#Tefaf Maastricht

[empirearchives]

I found this neat portrait of Roustam Raza made by Hortense de Beauharnais! Circa 1800s

Roustam was Napoleon’s bodyguard and valet, and Hortense was Napoleon’s stepdaughter. Roustam was an Armenian Mameluke in Egypt, originally from Tbilisi. He became employed by Napoleon during the Egypt campaign in 1799, following him back to Europe, and remained by his side until Napoleon’s abdication in 1814. He lived the rest of his life in France.

TEFAF Maastricht

[pikasus-artenews]

TEFAF MAASTRICHT 2024

TEFAF Maastricht è considerata tra le principali fiere al mondo per le belle arti, gli oggetti d’antiquariato e il design

[youthchronical]

TEFAF Returns With Majesty in an Uncertain Market

A medieval manuscript unseen for 60 years, hand-painted by the renowned French illuminator Jean Pichore and his workshop, is one of the most spectacular exhibits at the 38th annual edition of the TEFAF Maastricht fair, which previewed to invited guests on Thursday. “This is world history,” said Dr. Jörn Günther, an illuminated manuscript dealer in Switzerland, pointing to an illustration in a…

[jacqwess]

`1TEFAF 2024-2 - Toujours les femmes

TEFAF 2024 - my second and last blog about this fascinating art fair. It's huge, so forgive me if I didn't see all of it, and will give you here a very personal, subjective description...

[otaviogilbert]

Masterpiece Heist | The TEFAF Maastricht Art Robbery Unveiled | Disappear TV

Discover the gripping tale behind the daring TEFAF Maastricht Art Robbery in our documentary, 'Masterpiece Heist | The TEFAF Maastricht Art Robbery Unveiled' on Disappear TV. Delve into the world of art crime, explore the audacious theft, and unravel the mysteries surrounding this high-stakes caper.

[medievalistsnet]

Rare Medieval Manuscripts Take Center Stage at TEFAF Maastricht 2025

Click here to learn more.

[blueiscoool]

A Long-Lost Klimt Painting of an African Prince Discovered

An early painting by the famed Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, thought lost since the 1930s, is on view for the first time since its recent rediscovery. The portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona — a representative of the Ga people in West Africa, in what is Ghana today — was painted in 1897 and depicts the prince in profile against loose brushstrokes of florals. Just over 2 feet tall, the small portrait is on display by the Viennese gallery Wienerroither & Kohlbacher (W&K) at the art fair TEFAF Maastricht in the Netherlands, with a price tag of €15 million (about $16.3 million).

The framed painting was “heavily soiled” with a “barely visible” estate stamp by Klimt when two collectors contacted W&K gallery with the artwork in 2023, according to a press release by the gallery. The gallery confirmed its authenticity with art historian Alfred Weidinger, who had been searching for the work for two decades.

According to the press release, the portrait was auctioned from Klimt’s estate in 1923 and loaned to an exhibition in 1928 by Ernestine Klein, who had converted the artist’s studio into a villa with her husband, Felix. The Jewish couple fled Vienna in 1938 to Monaco, just before World War II, but the painting’s whereabouts until 2023 remained a mystery. Following extensive restoration efforts and a restitution settlement with Klein’s heirs, the artwork is now making its reappearance in public.

W&K says the artist painted the work during the Vienna Völkerschau of 1897; Völkerschau exhibitions were colonialist-era ethnographic displays of people popularized in 19th- and 20th-century Europe. Weidinger’s research into the exhibition found that a number of people from Osu, where the prince was from, traveled to Vienna to be exhibited, and that Klimt’s portrait was likely a commission but ultimately remained with the artist, Artnet reported.

The 1897 portrait represents Klimt’s stylistic shift “towards decorative elements,” Weidinger said in the press release, which are the hallmarks of his later style. The Austrian painter is most recognized for the gilded couple he painted about 11 years later in “The Kiss,” which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to Vienna’s Belvedere Museum. But his “last masterpiece” — a portrait of an unidentified woman with a fan — broke records in 2023 when it sold for £85.3 million ($108.4 million) in London from the collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen. It not only surpassed the artist’s personal auction record, but became the most expensive artwork ever sold at a European auction.

Last year, another long-lost and recovered Klimt painting, “Portrait of Fräulein Lieser,” thought to be one of his final works, sold for €30 million ($32 million).

By Jacqui Palumbo.

[desimonewayland]

Capezzale with the shape of a devotional pendant depicting Mary Magdalene Circa 1700 Coral and silver

Capezzale with the shape of a devotional pendant depicting Mary Magdalene is a hanging work of art that represents a female figure holding a framed cruciix and topped with a bow of openwork corals. The set is made from worked, openwork and carved corals, that are tied with silver thread to two riveted openwork silver plates, which act as a support.

via: TEFAF Maastricht

[art-mirrors-art]

Went to TEFAF in Maastricht yesterday; as always, lots of just mirrors, mirrors in art, and other mirror-related things. I usually write a long blog post about everything I've seen at the fair, but this time I’ll try something different: a series of short posts instead.

One of the blockbusters of this TEFAF edition was Still Life with Two Sacks and a Bottle by Vincent van Gogh. He painted it in November 1884, when he returned to Nuenen to live with his parents (before leaving for France in 1886). The official title is not entirely accurate - at least mirror-wise; it should read "Still Life with Two Sacks, a Bottle - and a Mirror." It seems to be the very first (!) mirror that Van Gogh ever painted - one of only two (!!) he ever did.

