Stories

The news, views and stories behind the art

Ten of the greatest foreign old master painters to work in Britain

These are our favourite top ten foreign old master painters to work in Britain. Dickinson has been fortunate enough to handle works by all of these artists, each of whom left British painting in a better state than in which they found it. This list is not intended to be definitive, rather illustrative of the […]

A short guide to scientific analysis

Scholars and dealers throw around terms and abbreviations such as UV, infra, dendro and IR, but what do they really mean? Today we bring you a simple guide to the complex field of technical analysis, in an effort to understand what these tests can tell us – and also what their limitations are. […]

CORONATION PORTRAITS

CORONATION PORTRAITS With the coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla fast approaching, we thought it high time to look back at some of the most (and perhaps lesser) celebrated portraits of British monarchs, right through the ages. Queen Elizabeth I (1553 – 1603), c. 1660 – Unknown English artist Painted by […]

What are the greatest TV shows on art ever made?

Did you develop a spiralling Netflix addiction during lockdown? Justify your bad habits by following Dickinson’s recommended list of the greatest art documentaries and shows ever made. 1. Kenneth Clark, Civilisation (1969) There’s a reason this one has remained a benchmark for over half a century: Sir Kenneth Clark’s 13-part series (accompanied by a book […]

Art Reading Recommendations– Summer 2022

James Roundell, Director, Impressionist & Modern Art: Art of the Extreme 1905 – 1914 by Philip Hook, Profile Books Limited, 2001 We can always count on Philip Hook for an entertaining read, and Impressionist and Modern department director James Roundell recommends the latest offering by Hook, author of Breakfast at Sotheby’s and Rogues’ Gallery. In […]

Concrete Art: Visible and Tangible Form

When we talk about ‘Concrete art’ (and its successor, the ‘Neo-Concrete’ movement) – the theme of Perspective: Visible and Tangible Form, our recent stand for TEFAF New York 2022, and the ongoing exhibition at 980 Madison – rest assured we’re not planning to hire builders to fill the room with actual concrete! (Not that that’s […]

The Best of British: Sales to the Nation

A gallery sale is always rewarding, and often the culmination of a great deal of research and effort. We take great pleasure in bringing together a delighted buyer and a satisfied vendor! But there is a particular type of sale that is even more rewarding than most, and that is when an artwork goes to […]

Current Market Trends: The NFT Boom

What connects The British Museum, Paris Hilton and Damien Hirst? Answer: they have all created NFTs. Although NFTs have been around for just under a decade, they only entered the mainstream artworld consciousness recently. 2021 was a landmark year for NFTs, with over $24.9 billion in total sales in comparison with $94.9 million worth of […]

Artist in Focus: Fanny Sanín

“My language is one of pure abstraction devoid of any allusion to an external reality.” (F. Sanín, 2012) Fanny Sanín (b. 1938, Bogotá, Colombia) is considered one of the leading artists of the Abstract movement and one of the most significant and individual artistic voices to come out of Latin America in the past 100 […]

Art Fairs: From Forum to Frieze

As we head into this new year, art lovers and professionals alike start gearing up for the next round of art fairs around the globe, including ourselves! With over 400 occurrences per year, art fairs constitute one of the crucial elements of the global art market, essential for business, trade, forming new relationships and strengthening […]

Music in Art

As we ring in December and, with it, the start of the holiday season, our thoughts turn to a suitably festive theme in art: music. From the Old Masters to the Contemporary era, artists have drawn inspiration from music, whether it’s a literal depiction of a musician or an instrument, or an abstract composition inspired […]

Great Collectors through the Ages: Charles Clore

Today in our ‘Great Collectors through the Ages’ series, we’ll be looking at a name that will be familiar to regular visitors of the Tate Britain, Dulwich Picture Gallery, British Museum, Royal Opera House, Royal Academy of Art, and many more: Sir Charles Clore. A financier and property developer, Clore was also a noted philanthropist […]

Artist in Focus: Paul Signac

This week’s ‘artist in focus’ insight looks at the career of Pointillist and Post-Impressionist Paul Signac, to coincide with the newly-opened exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Rather than a retrospective of Signac’s own oeuvre, however, Signac collectionneur focuses on the artist’s identity as a collector of works by his friends and fellow Post-Impressionists. […]

The Art of Framing

Edgar Degas reportedly once said ‘The frame is the reward of the artist’. A picture’s appeal (and even its value) can be diminished by a cheap frame, or one that is garish or unsuitable in style; equally, it can be enhanced by a stylish, sensitively chosen, period-appropriate example. Part of our job at Dickinson is […]

Perspective: Latin American Art

Collectors are always on the lookout for artworks that represent good value as well as good quality. One collecting area in which we believe this can be found is Modern and Contemporary Latin American art and our continuing strong sales in this sector certainly support this view. If you’re considering an addition to your collection, […]

How a Dickinson catalogue comes together

Anyone who has visited one of Dickinson’s art fair stands in recent years will have noticed our scholarly catalogues. These are a cross between an auction house catalogue and a museum exhibition catalogue (albeit put together with a considerably smaller team than the former and on a much shorter time frame than the latter!) Today’s […]

Painting in Paris

To coincide with the start of this year’s TEFAF Online, will be taking a look at Painters in Paris, focusing on the impact of the City of Light as a source of inspiration. Our TEFAF highlights include Robert Lefevre’s The Emperor Napoleon (1814), Édouard Vuillard’s The Election Posters, Square Berlioz (Place Vintimille) (1924) and Carmen […]

