Sotheby's Art at Auction 1990-91

Fülszöveg

SOTHEBY'S
Art at Auction 1990-91
Edited by Sally Prideaux
The 1990-91 season saw some works of the highest importance appear in Sotheby's salerooms. In the autumn John Constable's The Lock was sold in London. One of a group of six paintings of the River Stour in Suffolk, it took over a year to paint and resulted in overwhelming acclaim. After the painting was shown at the Royal Academy in 1824, Constable wrote to a friend 'its light cannot be put out, because it is the light of nature The language of the heart is the only universal one'. Here, Ian Fleming-Williams, a curator of this year's Constable exhibition at the Tate Gallery, explores the heart of the artist's subject matter.
Magnificent collections continued to be sold worldwide. Art at Auction looks at a number of them, including Dr Walter Amstutz's fine assemblage of Japanese prints which appeared in Tokyo in the spring. Jack Millier, his friend and adviser, and a Sotheby's consultant in Japanese art for twenty-five... Tovább

Fülszöveg

SOTHEBY'S
Art at Auction 1990-91
Edited by Sally Prideaux
The 1990-91 season saw some works of the highest importance appear in Sotheby's salerooms. In the autumn John Constable's The Lock was sold in London. One of a group of six paintings of the River Stour in Suffolk, it took over a year to paint and resulted in overwhelming acclaim. After the painting was shown at the Royal Academy in 1824, Constable wrote to a friend 'its light cannot be put out, because it is the light of nature The language of the heart is the only universal one'. Here, Ian Fleming-Williams, a curator of this year's Constable exhibition at the Tate Gallery, explores the heart of the artist's subject matter.
Magnificent collections continued to be sold worldwide. Art at Auction looks at a number of them, including Dr Walter Amstutz's fine assemblage of Japanese prints which appeared in Tokyo in the spring. Jack Millier, his friend and adviser, and a Sotheby's consultant in Japanese art for twenty-five years, reviews the collection. In December, Sotheby's in New York sold a group of oriental rugs from the J. Paul Getty Museum. They are discussed here by Ian Bennett, associate editor of Halt magazine. The French collector Jacques Garcia is also profiled, featuring his latest Louis XIV château interior in Burgundy.
London saw the sale of the most important Qajar painting to come on to the market for over twenty years: a portrait of Fath Ali Shah. Diana Scarisbrick studies the work and its links with the dazzling Persian crown jewels. The centre lor jewellery auctions continues to be Geneva, where Sotheby's broke its own record price for a diamond, selling one of the most important gemstones ever to come on the market.
Back in London, a mid thirteenth-century English bestiary rediscovered in the Duke of Northumberland's collection came up for auction. A source of great fascination and charm, the manuscript is illustrated with 112 enchanting drawings. Ann Payne of the British Library looks at the bestiary alongside others in its group.
This year saw some other interesting events, highlighted by the exhibition of some rare English silver now in the Kremlin. Many pieces had not been seen in this country since the seventeenth century Philippa Glanville of the Victoria and Albert Museum examines these, and other pieces of James I's court plate.
ISBN 0 85667 403 6
ISSN 0084-6783 L35.00/$65.00 Vissza