Dickinson

03/01/2023

01/01/2023

Happy New Year!

25/12/2022

Happy Christmas from the Dickinson team!

21/12/2022

As we are fast approaching Christmas, Dickinson will be closing our doors for the festive period from 6pm today and will re-open Tuesday, 3 January 2023.

We send you wishes for a Happy Christmas and thank you for your patronage and support in 2022.

We look forward to sharing exciting gallery announcements in the New Year and seeing you in our galleries and art fair stands (next up : TEFAF Maastricht, 9-19 March) in 2023!

In the meantime, enjoy a visual survey of our Top 10 posts of the past year :
1. Only one week left until Masterpiece London opens …
2. CURRENTLY ON VIEW: Dickinson New York presents ‘Visible and Tangible Form’ a selection of works by artists with ties to the International Concrete Art Movement
3. Quote of the Day: Juan Gris - ‘Cubism is not a manner but an aesthetic, and even a state of mind’
4. FINAL WEEK – It’s your last chance to see our New York exhibition ‘Picabia and the Surrealists’
5. Dickinson Recommends: ‘Francis Bacon: Man and Beast’ at Royal Academy of Arts
6. After two years of virtual fairs, we are thrilled to be returning in person to TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory, opening Thursday, 5 May
7. Due to popular demand, we are thrilled to announce the extension of our New York exhibition ‘Fanny Sanin: Progression, 1966 to Now’ until 15 April
8. Video highlight: Dan Colen’s ‘In the Ketchup’ (2014) Dickinson New York
9. In today’s Masterpiece fair highlights, a Continental diversion, featuring Jean-Etienne Liotard’s ‘Portrait of Sir Everard Fawkener (1694 – 1758)’ (c. 1753-55), a recent redisovery reognised only 2019 by the late Liotard scholar, Marcel Rothlisberger
10. We are in full fair mode with TEFAF Maastricht opening tomororw 24 June, followed quickly by Masterpiece London on 28 June

20/12/2022

FINAL TWO DAYS: ‘Treasures of Dutch and Flemish Art from Private Collections’ at Dickinson London.
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From children and adolescents to churchgoers and travellers, governors to gentry, ‘Treasures of Dutch and Flemish Art’ features a variety of portraits and figural scenes for your enjoyment.
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Walter Pompe’s (1703-1777) emotionally-charged boxwood sculpture ‘Cristo vivo’ conveys the artists extraordinary understanding of human flesh. ‘Portrait of a man, bust-length, in a fur coat’ by Ambrosius Benson (c.1495-1550) presents a range of textures, from the soft fur of the anonymous sitter’s wrap to the shadow of stubble on his chin. Gerbrand Ban’s (c.1613-1652) charming portrait of a young boy holding a tulip and a teething toy represents early childhood and Frederick Kerseboom’s (1632-1693) portrait of Sir John Langham, age 12, playing the viola da gamba, is a record of later adolescence. The show also includes portraits of the 1st Viscount Falkland, Governor General of Ireland, and Sir Richard Lee, who counted among the favourites of Queen Elizabeth I.
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Come see these and other Old Masters at 58 Jermyn Street through this Wednesday, 21 December. Gallery Hours: Mon – Fri, 9am-6pm.
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Dickinson will be closing our doors for the festive period from 6pm, Wednesday, 21 December and will re-open Tuesday, 3 January 2023.

05/12/2022

This jewel-like floral still life attributed to the Dutch artist Balthasar Van der Ast (1593 – 1657) is based on an early flower piece by Jan Brueghel the Elder, now in Frankfurt Städel Museum, (‘Still Life with Bouquet of Flowers’, c. 1610-25). Born in Middelburg, Van der Ast was among the Dutch Golden Age painters celebrated for cabinet still lifes depicting flowers and fruit. Following the death of his father in 1609, the young artist lived with his sister Maria and her husband, the successful still-life painter Ambrosius Bosschaert (1573 – 1621), whose precise manner exerted a formative influence on Van der Ast’s own style.

Over the course of his career, Van der Ast’s compositions grew in complexity, and the artist began incorporating shells, insects and exotic fruits as well as floral arrangements. He has since become known as a pioneer of ‘shell life’ painting for works such as ‘Flowers in a vase with Shells and Insects,’ c.1630 in the collection of National Gallery.

Come see this and other Old Master works in ‘Treasures of Dutch and Flemish art from private collections’ on view at Dickinson London until 21 December. Gallery Hours: Mon – Fri, 9am-6pm.

Images: Attr. Balthasar Van der Ast, ‘Flowers in a glass beaker with brambles, shell and eglantine, on a stone plinth’, c. 1618, oil on panel, 28 x 18.5 cm. (11 x 7 ¼ in.), available at Dickinson London; Jan Brueghel the Elder, ‘Still Life with Bouquet of Flowers’, c. 1610-25, Staedel Museum, Frankfurt; Balthasar Van der Ast, ‘Flowers in a vase with Shells and Insects,’ c.1630, The National Gallery, London.

04/12/2022

You don’t know what’s up and you don’t know what’s down and neither do we.’ - A MOMA security guard to Mrs. Genevieve Habert, December 1961.
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Which way is up? The revelation that Piet Mondrian’s ‘New York City 1’ (1941) was recently hung upside down in the ‘Mondrian. Evolution’ exhibition at Germany’s K20 K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen museum reminds us of an uncanny repeat of the same circumstance, with the same picture, at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art in 1945.

