review of the year THE April 2013 – March 2014 NATIONAL GALLEY THE NATIONAL GALLEY review of the year April 2013 – March 2014

published by order of the trustees of the national gallery london 2014 the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 – 5

Contents introduction

Introduction 5 The year was remarkable for major acquisitions, In 2013 we recorded over six million visitors. Director’s Foreword 6 successful exhibitions and unprecedented As attendance swells our Government grant attendance. continues to shrink, leaving us to seek support Acquisitions 8 Loans 13 Men of the Docks by George Bellows is the fi rst elsewhere. This may be helped by some new Conservation 22 painting by a North American artist to be acquired freedom from regulations granted by HM Treasury. Framing 26 by the National Gallery (although a fi ne landscape by And the formation of a public engagement Exhibitions and Display 30 George Inness preceded it as a transfer from Tate) directorate, with several new posts, the plans for Education 44 and it establishes a new course for the collection, a membership scheme and for closer working with Scientifi c Research 48 which has been widely and warmly welcomed. the National Gallery Company mean that we should Research and Publications 51 The papers of Thomas Agnew and Sons, acquired be better able to adapt to commercial opportunities for the Gallery by the National Gallery Trust, and improve the conditions of those who have Public and Private Support of the Gallery 54 constitute the most signifi cant holding of its kind worked so hard to help keep the Gallery successful. Trustees and Committees of the National Gallery Board 58 ever to be added to our archive. Both are discussed To the Director and staff, and to the Gallery’s Financial Information 58 in the Director’s Foreword. supporters, as ever, we extend our thanks. National Gallery Company Ltd 60 Painting without Brushes 62 Among this year’s exhibitions, that devoted to Veronese was, for the importance and size of mark getty (chair) its loans, the most ambitious that we have ever lance batchelor mounted since the Velázquez exhibition in 2007. gautam dalal For a full list of loans, staff publications and external Critical reception has never been more positive dexter dalwood commitments between April 2013 and March 2014, and the way in which it deepened understanding anne heseltine see www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/ michael hintze organisation/annual-review of an artist with whom we believed we were familiar was especially appreciated. This was also anya hurlbert true of the display of two paintings of the Sunfl owers john nelson by Van Gogh, which opened – with daily queues – hannah rothschild at the end of January 2014. charles sebag-montefiore monisha shah john singer caroline thomson the national gallery 6 review of the year 2013– 2014

director’s foreword

Major acquisitions by the National Gallery have partnership with the College and which hopes to for decades usually been made in response to an be able to return the painting on loan for exhibitions opportunity which was generally also an emergency in the coming years. The arrangements acknowledge – that of a national treasure which was liable to be the sentiments of alumnae – those who reluctantly sold or which had been stopped at export. Men of agreed to the need to sell it as well as those who the Docks, by contrast, was sought out – it is one of opposed this act. The College retains a lively interest the last great paintings by George Bellows available in modern and contemporary art and continues to buy – as part of a policy to extend the boundaries to honour the memory of the remarkable women of the collection. How best to display such a painting, who, in 1920, instigated the programme of annual or indeed the works by Danish, Belgian, German, exhibitions of contemporary art and spearheaded Finnish and Norwegian artists, which have been the purchase of this painting, with its rough handling, acquired over the last two decades, is a diffi cult drastic abbreviations, violent perspective and brutal question. Clearly more space is needed. But it should realism, well before New York had a Museum of not be assumed that every artist of the nineteenth and Modern Art. early twentieth century should only be displayed in This was a case of a college collection formed the company of others of the same national origin. without a gallery – the local art gallery, built in 1952 Placing Men of the Docks in a room of considerably by the National Gallery of Art for use in emergency, earlier French painting may briefl y disorient or was ceded to the college over twenty years later mislead some visitors but it demonstrates what and renamed the Maier Museum of Art in 1983.

Bellows owed to the Impressionists, who revelled The history of collecting and display is now , about 1628–30, NG3214 (see p. 63) in steam-powered transport and explored the a major research theme for the National Gallery colours of snow, and shows how close he was in which will be greatly facilitated by our other palette and handling to Manet. It is not the only major acquisition: that of the archive of the fi rm place that we can display the painting. In any case, of Thomas Agnew and Sons purchased by the Bellows must be welcome in a great collection of National Gallery Trust and presented to the Gallery European Old Masters. He never went to Europe, by them. For a century and a half Agnew’s, a fi rm but he owed more to Goya and to seventeenth- which originated making frames and selling mirrors century Spanish painting than he did to the in Manchester, was a dominant force in the London American painters with whom he is elsewhere art world and in addition to its frequent association always to be found, at least in public collections. with the National Gallery it also indirectly Men of the Docks was bought from Randolph infl uenced the Gallery’s priorities – even the colours A Man seated reading at a Table in a Lofty Room A Man seated reading at a Table College, Virginia, which made the irrevocable chosen for its walls. But the material is not only of decision to make the painting available for sale in importance for Old Master paintings but also for 2007. The Trustees and President of the College British watercolours, reproductive printmaking were pleased to be able to sell to the National and portraiture among many other subjects. Scholars Gallery, a public institution, welcoming over from associated art history departments are already a million annual visitors from North America, at work on it within our research centre. which was also prepared to enter into an academic nicholas penny Detail from Follower of Rembrandt, the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 8 – – 9 acquisitions vincent van gogh head of a peasant woman

The National Gallery owns an outstanding Provenance collection of pictures by Vincent van Gogh: four Bought by Mrs E.A. Rédelé-van der Hoeven, Laren, Holland, at Van Gogh’s studio in Nuenen after 1890 major canvases painted by the artist while in Arles (De la Faille 1939 and subsequent editions, no. 137); and Saint-Rémy, supplemented by two paintings with J. de Jonge, Holland; Sale, A. Mak van Waay, on long-term loan dating from the same period. Amsterdam, 11 May 1926, lot 43; with the Kunsthandel d’Audretsch, The Hague, by 1928, and still there This exceptional group was joined in December in 1939 (noted as being with the Kunsthandel 2013 by an important new acquisition, Van Gogh’s d’Audretsch in 1937 in Vanbeselaere 1937, p. 290, Head of a Peasant Woman of about 1884, accepted and again in 1939 in De la Faille 1939, no. 137); Justin Thannhauser, Paris; Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Stockholm, acquired from the above; Collection of Government, and allocated to the National Gallery. Mrs Hildur Nordin, Stockholm, acquired from the With its early date, the painting signifi cantly extends above in 1939; by inheritance to her son; Sotheby’s, London, 30 November 1993, lot 42; bought by Lefevre the scope of the Gallery’s representation of works Gallery, London, on behalf of a private collector; by the artist, hitherto limited to the last two years private collection, London.

of his life. One among about forty heads Van Gogh Exhibited painted in the winter of 1884–5, in the Brabant Vincent van Gogh. Utställning Anordnad till Förmän village of Nuenen, this small and direct study – för Svenska Hollandshjälpen, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; Göteborgs Konstmuseum; Malmö a depiction of a specifi c character type rather than Museum, 1946. a portrait – exemplifi es his early style and subject matter. The picture’s coarse, unpolished brushwork Literature W. Vanbeselaere, De Hollandsche Periode (1880–1885) and its dark, tarry tones evoke the hardship of rural in het Werke von Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam and labour. It introduces the fi rst fi gure painting among Antwerp 1937, pp. 290, 341, 415; J.-B. de la Faille, the Gallery’s landscapes and still lifes by the artist. Vincent van Gogh, London 1939, no. 137; C. Derkert, ‘Theory and Practice in Van Gogh’s Dutch Painting’, With all of his genres now represented in Trafalgar Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, vol. XV, nos 3–4 (1946), Square, Van Gogh’s oeuvre begins to be displayed pp. 97–120; J.-B. de la Faille, The Complete Works of in its extraordinary breadth and stature. Vincent van Gogh, London 1970, no. 137; P. Lecaldano, L’Opera pittorica completa di Van Gogh e i suoi nessi The painting arrived at the National Gallery in grafi ci, Milan 1977, no. 104, illus.; J. Hulsker, The October 2011 as a long-term loan; see The National Complete Van Gogh, Oxford 1980, no. 563; I.F. Walther Gallery Review of the Year, April 2011 – March 2012. ar and R. Metzger, Vincent van Gogh: Saemtliche Gemaelde, Cologne 1989, p. 75, illus. (as location unknown); C. Riopelle, The National Gallery Review of the Year: April 2011 – March 2012, London 2012, p. 20. Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) Head of a Peasant Woman, about 1884 Oil on canvas, 40.3 x 30.5 cm Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government and allocated to The National Gallery, 2013, NG6648 the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 10 – – 11

george bellows men of the docks

On a winter morning some dozen longshoremen orders pummelled one another for profi t and the gather on a Brooklyn pier where an ocean-going excitement of their social ‘betters’. Another theme vessel has recently docked. We are not far from soon followed: the massive construction site like Brooklyn Bridge, a tower of which is visible beyond a wound in the heart of Manhattan that would the ship’s funnel. Across the water the skyscrapers of become Pennsylvania Station. This he recorded Lower Manhattan emerge from the fog and smoke. in pictures shocking in the energy and directness Ice clogs the water’s edge but the East River is of paint application. New York was teeming with already busy with traffi c. Stamping their feet against immigrants as well, European and internal – the the cold, the workers seek day labour loading or great Southern migration had begun – and Bellows unloading the ship; one man at left, not chosen recorded their hardscrabble lives in works full of for employment, trudges away pondering how to caricatural swiftness and concision. By 1908 the feed his family. This is a monumental image of the Ohioan was acknowledged as the most brilliant mighty city awakening to its power and to the of the young generation of painters. Particularly irony of its numbing social inequalities. admired were his instinctive technical mastery of George Bellows is widely acknowledged as media and his acute social conscience. His works among the most audacious and innovative American won prizes and soon were acquired by leading painters of the fi rst quarter of the twentieth century public collections. and as an infl uential exponent of Modernism at Bellows was particularly drawn to the edges the vital moment when America began to fl ex its of the city. Numerous landscapes show the rivers muscles on the world stage. Born in Columbus, that surround New York and the intersection there Ohio, he was a star athlete at Ohio State University of nature with the works of man, railroads, piers, and, to the dismay of his provincial parents, threw bridges and tenements, all ugly. By 1912 he was over conventional prospects to become an artist. painting on the Brooklyn docks where he executed He arrived in New York in 1904, quickly the present work in the fi rst months of the year. connecting with the charismatic Robert Henri Men of the Docks is one of Bellows’s fi nal and largest (1865–1929) and the group of young painters works on urban themes. The awkwardness and around him who would come to be known as the brutality with which he paints the grey fl ank of the George Bellows (1882–1925) Ashcan School. They were dedicated to depicting ocean liner – it takes up a large proportion of the Men of the Docks, 1912 the American metropolis in all of its gritty energy picture surface – establishes that he was interested Oil on canvas, 114.3 x 161.3 cm and rampant expansiveness. not in conventional standards of beauty but in Signed at lower left: Geo Bellows 1907 Bought with a grant from the American Friends of the As early as Bellows hit on one of his great evoking on canvas something of the raw energy National Gallery, made possible by Sir Paul Getty’s fund, themes, the boxing ring, where men of the lower of the urban experience. and by private appeal, 2014, NG6649 the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 12 – – 13

