Showing posts with label datasets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label datasets. Show all posts

Jul 14, 2019

Art Dealers: Julius H. Weitzner in RKD provenance



Peter Paul Rubens

Provenance Dataset for Art Provenance Research and Network Analysis


Julius H. Weitzner is an art dealer whose name appears in many provenances throughout the world. 


Below are artworks whose provenance, as published by the RKD, mentions Julius H. Weitzner.


Although the list is not complete, it suggests the kind of impact one art dealer can have on the diffusion of artworks. We will return to this dataset later for network analysis.

Jun 22, 2019

Tate Provenance Research Project Spoliation Reports

UK Museums Provenance Research Projects: TATE


Lists of works with incomplete provenance during the period 1933 - 1945


Spoliation Reports Phases 1,2 and 3


Phase 4 - List of works with incomplete provenance during the period 1933 - 1945


ABBOTT, Lemuel Francis (1760-1803)

Portrait of the Engraver Francesco Bartolozzi, No date
Oil paint on canvas
756 x 676 mm
Presented by Mrs M. Bernard 1968
T01067

Provenance:

• …; Mrs M Bernard, by 1968
Questions in the operative period:
No published provenance pre-1968
AGASSE, Jacques Laurent (1767-1849)
Two Hunters with a Groom (circa 1805)
Oil on canvas
638 x 759 mm
Presented by Paul Mellon through the British Sporting Art Trust 1979
T02350

Provenance:

• …; reportedly bought by Oscar Johnson (d.1968), before 1963
• Oscar & Peter Johnson Ltd
• From whom purchased by Paul Mellon 1968
• Presented by Paul Mellon, 1979
Questions in the operative period:
No information on whereabouts prior to acquisition by Oscar Johnson
ALKEN, Henry Thomas (1785-1851)
The Belvoir Hunt: Jumping into and out of a Lane (circa 1830-40)
Oil on canvas
451 x 648 mm
Presented by Paul Mellon through the British Sporting Art Trust 1979
T02353
Provenance:
• …; Arthur Ackermann and Son Ltd
• From whom purchased by Paul Mellon 1964
Questions in the operative period:
No information on whereabouts prior to acquisition by Ackermann and Son Ltd

Dec 5, 2018

Provenance dataset: Molyneux in NGA NEPIP

In this post we gather together a small subset of artworks that mention Molyneux in the provenance. 

The artworks selected are those that the National Gallery of Art listed on the Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal and which also contain Molyneux in the provenance
Why is the mention of Molyneux in the provenance of an artwork noteworthy?
A Washington Post article published twenty years ago in 2000 explains the role of Molyneux in supplying one of the NGA's most important art collectors and benefactors, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, with French paintings immediately after WWII, and Molyneux's connection to a Nazi art looting Red Flag Name, Paul Petrides. 

The Bruce collection of small French impressionists provides a good example of less than rigorous screening policies. She bought the paintings in 1955 from a dashing Anglo-French fashion designer named Edward Molyneux. Molyneux, who built up his collection in the immediate postwar period, provided little information about how he had come into possession of the paintings.

In purchasing the paintings, Bruce acted on the advice of the then-curator of the National Gallery, John Walker, and it was clearly understood that the collection would end up in the gallery after her death. Since Molyneux did not die until 1965, it would have been a relatively simple matter to have asked him about the provenance. But gallery officials did not get around to making inquiries until the early '70s.


While there is no reason to suspect Molyneux of knowingly buying looted art, at least some of the paintings came from a Paris dealer named Paul Petrides, who actively collaborated with Nazi art looters, according to U.S. Army files. In a letter dated December 1977, Petrides described Molyneux as "a faithful client who bought a lot of paintings from me."