undertaken. The painting will embark on a nationwide tour to six museums and galleries from January 2015.

The Save Van Dyck campaign originally needed to raise £12.5 million to prevent the work from going overseas, but once the application for an export licence was withdrawn in March 2014, and a revised price of £10 million was agreed, there was an improved chance of ensuring that the portrait remained on public display forever.

The portrait will embark on a three-year nationwide tour starting at Turner Contemporary, Margate before going on to Manchester Art Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.

The campaign began with an initial £1.2 million raised from the gallery and the Art Fund including a grant of £500,000 towards the acquisition from the Art Fund (with an additional £150,000 offered toward a nationwide tour of the painting) and £700,000 from the gallery’s Portrait Fund and acquisition budget.

Since then there has been a pledge of £1 million from The Monument Trust (the largest single gift to the campaign prior to the Heritage Lottery Fund grant) and a six-figure pledge from the Garfield Weston Foundation, The campaign has also received multiple five-figure gifts from an anonymous American supporter, who has significantly boosted funds at each crucial stage of the campaign.

Van Dyck’s exceptional Self-portrait (1640-1) has been in British private collections for nearly 400 years but was sold to a private collector who wished to take it abroad. The National Portrait Gallery was given an initial three months to acquire the painting, priced at £12.5 million, following a temporary Government export bar (issued on Nov. 14, 2013) to prevent it from being taken overseas. That export bar expired on Feb. 14 and was extended to July 13 before the buyer withdrew and the export bar was halted on March 26.

Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s last self-portrait is a work of huge international importance. It presents an intimate image of an artist at work, apparently in the act of painting, his arm raised in the process of applying paint to a canvas just out of sight. For today’s viewer, it conveys a sense of direct engagement with the artist as an individual, despite the passage of almost 400 years.

Born in Antwerp in 1599, Van Dyck was an artistic prodigy who worked as an assistant to Peter Paul Rubens. He came to Britain in 1632 at the invitation of King Charles I, making London his home until his death in 1641. Charles I was Van Dyck’s most famous patron, rewarding him with a knighthood and the title of Principal Painter. Van Dyck established himself at the heart of the English court, producing magnificent portraits of the royal family and many courtiers. However, beneath the shimmering surface of the court was a sense of growing unease. The late 1630s were a time of political upheaval and by the end of 1642 civil war had broken out in Scotland and England. Within a year of producing this portrait Van Dyck was dead, buried in Old St Paul’s Cathedral with the epitaph: “Anthony Van Dyck – who, while he lived, gave to many immortal life.”

Auktionsgespraeche: Ladenburger

Diese seltene Schule von Steiff mit reizvollen winzigen Details wie z.B. ein funktionierender Abakus und eine Kreidetafel. Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen.

LADENBURG, Deutschland –  Mitzuerleben wie ein Museum schließt, ist nie ein freudvolles Ereignis. Aber als Katharina Engels die Türen Ihres Puppen- und Spielzeugmuseums in Rothenburg ob der Tauber im Januar schloss, erwies sich das als der erfreuliche Höhepunkt für Ihr Lebenswerk. Über 30 Jahre lang teilte sie Ihr Fachwissen über und Zuneigung für Spielzeug mit mehr als 2 Millionen Besuchern. Jetzt war es an der Zeit, ihre Favoriten ein letztes Mal mit Sammlern zu teilen, welche diese genauso hoch schätzen würden, wie sie selbst.

Für Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen, mit welchen Engels zum Aufbau ihrer Sammlung eng zusammen arbeitete, markierte 2014 einen eigenen Meilenstein – 25 Jahre erfolgreich im Geschäft. Obwohl Auktionshäuser in den USA und Asien Interesse daran hatten, Engels Sammlung zu versteigern, wählte sie für die Durchführung des Verkaufs ihren zuverlässigen Freund Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen.