Today marked a similar anniversary when, on 4 December 1961, MoMA mistakenly hung Henri Matisse’s gouache ‘Le Bateau’ upside down for 47 days in the exhibition ‘The Last Works of Henri Matisse’! Neither the museum staff, nor the 116,000 visitors, nor even Pierre Matisse himself had noticed.

It took the keen eye and inquisitive nature of a stockbroker, Mrs. Genevieve Habert, to notice the discrepancy after consulting a catalog in which the work was properly oriented. The above beguiling response by a security guard didn’t deter Habert, who reported it to the , which then brought the error to light. The museum remedied the mistake immediately and Pierre Matisse declared to the Times: “Mrs. Habert should be given a medal.”

Keep your eyes open on your next museum visit!

29/11/2022

Today in ‘Dickinson Recommends’, we are visiting ‘The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This incredible exhibition brings together objects from across the globe to create a narrative that explains the importance of the Tudor reign, not just in England, but also across Western Europe and the Americas.

Viewers are encouraged to learn about the sumptuous and diverse court that surrounded the Tudor monarchs through objects in the exhibition, ranging from small-scale, private portraits to colossal Flemish tapestries. The objects are cleverly arranged so as to create conversations between one another. This can be appreciated, for instance, with the portraits of ‘Ellen Maurice’ and ‘Elizabeth I (‘The Ditchley Portrait’)’, where the viewer can see how courtiers emulated their queen’s attire and vice versa.

On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York until 8 Jan 2023.

Image credits: Designed by Unknown, ‘The Division of the Booty’ (c.1526-28), tapestry, 458 x 594 cm., Musée national de la Renaissance - Château d'Ecouen (site officiel); Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, ‘Ellen Maurice’ (1597), oil on oak, 90.6 x 74.2 cm., The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, ‘Elizabeth I (‘The Ditchley Portrait’)’ (c.1592), oil on canvas, 241.3 x 152.4 cm., National Portrait Gallery; designed and executed by Dirk Vellert, ‘Martyrdom of the seven Maccabee Brothers and their Mother’ (c.1530), glass-stained, 70.5 x 47cm., The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

28/11/2022

This compelling bust-length portrait of an anonymous sitter is characteristic of the work of Ambrosius Benson, who ranked among the finest painters active in 16th Century Bruges.
Born in Lombardy, Benson settled in Bruges in the Southern Netherlands after travelling and working in Spain; he was granted citizenship in 1518 and registered in the painters’ guild the following year. A period of training in the studio of Gerard David was cut short by a dispute over the ownership of preparatory drawings, at which point Benson established himself as an independent master.

Although Benson’s sensitive and detailed devotional images continued to be influenced by the work of David and his predecessors Van Eyck and Memling, it is his distinctive and detailed portraiture that is considered by many scholars to be his most impressive work. The fact that the sitter in this portrait, wrapped in a sumptuous fur coat, remains to be identified does not detract from its appeal; from the fineness of his white collar, to the steadiness of his gaze, it communicates a quiet dignity. The portrait was first attributed to Benson by Max Jakob Friedländer in 1948, an attribution that has recently been endorsed by current scholarship.

Come see this and other Old Master works in ‘Treasures of Dutch and Flemish art from private collections’ on view at Dickinson London until 21 December. Gallery Hours: Mon – Fri, 9am-6pm. Please see our ‘About’ page for ways to be in touch for further information.

Ambrosius Benson (c. 1495 – 1550), Portrait of a man, bust-length, in a fur coat, oil on panel, 24 x 18.5 cm. (9 ½ x 7 ¼ in.)

25/11/2022

Dickinson is delighted to announce its autumn exhibition ‘Treasures of Dutch and Flemish art from private collections’, opening this Monday, 28 November at our London gallery. The show will feature highlights by Ambrosius Benson, Jan van der Ast, and Frans Snyders, among many others.

Most of the works in the show come from British collections, and many have belonged to the same family for generations. Among the featured paintings is Ambrosius Benson’s vibrant ‘Portrait of a man, bust-length, in a fur coat’, a work first given to Benson in 1948 and more recently endorsed by scholars. On a similar, jewel-like scale is a floral still life attributed to Balthasar van der Ast, based on an early flower piece by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Sculpture is represented by a boxwood ‘Cristo Vivo’ by 18th Century Flemish master Walter Pompe, whose extremely high level of finish includes an elaborate signature and precise date.

Keep your eyes open here for further information throughout the run of the show, on view at 58 Jermyn Street until 21 December. Gallery hours: Mon – Fri, 9am – 6pm.

Images: Attr. Balthasar VAN DER AST, ‘Flowers in a glass beaker with brambles, shell and eglantine, on a stone plinth’, c.1618 (oil on panel, 28 x 18.5 cm./11 x 7 ¼ in.); Ambrosius BENSON (c.1495 – 1550), ‘Portrait of a man, bust-length, in a fur coat’ (oil on panel, 24 x 18.5 cm./9 ½ x 7 ¼ in.); Walter POMPE, ‘Cristo Vivo’, 1729 (boxwood sculpture, height: 33.3 cm./13 in.)