The work is resolutely of its moment. According Provenance to Stephan Gregory in correspondence with this The artist; sold by him to Randolph-Macon Women’s loans College (now Randolph College), Lynchburg, VA in writer, the ship’s funnel identifi es it as belonging to 1920 for $2,500; de-accessioned by the Maier Museum, the Liverpool-based Lamport and Holt Line, which Randolph College, 2007. sailed cargo and passenger vessels from Britain and alvise vivarini South America to New York. In 1912 the company Exhibited George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings, Lithographs, virgin and child leased Brooklyn piers seven and eight from the The Gallery of Modern Art, New York, 1966, no. 27; New York Dock Company. Completed in The Paintings of George Bellows, Los Angeles County Alvise Vivarini was the last, and greatest, member 1912 Museum of Art, 1992; George Bellows, National Gallery February , Men of the Docks was Bellows’s of Art, Washington DC; The Metropolitan Museum of the only Venetian dynasty of painters to rival the lone submission that same year to the National of Art, New York; Royal Academy of Arts, London, Bellini family. His was a career of peaks and troughs: Academy of Design in New York to which he had 2012–13, no. 37. he made celebrated (now lost) contributions to the been elected the youngest Academician ever three decoration of the Great Council Hall in the Doge’s Literature years earlier. It was being discussed at least among James Huneker, ‘What is the Matter with Our Palace, but later died in penury. Alvise’s surviving fellow artists at the very time when, in mid-April National Academy?’, Harper’s Weekly, 56, 6 April paintings bear witness to an unusual talent, within 1912, the largest and best-publicised passenger liner 1912, p. 8; ‘The Spring Academy: Its Tendencies the confi nes of the pictorial formulas developed and Successes’, Craftsman, May 1912, pp. 129–30; in the world was to make its inaugural appearance Emma S. Bellows, The Paintings of George Bellows, by his father and uncle. More than any other in New York harbour. The Titanic never arrived, New York 1929: George Bellows: Paintings, Drawings, Venetian painter, he responded to the work of Lithographs, New York, 1966, no. 27; Michael Quick Antonello da Messina. Alvise’s pictures, like those of course, but Bellows surely intended his painting et al., The Paintings of George Bellows, New York 1992: to make a statement about the dark underside of the George Bellows, New York, 2012, no. 37. of Antonello, are notable for their bold outlines world of shipping and downtrodden ship workers and strong shadows. at the very moment when the supposed glamour of The National Gallery possesses one of Alvise the sea was foremost in public consciousness. cr Vivarini’s greatest portraits (NG2672), and, with this loan, we can also show a particularly lyrical example of his devotional paintings. Vivarini generally placed his images of the Virgin with her infant son in simple interiors, behind a parapet, and before an opening onto a mountainous landscape, with a curtain to their side. This painting follows the same format, but it is characteristic of the artist to have introduced some less usual details into his composition. Alvise Vivarini (living 1457; died 1503/5) Deep contrasting colours, such as Mary’s red Virgin and Child, about 1483–5 Oil on wood, 80.2 x 64.8 cm outer robe and the dark green curtain behind her, On loan from a private collection, L1158 serve to render the fi gures more three-dimensional. This also focuses attention on the interaction between mother and son, and in particular on how the Virgin’s profi le mirrors that of Christ. They are exceptionally close, although their heads do not touch. It is typical of this sensitive painter to allude to Mary’s future loss of her son, and yet also to convey the depth of her love for him in this subtle – and effective – manner. cc the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 14 – – 15

orazio gentileschi david contemplating the head of goliath

Despite having lived and worked in England likely that the larger painting in Rome was executed for over a decade, from 1626 until his death in fi rst. The naturalistic fi gure of David is monumental, 1639, Orazio Gentileschi is not represented in the despite being painted on such a small scale, and National Gallery’s permanent collection. It is thanks Gentileschi has taken great pains to depict the young to the generous loans of the magnifi cent Finding man’s hair and sheepskin with remarkable delicacy. of Moses formerly at Castle Howard and, more The picture is painted on a book-matched recently, of this extraordinary painting on lapis veneer of lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone mined lazuli that the artist now rightfully takes his place in north-eastern Afghanistan. Although unusual in alongside other leading painters working in Rome Gentileschi’s own oeuvre, painting on coloured at the dawn of the seventeenth century. stone became increasingly popular in Europe, Gentileschi was a friend and contemporary particularly in Italy, towards the end of the of Caravaggio’s in Rome. The latter artist had sixteenth century. Lapis lazuli was extremely a defi ning infl uence on Gentileschi’s works, expensive and prized for its intense colour. It is introducing him to a more naturalistic depiction particularly striking, therefore, that Gentileschi of the human form and to the use of chiaroscuro has chosen to paint over two-thirds of its surface. for dramatic lighting effects. The artist’s use of the lapis is highly sophisticated: The subject of this painting is taken from the the stone’s colour and natural markings are made Old Testament (I Samuel 17: 50–1). Instead of to represent the cloudy sky and its refl ection in showing David in action, Gentileschi has chosen to the expanse of water below. depict the victorious young man in contemplation, The work’s early history is unknown but the holding Goliath’s over-sized sword in one hand expensive support, intimate scale and the refi ned and the rock with which he has struck the giant in handling of paint all suggest that it was executed the other. This representation is in stark contrast to for a wealthy private patron. lt Gentileschi’s earlier, more Caravaggesque depiction of David in the act of slaying Goliath (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, about 1607–9). Although this painting was only recently discovered, its composition is well known and relates to two other autograph works by Gentileschi, suggesting that its design enjoyed some popularity. The fi rst, on canvas and of much greater dimensions, is in the Galleria Spada, Rome, while the second, painted on copper and closer in scale and composition to the present work, is in the Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. All three variants probably Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639) 1610 12 David contemplating the Head of Goliath, about 1612 date from about – and though a clear Oil on lapis lazuli, backed with slate, 25 x 19 cm chronology has yet to be determined, it seems On loan from a private collection, L1159 the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 16 – – 17 sir thomas lawrence charles william stewart, later sir joshua reynolds 3rd marquess of londonderry captain the honourable augustus keppel

Lawrence’s subject – the half-brother of Lord Augustus Keppel (1725–1786), son of the 2nd Castlereagh – is depicted as a hero of the Peninsular Earl of Albemarle, was a celebrated British naval War. Charles Stewart (1778–1854) joined the army commander who, at the time of his portrayal by at the age of sixteen, eager to fi ght in the Napoleonic Reynolds, had already circumnavigated the globe. wars. The following year he received a bullet in the In 1749 he sailed from Plymouth as commander of right side of his face, as a result of which both his the Mediterranean fl eet, with Reynolds, who would sight and his hearing were impaired. It is notable become a life-long friend, on board as his guest. As that Lawrence’s portrait gives no indication of a result of Keppel’s assistance Reynolds was able to any such injury. spend two years in Rome as well as visiting other In August 1808 Stewart took command Italian cities, and he made this portrait soon after of a hussar brigade in Portugal, where he was his return in 1752. commended for his bravery. Lawrence’s portrait The impressive full-length was of great shows Stewart in the dashing and glamorous signifi cance in establishing Reynolds’s career as a hussar uniform, with bearskin cap, red coat and portraitist. He suggests Keppel’s heroism not only gold-braided pelisse, his curved sword slung almost by using a dynamic, classically inspired pose, but also carelessly across his shoulder. On his breast he wears in his expressive face, turned to one side, and in the the Peninsular medal awarded following the Battle vivid setting. Placing his subject against a stormy of Talavera in 1809. Lawrence’s portrait vividly seascape the artist evokes Keppel’s position in a key evokes Stewart’s readiness for the daring and moment in British history, presenting the naval excitement of battle, suggested by the smoky commander as a hero decisively directing the action darkness behind him. In direct contrast his face around him. The portrait was to remain displayed turns towards the light falling dramatically across in Reynolds’s studio and was engraved: a patriotic his body, catching fl ickering gleams of gold Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) image, simultaneously promoting both the artist in the lavishly decorated uniform. Portrait of Lieutenant General the Hon. Charles William and his friend. 1810 Stewart, later 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, 1814 Stewart sat for Lawrence in . Two versions Oil on canvas, 129 x 103 cm Admiral Keppel was one of Reynolds’s of the portrait survive, the other slightly more On loan from the executors of the late 9th Marquess most important patrons. Among the portraits extended, signed painting is in the National Portrait of Londonderry, L1163 he commissioned was that of his mother Lady Gallery. This version bears signs of numerous changes Albemarle, made in about 1760 and today in as the artist worked. In its free, painterly execution, the National Gallery. The loan of the National Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) as well as the dynamic way in which his subject is Maritime Museum’s painting provided an Captain the Honourable Augustus Keppel, 1752–3 Oil on canvas, 239 x 147.5 cm presented as a hero in action, the work signals a new opportunity for Reynolds’s depictions of mother On loan from the National Maritime Museum, approach to portraiture. It heralds the great series of and son to be temporarily re-united in Room 34, Greenwich, London, Caird Collection, L1157 portraits that Lawrence was to make of those assembled alongside other notable portraits by the artist. sf for the Congress of Vienna in 1815, a commission for the Prince Regent who was introduced to Lawrence by Stewart himself, by then Lord Londonderry and Britain’s ambassador at the congress. sf the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 18 – – 19

the le nain brothers egon schiele children dancing danaë

The three Le Nain brothers, Antoine, Louis and left. An elderly woman looks on, apparently Austria’s leading modern artist, Gustav Klimt In fi nancial straits, however, Schiele could not Mathieu, shared a studio in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, unmoved. The children wear ragged clothes (1862–1918), showed several audacious paintings afford gold and so used cheaper brass and aluminium Paris, from the 1620s. All painted portraits and and two are barefoot, a testament to their modest at the Vienna Kunstschau of 1908, among them his paints to impart a metallic glow to his canvas. Other religious subjects, but they are best known for their social status. The scene is set before a large fi replace sensual interpretation of the myth of Danaë (private details show his admiration of the spare patterning sensitively and sympathetically painted peasant adorned by earthenware in an otherwise collection). Locked by her father in a tower, lost in of Japanese screens, while the bluish veins pulsing scenes. The brothers signed some pictures, but never unspecifi ed interior. an erotic dream, the young princess is impregnated beneath Danaë’s skin reveal Schiele’s mastery of with an identifying fi rst name or initial. Peasant scenes with children were a sub- by the god Zeus in a shower of gold. No one was naturalistic detail. Klimt knew a compliment Consequently, although specifi c groups of works specialism of the Le Nain brothers who show more infl uenced by Klimt’s works that year than the when he saw one and helped out his admirer, for can be associated with a particular hand, it is not them playing cards, making music or sitting around awestruck and ambitious Egon Schiele, only twenty example by arranging for him to show at the 1909 possible to identify to whom the hand belonged. a table (as in the Gallery’s own Woman and Five years old. Throughout 1908 and 1909 Klimt was Kunstschau. Both artists would die a decade later, The author of Children Dancing is the same as that of Children). Usually the fi gures are static, whereas the primary infl uence on Schiele’s work. Indeed, in 1918, the year of Austria’s defeat in the First other small Le Nain paintings on copper such as the in Children Dancing some respond to the music, for a time the younger artist brazenly called World War and the dissolution of the Austro- Gallery’s Woman and Five Children (NG1425) whom resulting in a more animated composition. Here himself the ‘Silver Klimt’ and many of his works Hungarian Empire. some identify as Antoine. The copper support adds the delicate, somewhat self-conscious, step of the unapologetically paraphrased the master’s, none During the run of the exhibition Facing the to the picture’s vibrancy and luminosity. girl is contrasted with the clumsier tread of the boys. more so than his own Danaë of 1909. Her angular Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 (see pp. 36–7), In Children Dancing six boys and girls of varying Yet the humour does not detract from the quiet pose is a variant on Klimt’s, as is the fl at, decorative this generous loan alerted visitors to the permanent ages dance to the tune of an older boy playing a dignity of the scene, something characteristic patterning that animates the canvas; she too collection to the marvels of creativity that fl ourished wooden fl ute, who frames the composition at the of the Le Nain brothers. lp abandons herself to erotic reverie. In his depiction briefl y, brilliantly, in Vienna in the early twentieth of the coins that penetrate her recumbent, nude century. It was the fi rst work by Schiele ever to form, Klimt used real – and expensive – gold leaf. hang there. cr

The Le Nain Brothers: Antoine (about 1600–1648), Egon Schiele (1890–1918) Louis (about 1603–1648), Danaë, 1909 Mathieu (about 1607–1677) Oil and metallic paint on canvas, Children Dancing, 1642 80 x 125.4 cm Oil on copper, 30.5 x 38.7 cm On loan from the Lewis Collection, On loan from a private collection, L1156 L1153 the national gallery 20 review of the year 2013– 2014

william nicholson the hill above harlech

William Nicholson, a portrait painter by living and composition recall the artist’s seminal views and arguably one of the greatest still-life artists of of the South Downs painted at Rottingdean from the twentieth century, was also a landscape painter 1909 to 1914. The whole is executed in a subdued of remarkable economy of vision. His reduction of palette, the brightest of the greens reserved for the the terrain to its simplest form, patently modernist foreground fi elds, a duller grey-green used for the in outlook, complements the exploration of a plain. Flat areas of colour are interspersed with long new pictorial language by the Impressionists and fl uid strokes of the brush evoking the dry-stone Post-Impressionists, alongside whose paintings walls. The smooth handling is broken only once in The Hill above Harlech was hung. the white impasto used to convey the intense light In 1915, while Nicholson was in India on a on the sea. The pervading light is silvery, possibly commission to paint a portrait of the then Viceroy, that of an unseen moon, or perhaps a watery sun Charles Hardinge (1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst), which struggles to break through the grey clouds. his wife Mabel Pryde took a house, Llys Bach in But whatever the source, the roof of a small house Harlech, North Wales. When Nicholson later joined to the right of the castle is lit up with a gleam of his family, he made this view from above the town, white, recalling Nicholson’s brilliant refl ections in despite wartime restrictions forbidding the painting the silver, glass and lustreware of his still-life paintings. of landscapes. The cliff to which the town and castle The loan was the fi rst in a series of annual cling looks out over Tremadog Bay towards the exchanges between Tate Britain and the National mountains of Snowdonia and the Lleyn Peninsula, Gallery, allowing both institutions to deepen their which merge into the silver-grey sky. Both handling displays of British art. sh , 1434, NG186 (see p. 63) ni Portrait ni The Arnolfi

William Nicholson (1872–1949) The Hill above Harlech, about 1917 Oil on canvas, 53.7 x 59.4 cm On loan from Tate: Purchased with assistance from the Knapping Fund, 1968, L1160 Detail from Jan van Eyck, the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 22 – – 23 conservation the restoration of rembrandt’s portrait of frederick rihel on horseback

