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Art

Jacques Emile Blanche

One of the interesting aspects of my work is to advise friends and clients on paintings. One friend buys through a well known gallery. It’s generally thought that this is an expensive way of building a collection. However it does have certain advantages in provenance and quality. You would be [...]

September 10, 2014 // 0 Comments

Edward Seago

As an art critic and historian, I sometimes am requested to advise on collectible artists and one I recommend is Edward Seago. Born in Norwich in 1910 as the son of a coal merchant, he was entirely self-educated. He had a heart condition, first diagnosed aged 7, which forced him to spend a great [...]

August 7, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Knebworth Festival

I chanced upon a report in the media earlier this week that the Knebworth Festival is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year. I have vague memories of being there at various times in the 1970s to see Pink Floyd – who arranged for a Spitfire, or rather a replica version, to ‘fly’ on [...]

May 28, 2014 // 0 Comments

Michelangelo: His Epic Life / Martin Gayford

Martin Gayford is amongst the best of art biographers. I read both hisYellow House which depicts the time that Van Gogh and Gauguin spent in Arles and his life of John Constable and was impressed by both. His biography of Michelangelo did not scale the heights of these two as in it he was rather [...]

March 27, 2014 // 0 Comments

Richard Hamilton at the Tate Modern

There are some painters normally to be found in the Royal Academy that stay safely within their comfort zone knowing what their patrons like and producing it almost formulaically. Richard Hamilton could not  be accused of this as he was forever trying new styles and methods of painting. He has [...]

March 19, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Watts Gallery

The Watts gallery which I visited yesterday with Dominic, a collector of Victorian painting, houses the work of George Frederick Watts (1817-1904), one of the most celebrated artists of his day. Watts married first the actress Ellen Terry when she was just 16 and Mary Seton Fraser herself 42 years [...]

January 30, 2014 // 0 Comments

Italy unpacked

I do not get that excited by the type of travel programme which pairs a jovial Italian with a more phlegmatic Brit, but I did watch Italy Unpacked last night with some enthusiasm. This was largely nothing to do with the two presenters, the chef Georgio Locatelli and Andrew Graham Dixon, the art [...]

January 25, 2014 // 0 Comments

In underwear, back to basics is always good

In fashion, what goes around comes around. There are only so many (for which read ‘few’) limbs and body parts, so many colours and so many looks that work. But there are so many talented people, so many new graduates students, so many collections to see, so many dresses, so much money and so [...]

November 29, 2013 // 0 Comments

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