Ok, his second mirror - the one from La Chambre à Arles - Van Gogh painted three (!II) times, quite a unique series. If we add two known sketches, it will bring the total to five, yet still it is the very same mirror. For years, he was believed to have painted only this one (French) mirror.

Not exactly unknown to experts, but this still life had been hidden away in a private collection. And now, we have Van Gogh’s ‘Dutch Mirror’ - surprisingly bright, especially compared to his often gloomy early works.

We can also safely assume that this is the same mirror Van Gogh used for his earlier self-portraits. PS: As I wrote many years ago, we may have the Third Mirror of Van Gogh, too - see my old posting here

[liminalmemories21]

So many more than seven sentences Sunday

tagged by @carlos-in-glasses and @freneticfloetry.  Thank you for giving me an excuse.

Massey lifts the dark velvet hanging over a painting on an easel and TK's breath catches.

It's a full length portrait of a woman, staring out defiantly at the viewer.  He can identify it as Dutch Renaissance, although he's sure TK could give it a more precise date.  There's something about seeing art up close that never stops being visceral in a way he can't explain.  It's like the paint is richer, the colors more vibrant without the filter of glass or the cordon at a museum. 

TK sounds like he's barely breathing.  "Is that?"  Massey nods, and TK glances at him. "Can I?"  Massey nods again and stands back a little to let TK get close.  And then like he can't help himself he steps up beside TK's elbow, pointing out small details in the painting.  For half a minute Carlos wonders if he's playing TK, and then dismisses it.  Massey genuinely loves this painting, and if he'd sat around for half a year trying to find a way to forge a connection with TK he couldn't have thought of anything more effective than this. 

TK reaches back for Carlos's hand to pull him closer.  He has to clasp his hands behind his back to stop himself from touching.  He has the sense that if he reached out he'd be able to feel the nap of the wool, the cool whisper of the silk, the crisp starch of the lace.  He looks closer and gets lost in the way he can see the dust motes floating in the beam of sunlight coming in through the window in the painting.

"Do you like it?" Massey asks, and he sounds genuinely interested.

Carlos nods.  "It's astonishing."

"Where did you get it?" TK breathes, tilting his head to look at the cat peeking out from under the woman's skirts.

"TEFAF in Maastricht.  It was painted as a wedding portrait."

Carlos tilts his head, appraising the woman's expression.  "She doesn't look like she was thrilled about the marriage."

"See Dad, I told you."  Massey barks an unexpected laugh, and turns to look at the teenage girl standing in the doorway.

"My daughter, as you can see, agrees with your analysis."  He pulls her into the room.  "Claire, this is Detective Reyes, and Mr Strand.  My eldest daughter, Claire."

She steps up next to her father, looking at the painting.  "She looks like Aunt Annabeth."

Massey coughs in an attempt to smother a laugh.  "Don't let her catch you saying that."

She shrugs, unconcerned, and turns to her father.  "Mom says you have to stop mooning over your picture and come help her be polite to all the boring people you invited."

Carlos swallows a laugh at the long suffering look on Massey's face, but he just rolls his eyes theatrically at his daughter and waves her off.  "Yes, yes, we'll be right there."  He's never seen Massey this relaxed, this relatable, and he wonders if it's his daughter, or the painting that softens him, and then chastises himself for being uncharitable.

tagging anyone who wants to play.  snippets are my favorite thing.

[empirearchives]

The Little Beggar, c. 1808-09, Napoleonic era

By Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot, French

The Little Beggar is one of the earliest known works by the artist, who arrived in Rome a few months after her professor, Guillaume Guillon-Lethière, had been appointed director of the Academy of France in its new home in the Villa Medici. The subject is exceptional in showing a beggar in such a compassionate light; while he is clearly asking the viewer for money, he is a sympathetic, not a threatening figure, reflecting a significant change of attitude towards the less fortunate.

Literature

François Guizot, De l’état des Beaux-Arts en France et du Salon de 1810, Paris, Maradan, 1810, p. 99

Pierre François Gueffier, Entretiens sur les ouvrages de peinture, sculpture et gravure, exposés au Musée Napoléon en 1810, Paris, Gueffier jeune, 1811, p. 157

C. P. Landon, Salon de 1810, p.104

Paul Menoux, Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot, Catalogue Raisonné, Paris, Arthena (to be published).

TEFAF Maastricht

[kkm-daily-dispatch]

Long-Lost Klimt Portrays African Prince

A rediscovered painting of an African prince by Gustav Klimt that captured visitors’ attention at the TEFAF Maastricht fair in the Netherlands is under negotiation for sale, the Vienna-based gallery offering the work said as the event closed on Thursday evening. The early, almost photorealistic head-and-shoulders portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, shown against a floral background,…

[10bmnews]

Long-Lost Klimt Portrays African Prince

A rediscovered painting of an African prince by Gustav Klimt that captured visitors’ attention at the TEFAF Maastricht fair in the Netherlands is under negotiation for sale, the Vienna-based gallery offering the work said as the event closed on Thursday evening. The early, almost photorealistic head-and-shoulders portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, shown against a floral background,…

[hungamaofficial]

Long-Lost Klimt Portrays African Prince

A rediscovered painting of an African prince by Gustav Klimt that captured visitors’ attention at the TEFAF Maastricht fair in the Netherlands is under negotiation for sale, the Vienna-based gallery offering the work said as the event closed on Thursday evening. The early, almost photorealistic head-and-shoulders portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, shown against a floral background,…

[businesspr]

Long-Lost Klimt Portrays African Prince

The gallery selling the work, which resurfaced at the TEFAF Maastricht art fair, says a major museum is negotiating to buy it. source https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/arts/design/rediscovered-klimt-african-prince.html