When Rembrandt’s Portrait of Frederick Rihel on Comparatively little technical investigation Horseback – or as it was known then, an Equestrian was undertaken at that time; primarily some Portrait – was acquired by the National Gallery in infrared photography and a few X-radiographic January 1960, it went more or less directly into the details of what might be loosely described as conservation studios. The glue paste lining was ‘characteristic’ impasto-rich handling in the failing, with its ‘original canvas and paint buckling sitter’s face and the stirrup. away from the lining canvas’, while the paint itself The picture was apparently diffi cult to saturate was described as being ‘very much worn’ in the evenly when it was varnished during that treatment, background and suffering from a ‘general wearing presumably due to a combination of its differing from over-cleaning’. The restoration was very rapidly paint textures and absorbencies – the latter in part done, perhaps spurred by the wish to place the perhaps a legacy of earlier partial cleanings and new acquisition on public view as soon as possible, over-cleaning. As a result a considerable amount of and was completed by the spring of that year. linseed oil was added to its synthetic varnish in order to enhance its saturating qualities. The combination of this oil with the synthetic resin led to a rapid breakdown of that varnish, which became both very foggy and yellow. In recent years the degradation of the varnish had become severe enough to compromise the painting’s essential legibility. This fact, together with the Gallery’s planning for an exhibition dedicated to late works by Rembrandt and more recent technical discoveries made about the picture, contributed to the decision to undertake its restoration, which began towards the end of 2010. The painting had been examined in 1988 within the Gallery’s landmark technical study – Art in the Making: Rembrandt – a project undertaken jointly by members of the Conservation, Curatorial and Rembrandt (1606–1669) Scientifi c departments. Again working without a Portrait of Frederick Rihel on Horseback, probably 1663 full X-radiograph, the authors nonetheless identifi ed Oil on canvas, 294.5 x 241 cm technical features fi rmly associated with later works Bought with a special grant and contributions from The Art Fund and The Pilgrim Trust, 1959, NG6300 by Rembrandt, such as the dark brown ‘quartz-type’ The painting is shown before (opposite) and after ground seemingly unique to his studio, as well as (above) restoration. the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 24 – – 25

Rembrandt’s studio, the present work is the only the highly worked impasto of the subject’s head known example of this being done in the context and sleeve, have stimulated considerable debate of a commissioned portrait. The Gallery’s curator of about how the studio functioned in Rembrandt’s Dutch paintings, Marjorie Wieseman, explored the later years. For some scholars this has been implications of that drastic change of image, or reuse indicative of the participation of studio assistants; of canvas, in the National Gallery Technical Bulletin for others, of the expressive range of touch Volume 31 (2010). characteristic of Rembrandt in his later years. This new understanding of the painting’s genesis These and other ideas will no doubt be tested in has been vital for the recent restoration. The the context of the exhibition Rembrandt: The Late ‘general wearing’ identifi ed at acquisition could Works, opening in October 2014, when the now be understood as the misguided over-cleaning discussion can be conducted around a painting of the more vulnerable parts of Rembrandt’s second that has been made more visible and legible. lk composition, perhaps led in part by the continued presence of the paint texture of elements of the fi rst. The abrasion is especially evident in the lower, Paintings cleaned and restored in the darker part of the picture. Such damage might easily Conservation Department 2013–2014 have occurred early within the painting’s history, Dietrich The Wandering Musicians, NG205 Italian, Ferrarese The Conversion of Saint Paul, NG73 when the more thinly applied browns and blacks of Italian, Umbrian or Roman The Virgin and Child in a the second composition would have been much less Mandorla with Cherubim, NG702 able to withstand some of the harsher materials often Workshop of the Master of 1518 The Magdalen, NG719 Giovanni Francesco da Rimini The Virgin and Child with X-radiograph revealing the original composition of a man encountered in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Two Angels, NG2118 standing in a landscape beneath the equestrian portrait. restoration practice. The initial over-cleaning has Schweickhardt Cattle, NG1878 also had an unfortunate knock-on effect in that Possibly by Titian The Music Lesson, NG3 Veronese The Adoration of the Kings, NG268 subsequent restorations resulted in a build up of older varnishes within the over-cleaned areas, characterising the signifi cant colour changes, which presumably in an attempt to compensate for the have resulted from degradation of smalt and lake damage. This left the image compromised by pigments. Such alterations had major implications unintended material visible both above and for our understanding of the larger colour and tonal below the completed painting. relationships intended within the composition. The present restoration, therefore, has been In 2008, however, a comprehensive largely concerned with the reduction of the visual X-radiograph revealed the surprising discovery ‘noise’ or ‘static’ brought about by the painting’s of another composition beneath the present image: unfortunate treatment history – all the more a man standing within a landscape, orientated at 90 important in the context of an image where much degrees to the fi nal composition. The second portrait of the original richness of colour has been reduced was begun directly over the fi rst, with no intermediary by irreversible pigment change. Even within such re-grounding, so the texture of the initial work is circumstances, however, the boldness of both the still apparent in parts of the completed image. This composition and execution remains remarkable change is fascinating on at least two levels. A life-size within this unusual, ambitious picture. The range equestrian portrait of a commoner is itself highly of fi nish and handling, including passages as diverse

unusual for Dutch art. Furthermore, although the as the vigorous blocking-in of the horse’s head, Details of the horse’s head, distant fi gure and the subject’s reuse of canvases was fairly usual within the cursory handling of the distant fi gures, and sleeve show Rembrandt’s extraordinary breadth of handling. the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 26 – – 27 framing reframing veronese’s adoration of the kings

During the recent restoration of Veronese’s Its colour scheme of red gold and blue as well as Adoration of the Kings additions to the sides of the the fl owing golden arabesque is characteristic of canvas were removed. It became apparent that the the second half of the sixteenth century. While the old frame, which was commissioned under Charles frame is busy and detailed when closely examined, Eastlake in 1856, would no longer fi t without major the overall effect provides a simple complement resizing. Furthermore when it was fi rst made it was to the painted composition. the wrong size and had been greatly disfi gured with The old back frame would not have been additional corner strips. The framing of this painting strong enough to support itself, and so the sound had long been considered inadequate; in 1967 the ornamental sections of the original were reassembled attempt was made and abandoned to design an on to a new wooden structure. About half of the elaborate altarpiece frame and in 1991 a simple wooden frame was made, but soon discarded. The Gallery’s preferred approach nowadays would be to look for an appropriate frame contemporary with the picture and fi tting in style. With a painting of 3.5 x 3.2 metres, however, this was almost out of the question. An opportunity arose when we were offered the dilapidated remains of a large Italian late sixteenth-century frame. The original surface of the frame was only preserved for about 70 centimetres at the corner of one of the long sides. The other parts were, to varying degrees, damaged by insects and water. Some sections were without any structural integrity and could not be saved, literally crumbling to dust. The viable fragments were used to create a frame for The Adoration of the Kings. The new ‘cassetta’ frame is about a third larger than the original, but the continuous carved and painted pattern is well suited for the size. The design is derived from classical antiquity, with a profi le similar to the entablature of the architectural surrounds found on Roman doorways or funeral Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) The Adoration of the Kings, 1573 monuments. The carved pearl, the fl uted top edge Oil on canvas, 355.6 x 320 cm and the repeated leaf pattern are also familiar. The dilapidated pieces of the newly purchased frame The National Gallery, London, NG268 the national gallery 28 review of the year 2013– 2014

carved elements could be supplied from the original. The blend of old and new with careful With roughly 80 per cent of newly fi nished surface, preservation of visible woodworm damage and this work cannot be truly described as conservation irregularities of the original was the work of Amanda but as a reconstruction. Nevertheless, the character Dickson, one of a small number of highly skilled and feel of the frame are dictated by the original freelance specialists. The bottom 70 centimetres remains. No completely new frame could ever of the right-hand side supplied the sample for look as authentic as this. the surface of the rest of the frame. The purchase of the original fragments as well as the laborious reconstruction was made possible by the generous support of James and Clare Kirkman. ps

Paintings reframed in 2013–2014

Framed with newly acquired antique frames Bronzino The Madonna and Child with Saints, NG5280 Ter Brugghen A Man playing a Lute, NG6347 Corot Italian Woman, or Woman with Yellow Sleeve (L’Italienne), NG6620 Crivelli Saint Catherine of Alexandria, NG907.1 Crivelli Saint Mary Magdalene, NG907.2 Degas Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, NG4121 Ercole de’ Roberti The Institution of the Eucharist, NG1127 Ercole de’ Roberti The Israelites gathering Manna, NG1217 Liss The Fall of Phaeton, NG6641 Moroni The Tailor (‘Il Tagliapanni’), NG697 Workshop of the Master of 1518 The Magdalen, NG719 Palma Vecchio Portrait of a Poet, NG636 Poussin Nymph with Satyrs, NG91 Possibly by Titian The Music Lesson, NG3 Veronese The Adoration of the Kings, NG268 Veronese The Vision of Saint Helena, NG1041 Zurbarán Saint Francis in Meditation, NG5655

Framed from Gallery stock Schiavone The Pietà, NG630.6

Frame reproductions

Bellows Men of the Docks, NG6649 , about 1491/2–9 and 1506–8, NG1093 (see p. 63) Ruisdael A Panoramic View of Amsterdam looking towards the IJ, L1052

Supporters 2013–2014

Mr L. Chase Mr Juan Corbella

Society of Dilettanti Charitable Trust Fund of the Rocks The Virgin James & Clare Kirkman Mr & Mrs Walter Marais The Mercers’ Company

From top to bottom Rotting fragment from the newly purchased frame; work in progress: corner detail of the reconstructed frame. Detail from Leonardo da Vinci, Detail from Leonardo da Vinci, the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 30 – – 31 exhibitions birth of a collection: masterpieces from the barber institute of fine arts 22 may – 1 september 2013

This exhibition formed part of an extensive The exhibition also included a display case programme of displays and events that celebrated of archival materials, which focused on the story the eightieth anniversary of the foundation of the of Bodkin’s purchase of Nicolas Poussin’s Tancred Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of and Erminia in June 1938 from Sidney Sabin, the Birmingham. In addition, four major portraits from business partner of Bond Street dealer Frank Sabin. the National Gallery’s collection – by Rembrandt, The painting’s attribution to Poussin was almost Lucas van Leyden, Francisco de Goya and Paul immediately challenged by the art historian Anthony Cézanne – were loaned to the Institute and during Blunt. Bodkin, however, was able to show that the Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665) Tancred and Erminia, 2013 the two organisations entered into a formal painting could be traced back to the seventeenth about 1634 research partnership (see p. 52). century, when it was owned by the painter Sir James Oil on canvas, 75.5 x 99.7 cm The Barber Institute was founded in December Thornhill, as recorded in an engraving of 1734 The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham 1932 by Lady Barber (1869–1933), widow of the made after the painting by Gerard van der Gucht late Sir Henry Barber, Bt, a prominent Birmingham (1696–1776), which was displayed in the exhibition. lawyer and businessman. It was funded by the bequest Other highlights included Joseph Mallord of her substantial fortune to the Henry Barber Trust William Turner’s painting The Sun rising through the following year. The Barber was to be a centre of Vapour, a slightly smaller rendering of the similarly excellence ‘for the study and encouragement of art titled painting of before 1807 in the National Gallery and music’ and the National Gallery was expressly (NG479), which Turner appears to have produced stated to be one of the two models for its art two years later, probably in response to a request collection (the other being the Wallace Collection). from one of his patrons. It was purchased for the The exhibition displayed the fi rst twelve Barber Institute in 1937 for £1,350. Also displayed paintings acquired for the Henry Barber Trustees was the very fi rst painting Bodkin acquired, Nicolas by Professor Thomas Bodkin, the fi rst director Lancret’s Lovers in a Landscape (The Turtle Doves). (1935–52), and details of the costs of each were Among the earliest paintings on show was the very recorded on the exhibition labels. These paintings rare small painting by Simone Martini, representing were purchased while the Barber Institute building Saint John the Evangelist, originally the right-hand 1936 9 Joseph Mallord William was being constructed ( – ). During this period, panel of a triptych including Christ and the Virgin Turner (1775–1851) most of the paintings were loaned to and displayed Mary. It was purchased by Bodkin for £4,500 in The Sun rising through or stored at the National Gallery. Gallery and works 1938. The latest of the works shown was Edouard Vapour, about 1809 2013 Oil on canvas, 69.2 x 101.6 cm were reunited in the the autumn of for the Manet’s large full-length portrait of the painter The Barber Institute of fi rst time in over seventy years. Carolus-Duran, which he left unfi nished. sf Fine Arts, Birmingham the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 32 – – 33 michael landy: saints alive 23 may – 24 november 2013

