[Innomen]

Although she appears poised in her resplendent gold dress, there is something pained, yet indisputably heroic, about this depiction of a young widow. Scholars speculate that Villier’s family commissioned the Timken’s portrait to share with prospective suitors. Indeed, van Dyck painted Mary Villiers again, about a year later ( Lady Mary Villiers , c. 1637, North Carolina Museum of Art), in a lighter mode, shortly before she married the King’s cousin and became the Duchess of Richmond and Lennox. He would paint her again after this marriage. The most touching of all the portraits that van Dyck made of Mary Villiers, however, is the one in San Diego. Reeling from grief, the fallout from a pandemic, and bracing for an unknown future, this depiction of Mary Villiers models a form of grace under pressure that merits not just our sympathy, but admiration as well. here

[cb]

Because of the success he enjoyed throughout his career, we know a lot about the life of Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). He was born in Antwerp, the seventh of twelve children in a prosperous, devoutly religious home. When he was ten-years-old, van Dyck went to study with Hendrik van Balen (1575-1623 who headed Antwerp’s professional organization of painters, the Guild of St. Luke. Van Dyck likely spent the next several years learning his craft there. By the time he turned eighteen, van Dyck found new employment in the busiest of all painting studios in that city, the one led by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Rubens once referred to van Dyck “the best of my pupils.” The two men ultimately shared many traits: a passion for travel--especially to Italy, bravura draftsmanship, interest in the commercial benefits of printmaking, and a keen instinct for pleasing their royal patrons. There was admiration, but also competition, between these two leaders of the seventeenth-century Flemish art world. In 1621, Rubens received the commission to paint a monumental cycle of decorative paintings from Marie de Medici, now at the Louvre. During the same year, van Dyck was invited to England where he went to work for King James I.

[Essjay]

Partly for this reason, when the Timken displayed works on loan from the Sonnabend Collection in its galleries, a little over a year ago, I hung Andy Warhol’s Jackie (Gold) (1964) alongside van Dyck’s painting. Separated in time by more than 325 years, and vastly different in terms of technique, these two portraits share a sensibility about private grief in the face of public scrutiny that suggests their lasting alignment. [links]

[srf21c]

In 1632, still in England, van Dyck was knighted and became the principal painter to Charles I. Although he made regular trips back to the European continent, van Dyck called London his home and died there. It is estimated that in the course of his final decade he painted the King and Queen of England perhaps 70 times and produced another 30 or so portraits of members of their court. One of those paintings has been at the Timken since 2005. Mary Villiers, Lady Herbert of Shurland has a wax seal on its back indicating it was a royal commission. Like the artist who painted this work, we know a fair amount about the person on the front of the canvas. Mary Villiers was about fourteen years old when she sat for this particular portrait. If Villiers seems joyless, it is with good reason. Her husband of just two years, Charles, Lord Herbert of Shurland, succumbed to smallpox in 1636, the same year in which we presume the painting was made. Mary holds a single downturned rose in one hand while her other hand points to the black, mourning ribbons on her dress. Van Dyck relied on symbolism of this kind; for example, he uses the same shattered pink rose petals to signify the end of a life in his portrait of Venetia, Lady Digby on her Deathbed (1633, Dulwich Picture Gallery).

[Remizor]

For the latest Timken news on events, exhibitions and more please sign up for our newsletter. more

[StinkiePhish]

An American Legacy, A Gift to New York

[harrifolfenced]

Pop/Concept: Highlights from the Permanent Collection

[gossipymen]

Full House: Views of the Whitney’s Collection at 75

[tunixman]

Andy Warhol—
From A to B and
Back Again more

[The Madhatter]

Sinister Pop here

[acrylicist]

Inspirations and influences: Warhol was not alone among artists in mourning JFK. Robert Rauschenberg's Retroactive silkscreen collages are haunted by the murdered president.