Mehr als 1.300 Posten wurden an ein wertschätzendes Publikum versteigt, darunter auch eine seltene Schule des deutschen Spielzeugherstellers Steiff. Die entzückenden Schulbänke, Lehrbücher und rundgesichtigen Schülerpuppen steigerten sich vom Eröffnungsangebot von 2.800 € auf einen Endpreis von 15.500 €.

Posten 1144 war ein atemberaubendes Puppenhaus dekoriert wie ein Wiener Kaffeehaus im Stil des Biedermeier mit gotischen Details. Das Cafe war komplett mit kuchengefüllten Glasvitrinen und Gastpuppen in ihrer original 1880er Ausstattung. Die Gebote stiegen schnell von 3.800 € auf 16.500 € Verkaufspreis.

Großes Interesse wurde für einen Humpty Dumpty Circus des in die USA ausgewanderten Spielzeugherstellers Schoenhut gezeigt. Das bunte Zelt und die dazugehörigen Figuren inklusive eines “starken Mannes”, Elefanten und Clowns brachte 8000 €. Ladenburger Eigentümer und Auktionator, Götz Seidel, war erfreut, das 25jährige Firmenjubiläum dadurch markieren, Frau Engels ein letztes Mal zu bedienen zu können. www.SpielzeugAuction.de

Auktionshaus Kaupp, Sulzburg, läutet im 20igsten Jahr ihres Bestehens mit einem zweiteiligen Jubiläumsverkauf am 27. und 28. Juni auf Schloss Sulzburg. Gegründet 1994 in Staufen, hat sich Kaupp einen Ruf als Auktionator für Gemälde von Carl Spitzweg geschaffen. Aber in jüngster Zeit haben sie auf ihren Kunst- und Antiquitätenverkäufen auch herausragende zeitgenössische Kunst angeboten.

”Kaupp Modern” am 27. Juni setzt genau das mit Arbeiten, wie beispielsweise von Lyonel Feinigers skizzenhafter “Standansicht mit Kirche” in Wasserfarben fort; einem spontanen Stück in Pastell und Tinte von Hans Hartung und dem Super-8 Film und Band “Der Tisch”, geschossen von Dietmar Kirves, eine Arbeit von Joseph Beuys und seinen Studenten in Düsseldorf, 1968, erfassend.

Das Anwesen des Barons Ruprecht Böcklin zu Böcklinsau, den letzten Besitzer des Schlosses Balthasar in Rust ist ein absoluter Höhepunkt bei “Kaupp Premium” am 28. Juni. Zahllose Möbelstücke und Sammlerobjekte aus dem Barock und frühen Barockperioden werden auf den Markt gebracht. Sie vereinigen eine jetzt schon reiche Auswahl an Handwerkskunst, Antiquitäten inklusive Jugendstil und Art Deco sowie Gemälde aus dem 16. bis 19. Jahrhundert. Kaupps zweitägiger Jubiläumsverkauf wird auch eine Auswahl von Schmuck und Uhren beinhalten, wie auch asiatische, afrikanische und ausländische Kunst. www.kaupp.de

Zur Feier ihrer 125jährigen Familiengeschichte als Auktionäre ist die Münzenhandlung Gerhard Hirsch Nachfolger in ein neues, geräumiges Quartier im Pranner-Plenum umgezogen, den früheren Sitz des bayrischen Landesparlaments in München. Das Auktionsunternehmen, welches auf Münzen, Medaillen und Altertümer spezialisiert ist, kauft und verkauft auch Goldbarren. Hirsch Eigentümerin, Dr. Francisca Bernheimer, kann ihre Traditionslinie als Auktionatorin bis zu ihrem Großvater, Konsul Otto Bernheimer, zurückverfolgen, welcher Geschäftsführer der Kunstauktion “Haus Bernheimer” war, gegründet 1864. Ihr Vater, Dr. Ludwig Bernheimer, war ebenfalls Geschäftsführer des Unternehmens.