Standing at over three metres high, Michael Landy’s Saint Jerome was a startling sight. Made of recycled junk and sections of fi breglass, he loomed high over exhibition visitors. Then, at the touch of a foot pedal, he would beat himself on the chest, loudly and violently, with the rock that he is often shown holding in Old Master paintings. Landy’s exhibition, Saints Alive, was the culmination of his two-year period as Rootstein Hopkins Associate Artist, a scheme whereby leading contemporary artists are invited to make a response to the Gallery’s collection. Alongside Jerome stood Multi-Saint, a sculpture that combined the attributes of various different saints to create a bizarre hybrid. The eyes of Saint Michael Landy at work in his studio at the National Gallery Lucy wiggled about on a plate; a set of scales, referring to Saint Michael, in which two little human souls were weighed, started to move; a gridiron glowed as life-size torso on a spring, that was repeatedly if it was red hot, alluding to the martyrdom of Saint battered by a pointing fi nger, an allusion to the Lawrence; and a sword repeatedly bashed the skull Gospel story of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas. of Saint Peter Martyr. Saint Francis Lucky Dip was Finally, there was a Saint Francis of Assisi Collection a large hollowed body of Saint Francis of Assisi. Box. Visitors would drop a donation into the slot When activated, a grab hook, similar to those found and the saint would beat himself with his crucifi x. in fairground sideshows, dropped down into the A selection of Landy’s preparatory drawings and body and – if you were lucky – came out with collages was displayed in the foyer, along with a free a Saint Francis T-shirt, a reference to the story leafl et that provided details of the paintings to which of the saint giving away all of his worldly goods. he had referred and their location in the Gallery. Spin the Saint Catherine Wheel and Win the Crown This exhibition provided a wonderful opportunity of Martyrdom was a huge wheel with inscriptions to make accessible a subject that contemporary around its edge, detailing episodes from the legend audiences fi nd diffi cult, remote and even irrelevant of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Visitors were – namely, the lives of the saints. encouraged to spin the wheel and learn their Reaction was overwhelmingly positive. The imagined fate from reading the text where it Daily Telegraph felt that Landy was ‘an inspired stopped. The sculpture of Saint Apollonia was choice’ to undertake this project and the Sunday another giant, nearly four metres tall. Landy’s take Times named Saints Alive its show of the year. In the on her legend represents the saint being defaced by Guardian, Adrian Searle wrote that ‘from Saint Lucy being repeatedly hit with the enormous pair of pliers plucking out her eyes to Saint Apollonia bashing in with which she was tortured by having her teeth her teeth, Michael Landy’s mechanical marvels are pulled out. Doubting Thomas consisted of an over a destructive delight’. cw Installation view with Multi-Saint (left) and Saint Jerome (right) the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 34 – – 35

vermeer and music: the art of love and leisure 26 june – 8 september 2013

In 2012–13, the National Gallery enjoyed the and the connotations of the various musical motifs exceptional loan from Kenwood House of Johannes seen in paintings. The display highlighted treasures Vermeer’s evocative late work, The Guitar Player. of the Gallery’s permanent collection, augmented The painting’s extreme delicacy – the unlined by a few key loans. To give visitors a visceral seventeenth-century canvas is still held on its understanding of the role of music in everyday original wooden strainer – has prevented it from life, rare musical instruments of the period were appearing in any of the popular Vermeer exhibitions juxtaposed with the paintings. In addition, members held worldwide in recent years. The Guitar Player of the Academy of Ancient Music performed is virtually identical in size, date and theme to the seventeenth-century music within the exhibition Gallery’s own two paintings by Vermeer, Young space, so that modern-day visitors could experience Woman seated at a Virginal and Young Woman standing the paintings much as their ancestors once did. at a Virginal. The opportunity to display these three The inclusion of a musical instrument in a related paintings together inspired the Gallery’s portrait could signify the sitter’s particular interest summer exhibition, Vermeer and Music: The Art or simply suggest a degree of cultural refi nement. of Love and Leisure. Musical references in still-life paintings, on the The exhibition contextualised Vermeer’s works other hand, are typically found in a vanitas context: by focusing on the theme of music in seventeenth- as music only exists in the moment of its playing, century Dutch paintings: the many aspects of music it presents an eloquent analogy to the transience as a leisure pursuit enjoyed by well-to-do citizens of human existence. But in seventeenth-century Dutch painting music was most often – and most pleasurably – incorporated into everyday scenes Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) of domestic life. During this period, musical The Guitar Player, about 1672 Oil on canvas, 53 x 46.3 cm performances typically took place within the home, English Heritage, The Iveagh with friends and family all joining in: a ‘concert’ Bequest (Kenwood) was an active, shared experience, and the imagery joyfully refl ects this. Music lessons or intimate duets provided a perfect opportunity for young men and women to conduct a courtship. As the songbooks But Dutch painters also explored the more fi ngerprints, brush hairs and dust embedded in included in the exhibition demonstrated, the most contemplative and meditative aspects of solo the paint offered a glimpse into the studio practice popular songs of the day dealt with love and youthful performance, and no one did this more skilfully of this enigmatic artist. amusements, often in a humorous or risqué fashion. or more effectively than Johannes Vermeer. Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure, The fi nal room of the exhibition displayed and the residency of the Academy of Ancient Music, the results of a comparative technical examination were generously supported by The Hata Stichting Installation view showing paintings by Vermeer displayed undertaken by the Gallery’s Scientifi c Department Foundation, The Blavatnik Family Foundation, Susan with musical instruments, including a seventeenth-century Venetian lute (Victoria and Albert Museum) made from ivory of four paintings by Vermeer, which shed light on and John Singer, The Embassy of the Kingdom of and other costly materials. his materials and techniques. Enlarged images of the Netherlands and Sir Vernon and Lady Ellis. mew the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 36 – – 37 facing the modern: the portrait in vienna 1900 9 october 2013 – 12 january 2014

Facing the Modern looked at one of the most previous century. In portraits from the 1830s complex, contradictory and creative milieus of onwards, the exhibition’s great themes were the early twentieth century, Vienna in the years adumbrated: psychological realism, the inescapable of nervous splendour before the extinction of the presence of the Emperor, Jewish emancipation, Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. It examined a the cult of death, the cult of genius – Beethoven’s specifi c aspect of Viennese art, the portrait, on the death mask was the fi rst work to confront visitors – premise that this was the genre most acutely attuned and the image of the insouciant society doyenne. to the Viennese sense of self. Here, we would be The exhibition that followed proposed a able to trace the ways in which the city’s inhabitants revisionist reading of Vienna 1900, locating it presented their images, their aspirations, and – within these traditions – a novel ‘take’ in itself – whether meaning to or not – their uncertainties, but showing it, even in its most elegant and soigné as they bid to secure status in a volatile world. aspects, to be buffeted by competing social, Most studies tend to see the wide-ranging cultural economic, ethnic and psychological currents phenomena we group under the rubric ‘Vienna 1900’ whose roots lay early in the nineteenth century. as a radical rupture with the past. Facing the Modern It began with images of marriage, the family

began unexpectedly, however, with the evocation and childhood. Among the masterpieces was Egon Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) of a 1905 display at Vienna’s Galerie Miethke of the Schiele’s haunting image of his imaginary family, Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl, The Family (Self Portrait) of 1918. Little-known artists 1917–18 Oil on canvas, 128 x 128 cm were introduced as well, including Broncia Koller Belvedere, Vienna, Donated and Richard Gerstl, whose portrait of The Sisters by Vita and Gustav Künstler Karoline and Pauline Fey is a ghostlike evocation of the fi lial bond. Gerstl was a recurring presence in the exhibition, the brilliant, anarchic youth Anton Romako, Gustav Klimt and Oskar Klimt’s chic young Ria Munk III of 1917–18, whose suicide at the age of 25 deprived the city Kokoschka commanded the space; so too did in blooming health fi ve years after her suicide, of the next generation’s artistic genius. awkward, angular portraits by the composer and faced off from opposite walls. The fi nal image of A room of self portraits followed. These were self-taught painter Arnold Schönberg, of whom the exhibition was no less haunted. Klimt’s Portrait artists’ calling cards; they told you what you might one early critic observed that he broke with the of Amalie Zuckerkandl stood unfi nished on his easel expect when you chose the tortured Schiele to tired old prejudice that a portrait should look when he died in 1918, a radiant image of one of paint you as opposed to the worldly Anselm like its sitter. Many of those sitters were both Vienna’s pre-eminent society hostesses. Twenty- Feuerbach. The central room was devoted to the famous and Jewish, and it was a shock to see three years later she would disappear into the New Viennese, coming of age and to prosperity in how contemporary criticism of avant-garde art, Nazi death camps. fi n-de-siècle Vienna. Here, works by Hans Makart, associated with Jewish patronage, could easily The guest curator was Gemma Blackshaw of tip over into anti-Semitic rant. Plymouth University, a leading fi gure among the The next room contained only images of young scholars of Vienna 1900 who are rewriting Richard Gerstl (1883–1908) the dead and dying. Gustav Mahler’s death mask the way we think about this astonishing, endlessly The Sisters Karoline and Pauline Fey, 1905 1899 Oil on canvas, 175 x 150 cm presided, while Gyula Benczúr’s posthumous debated, cultural moment. We are grateful to Belvedere, Vienna image of the assassinated Empress Elisabeth and Credit Suisse for supporting this exhibition. cr the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 38 – – 39 strange beauty: masters of the german renaissance 19 february – 11 may 2014

This collection-based exhibition in the Sainsbury Among the pictures retained were a number of generously lent by the Ashmolean Museum. Wing took a fresh look at the German Renaissance panels and fragments from a suite of altarpieces at It was shown between two paintings in the Gallery’s paintings in the National Gallery. It was designed the Benedictine Abbey of Liesborn, commissioned collection by Albrecht Altdorfer and Wolf Huber to provoke questions about the striking changes in in or after 1465. The high altarpiece, which is now representing Christ taking Leave of his Mother, which how these images have been perceived throughout divided between London and Münster, was feature similarly expressive depictions of the Virgin their history. Some viewers have considered them reconstructed for the exhibition, with the latter Mary. An exceptional range of prints and drawings to be excessive or even ugly, particularly in relation fragments represented through photographs. was kindly lent by the British Museum, including to those of the Italian Renaissance. How did such This was an opportunity to view the extent of this a study by Albrecht Dürer for his great engraving opinions shape the development of our national large work and to test modern scholars’ theories Melancholia (displayed alongside) and Altdorfer’s collections in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, concerning the composition of its elements. extraordinarily inventive small representation and should this affect how we value these works The exhibition also highlighted the ways in of Saint Christopher carrying the Infant Christ. today? In the fi nal room visitors were asked to which the paintings, drawings and prints of German The exhibition was co-curated with Dr Jeanne consider these questions themselves, and invited artists were valued in the sixteenth century for qualities Nuechterlein (University of York), assisted by the to record their own responses. such as expression and inventiveness, and examined AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award student, Visitors walked into the exhibition through sixteenth-century concepts of nature and beauty in Nicola Sinclair, and by the current Art Fund screens reproducing the display of the Angerstein the light of their work. Outstanding loans included Curatorial Assistants, Eloise Donnelly and Helen Collection, demonstrating the range of works at the Matthias Grünewald’s vivid drawing of a grieving Hillyard. It was supported through the generosity National Gallery’s initiation in 1824. Two of the fi rst woman, the only work by the artist in the UK, of The Hans K. Rausing Trust. sf German paintings to enter the Gallery were by the eighteenth-century artists Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich and Heinrich Wilhelm Schweickhardt, who were skilled in the imitation of seventeenth-century Dutch painters; rarely displayed, both works were restored for the exhibition. By contrast, early German works lay outside the traditional canon, particularly the more expressive fi fteenth- and sixteenth-century paintings with their graphic representations of the sufferings of Christ. One example, displayed in the second room of the exhibition, was the Crucifi xion panel by the Master of the Aachen Altarpiece (about 1490–5), which became the second German picture to enter the 1847 Above Matthias Grünewald (about 1470–1528) collection in . Half of this room was devoted An Elderly Woman with Clasped Hands, about 1520 to the unusual story of the Gallery’s acquisition of Charcoal or black chalk on paper, 37.7 x 23.6 cm the Krüger Collection of largely fi fteenth-century Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 1850 Westphalian paintings in the s and the sale and Opposite Installation view showing the dispersal of many of its works only a few years later. reconstruction of the Liesborn Altarpiece the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 40 – – 41 veronese: magnificence in renaissance venice 19 march – 15 june 2014

