TITLE: “Paysage Bords de Seine (Banks of the River Seine)”
ARTIST: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
DATE: 1879
WHY WE CHOSE IT: The art world is buzzing this week over an unlikely flea market find. According to reports:
A woman who paid $7 for a box of trinkets at a West Virginia flea market two years ago apparently acquired an original painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir without knowing it.
Painting No. 24349 turns out to be Renoir’s painting “Paysage Bords de Seine,” which translates to Banks of the River Seine. It dates to about 1879 and measures 6 inches by 10 inches.
The painting is set for auction Sept. 29. It could fetch $75,000 or more.
SOURCE: AP
Fine art by Pierre-Auguste Renoir is available through Park West Gallery and its cruise art auctions at sea. Learn more at www.parkwestgallery.com.
From left: Photograph of the painting in 2010 —> how it looked in July 2012 —> following the recent restoration.
TITLE: “Behold the Man (Ecce Homo)”
ARTIST: Elias Garcia Martinez
DATE: c. 1890
WHY WE CHOSE IT: What happens when a good-intentioned parishioner volunteers her amateur art restoration services?
According the report:
The “Ecce Homo” a depiction of Christ crowned with thorns painted by local artist Elias Garcia Martinez has graced the wall of the Santuario de Misericodia Church in the village of Borja, near Zaragoza, Spain, for more than 120 years.
But over the last 18 months its surface has deteriorated due to moisture in the church, causing parts of the painting to flake off.
A woman in her 80s, upset at the worsening state of an image she loved to gaze on, took it upon herself to restore the artwork to its former glory, but with devastating results.
The result was a botched repair in which the original face has been almost completely painted over with amateur brushstrokes and the image now resembles more ape than man.
Time to call in the professionals.
SOURCE: The Telegraph
To learn more about your favorite artists and the fine art available through Park West Gallery and its cruise art auctions at sea, visit www.parkwestgallery.com.
TITLE: “Seated Woman with Red Hat (Femme assis au chapeau rouge)”
ARTIST: Pablo Picasso
DATE: c. 1954-1956
WHY WE CHOSE IT: Indiana’s Evansville Museum recently made a surprise discovery — a previously misattributed work, stored for nearly 50 years in their own collections, is actually a rare work of glass art by Pablo Picasso.
According to the Evansville Courier & Press:
“Seated Woman with Red Had” is a rarity for Picasso, who only created some 50 works in gemmail, a colored, fused and fired-glass between 1954 and 1956. The colors in layered glass piece, which is 36 inches high, 28 inches wide and 3 inches thick, are only visible when illuminated from behind.
The piece, donated to the museum by industrial designer Raymond Loewy in 1963, initially was cataloged as art inspired by a design for a Picasso painting, but credited to another artist named Gemmaux. The supposed artist’s name turned out to be the plural for “gemmail.”
SOURCE: Evansville Museum (Indiana)
Fine art by Pablo Picasso is available through Park West Gallery and its cruise art auctions at sea. Learn more at http://picasso.parkwestgallery.com.
TITLE: “Electric Cord”
ARTIST: Roy Lichtenstein
DATE: 1961
WHY WE CHOSE IT: A Roy Lichtenstein painting missing for 42 years has resurfaced at a New York City warehouse. The famed American pop artist created the black-and-white “Electric Cord” painting in 1961. It was purchased in the 1960s by art collector/gallery owner Leo Castelli, but disappeared in 1970 after being sent out for restoration. The Lichtenstein Foundation was alerted to the find when another gallery, unaware of the painting’s missing/stolen status, contacted them to request an authentication prior to an impending sale.
SOURCE: New York Daily News
To learn more about your favorite artists and the fine art available through Park West Gallery and its cruise art auctions at sea, visit www.parkwestgallery.com.
TITLE: “Muhammad Ali: Athlete of the Century”
ARTIST: LeRoy Neiman
DATE: 2001
WHY WE CHOSE IT:
Iconic American artist LeRoy Neiman, known for his trademark handlebar mustache and his bright, impressionistic portrayals of the world’s top sporting events, died in New York on Wednesday. He was 91.
Although his paintings captured everything from U.S. presidents to jazz musicians to the powerful animals of Africa, Neiman became best known for his bright, bold sketches of the sports world, capturing its motion and emotion in his brushstrokes.
(via CNN.com)
SOURCE: Park West Gallery Collection
To learn more about the artist LeRoy Neiman, please visit http://bio.parkwestgallery.com/artists/Leroy-Neiman.
