Early American Guitars: The Instruments of C. F. Martin Not for guitar lovers only, some thirty-five instruments from the Martin Museum in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, display the history of the great American guitar firm from its beginnings with the Viennese style instruments of C.F. Martin Sr., who came to this country, encountered Spanish style guitars here, and combined the two styles …
Looking East at the Frist
It is interesting to speculate on what Western art might look like had Japan not opened its ports to international trade in the 1850s, sending forth a flood of textiles, woodcuts, lanterns, screens, and other objects that captivated artists from Mary Cassatt and Claude Monet to Frank Lloyd Wright, who once described himself as “enslaved” by Japanese prints. Interesting and …
Upcoming shows and fairs in New York
Armory Antique Show The Armory Antique Show is a crowd pleaser, offering a playful abundance of eclectic wares at a range of prices. Organizers promise roughly one hundred specialists in antique and vintage furniture, folk art, Americana, modern design, garden ornament, lighting, jewelry, silver, textiles, and ceramics. Under new management this year, the Armory Antique Show was recently acquired by …
Saying the V-word
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Japanese prints at the British Museum
by Carolin C. Young | Lovers in the Upstairs Room of a Teahouse from Utamakaura (Poem of the Pillow) by Kitagawa Utamaro, c. 1788. Sheet from a color wood block-printed album. © Trustees of the British Museum. Those seeking salacious content, accompanied by illuminating explanations, can explore the sexually explicit Shunga art of Japan in an exhibition also hosted by the …
Tudor portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, London
by Carolin C. Young |Three Unknown Elizabethan Children, artist unknown, c. 1580. Oil on panel. Private collection, on view at the National Portrait Gallery, London. London’s National Portrait Gallery invites visitors to have a firsthand look at the personalities who inhabited Elizabeth I’s realm. Including portraits of the queen and many of her most renowned subjects, such as Bess of …
Renaissance music at Écouen, Paris
by Carolin C. Young | King David and some Musicians, artist unknown, c. 1500–1510. One of three oil on wood panels. Musée National du Moyen Âge-Musée de Cluny, Paris. © Rmn-Grand Palais, photograph by Jean-Gilles Berizzi. Those seeking a lyrical repose from the bustle of the Parisian art world should head to France’s National Museum of the Renaissance at the Château …
Wendell D. Garrett Award
We at ANTIQUES are pleased that Gerald W. R. Ward has been named the first recipient of the Wendell D. Garrett Award by the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, which established the prize as a testament to the accomplishments of one of its most illustrious alumni—and the indelible voice of our magazine for more than forty years. Like Wendell, Gerry …
Betsy Bonaparte in Baltimore
Portrait of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte [1785–1879] by Firmin Massot (1766–1849), 1823. Oil on canvas. Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore. As the heroine of a novel, Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte might have suited Edith Wharton or possibly Henry James. We could also think of her as an early version of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Born in Baltimore, the oldest daughter of a wealthy …
William Kent in New York
The Gallery, Chiswick House by William Henry Hunt (1790–1864), 1828. Watercolor. © Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth; reproduced by permission of the Chatsworth Settlement Trustees. The Bard Graduate Center (BGC) and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum are presenting another of their comprehensive examinations of a renowned and versatile English designer. William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain, now at the BGC, and its accompanying …