The National Gallery owns ten paintings by Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), among them The Family of Darius before Alexander (about 1565–67) and the four great Allegories of Love (probably 1570s), and was therefore a natural place to stage an ambitious and comprehensive exhibition devoted to his art. Indeed, it is one of only a few places where such an enterprise would have been possible. Adding forty international loans, the display covered all aspects of Veronese’s career, from small preparatory paintings on paper to monumental canvases; from cabinet pictures and portraits to altarpieces, mythologies and allegories. All of them were selected for the highest quality. Detail of Charity from the Martyrdom of Saint George altarpiece The curator was Xavier F. Salomon, currently of the Frick Collection in New York. We are grateful to his previous employers, the Dulwich Picture Gallery are evident from his earliest years and culminate in and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and indeed his great, mature narrative works, such as the Family to the Frick, for allowing Dr Salomon leave to work of Darius and the magnifi cent altarpiece showing for us on the exhibition as well as the monograph on the Martyrdom of Saint George (about 1565), which Veronese that accompanied it. The exhibition was appropriately could be seen in the vista from the sponsored by our partnership with Credit Suisse. fi rst room of the exhibition. The sixteenth-century galleries on the main The Saint George presents a highly complex fl oor provided an appropriately grand setting for arrangement of more than two dozen fi gures (and these large-scale paintings, giving them room to two horses) to tell, with complete clarity, a gripping breathe and allowing them to be seen in natural story that is simultaneously an intense meditation light. No one in advance of an exhibition of this on faith. This vast canvas was an exceptional loan kind can predict the effect of the juxtapositions it from the Church of San Giorgio in Braida in Verona, makes possible. Every one of the National Gallery’s where it decorates the high altar, and here it formed paintings was given a companion or put in company the natural centrepiece of the exhibition. that deepened our appreciation of the artist. Most The display at the National Gallery made visitors will have been struck by the consistency clear that Veronese’s stylistic consistency extends of Veronese’s work, from the early, prodigious if to his sensibility and preoccupations as a painter, at times somewhat exploratory pictures in the fi rst from the earliest years to his death, and regardless room, to the late, deeply spiritual ones in the last. of the genre he was working in. His is a profoundly Installation view of Veronese’s Veronese’s chromatic brilliance and talent for humane vision of life and spirituality, which asserts Martyrdom of Saint George altarpiece from the Church of San Giorgio in sophisticated fi gural compositions, which emphasise and celebrates the moral foundations of human Braida, Verona coherence and harmony across the picture surface, community. mw the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 42 – – 43 display the national gallery masterpiece tour: manet’s ‘the execution of maximilian’ the sunflowers 17 january – 6 december 2014 25 january – 27 april 2014 Edouard Manet’s The Execution of Maximilian is work, while highlighting strengths of their own the fi rst of three famous National Gallery paintings holdings. The display at the Beaney House of Art Even in his lifetime, fellow artists like Paul Gauguin three more Sunfl owers including the canvas now to tour galleries and museums in the UK as part of & Knowledge in Canterbury focused on politically recognised that the depiction of sunfl owers was in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, which is a the Masterpiece Tour, sponsored by Christie’s. motivated killings, showcasing The Execution of Vincent van Gogh’s signature achievement. So ‘repetition’ – the word is Vincent’s – of the London The work shows the fatal moment when Maximilian opposite The Murder of Thomas Becket closely did the motif come to be associated with painting. Sunfl owers do not bloom in winter but Maximilian (1832–1867), Emperor of Mexico, was by John Opie, among other related works. At the the Dutch painter that by 1924, when the National he had the London picture in front of him as he executed alongside two of his generals, Mejía and Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, the historical Gallery, with the backing of the Courtauld Fund, worked. It is far from a copy, however, but a more Miramón, by Mexican forces loyal to the legitimate background to Manet’s painting was brought to life set out to buy a Van Gogh, the Trustees insisted angular, colourful and stylised re-thinking of the republican government on 19 June 1867. The Austrian by the display of a portrait of Emperor Napoleon III that it be a version of the Sunfl owers. The work they earlier, almost monochromatic painting. In both archduke Maximilian had been installed in Mexico after Winterhalter, dated 1867, with newspaper acquired was one of four made in August 1888 while cases, X-rays reveal that the artist spared several as a puppet emperor by Napoleon III of France to reports of the events leading to the execution of Van Gogh waited for Gauguin to join him in Arles circular areas in the centre of the canvas, painting succeed the republican president Benito Juárez. Manet Maximilian and memorabilia, which remind us of where the two would paint together throughout everything else before adding the freshest and started to work on the composition shortly after the the Museum’s connection with the French Second the autumn, pushing one another to new heights fullest blooms at the end. fi rst reports of the event had reached Paris in July 1867. Empire. The tour will end with a contemporary of invention, and one of two he selected to decorate Honouring some fi fteen years of picture The history of the painting and its topical subject response, concentrating on the power of media his friend’s bedroom there. The artists quarrelled; exchanges between the London and Amsterdam inspired the three venues to develop exhibitions imagery and its reception, at the Mead Gallery, Gauguin angrily departed just before Christmas; institutions, this display of the two paintings was exploring a variety of issues raised by Manet’s Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry. as Van Gogh suffered a mental breakdown and cut off the fi rst time in more than sixty years that London part of an ear. It is a defi ning episode in modern art. audiences were able to see the works side by side, cr By January, however, Vincent was back painting queuing patiently every day to do so. exhibitions 2013–2014

Birth of a Collection: Masterpieces from Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 the Barber Institute of Fine Arts 9 October 2013 – 12 January 2014 22 May – 1 September 2013 Sainsbury Wing Room 1 Sponsored by Credit Suisse Organised by the National Gallery in collaboration with the Barber Institute of Fine Arts Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance 19 February – 11 May 2014 Michael Landy: Saints Alive Sainsbury Wing 23 May – 24 November 2013 Generously funded by The Hans K. Rausing Trust Sunley Room Supported by the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation Veronese: Magnifi cence in Renaissance Venice 19 March – 15 June 2014 Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure Rooms 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 Van Gogh’s Sunfl owers from 26 June – 8 September 2013 Sponsored by Credit Suisse the National Gallery (left) Sainsbury Wing and the Van Gogh Museum Generously supported by The Hata Stichting The National Gallery would also like to thank the (right; see also the detail on Foundation, The Blavatnik Family Foundation, Susan Trustees of The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation pp. 2–3) reunited for the fi rst and John Singer, The Embassy of the Kingdom of the for their generous support of the 2013–14 Sunley Room time in sixty-fi ve years. Netherlands and Sir Vernon and Lady Ellis Exhibition Programme. the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 44 – – 45 education adult learning take one picture

During 2013, the National Gallery devised a series spotlight the selected paintings. The public were This approach can take many forms. Durational This fi nely detailed and exquisitely crafted of experimental approaches to engaging visitors – invited in twenty at a time and, with minimal Dances: Inspired by Bosch, a partnership with Dance wire sculpture, complete with peeling lemon events without a verbal mediator between visitor instruction, were asked to take a seat before a gong Umbrella forming part of the Bosch 500 project, and glowing lobster, was just one of the exhibits and collection. indicated the beginning of fi ve minutes of quiet, also had non-verbal interpretation at its heart. made by primary-aged children to be featured The fi rst of these, Looking without Talking, undisturbed looking. Afterwards, participants shared Participating choreographers spent a year immersed in the 2013 display Take One Picture: Discover, coincided with the summer exhibition Vermeer their experiences by contributing to a brief survey. in the world of Bosch and shared their research with Imagine, Explore. and Music. On Friday evenings in July and August, audiences across Europe in various ways, including The works were inspired by Willem Kalf’s Uninterrupted viewing in silence allowed my mind to the Dutch cabinet galleries were arranged with a three-hour improvisation in rooms 4, 5, 11 and 14 Still Life with Drinking-Horn (NG6444), which settle and be satisfi ed that this will be the complete focus solitary seats in front of twenty paintings. Labels of the Gallery. Watched by fascinated visitors, they depicts a collection of objects, chosen for their of my attention. It reminds me of meditation, living in were removed and the lighting was adjusted to performed their interpretations of works by Bosch magnifi cent colour and texture. Looking closely the moment. It was very moving. and his contemporaries. In some cases, the visual at the painting ignited the children’s curiosity

Choreographer Maxence Rey performing in the Gallery as part of Five minutes of quiet refl ection was bliss after a busy connection to the paintings was obvious and in and following their lines of enquiry took them in the improvisational project Durational Dances: Inspired by Bosch week at work. others the link was more abstract. For all performers myriad directions. In this example, they asked the the immediacy of their responses to the paintings question ‘how can we make a still life like Kalf’s?’ The quiet, tense atmosphere in the painting became quite without the intervention of a verbal translation then responded to the challenge by adapting real, and the rest of the imagined room became real, all was paramount. gh techniques they had learnt from working with a informing my interpretation of the relationships between wire sculptor the previous year. Getting the scale the people depicted. This was helped by noticing details – right was the most diffi cult part and they solved a pipe on the fl oor – I would have glossed over otherwise. Wire sculpture inspired by Willem Kalf’s Still Life with Drinking- Horn, made by children from Wells Cathedral Junior School, this by using cardboard cut-outs. One child The event was inspired by several ideas. Vermeer Somerset, 2013 refl ected that, ‘it made me strip it down to and Music set up an interesting tension between the structure, to the basics’. the music accompanying Vermeer’s paintings During 2012–13 over a thousand teachers and the resoundingly quiet quality that they possess. attended continuing professional development Furthermore, recent research conducted in the USA courses at the National Gallery, where they learnt proposed that students spend as long as three hours about Kalf’s painting and the Take One Picture sitting in silence absorbing works of art; the results approach. More than 46,500 children and their indicated a depth of observation and development of families were involved in the scheme and 55 original ideas that would not otherwise have occurred. schools had works featured in the creative display, Building on these ideas, we wanted to explore transforming the painting from a two-dimensional how it might be possible to remove the mediator object to a three-dimensional experience in the between viewer and collection to encourage a more classroom and community. immediate response. Visitors enter an environment For the fi rst time this year the programme of where the conditions for direct engagement have related events included Family Sunday talks given been carefully planned yet there is no spoken by children representing schools featured in the interpretation of the participants’ experience. display, which proved to be very popular. er the national gallery 46 review of the year 2013– 2014

artist’s apprentice

In October the National Gallery celebrated the Supporters 2013–2014 Big Draw by inviting families to imagine themselves Associate Artist Programme as apprentices in the workshop of a Renaissance Supported by the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation artist and training them in the technique of silverpoint drawing. Exhibition Colloquia Supported by The Elizabeth Cayzer Charitable Trust Tutor Karly Allen encouraged families to consider how drawing and painting practice Explore It! Special Needs Programme has changed over the centuries by focusing on Supported by the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation The Vision of Saint Eustace by Pisanello and Tobias and the Angel by the workshop of Andrea del Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 Verrocchio as a starting point for exploring The exhibition’s Public Programme was supported by Dr Martin Halusa, M&M Capital Ltd and the studio practices of fi fteenth-century artists. Mr Christian Meissner Children and adults experimented with the possibilities and limitations of silverpoint drawing, Friday Lates Sponsored by Credit Suisse learning how to build up tone through slow, methodical processes and considering how artists Myra Hess Day prepare, use and care for their drawing implements. Supported by Miss Dasha Shenkman In doing so they also gained new insights into The Pigott Education Centre the function of preparatory and presentation Supported by Mr Mark Pigott KBE, OBE

drawings during the Renaissance. School Visits Programme These silverpoint drawing workshops were Supported by The Garfi eld Weston Foundation the fi rst in a new series of Artist’s Apprentice Sense It! Special Needs Programme family events, which aim to inspire meaningful Supported by Daniel & Elizabeth Peltz connections with Old Master paintings by offering fi rst-hand experience of traditional Take Art Supported by The John S. Cohen Foundation

materials and techniques, as used by artists , about 1515, NG6546 (see p. 63) represented in the collection. er Take One Picture Supported by The Dorset Foundation, The Tavolozza Foundation and Christoph Henkel

Ten-Minute Talks Supported by Angela Koulakoglou Christ carrying the Cross Titian’s Diana and Callisto Public Engagement Programme Supported by The Art Fund (in association with the Heritage Lottery Fund) Detail from Altobello Melone, the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 48 – – 49

Flight into Egypt, widely accepted as Titian’s fi rst and Child (NG929), a relatively early copy of surviving large-scale work, to be included. In addition Raphael’s ‘Bridgewater Madonna’ (National Galleries scientific Christ and the Adulteress (Glasgow Museums) and Scotland), was able to show without taking samples Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Longleat House) were that the paint of the drapery around the Christ Child examined while on loan or undergoing conservation. passes over cracks in the layers below, and was research Collaborations with scientists in universities therefore added later, after the paint had aged. can be an effective means of testing new scientifi c For the last four years the Gallery has been a analytical or imaging techniques with potential partner in the CHARISMA project, which came to collaborative work in for application to paintings. Optical coherence an end in March 2014. Funded under the European tomography (OCT) is well established in the Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme, the scientific department biomedical fi eld, principally for in vivo imaging this international consortium working on science of the eye. This year has seen the conclusion of applied to cultural heritage had the aim of sharing Scientifi c research at the National Gallery a continuous infl uence on the subsequent history of a project with Nottingham Trent University, knowledge through many varied activities, including contributes to the care of the collection in various European painting. Based on the National Gallery’s funded by the Arts and Humanities Research joint research and conferences or workshops on different ways. Knowledge of the materials of substantial holdings of his paintings, the survey was Council Science and Heritage Programme, building certain chosen themes. The benefi ts of long-term paintings is essential when embarking on augmented by including some of the artist’s earliest new OCT instruments optimised for non-invasive collaboration were evident in the strong awareness conservation treatment; investigation of the paint works in other collections. The collaboration with 3D imaging of the layer structure of varnishes and of each other’s research among the speakers at composition, layer structure and surface coatings is the Laboratory for Technical Analysis at the State semi-transparent paint layers. Examination with an the conference on Leonardo’s working practices part of the process, providing evidence to support Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, allowed their ultra-high resolution prototype OCT of The Madonna organised at the National Gallery in 2012. The the decisions that are made. It also feeds into our understanding of a painting’s history and the changes that can take place over time, altering our perception of a work. Another aspect of the Scientifi c Department’s work considers suitable environmental conditions for preservation of paintings and for display – for example, recent research on LEDs ensures that the correct choices are made as this energy-effi cient lighting is introduced into the galleries. Work in these Opposite Detail from Titian’s Holy specialised fi elds of expertise is enhanced by a range Family with a Shepherd (NG4) of collaborations, from small informal projects, showing the distant landscape, perhaps with a single researcher elsewhere working with the angel announcing Christ’s birth to the shepherds on paintings related to the National Gallery’s silhouetted against the trees. collection, to larger long-term formal projects that Titian’s characteristic subtle shades vary from warm orange bring in external funding to support the research. browns to a soft green. This year’s issue of the National Gallery Technical Bulletin was dedicated to the evolution of Titian’s Left Examination of The Madonna and Child (NG929), technique in the fi rst part of his career, up to around an early copy of Raphael’s 1540. Even in his lifetime his working methods ‘Bridgewater Madonna’, fascinated artists and collectors, and the ways in using the prototype ultra-high resolution OCT instrument which he used oil paint and the richly coloured in the National Gallery’s pigments available to him in Venice were to have conservation studio. the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 50 – – 51 research and publications