[sunglasses]

It's a gentle painting, very tender. If he were the voyeur of caricature, Warhol might have chosen a violent image of Kennedy dying in the back of the car. He chose to show a more considered moment - and an explicitly national one. The uniformed soldier invites us to think that Jackie too is a soldier, a hero, taking America's suffering on herself, bearing the burden. The formality of this painting is a shock, yet it's without melodrama. Warhol waited until the feeling really did hit him. This is what makes him such a devastating witness.

[jenifrer]

Warhol's portraits of Jackie could not be more full-throated in their sorrow because they are so obviously felt, a silent agony. Like all his paintings, they adopt the standpoint of someone flicking through magazines in a diner. Warhol has looked at the photographs of Kennedy's funeral and chanced on this one. It will not let him go. He looks at it again and again, and so must we - 20 times. This is the image among thousands that makes the tragedy real for him.

[Kapisketo]

Subject: Jackie Kennedy (1929-94), born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, later Jackie Onassis. She worked as a photographer before marrying ambitious Democratic politician JFK in 1953. She became the nation's most celebrated First Lady when Kennedy was elected US president in 1961. On November 21 1963 she was with Kennedy in an open car crossing Dealey Plaza in Dallas when the shots were fired that changed America's sense of itself, breeding paranoia and countless conspiracy theories. more

[franktollingu]

Distinguishing features: Jackie stands in stillness and dignity in front of a uniformed guard, both of them at attention as the body of the president is laid to rest before news photographers and television cameras. Never did Warhol take on the media image more directly. here

[kiav]

Historians have chipped away at the Kennedy myth - he was "the most overrated president of the century", according to one - but at his death he was aligning himself with popular movements for change in American society, proposing a civil rights bill just months before he was murdered. His funeral at Arlington National Cemetery was watched by millions on television. here

[didiertomas2385]

The other lots included in the auction are just as spectacular, but Jackie feels particularly apt in 2021, as so much trauma and death continues to haunt America. Mrs. Kennedy’s grief, so cinematic and unforgettable, became a character in and of itself. For most of us, our grief never gets anything close to that degree of airtime.

[MotherFucker]

“Together with his partner Jeanne-Claude, Christo changed the visual language of art in a way that no other artist has done before, transforming the public’s perspective and expectations of what art can be and how it can be experienced,” Simon Shaw, Vice Chairman of Global Fine Arts at Sotheby’s, said in a statement. “Sotheby’s auction of their personal collection will provide a unique glimpse of their personal and professional world, and we are honored to pay tribute to this internationally renowned duo, who hold a fundamental place in the history of contemporary art.”

[orlov747]

Jackie is leading the Sotheby’s auction, which is entitled “Unwrapped: The Hidden World of Christo and Jeanne-Claude,” at an estimated sale price of between €800,000-1,200,000. Warhol, who was famously enthralled with pop culture and its machinations, created several portraits of the freshly-widowed First Lady in the direct aftermath of JFK’s assassination. “It didn’t bother me that much that he was dead,” Warhol is quoted as explaining. “What bothered me was the way television and radio were programming everyone to feel so sad. It seemed no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t get away from the thing.” Jackie (1964) seems to comment on the particular textures of this so-called programming: rendered in black and white, Mrs. Kennedy is the very picture of elegant mourning. Her blank face hovers, shadowed, while right behind her an officer looks just as unreadable.

[MrBurns]

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that no one has better taste in art than artists, which is why it’s a particular privilege for buyers and observers when the art collections of artists turn up at auction. On February 17th, Sotheby’s is offering close to 400 lots worth of the personal collection of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the coupled pair of artists known for their monumentally large creations of textile art that altered landscapes and punctured imaginations. Christo, of course, passed away last June at the age of 84, but the legacy that the artist created while he was alive is visible in his collection. He made friends with many artists, including Warhol, and his collection includes Andy Warhol 1964 portrait Jackie. more

[dangerman]

New on the Block is a series that looks at the most notable or unusual items to go up for auction each week. here

[Vasiliev]

here