1888 führte der Urgroßonkel von Dr. Francisca Bernheimer, Otto Helbing, seine erste Auktion durch. Leider musste seine Firma aufgrund der politischen Entwicklung am Vorabend des 2. Weltkrieges die Pforten schließen. Das Familienmitglied Gerhard Hirsch eröffnete 1953 einen gewerblichen Handel mit Antiquitäten und seltenen Münzen unter seinem eigenen Namen. Dr. Francisca Bernheimer, eine Nichte Gerhard Hirschs, übernahm das Geschäft 1982 nach dem Tod ihres Onkels. Das Unternehmen führt 4 Auktionen pro Jahr durch, dann jeweils im Februar, Mai, September und November. Für weitere Details besuchen Sie bitte www.CoinHirsch.de.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Dieses liebevoll detaillierte Wiener Cafe, nur 69x57 cm groß, Posten Nr. 1144 in den Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen, stieg vom Eröffungsgebot 3.800 € auf 16.500 €. Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen. — Dieses liebevoll detaillierte Wiener Cafe, nur 69×57 cm groß, Posten Nr. 1144 in den Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen, stieg vom Eröffungsgebot 3.800 € auf 16.500 €. Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen.

Jeder liebt Zirkus. Dieser, von Spielzeughersteller Schoenhut, wurde für 8.000 € verkauft. Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen.

Dieser eckiger Wasserkühler von Lyonel Feininger, 1955, wird bei Kaupp Moderner Verkauf erscheinen und hat einen Mindestpreis von 50.000 €. Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Auktionshaus Kaupp.

Spontan und struppig, mit eindringlichen Farben, ist diese typische Arbeit in Pastel und Tinte von Hans Hartung. Mindestpreis 50.000 €. Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Auktionshaus Kaupp.

Diese unbetitelte Bronzeskulptur von dem italienischen Transavantgarde Künstler Mimmo Paladino, ist die zweite von vier Versionen dieser geisterähnlichen Figur. Mindestpreis 13.000 €. Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Auktionshaus Kaupp.

Der griechische Künstler Jannis Kounellis, einer der Gründer der Arte Povera Bewegung, ist bekannt für seine Arbeiten mit natürlichen und industriellen Materialien. Das 1989er Werk ist entworfen aus Stahl, Glas, Kohle sowie menschlichem Haar und hat einen Mindestpreis von 40.000 €. Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Auktionshaus Kaupp.

Dieser eiserne rote und grüne Drachenteller ist das Highlight bei Kaupps Auktion asiatischer Stücke. Dieser Teller aus der Zhenghde Periode stellt einen Drachen mit 5 Klauen dar, welcher nur der Nutzung durch den Kaiser und seinen höchsten Beamten vorbehalten war. Foto mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Auktionshaus Kaupp.

Auction Talk Germany: Auction house anniversaries

The rare School set by Steiff with its delightful tiny details like a functional abacus and a chalkboard. Photo courtesy Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen.

LADENBURG, Germany – Seeing a museum close is never a happy event. But when Katharina Engels shut the door of her doll and toy museum in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in January, it turned out to be a joyous culmination of her life’s work. For 30 years she shared her expertise and affection for toys with more than 2 million visitors. Now it was time to share her favorites one last time with collectors who would treasure them as much as she had.

Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen, with whom Engels had worked closely to build her collection, is marking a milestone of its own in 2014 – 25 years in business. Although auction houses in the U.S. and Asia were interested in auctioning Engel’s collection, she chose to return to her trusted friend Ladenburger to hold the sale.

More than 1,300 lots were auctioned to an appreciative audience, among them a rare School by the German toy maker Steiff. Its charming school desks, lesson books and round-faced student dolls went from an opening bid of 2,800 euros to an end price of 15,500 euros.

Lot 1144 was a breathtaking dollhouse decorated as a Vienna Café in the Biedermeier style with gothic details. The café came complete with pastry-filled glass cases and guest dolls in their original 1880 finery. It was quickly bid from 3,800 to 16,500 euros.

Great interest was shown in a Humpty Dumpty Circus made by the German emigrant toymaker Schoenhut in the USA. The colorful tent and jointed figures, including a strong man, elephants and clowns, brought 8,000 euros.