Detail from the infrared refl ectogram mosaic of the national gallery s Leonardo’s Virgin of the ’ Rocks (NG1093; left), with academic partnerships the corresponding detail in visible light (right). New research on the relationship The Gallery’s capacity for academic research has made possible through the generous support with the Paris version of this composition presented at the been considerably enriched and extended in recent for the Ahmanson Fellowship. 2012 conference involving years by its collaborations with a number of Higher The Gallery’s second collaborative MA in Art comparison of infrared Education Institutions in the UK. Such initiatives History, Curatorship and Renaissance Culture, images has been published this year. support the Gallery’s strategic objectives by promoting offered jointly with the Warburg Institute, the study and appreciation of Old Master paintings University of London, took its fi rst students in in a variety of ways. 2013–14; the course was fully subscribed. The signifi cant new fi ndings that were presented have prompted by a future exhibition, Making Colour, In 2010 the National Gallery entered into a purpose of the programme is to provide high-level been published this year (Leonardo da Vinci’s Technical was the updating of Chemistry and Art, fi rst produced partnership with the Department of Theology training for a new generation of academic art Practice, Hermann, Paris 2014). A rather different some years ago with the Royal Society of Chemistry and Religious Studies at King’s College London historians and museum curators. The art-historical event was the practical workshop, co-organised (RSC) as a resource pack for teachers. Case studies to launch a new collaborative MA in Christianity and scholarly traditions of the Warburg Institute are by the National Gallery and the Doerner Institut, on three paintings that will be accessible on the and the Arts. This innovative programme enables here combined with the practical experience and Munich, in 2012, on preparing red and yellow RSC’s website have been designed with school students to work across disciplinary and specialist expertise of the National Gallery to equip students lake pigments from historical recipes, an area in chemistry students in mind, and will be an boundaries, exploring both art-historical and with serious insight into the behind the scenes which the Scientifi c Department has rare expertise. imaginative way for a different audience to engage theological dimensions of Christian art. Much working of a great museum and the research tools The teaching materials from this and a related not only with science but also with the National of the teaching occurs in front of the Gallery’s necessary for high-level museum work. Members workshop on dyeing of textiles will form the basis Gallery’s collection. ms paintings, and is undertaken by curatorial staff. of the Gallery’s Curatorial, Conservation and of a forthcoming book entitled Natural Colorants From the beginning of the partnership it was Scientifi c departments contributed to the teaching for Dyeing and Lake Pigments: Practical Recipes and envisaged that the Gallery would over time make of the curatorship course during the fi rst term. their Historical Sources (Archetype Publications). Supporters 2013–2014 some of the course content available to a wider During the second term the Gallery’s Research The exhibition Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love public online. Professor Ben Quash, who established Centre Manager, Alan Crookham, taught on CHARISMA Project (2009–2014, Grant Agreement no. 228330) and Leisure provided the opportunity for another Supported by the European Commission under the the MA programme, and Dr Jennifer Sliwka, the the palaeographical and archive skills course. collaboration exploring the materials and technique Seventh Framework Project current Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Research In 2013 the Gallery collaborated with the of the Gallery’s two paintings by this artist, together Fellow in Art and Religion, have created a series University of Roehampton, London, to provide National Gallery Technical Bulletin with The Guitar Player (see p. 35) and The Music Supported by the American Friends of the National Gallery of fi lms based on their collaboratively taught a module on ‘Learning through Paintings’ for the Lesson (Royal Collection). The observations were with a generous donation from Mrs Charles Wrightsman course on representations of Saint John the Baptist MA in Art, Craft and Design Education. Finally described for a public audience in the fi nal room of in the National Gallery. These will be launched the Gallery has for a number of years contributed Scientifi c and technical research (on the collection) the exhibition, and also in an extended more Supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences in June 2014 on the Gallery’s website and its to the teaching of the Courtauld Institute of Art’s permanent feature on the website. An initiative Research Council (EPSRC) designated YouTube channel, and have been MA course ‘Curating the Art Museum’. the national gallery 52 review of the year 2013– 2014

In 2010 the Department of History of Art at Partnership scheme funded by the Arts and the University of York and the National Gallery Humanities Research Council to enable students established a research partnership between curators to study for a PhD at a UK university. Each and scholars centred on areas of mutual interest studentship is jointly supervised by a member and expertise. In 2013–14 the Gallery benefi ted of the Gallery’s staff and an academic. In addition from research collaborations with lecturers from to the studentships with the University of York, the University of York in the preparation of two the Gallery’s academic partners under the scheme exhibitions; both collaborations also involve jointly have included the universities of Warwick, supervised doctoral students. The exhibition Nottingham, Leeds, University College London Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance and Birkbeck London. sf (see pp. 38–9) was co-curated by Dr Jeanne Nuechterlein with Dr Susan Foister at the National Gallery. Their jointly supervised PhD studentship Supporters 2013–2014 focusing on ‘Shifting Perspectives on German Research and Publications Renaissance Art’ deepens the exhibition’s themes McCrindle Curatorial Assistant in investigating how perceptions of German Supported by the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation Renaissance art changed between the era when National Gallery Catalogues series it was made and the era when it was collected Supported by Arturo & Holly Melosi through by modern institutions like the National Gallery. the Arthur and Holly Magill Foundation Dr Amanda Lillie was awarded a senior AHRC Vivmar Curatorial Assistant fellowship for an eighteen-month research project Supported by The Vivmar Foundation focusing on the Gallery’s forthcoming exhibition, Harry M. Weinrebe Curatorial Assistant Suppported by The Dorset Foundation Building the Picture: Architecture in Italian Renaissance Painting, co-curated with Dr Caroline Campbell. National Programmes The project includes a scholarly online catalogue Curatorial Traineeships as well as academic events and a jointly supervised Supported by The Art Fund with the assistance of The Vivmar Foundation doctoral studentship investigating the fi ctive architecture that exalts and enshrines the Virgin Subject Specialist Network: European Paintings pre-1900 Supported by The Pilgrim Trust Mary in Italian Renaissance paintings. The British Inventories Project Between December 2012 and November 2013 Supported by The Elizabeth Cayzer Charitable Trust

the Gallery entered into a collaboration with the The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Sponsored by Christie’s

Birmingham, to research and disseminate the history , 1912, NG6649 (see p. 63) of the relationship between the two institutions, in commemoration of the latter’s eightieth anniversary. Two Neil MacGregor Collections and Exhibitions

Research Scholars, supported by the National Men of the Docks Gallery Trust, carried out research into the Barber’s collection, and an exhibition was held at the Gallery in the summer of 2013 (see pp. 30–1). Further academic partnerships with the Gallery are formed through the Collaborative Doctoral Detail from George Bellows, the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 54 – – 55

The George Beaumont Group celebrated its to the chairman, Flavia Ormond, for her tireless work public and 2014 twentieth anniversary in . For this landmark and inspirational leadership of a group, which makes year patrons were offered an enhanced programme such an important contribution to the Gallery. private support including additional study trips and a special music The Gallery could not continue to care for, and event to celebrate two decades of dedication to the present, its world-class collection without gifts and National Gallery. Many have lent support beyond grants, both large and small, from its many supporters. of the gallery their membership and we are immensely grateful We are indebted to them all and the Gallery extends to them and to all patrons for their ongoing its heartfelt appreciation for their generosity. commitment. In addition, we are most grateful dm/bb/na The National Gallery has been exceptionally fortunate In the calendar year 2013, visitor numbers this year to have received a number of substantial exceeded six million for the fi rst time in the legacies, the most valuable of which provides funding history of the National Gallery. The majority for the Patrick Lindsay Conservation Fellow. These, come to see the permanent collection, many of together with many smaller gifts in Wills, have made them schoolchildren. The School Visit programme Lenders to the National Gallery The Master Governor of Trinity Hospital, The Golden Bottle Trust Retford Mr & Mrs Thomas Griffi n an invaluable contribution at a time of continuing welcomes over 70,000 children every year, and The Gallery is pleased to acknowledge all Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam (Vincent Dr Martin Halusa those listed below, and those who choose cuts in Government Grant in Aid, and increasing costs. has been generously supported for the second van Gogh Foundation) Dr George Harwood to remain anonymous, who have lent works The Earl of Verulam Hata Stichting Foundation Such gifts are often the most important a supporter year running by the Garfi eld Weston Foundation. to the collection between April 2013 and Victoria and Albert Museum, London Christoph Henkel March 2014. will make, and provide a lasting legacy to the Gallery We are indebted to the Peltz Trust for its support Winchester College Heritage Lottery Fund and to future generations of visitors and art lovers. of an extension of this project for those with Royal Collection Trust / Her Majesty York Museums Trust (York Art Gallery) The Hintze Family Charitable Foundation The Queen James & Clare Kirkman We were delighted that Credit Suisse sponsored profound and multiple learning diffi culties and The Warden and Fellows of All Souls Major supporters of the Angela Koulakoglou Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 and to the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson College, Oxford National Gallery Cecil and Hilda Lewis Charitable Trust American Friends of the National Gallery, M&M Capital Ltd Veronese: Magnifi cence in Renaissance Venice. Our Foundation for its generous sponsorship of a London The Director and Trustees would like to Martineau Family Charity long-standing partnership enables the Gallery to new programme for children with moderate Andrew Brownsword Arts Foundation thank the following, and those who wish Viviane & James Mayor Dunrobin Castle Collection to remain anonymous, for their generous The Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation plan its future work with confi dence and for this and severe learning diffi culties. The Gallery is English Heritage, The Iveagh Bequest support of the National Gallery during the Mr Christian Meissner we are immensely grateful. This year also saw proud of these innovative projects for children (Kenwood) period April 2013 to March 2014. Arturo & Holly Melosi through the The Gere Collection Mr Julian Agnew Arthur and Holly Magill Foundation the launch of the National Gallery Masterpiece Tour who would otherwise not have the experience The Government Art Collection Howard & Roberta Ahmanson The Mercers’ Company sponsored by Christie’s. We would like to thank of visiting a gallery – an experience which can Collection of Sir Laurence Graff American Friends of the National Gallery, The John R. Murray Charitable Trust Sir James & Lady Graham London Joy Nalpanis the Development Committee, which continues to be life-changing – and we are grateful to those The Earl of Halifax Mr Henry Angest The National Gallery Trust demonstrate its commitment to the Gallery’s work. who are helping to make them possible. The Daniel Katz Family Trust The Fagus Anstruther Memorial Trust Daniel & Elizabeth Peltz The Lewis Collection The Art Fund Mr Mark Pigott KBE, OBE We were equally delighted by the support of the The National Gallery’s fl agship education project The Executors of the late 9th Marquess Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne The Pilgrim Trust Hans K. Rausing Trust for funding in its entirety for schools across the country, and indeed across the of Londonderry Jean-Luc Baroni Mr & Mrs Anthony Pitt-Rivers Longford Castle Collection Ms Kate Bingham & Mr Jesse Norman MP The Orr MacKintosh Foundation Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance. world, is Take One Picture, supported by The Dorset The Loyd Collection The Blavatnik Family Foundation The Hans K. Rausing Trust Grants from the Hata Stichting Foundation, The Foundation, The Tavolozza Foundation and The Collection of Asbjørn Lunde Mr Marcus Blinder The Rootstein Hopkins Foundation The Peter Meyer Collection Mrs Deborah Brice Miss Dasha Shenkman Blavatnik Family Foundation and Susan and John Christoph Henkel. We are indebted to them for National Maritime Museum, London The Elizabeth Cayzer Charitable Trust Susan & John Singer Singer also helped the Gallery stage Vermeer and their commitment to a programme which helps National Museums Liverpool, Walker Mr L. Chase Smithsonian American Art Museum 2013 Art Gallery The John S. Cohen Foundation The Bernard Sunley Charitable Music in . All of these examples illustrate the bring the Gallery’s collection to the attention of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Dr Nicola Coldstream Foundation attraction to supporters of our acclaimed exhibitions schoolchildren everywhere. Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, Credit Suisse The Tavolozza Foundation The Hague Department for Culture, Media and Sport The Philip and Irene Toll Gage Foundation programme. We are also grateful to the Bernard We continue to be extremely grateful for the The Rector and Churchwardens of St Mary Society of Dilettanti Charitable Trust The Vivmar Foundation Sunley Foundation for its continued support of ongoing and most generous support of the Hintze Magdalene Church, Littleton The Dorset Foundation Wellcome Trust The Society of Antiquaries of London Sir Vernon & Lady Ellis Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle Wolfson the exhibition programme in the Sunley Room Family Charitable Foundation and the Arthur The Trustees of the Stansted Park Foundation The Garfi eld Weston Foundation Foundation including the Michael Landy show, Saints Alive. and Holly Magill Foundation. Tate Mr Mark Getty Mrs Charles Wrightsman the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 56 – – 57

