LONDON SIMMERS – July 2010

London will be buzzing in June with antiques and art shows – but July has plenty to offer as well.  Here are a few of the highlights:

AUCTIONS:

CHRISTIE’S
Works of Art from the Spencer Family Collections.
The Trustees of Althorp Estate have enlisted Christie’s to sell items from Althorp —the Spencer family’s ancestral home — as well as from Spencer House, their London residence until 1924, which has since then been leased out. Although the eighteenth-century core of their collections will remain at Althorp, the paintings and objects on offer include many exceptional pieces, acquired by later generations of the family. A Commander being armed for battle by Sir Peter Paul Rubens and King David by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri will star at the evening sale of Old Master paintings. The single-owner sale at King Street includes English and French furniture, porcelain and objets d’art, much of which was specifically designed for Spencer House between 1755 and 1791. The two-day ‘carriages and attic’ sale at South Kensington, featuring nineteenth-century horse-drawn carriages, coachmen’s livery, butler’s trays, and copper batteries de cuisine, provides a revealing glimpse into the family’s history.

Old Master Paintings and Nineteenth Century Art Evening Sale
July 6^th, 7:00 p.m.

Works of Art from the Spencer Collections the Spencer
July 8^th, 2:00 p.m.
Christie’s, King Street, London

Works of Art from the Spencer Collections
The Spencer Carriages and Attic Sale
July 8^th and 9^th
Christie’s South Kensington, London
www.christies.com

SOTHEBY’S
A Magnificent Turner
Sotheby’s features Joseph Mallord William Turner’s Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino at its evening Old Master sale.  This monumental work was the artist’s final painting of Rome and revels in the ethereal luminescence, for which he is renowned.

Originally purchased by Turner’s patron and friend Hugh Munro of Novar from the artist’s Royal Academy exhibition of 1839 and then sold in 1878 to the 5^th Earl of Roseberry and his wife, Hannah Rothschild, whose descendants have owned it ever since, the piece is as exceptional in its provenance as in its aesthetics. Boasting impeccable condition to boot, its £12—18 million ($18.5—27.7 million) estimate seems modest if one considers that in 2006 Turner’s Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio set the record for the artist with a price of £20.5 million ($35.9 million).

Evening Sale of Old Master and Early British Paintings
Sotheby’s, London
July 7^th, 6:00 p.m.
www.sothebys.com

EXHIBITIONS:

THE BRITISH MUSEUM
Italian Renaissance Drawings
The British Museum marries fifty Italian Renaissance drawings from the Uffizi’s staggering collections to a similar number drawn from its own formidable holdings. Focusing on the development of drawing in Italy between 1400 and 1510, the exhibition incorporates works by Fra Angelico, Jacopo and Gentile Bellini, Botticelli, Carpaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Filippo Lippi, Mantegna, Michelangelo, Titian and Verrocchio. From preparatory sketches to highly finished masterworks, the show examines the myriad meanings and uses of drawing in the Early Renaissance.
A catalogue by Hugo Chapman and Marzia Faietti accompanies the show, which will open at the Uffizi in Florence in February 2011.

Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings
The British Museum, London
through July 25^th
www.britishmuseum.org