Ladenburger owner and auctioneer Götz Seidel was pleased to mark the company’s 25th anniversary by being able to serve Engels one last time. www.SpielzeugAuction.de

Auktionshaus Kaupp, Sulzburg, rings in their 20th year in business with a two-part anniversary sale June 27 and 28 at Schloss Sulzburg. Founded in 1994 in Staufen, Kaupp has built something of a reputation for auctioning paintings by Carl Spitzweg. But more recently their art and antiques sales have featured outstanding contemporary art.

“Kaupp Modern” on June 27 continues this with works such as Lyonel Feininger’s sketchy watercolor Standansicht mit Kirche; a spontaneous pastel and ink piece by Hans Hartung; and the super-8 film and tape Der Tisch, shot by Dietmar Kirves, capturing a work by Joseph Beuys and his students in Dusseldorf, 1968.

The estate of Barons Ruprecht Böcklin zu Böcklinsau, the last owner of Schloss Balthasar in Rust, is an absolute high point in ”Kaupp Premium” on June 28. Countless pieces of furniture and collector’s objects from the Baroque and early Baroque periods will be brought to the market. They join an already rich selection of handicrafts, antiques including Jugendstil and Art Deco, and paintings from the 16th to 19th centuries.

Kaupp’s two-day anniversary sale will also include a selection of jewelry and watches, as well as Asian, African and foreign art. www.kaupp.de

In celebration of their 125 years of family history as auctioneers, Münzenhandlung Gerhard Hirsch Nachfolger has moved into spacious new quarters in the Pranner-Plenum, the site of the former Bavarian State Parliament in Munich. The auction company, which specializes in coins, medals and antiquities, also buys and sells bullion.

Hirsch owner, Dr. Francisca Bernheimer, can trace her auction lineage back to her grandfather, Konsol Otto Bernheimer, who was the director of art auction Haus Bernheimer, founded in 1864. Her father, Dr. Ludwig Bernheimer, was also a director of the company.

In 1888 the great granduncle of Dr. Francisca Bernheimer, Otto Helbing, held his first auction. But his company was forced by pre-World War II politics to close its doors. Family member Gerhard Hirsch opened a business trading in antique and rare coins in his own name in 1953. Dr. Franscia Bernheimer, a niece of Gerhard Hirsch, took over the business after her uncle’s death in 1982. The company holds four auctions a year, in February, May, September and November. For details visit www.CoinHirsch.de

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Everyone loves a circus. This one, by toymaker Schoenhut, finished at 8,000 euros. Photo courtesy Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen.

This lovingly detailed Vienna Cafe, only 69 x 57cm, lot number 1144 in the Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen, rose from an opening bid of 3,800 euros to 16,500 euros. Photo courtesy of Ladenburger Spielzeugauktionen.

This angular watercolor by Lyonel Feininger, 1955, will appear in the Kaupp Modern sale. Photo courtesy Auktionshaus Kaupp.

Spontaneous and brushy, with vivid color, is this typical pastel and ink work by Hans Hartung. Photo courtesy Auktionshaus Kaupp.

This untitled bronze sculpture by Italian Transavantgarde artist Mimmo Paladino, is the second of four versions of this ghost-like figure. Photo courtesy Auktionshaus Kaupp.

Greek artist Jannis Kounellis, one of the founders of the Arte Povera movement, is known for working with natural and industrial materials. The 1989 Assemblage is created of steel, glass, coal, and human hair. Photo courtesy Auktionshaus Kaupp.

This iron red and green Dragon Plate is a highlight of Auktionshaus Kaupp’s Asian portion of the sale. The plate from the Zhenghde Period depicts a five-clawed dragon, meaning it was reserved for use only by the Emperor and his highest-ranking officers. Photo courtesy Auktionshaus Kaupp.

Shuttle-ferrying jumbo jet reaches Johnson Space Center

A Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, flies over New York City carrying the Space Shuttle Enterprise to its final destination in April 2012. Photo by Tiffany Moy.