Corporate Membership Life Members Mr & Mrs Henry Cobbe Lady Jacomb Mr & Mrs Victor Sandelson Timothy & Madeleine Plaut Mr & Mrs Marcus Agius Dr David Cohen CBE Mr & Mrs Dudley Johnson Mr Matthew Santos & Mrs Mary Kuusisto Mr Broocks Robertson & Mr Bernard The corporate membership programme Lady Alexander of Weedon Mr Edwin Cohen Mr & Mrs Robert Johnson Dr Gian Cristoforo Savasta Hunter provides a vital source of income which Mr & Mrs Harold Blatt Mrs Veronica Cohen Mrs Ellen Josefowitz René & Margriet Scholten-Krijgsman Mr Matthew Santos & Mrs Mary Kuusisto helps the Gallery to fund programmes Mr & Mrs Charles Booth-Clibborn Mrs Jennifer Coombs Mr & Mrs Daniel Katz Mr Peter Scott QC CBE Miss Dasha Shenkman across all areas of activity. We would like to Mr Ivor Braka Mr & Mrs Rob Cope Sir Henry & Lady Keswick Mr & Mrs Charles Sebag-Montefi ore The Philip and Irene Toll Gage Foundation thank the following companies for their Mrs Deborah Brice Mr Juan Corbella Mr & Mrs Simon Keswick Mr Nick Segal & Ms Genevieve Muinzer Mr Neil Westreich generous and loyal support. Sir Ronald & Lady Cohen Mrs Cathy Corbett Mr & Mrs Naguib Kheraj Mrs Claudia Semerci Mr & Mrs Charles Wilkes Corporate Benefactors Michael & Licia Crystal Mr & Mrs Karl Dannenbaum Mr & Mrs James King The Countess of Shaftesbury Mrs Charles Wrightsman CQS Sir Harry & Lady Djanogly The Countess of Dartmouth Mr Christopher Kneale Mr Richard Sharp Nadia Zilkha Credit Suisse Mr Johannes de Gier Mr & Mrs Michel David-Weill Mr & Mrs David Koetser Victoria Sharp Océ (UK) Ltd Mme Alice Goldet Ms Miel de Botton Mr Norman Kurland & Ms Deborah David Miss Dasha Shenkman Prudential PLC Sir Nicholas & Lady Goodison Mr & Mrs Jean de Gunzburg Sophie Lecoq & Fawzi Kyriakos-Saad Mr & Mrs Michael Simpson Legacies to the National Gallery Mr & Mrs Thomas Griffi n Mr & Mrs Stephen de Heinrich Dr Anne Varick Lauder Susan & John Singer Corporate Contributors The National Gallery is dependent upon, Sir Joseph Hotung Count & Countess De Mortemart Dr Antony & The Hon. Mrs Laurent Mr & Mrs Brian Smouha ABN AMRO and immeasurably thankful for the James & Clare Kirkman Mr & Mrs Ludovic de Walden Mr & Mrs Peter Leaver Sir Angus & Lady Stirling Anglo American plc generosity of our legators. These gifts, Lady Lever Mr & Mrs Frank Destribats The Hon. James & Mrs Leigh-Pemberton Mr Mark Storey Ashurst no matter how large or small, make an Mr Michael Mackenzie Mr Richard Deutsch & Ms Fairclough Mr & Mrs Marc Leland Mr Peter Stormonth Darling Bloomberg L.P. enormous impact on our work, and benefi t Mr Donald Moore Polly Devlin OBE Mr David Leventhal Lady Strathmore & Mrs Emma Matthews EY not only the future of the National Gallery, Mr & Mrs Shigeru Myojin The Marquess & Marchioness of Douro Dr Hilda Lewis PhD Mr James Swartz Farrer & Co. but also future generations of art lovers Mrs Araceli Navarro Mr & Mrs Peter Dubens Miss Ina Lindemann Ms Laura Lindsay Mr & Mrs Rhoddy Swire Grant Thornton UK LLP and visitors. We are indebted to the Mr Mark Pigott KBE, OBE Dame Vivien Duffi eld Viscount Linley Lady Tennant JP Morgan Cazenove many generous individuals who have Mr & Mrs Jeremy Sacher Mrs Janet Dwek Mr & Mrs Timothy Llewellyn The Hon. Michael D.D. Tollemache Latham & Watkins remembered the Gallery in their Wills Mr & Mrs John Sacher Mr Guy & The Hon. Mrs Elliott The Hon. Mr Robert Lloyd George Baron & Baroness Willem van Dedem and would like to express our profound Linklaters LLP Mr & Mrs Michael Sacher Mr & Mrs Henry Elphick José-Ramón & Mantina López-Portillo Mr & Mrs Johnny Van Haeften gratitude for the legacies received this year. Moody’s Mr & Mrs Anthony Salz Mr & Mrs Louis Elson Mr Asbjørn R. Lunde Countess Cornelia von Rittberg PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP Mr Adrian Sassoon Mr Eric Fellner Mr Nicholas Maclean & Mr Christopher Ms Rebecca Wang Ms Martha Doris Bailey Rio Tinto plc Lord & Lady Sassoon Sir Ewen & Lady Fergusson Eykyn Mr & Mrs Paul Wates Mrs Janette Marion Cartwright Sarasin & Partners LLP Mr & Mrs Nicholas Stanley J A Floyd Charitable Trust Mr & Mrs Walter Marais The Hon. Mrs Simon Weinstock Miss Prudence Anne Ursula Davis Shell Sir Hugh & Lady Stevenson Sam Fogg Marina, Lady Marks Mr Richard West & Ms Shiells Mr Derek Edwards TowerBrook Capital Partners LLP The Lady Juliet Tadgell Mr & Mrs Antonio Foglia Lord & Lady Marks of Broughton Mrs Mary Weston CBE Miss Margaret Ann Flatman Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP Mrs Susan Thornton Mr & Mrs Fowle Viviane & James Mayor Mr Neil Westreich Mrs Joan Evelyn Hall White & Case LLP Mr & Mrs Michael Zilkha Mr Gerald Fox Mr Keir McGuinness & Dr Alex Hooi Miss Maxine White & Mr James Mortimer Mr Sam Hughes Mr Peter Patrick Isacke Corporate Supporters Mr & Mrs Eric Franck Mrs Carol Michaelson Mr Nicholas White Members Mr William Leonard Jacob G3 Telecommunications Mr & Mrs Andrew Fraser Mr William Mitchell Mr & Mrs Charles Wilkes Mr Julian Agnew Miss Marcia Joan Lay Morgan Stanley Mr & Mrs Jonathan Gaisman Mr Fabrizio Moretti Lady Wolfson of Marylebone Lady Agnew Mr Patrick Lindsay Sotheby’s Ms Gabriela Galcerán Montal & Mr Ball Mr & Mrs John Morton Morris Mr & Mrs Henry Wyndham Mr & Mrs Peter Andreae Lord & Lady Gavron Mr & Mrs Steven Murphy Nadia Zilkha Mr Kenneth Arthur John Pettet Miss Vanessa Aubry If you would like to fi nd out more about Mr & Mrs Robin Geffen Mr & Mrs Sherif Nadar Our recognition of those who have Sir Nicholas & Lady Bacon the Gallery’s corporate membership Mr & Jonathan Gestetner Miss Catherine Newman QC demonstrated their foresight and Sir Jack & Lady Baer scheme, please contact Naushaba Awan Mr Christopher Gibbs The Marquis & Marchioness of Normanby Donations to the American Friends generosity in remembering the Gallery Mr & Mrs Nicholas Baring on 020 7747 5870, or email Mr & Mrs Stuart Glyn Mr William Northfi eld of the National Gallery, London Inc. in this way is expressed in our Memorial The Barness Trust Mr Christophe Gollut Mr & Mrs Richard Oldfi eld naushaba.awan@ ng-london.org.uk. The Director and Trustees would like to Book, both online and on permanent Mr & Mrs Stephen Barry Mr & Mrs Manfred Gorvy Mr & Mrs Nicholas Oppenheim thank the following, and those who wish display in the vestibule inside the The Duke of Beaufort Mr Andrew Green QC & Ms Hirschl Flavia Ormond to remain anonymous, for their generous Sir Paul Getty Entrance. Mr & Mrs Robert Berg Mr Jonathan Green Mr & Mrs Simon Palley The George Beaumont Group support during the period April 2013 to Mr & Mrs Richard Bernays Mrs Marilyn Green Mr & Mrs Charles Park If you would like to fi nd out about March 2014. For twenty years, the support of the Mr Elliott Bernerd Mr Louis Greig Mr & Mrs Roger Phillimore leaving a gift in your Will to the George Beaumont Group towards the Mr & Mrs Konrad Bernheimer Sir Ronald Grierson Mr & Mrs Ugo Pierucci Howard & Roberta Ahmanson National Gallery and what your support work of the National Gallery has been Mrs Diana Berry Miss Louise Hallett Barbara, Lady Poole Mrs Deborah Brice could achieve, please contact Aimée unstinting. Donations from members Mr & Mrs John Treacy Beyer Lady Hamlyn The Countess of Portsmouth Mr Richard Deutsch & Ms Fairclough Hooper on 020 7747 5982, or email are focused particularly on core Gallery Mr David Borthwick & Mrs Molly Lowell Mrs Linda Heathcoat-Amory Mrs Victoria Press & Mr Roger Press Mr & Mrs Manfred Gorvy [email protected]. Please activities for which there is the most urgent Borthwick Christoph & Katrin Henkel Mrs Ivetta Rabinovich Sir Ronald Grierson be assured that any enquiries will be need, thereby supporting the Gallery’s Ms Amanda Bradley Mr Jacques Hennessy † Mrs Xanna Rambelli de Mico Miss Marianne Hinton treated in strict confi dence. Further major priorities and the projects that are Mr Mark Brockbank Mr Roman Herzig Lady Rayne Lacey Mr & Mrs Robert Johnson through information can also be found on the of the greatest importance to the public. Mr Sebastian & Dr Irene Brooke Lady Heseltine Mr Broocks Robertson & Mr Bernard Hunter the Robert and Sherry Johnson National Gallery website and in the The National Gallery recognises that Mr & Mrs Michael Burrell Dr Jackie Higson & Mr Mark Higson Mrs Sarah Ross Goobey Charitable Trust brochure Your Gift to the Future. it is extremely fortunate to have such Philippe & Stephanie Camu Miss Marianne Hinton Hannah Rothschild Dr Anne Varick Lauder a dedicated community of supporters, Mr Charles Cator Mr & Mrs William Hobhouse Lord & Lady Rothschild Mr & Mrs Marc Leland and would like to thank all of the The Marchese & Marchesa Cattaneo Adorno † Mr Terry Hughes Dame Theresa Sackler DBE Mr Asbjørn R. Lunde individuals listed below, and those who The Marchesa Consuelo Cattaneo della Mr & Mrs Patrick Hungerford Lord & Lady Sainsbury Arturo & Holly Melosi through the Arthur choose to remain anonymous, for their Volta Adorno Mrs Jacqueline Hyer The Rt Hon. Sir Timothy & Lady Sainsbury and Holly Magill Foundation generous contribution over the past year. Mr Alec & The Hon. Mrs Cobbe Mrs Deanna Ibrahim Mrs Coral Samuel CBE The Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 58 – – 59 trustees and committees of The Gallery’s total charitable expenditure Total Grant in Aid (millions) the national gallery board of £33.3m for 2013/14 saw an increase against (£millions rebased to 2010/11 prices)

the prior year (2012/13: £31.7m), due in part Capital Trustees (with dates of appointment) John Singer Nominations Committee 2013 14 Resource to the increase d cost of the / exhibitions 29 Mark Getty 1999 (Chair) Sir Colin Southgate Mark Getty (Chair) Professor David Ekserdjian 2005 Lady Heseltine programme and additional costs relating to the 27 Development Committee (until September 2013) Hannah Rothschild John Nelson (Chair) collection. The Gallery continues to focus on 25 *Patricia Lankester 2007 Caroline Thomson Timothy Clark maintaining tight budgetary control and (until April 2013) 23 Carolyn Eadie Remuneration Committee Lady Heseltine 2008 implemented a number of effi ciency measures Sir Michael Hintze, AM Mark Getty (Chair) 21 Sir Michael Hintze, AM 2008 James Leigh-Pemberton Patricia Lankester (until April 2013) during the year in order to continue to manage Caroline Thomson 2008 19 Charles Miller Smith Caroline Thomson the reduction in public funding. Hannah Rothschild 2009 17 Ian Powell Gautam Dalal 2009 National Gallery Scientifi c The number of visitors to the Gallery this year 15 Professor Anya Hurlbert 2010 Finance Committee Consultative Group saw a signifi cant increase to 5.9m (2012/13: 5.4m). 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 John Nelson 2010 Gautam Dalal (Chair) Professor Anya Hurlbert (Chair) ks Lance Batchelor 2011 Mark Getty Professor Dr Andreas Burmester Professor Dexter Dalwood 2011 Nick Land (until November 2013) Professor Richard Evershed John Singer 2012 John Singer Professor Wendy Hall Charles Sebag-Montefi ore 2012 Sir Colin Southgate Professor Julia Higgins *Monisha Shah (from April 2013) Professor Laurence T Maloney Governance Committee Professor David Phillips Income 2013/14 Operating Expenditure 2013/14 *Tate liaison Trustee (from November 2013) Dr David Saunders (excluding donations for acquisitions) Charles Sebag-Montefi ore (Chair) Audit Committee Dr Paul Williams Gautam Dalal (Chair) Gautam Dalal Mark Getty John Singer Nick Land (until November 2013) Caroline Thomson Donations and legacies £3.3m Broaden our appeal and provide an Investment income £0.3m exceptional visitor experience £10.8m Grant in Aid £25.5m Preserve, enhance and develop the Other income £5.3m potential of our collections £8.1m Exhibitions £3.2m Inspire learning and engagement £3.3m financial Cost of generating funds £1.2m Invest in our staff, increase income and care for our physical activities £6.3m Governance costs £0.3m information Exceptional item £0.2m