TITLE: “A Fond Memory”
ARTIST: Itzchak Tarkay
DATE: 2006
WHY WE CHOSE IT: World-renowned artist Itzchak Tarkay died unexpectedly Sunday, June 3 after emergency heart surgery. He was 77. The Israeli artist was visiting metro Detroit as the featured guest at a collector’s event hosted by his dealer Park West Gallery. Tarkay spent his last hours doing what he loved most – sharing his artwork with his fans and collectors… More →
SOURCE: Park West Gallery Collection
To learn more about the artist Itzchak Tarkay, please visit www.parkwest-tarkay.com.
TITLE: “The Boy in the Red Waistcoat”
ARTIST: Paul Cézanne
DATE: ca. 1888-90
WHY WE CHOSE IT: “The Boy in the Red Waistcoat,” a painting by French impressionist Paul Cézanne, was stolen from a private Swiss museum in 2008, during one of the biggest art thefts in Europe at the time. On Thursday, Zurich prosecutors confirmed that the Cézanne was recovered during a raid conducted by Serbian police last week. The painting was estimated to be worth $109.6 million at the time of the heist.
SOURCE: E.G. Buehrle Foundation
Fine art by Paul Cézanne is available through Park West Gallery and its cruise art auctions at sea. Learn more at www.parkwestgallery.com.
TITLE: “La Vierge à l’Enfant avec sainte Anne (The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne)”
ARTIST: Leonardo da Vinci
DATE: 1519
WHY WE CHOSE IT: The controversial centerpiece of the Louvre’s new exhibition, “Saint Anne, Leonardo da Vinci’s ultimate masterpiece,” was finally unveiled to the public on Thursday. The painting, Leonardo’s “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne,” has undergone an 18-month-long restoration that has sparked intense debate.
According to “The New York Times”:
The “St. Anne” was acquired by Francis I of France in 1517 and is regarded as perhaps second only to the Mona Lisa among Leonardo’s later works. The museum hopes that the public viewing of the 500-year-old canvas will end a battle that has raged within both the art community and the Louvre’s own restoration advisory committee over whether the cleaning has been too aggressive.
“St. Anne” was thought to have been commissioned by Louis XII of France in gratitude to his wife, Anne, also the name of the patron saint of women in labor, to celebrate of the birth of their only daughter, Claude. The painting was left unfinished upon da Vinci’s death in 1519.
SOURCE: The Louvre
To learn more about your favorite artists and the fine art available through Park West Gallery and its cruise art auctions at sea, visit www.parkwestgallery.com.
TITLE: “Still Life with Meadow Flowers and Roses”
ARTIST: Vincent van Gogh
DATE: 1886
WHY WE CHOSE IT: Ever since the Kroller-Muller Museum acquired it in 1974, art experts doubted whether “Still Life with Meadow Flowers and Roses” was painted by Vincent van Gogh. The painting style and unusual canvas size are not typical of the Dutch master’s work. But a new research technique has finally solved this 40-year-old art history mystery.
“We examined this painting with a new technique, X-ray fluorescent scanning, that allowed us to visualize a hidden painting below the surface, so below the flowers still life is actually a second painting. Van Gogh literally recycled his canvases and quite often painted on top of existing paintings and that is also the case with the present painting.
“Interestingly, below the flowers still life we see a totally different picture, a very classical, academic study of two wrestlers, and interestingly, this lower painting was described by Van Gogh in one of his letters so that is a sort of a smoking gun evidence for the authenticity of this painting.”
—Professor Joris Dik of the Technical University in Delft, who performed the X-ray scan
SOURCE: Kroeller-Mueller Museum (Netherlands)
To learn more about your favorite artists and the fine art available through Park West Gallery and its cruise art auctions at sea, visit www.parkwestgallery.com.
TITLE: “The Card Players”
ARTIST: Paul Cezanne
DATE: c. 1895
WHY WE CHOSE IT: The royal family of Qatar is making art news headlines with their recent acquisition of Paul Cézanne’s famous painting, “The Card Players.” Estimates put the painting’s final price at $250 million, setting the record for the highest price ever paid for a work of art. The image is one of five in a series by the French Post-Impressionist; the other four reside in the prestigious collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Courtauld, the Musée d’Orsay and the Barnes Foundation.
SOURCE: Vanity Fair
To learn more about your favorite artists and the fine art available through Park West Gallery and its cruise art auctions at sea, visit www.parkwestgallery.com.