HOUSTON (AP) – A modified jumbo jet that transported shuttles piggyback to Florida following flights has arrived at its new home in Texas after an 8-mile highway trek.

What was known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, reached Space Center Houston after a slow-moving trip from Ellington Field.

Some giant flatbed trailers on Monday began hauling the biggest disassembled pieces of the old 747 jumbo jet that flew shuttles on cross-country trips. The last of the entourage arrived at Space Center Houston early Wednesday.

The jet will be put together and topped with a shuttle replica about 60 feet off the ground as a museum piece. The site is expected to open next year just outside NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Mission Control in Houston served as the center for the nation’s manned space flights.

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Online:

http://spacecenter.org/

AP-WF-04-30-14 1228GMT

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To them, collecting perfume bottles makes perfect ‘scents’

Hoffman 'nude dauber' perfume bottle in gray crystal. Elaborate mounting in silver metal, marcasites, and crystal jewels, the stopper crowned by crystal cameo Medusa, 1920s, 8 inches. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and Rago Arts and Auction Center.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – An eclectic collection of about 190 decades-old perfume bottles fills Kamie Schoonhoven’s Mt. Lebanon home.

The bottles come from some 15 years of collecting and her years spent as a perfume buyer for Marshall Field’s department stores in Chicago.

Her collection includes mini bottles that manufacturers gave out as samples, but they aren’t the little cylindrical vials we typically get today: These bottles are often miniature versions of the full sizes. Schoonhoven has a number of porcelain crown-top bottles with cute designs and trinkets on the lids, such as a boy and a girl kissing. One of her oldest items is a powder box from the 1920s. She spends from $10 to $100 for additions to her collection, but some serious perfume-bottle collectors pay thousands of dollars for a prized item.

“It’s really incredible,” says Schoonhoven, 69, about her hobby. “For some people, it’s going to be that they have something that nobody else has. It might be that rare.”

Schoonhoven will join more than 200 perfume-bottle collectors from around the world at the International Perfume Bottle Association 26th annual convention, held the first few days of May at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh, Downtown. This year’s theme is “Bottles That ‘Steel’ Your Heart.”

Many parts of the convention, including a live auction, are open to the public. Visitors will see an array of bottles and other perfume containers, such as those for solid perfumes, topped by figures like frogs or Ferris wheels.

Some bottles are more than two centuries old, while others are, maybe, a few decades old. Bottles are commercial, like those from Estee Lauder and Coty, and noncommercial, those that contained a fragrant concoction made at an apothecary.

“We want to invite the public in to see what they’re all about, and, maybe, they will be interested, as well,” says Teri Wirth, the association vice president. The convention is full of “jaw-dropping, beautiful bottles.”

The hobby of collecting perfume bottles draws about 60 percent women and 40 percent men, Wirth says. Some travel thousands of miles around the world looking for their treasures. Wirth recalls a bottle, once owned by a maharaja, that sold for $65,000 at an auction.

“It’s like collecting anything – it’s whatever you like,” she says. “Whatever makes your heart thump, beat or go pitter-patter.

“We’re fascinated with all of it,” Wirth says about perfume bottles, some of which maintain a trace of the perfume scent years later.

Wirth bought her first perfume bottle several years ago at an antiques auction.

“It just caught my eye,” she says about the melon-shaped bottle. “I’ve been hooked ever since. It’s a tug at your heartstrings, I guess.”

Pittsburgh makes a good location for the convention because of its rich glass history, says Anne Madarasz, the keynote speaker. She is museum division director at the Senator John Heinz History Center and director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum. Madarasz wrote the book Glass: Shattering Notions‘ and is the curator of the matching exhibit at the Strip District center, which has a few perfume bottles.

“I think it’s recognizing that this is a place that had a really long and great history related to glass,” Madarasz says. “It was a perfect place to celebrate the material.