Government Grant in Aid remains the Gallery’s success of the Gallery’s programme of exhibitions, principal source of funds. For the year ended 31 programmes and outreach work. March 2014, the Gallery’s Grant in Aid for running Total incoming resources this year, including Number of Visitors (millions) Exhibition Attendance 2013/14 costs was £21.7m, with an additional grant of donations for acquisitions of £17.5m, were £51.9m 6 Birth of a Collection: Masterpieces from the Barber Institute £3.8m restricted to expenditure on capital, compared with £57.5m in 2012/13. The higher of Fine Arts* 97,164 5 including ongoing essential capital repairs. level of income in 2012/13 was attributable to Michael Landy: Saints Alive* 209,057 The Gallery continues to face signifi cant and receiving a greater value of gifts in relation to 4 Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure 61,228 sustained cuts to Grant in Aid over the coming painting acquisitions in 2012/13, particularly those Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 88,286 3 years, which will make private income even more from the collection of the late Sir Denis Mahon. Van Gogh’s Sunfl owers* 205,297 Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance 29,097 2 critical to the future well-being of the Gallery. Self-generated income excluding donations totalled Veronese: Magnifi cence in Renaissance Venice 100,994 5 4 2 2012 13 Membership, donations and support from the £ m, higher than the £ . m recorded in / , 1 corporate sector, trusts and foundations, and private following a strong year for exhibition ticket sales and Free exhibitions are indicated by an asterisk 0 individuals are vitally important for the continued income derived from increased sales in the shops. 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013 2014 review of the year 2013 2014 60 – – 61

channels; we expect this popular title, closely Picture Library business was boosted by a national gallery linked to the collection, to have a longer life on our number of interesting commercial fi lming deals backlist. Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 (Downton Abbey, Dr Who) contributing to total generated £101,880 revenue through all channels. revenue of £216,296. In addition, brand licensing company ltd 19 95 42 746 A price reduction of the paperback from £ . activity generated £ , . to £15 ensured that it sold out on the last day; the The year culminated in a new commercial hardback remains in print. The small book published relationship for NGC with Antenna International, The National Gallery Company (NGC) achieved a a marked improvement in customer conversion for Strange Beauty – not a catalogue to the show, which produces and sells audio and multimedia net profi t for the year of £123,968 (12/13 £37,267), to 9.2%, 0.9 % better than the prior year. but a general introduction to German paintings at interpretation guides for the permanent collection after payments to the Gallery of £823,945 (12/13 NGC made signifi cant investments this year the National Gallery – was also popular, and like and temporary exhibitions, and develops podcasts. £743,578). In total, the Company achieved sales to support the ongoing development of the Vermeer, will strengthen our backlist. The major We are very excited about the prospect of of £6.6m, with contributions of £966,118 from e-commerce site. Despite the improvements made spring title, Veronese, opened strongly, and because developing further content and aligning sales plans external publishing sales, product licensing, catering, to navigation, product grouping and design (and the of its relevance to the collection, we hope to keep to generate more income for the Gallery. jm audio guide sales (from 1 February 2014) and addition of mobile and ‘click and collect’) revenue this in print for some time. royalties from the Picture Library. targets were not reached, largely due to a reduction There was a 15% year-on-year sales improvement in average transaction value. The NGC Board of in our Gallery stores, driven largely by the increase Directors agreed a full review and improvement in visitors to the Gallery, which delivered a strong plan in April 2014 and we remain optimistic that summer trading period. In addition, the exhibition our three-year plan for e-commerce is achievable. publications programme (Vermeer and Music, The Sunfl owers, Apart from the Technical Bulletin Volume 34, The following titles were published between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014 Veronese) delivered good commercial results. In published in October, this year’s publishing was March 2014, over 30% of sales generated in the dominated by exhibitions. Michael Landy: Saints Alive Exhibition Catalogues Veronese Co-publications Xavier F. Salomon shops were from Sunfl owers-related merchandise sold 2,852 copies in the National Gallery shops, with Michael Landy: Saints Alive The Usborne Famous Paintings Sticker Book 285 x 245 mm; 272 pp; 160 colour Colin Wiggins, with contributions from Megan Cullis The Gallery’s cafés and restaurants, operated by a price reduction for the last four weeks. In summer illustrations Richard Cork and Jennifer Sliwka 300 x 232 mm; 42 pp; 30 pp of colour 3 7 2013 Hardback £35/Paperback £19.95, March 2014 Peyton and Byrne, generated revenues of £ . m and , Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure 270 x 210 mm; 80 pp; 62 colour illustrations illustrations; 10 pp of colour stickers a contribution to the Group of £414,488. There was generated revenue of £69,647 through all sales Paperback £9.99, May 2013 Paperback £6.99, April 2013 Academic Books (Published by Usborne in association Vermeer and Music: National Gallery Technical with the National Gallery) The Art of Love and Leisure Bulletin Volume 34 Payments to the National Gallery and National Gallery Trust Revenue Analysis 2013/14 Marjorie E. Wieseman Series Editor: Ashok Roy 265 x 205 mm; 80 pp; 72 colour illustrations 297 x 210 mm; 136 pp; 245 colour Paperback £9.99, June 2013 illustrations 2,500,000 Paperback £40 and online at Facing the Modern: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/technical- Stores 80.8% 2,000,000 Catering 8.4% The Portrait in Vienna 1900 bulletin/technical-bulletin-vol-34, Publishing/Trade 2.1% Gemma Blackshaw, with a foreword October 2013 Picture Library 3.3% by Edmund de Waal Supported by the American Friends of the 1,500,000 E-commerce/Mail Order 4.5% 289 x 220 mm; 216 pp; 140 colour National Gallery with a generous donation Business Development 0.6% illustrations from Mrs Charles Wrightsman Audio Guide 0.3% Hardback £35/Paperback £19.95, 1,000,000 October 2013 The National Gallery Review of the Year

Audio Guides April 2012 – March 2013 Gift Aid Strange Beauty: German Paintings 245 x 200 mm; 80 pp; 65 colour illustrations 500,000 Rent at the National Gallery Paperback £7.99, November 2013 Catering Caroline Bugler Picture Library 190 x 170 mm; 112 pp; 60 colour illustrations 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 Paperback £9.99, February 2014 the national gallery the national gallery review of the year 2013– 2014 review of the year 2013– 2014 62 63

painting without brushes

Digital technology has made images of Old Master than the brush. It has been plausibly suggested that paintings accessible as never before but such Leonardo occasionally used his fi ngers to apply and accessibility has come at a cost. These images are manipulate oil paint, particularly in his earlier works. generally made in conditions of controlled and even While the Gallery’s Virgin of the Rocks (fi g. 3) does lighting, now more often than not viewed on a not display such effects, the more widely practised backlit screen, and therefore tend to suppress our method of applying and spreading the oil-based sense of the substance of the paint. Paintings are not priming with the fi ngers and palms of the hand – fl at surfaces, but complex structures with signifi cant, almost certainly that of a studio assistant – has left often meaningful variations in texture and refl ection. its texture visible through the extremely thin In some cases these differences are in large part an applications of the master’s paint which followed. inherent by-product of the particular qualities of The other great quality of oil paint, besides its pigment, medium, or support – but for many painters potential for rich impasto, is the impressive range of they become a vehicle of expression themselves. opacity it affords – especially the transparent glazes Rembrandt is perhaps the fi rst ‘Old Master’ applied over bolder underlayers, producing subtle to come to mind when thinking about richly and rich effects. The colour resulting from such 1 Follower of Rembrandt (1606–1669) 2 Jan van Eyck (active 1422; died 1441) 3 Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) textured paint surfaces – his paint can seem to layering can depend as much upon the thickness of A Man seated reading at a Table in a Lofty Room, The Arnolfi ni Portrait, 1434 The Virgin of the Rocks, about 1491/2–9 hover somewhere between two and three the application of the glaze as much as its inherent about 1628–30 Oil on oak, 82.2 x 60 cm and 1506–8 Oil on oak, 55.1 x 46.5 cm The National Gallery, London, NG186 Oil on poplar, thinned and cradled, dimensions, deliberately appropriating qualities hue. And while glazes were often built up in many The National Gallery, London, NG3214 (for detail see p. 21) 189.5 x 120 cm of low relief sculpture. Such thickly applied surfaces layers to achieve deep and glowing tones, they (for detail see p. 7) The National Gallery, London, NG1093 can be ‘carved’ back as well as built up, or scratched were sometimes kept so thin as to barely veil the (for detail see p. 29) through, often with great decisiveness, to reveal or underlying colour, with fi nely brushed applications provide a strong graphic accent. In this work from reduced further by blotting with cloth to take away a follower of Rembrandt (fi g. 1) we see elements more of the glaze, traces of which technique can still of the window, the transition between it and the be seen in a detail of red drapery by Melone (fi g. 4). plaster wall, and cracks within that surface all boldly More modern paintings within the collection indicated by scratching through the still-wet impasto. are full of painterly effects, which revel in the overt It is perhaps more surprising to see similar effects display of the means of application, from the broken within the work of the earlier master practitioners brushwork of the Impressionists to the rich textures of painting in oils. We tend to think of van Eyck as of Van Gogh. George Bellows’s Men of the Docks a painter of immaculate, jewel-like surfaces, but he (fi g. 5), shows the artist’s interest in the bold too could work his paint with unexpected vigour. handling of earlier painters such as Goya in both Much of the texture of the broom on the back wall his palette and execution. He has made extensive of the Arnolfi ni Portrait (fi g. 2) is created using a fi ne use of the palette knife to apply paint, allowing both stylus to scrape through the mid-tone brown paint thickly-trowelled applications and also more broken before it had fully dried – not, as one might expect, effects, where the loaded knife drags across the by the application of minuscule brushstrokes. canvas texture, skipping over its recesses and leaving 4 Altobello Melone (about 1490; died before 1543) 5 George Bellows (1882–1925) Finding such qualities within his meticulous a thick yet discontinuous application. Accustomed Christ carrying the Cross, about 1515 Men of the Docks, 1912 Oil on wood, 61 x 46.5 cm Oil on canvas, 114.3 x 161.3 cm craftsmanship reminds us that paint has always been as we are to such ‘modern’ methods, the audacity The National Gallery, London, NG6546 The National Gallery, London, NG6649 a material that can be worked by other means of his touch in such a work is no less impressive. lk (for detail see p. 47) (for detail see p. 53) © The National Gallery 2014 ISBN 978-1-85709-581-4 ISSN 0143 9065

Published by National Gallery Company on behalf of the Trustees The National Gallery Trafalgar Square London WC2N 5DN

Tel: 020 7747 2885 www.nationalgallery.org.uk [email protected]

Editor: Kate Bell Design: Smith & Gilmour Picture Research: Suzanne Bosman Production: Jane Hyne and Penny Le Tissier

Printed and bound in Hong Kong by Printing Express

Key to authors NA – Naushaba Awan BB – Brenda Batchelor CC – Caroline Campbell SF – Susan Foister GH – Gill Hart SH – Sarah Herring LK – Larry Keith JM – Julie Molloy DM – Deborah Myers LP – Lelia Packer ER – Emma Rehm CR – Christopher Riopelle AR – Anne Robbins PS – Peter Schade AS – Arnika Schmidt KS – Kate Sheerin MS – Marika Spring LT – Letizia Treves MEW – Marjorie E. Wieseman CW – Colin Wiggins MW – Matthias Wivel

Photographic credits All images © The National Gallery, London, unless stated below: © Van Gogh Museum (Vincent van Gogh Foundation), Amsterdam: pp. 2–3; © Private collection. Photo: The National Gallery, London: pp. 13, 15, 16, 18; © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. All rights reserved: p. 17; © Property of the Lewis Collection. Photo: The National Gallery, London: p. 19; © Desmond Banks. Photo: Tate, London 2013: p. 20; © Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham: p. 31; © Michael Landy, courtesy of the Thomas Dane Gallery, London. Photo: The National Gallery, London: pp. 32, 33; © English Heritage: p. 35; © Belvedere, Vienna: pp. 36, 37; © Copyright in this Photograph Reserved to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: p. 38; © Photo SCALA, Florence – courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali: p. 41.