“We’re excited to see all these collectors here, and we hope they’ll think about us in the future,” Madarasz says. “It’s a great opportunity for us to talk about the fact that we have one of the first regional collections of glass in the country.”

Association members are eager to educate convention visitors about their hobby.

“There are people all over the world who collect all sorts of different things,” Madarasz says. “It’s great when they come to Pittsburgh and we have the chance for that expertise and passion.”

The appeal of perfume bottles is the fancy factor, she says.

“Great perfume throughout time is a luxury item,” Madarasz says. “You don’t put a luxury item in an everyday (container).

“These bottles become works of art.”

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Online:

http://bit.ly/1rEK7Ks

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Information from: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, http://pghtrib.com

AP-WF-04-30-14 1414GMT

Projects approved to celebrate 2016 Indiana bicentennial

Indiana's first state capitol stands in Corydon, Ind. Indianapolis became the state capital in 1825. Image by W.marsh. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Painted bison sculptures and quilted gardens are set to pop up in honor of Indiana’s bicentennial celebration.

A state commission lead by first lady Karen Pence has approved those projects and several others to mark Indiana’s 200th anniversary of statehood in 2016.

Children’s books related to state history, art exhibits and a digital archive of old photos from albums or attics were some of the approved legacy projects.

Approved projects also include a “Bisontennial” in North Manchester, which will feature at least 15 bison sculptures painted by eighth graders. Another will decorate the Heritage Trail driving route in northern Indiana with quilted gardens memorializing state heritage.

Pence says the diversity of these projects exemplifies the strong grassroots momentum the Bicentennial Commission is seeing.

AP-WF-04-30-14 1115GMT

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Exhibition explores US artist Whistler’s London years

'Wapping,' James McNeill Whistler (American, 1860—1861), Oil on canvas, H x W: 72.1 x 101.8 cm (28 3/8 x 40 1/16 in), National Gallery of Art, John Hay Whitney Collection

WASHINGTON – A major exhibition of paintings and etchings by James McNeill Whistler opens in Washington this weekend—but don’t expect to see his mother there.

“An American in London: Whistler and the Thames” spotlights the 19th-century American artist’s many years in the British capital and his fascination with the storied river than runs through it.

Starting with his vivid depictions of life along the Thames, the show—at the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries on the National Mall—progresses to the moody, virtually abstract twilight images, or Nocturnes, that Whistler began creating around 1871.

That’s the same year he painted his “Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1,” better known as “Whistler’s Mother,” in which she appears seated and unsmiling, wearing a white bonnet, a study in Victorian prudery.

“I doubt very much we could have made an argument for having it here at the show,” said University of Glasgow art history professor Margaret MacDonald, who co-curated the exhibition with colleague Patricia de Montfort.

“It would have thrown it,” she told AFP, “and we wanted a coherent story.”

Washington is the third stop for the exhibition that explores Whistler’s vision of the Thames, its many bridges and the folks who lived and worked along its muddy banks, at a time when London —the throbbing hub of the British Empire—was undergoing dramatic change.

The show has previously appeared at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London and Addison Gallery of American Art in Massachusetts.

But it has been enhanced by pieces from the Freer’s own substantial collection of the artist’s work —a collection that grew out of Whistler’s close friendship with his most important patron, Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer, who founded the museum.

Born in a New England mill town, Whistler lived at a time of unprecedented growth and prosperity in the United States. Yet he spent little of his life in his native land.

For part of his childhood he lived in Russia, where he picked up French and discovered art while his engineer father worked on the railways.

Returning to the United States, Whistler attended the US military academy in West Point, New York, where he failed to impress as a cadet, then toiled as a draftsman, mapping the American coast line, honing skills that he would later apply to his art.

He left for France at the age of 21 to study art, then made London his adopted home.

There he gathered around him a lively social circle, and sparred with critics like the influential John Ruskin, who famously likened the American’s prolific output to “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” (Whistler sued over that, and won, but the court awarded the artist nothing more than a farthing —a quarter of a penny—in damages.)

Yet he resolutely stayed American—indeed, kept his American accent—until his death in 1903 at the age of 69, several years after France acquired the iconic portrait of his mother, which now hangs at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.

“He never gave up his nationality,” MacDonald said. “He was always a bit outside the core of London society… He said he was American. He was proud of it.”

“An American in London” runs from Saturday through August 17.

Visit the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries online at www.asia.si.edu.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

'Nocturne: Battersea Bridge,' James McNeill Whistler (American, 1872—1873), Pastel on brown paper, H x W: 18.4 x 28.1 cm (7 1/4 x 11 1/16 in), Freer Gallery of Art, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1904.64a-c — ‘Nocturne: Battersea Bridge,’ James McNeill Whistler (American, 1872—1873), Pastel on brown paper, H x W: 18.4 x 28.1 cm (7 1/4 x 11 1/16 in), Freer Gallery of Art, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1904.64a-c

'Old Battersea Bridge,' James McNeill Whistler (American, 1860—1861), Etching on paper, 1879, H x W: 20.1 x 29.5 cm (7 15/16 x 11 5/8 in), Freer Gallery of Art, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1898.370 — ‘Old Battersea Bridge,’ James McNeill Whistler (American, 1860—1861), Etching on paper, 1879, H x W: 20.1 x 29.5 cm (7 15/16 x 11 5/8 in), Freer Gallery of Art, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1898.370

'Chelsea in Ice,' James McNeill Whistler (American, 1860—1861), Oil on canvas, 1864, H x W: 18 x 24 cm (7 1/16 x 9 7/16 in), Colby College Museum of Art, The Lunder Collection — ‘Chelsea in Ice,’ James McNeill Whistler (American, 1860—1861), Oil on canvas, 1864, H x W: 18 x 24 cm (7 1/16 x 9 7/16 in), Colby College Museum of Art, The Lunder Collection

Voting opens in Whitney’s American art billboard project

NEW YORK – Want to see Roy Lichtenstein on a billboard near you? How about Cindy Sherman? Or Jasper Johns? “Art Everywhere U.S.” will make temporary use of up to 50,000 advertising displays nationwide to display American masterworks. The largely outdoor sites—which include billboards, bus shelters, trains, and buses—will feature large-scale reproductions of iconic works from the Whitney’s collection as well as selections from four other institutions: the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art. The project also involves the direct cooperation of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), artists, estates, foundations and rights agencies.

Of the 100 works submitted by these museums, half will be selected for display in August curated with the help of a public, online vote. Polls are open through May 7, and the works chosen will be announced in June.

Artists from the Whitney’s collection who are represented in Art Everywhere U.S. include: Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Burchfield, Enrique Chagoya, Chuck Close, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Jasper Johns, William H. Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Roy Lichtenstein, Glenn Ligon, Elizabeth Murray, Georgia O’Keeffe, James Rosenquist, Edward Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Joseph Stella and George Tooker.

Registered users can vote daily for their 10 favorite artworks, using their own unique log-in.

View the artworks that are in the running and vote online at: www.arteverywhereus.org.

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New S.C. museum to feature William H. Johnson artworks

William H. Johnson (born Florence, S.C., 1901-died Central Islip, N.Y., 1970), self-portrait, graphic arts print, circa 1930-1935. Smithsonian Institution, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

FLORENCE, S.C. (AP) – The new $12 million Florence County Museum is expected to open this fall with a display of works of the city’s best-known artist.

Museum director Andrew Stout tells The Morning News of Florence that the state-of-the-art museum is expected to open Oct. 9 with a three-day celebration. The museum was to open this spring but moving and construction delays moved the opening back.

The museum in downtown Florence will display hundreds of the approximately 15,000 objects in the museum’s collections.

As part of the opening celebration, the museum will display works by local artist William H. Johnson that are part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

Johnson is a black artist from Florence whose work chronicled the jazz age of the 20th century.

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Information from: Morning News, http://www.scnow.com

AP-WF-04-30-14 1243GMT

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