Artist in Focus: Eileen Agar

In this week’s ‘artist in focus’, we’ll be looking at British artist Eileen Agar to coincide with the Whitechapel Gallery’s exhibition Eileen Agar: Angel of Anarchy, on now through 29 August. The largest exhibition to date of Agar’s work, it features paintings, assemblages, and 50 never-before-seen photographs printed from the Tate’s archive of some 1000 […]

Artist in Focus: Jean Dubuffet – Art Brut and ‘Brutal Beauty’

We’ve all heard that joke about modern art: a bewildered onlooker, confronted with a Pollock or a Rothko, exclaims: ‘How much? But my kid could have done that!’ Not an opinion that most artists would take as a compliment, surely – but Jean Dubuffet would have been delighted. Dubuffet, the provocative French Postwar artist currently […]

Games in Art – Your move!

Your move! Thanks to COVID restrictions and lockdowns, sales of board games have soared, with John Lewis reporting a 52% rise in 2020. Meanwhile, Netflix reported that The Queen’s Gambit, a scripted series about a young female chess prodigy, set a new record, with 62 million members tuning in during the show’s first month. For […]

Artist in Focus: Dame Barbara Hepworth – Piercing the Stone

‘It is easy now to communicate with people through abstraction, and particularly so in sculpture. Since the whole body reacts to its presence, people become themselves a living part of the whole.’ Barbara Hepworth with her Curved Reclining Form (Rosewall) in 1961, photograph by Ida Kar. © National Portrait Gallery […]

Pioneering women art dealers – Part 2

Previously, we looked at the stories of four women art dealers active in Britain and Europe. This time, we’ll be adding three more important figures to the narrative, looking at women dealers working in America. Edith Halpert (1900 – 1970) Edith Halpert in a photograph for Life magazine, 1952. She is joined by artists […]

Artist in Focus: Juan Gris – The Demon of Logic

‘Here is the man who has meditated on all things modern, here is the painter who wishes to invent only new compositions, who would draw and paint only materially pure forms’ (Guillaume Apollinaire, 1913) Most people, if asked to name a Spanish Cubist, would have a single answer: Picasso. His fame is such that […]

Nature in Art

Is it our imagination, or…is spring finally just around the corner? After a winter that seemed longer, darker and colder than usual – without the warming distractions of cozy restaurant dinners, ski weekends or a festive family Christmas – we are all breathing a sigh of relief at the appearance of nesting songbirds and the […]

Napoleon: Master of Propaganda

What do J. Lo, Banksy and the Queen have in common? Wealth, sure; devoted supporters, absolutely; but we’re talking about a carefully curated public image – propaganda, if you will. The tools at the disposal of today’s public figure, whether an artist, actor, monarch or politician, are seemingly endless: a team of PR agents, multiple […]

How to read a condition report

As seasoned collectors know, a substantial part of the value of any artwork lies in its condition. A painting may have begun its life as a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence or a devotional panel by Jan Gossaert, but if it has been damaged or otherwise over-conserved, its value will be severely impacted. But when […]

Team Dickinson’s Art Reading Recommendations

“Always read stuff which will make you look good if you die in the middle of reading it.” (P.J. O’Rourke) What to do when museums, galleries, theatres, restaurants, shops and other sources of entertainment are all closed, and the weather is gloomy and frosty? For many of us, the answer is: read! When Dickinson team […]

Barking Mad! Dogs in Art

Whether featured as symbols of fidelity, devotion, protection, and status, or as the subjects of portraits – some with surprisingly human-like characteristics – dogs have long fascinated artists and collectors. You can find images of dogs in contexts from prehistoric cave paintings to contemporary photographs by William Wegman, and in all cultures. Here is a […]

Pioneering women art dealers – Part I: ‘Her eye was superb, and her taste bold’

Look around any art fair in the 21st century and you will see women art dealers well represented: as directors, partners, and gallery owners and founders. This was not always the case, as we know; although men have been dealing in art for centuries, women were for much of this time barred from participating in […]

Dickinson’s Charity Collaborations

As we move into the holiday season, and especially in a challenging year like 2020, it can be rewarding to think about the opportunities we have had to support causes for good – whether that means raising awareness or funding, or donating our time and energy. The Art Room workshop on Dickinson’s Frieze Masters stand in […]

Cures and quacks: a history of medicine in art

Beyond the conventional genres of portraiture, landscape, history painting, still lifes or religious scenes, some artists looked to more unusual subjects for inspiration, among them the field of medicine. From the old masters to the modern era, paintings of medical subjects have offered valuable insights into contemporary practices of scientific enquiry and healing. L. da […]

TEFAF Success & Call for Consignments

On the one hand it’s a bit premature to begin ‘year in review’ insights, with another six weeks remaining in 2020; on the other, it’s hard not to reflect on a highly unusual TEFAF Maastricht 2020 when we are already receiving communications about TEFAF Maastricht 2021! Although this year’s Maastricht was an abbreviated one, it […]

A New Partnership: The Officer

At Dickinson we love a collaboration! Sometimes that means inviting guest curators, or fellow dealers, to borrow or share our gallery spaces. At other times it means joining forces with a similarly-minded company to offer clients a more comprehensive service than either of us could alone. Brand Ambassador Victoria Christian and founder Clive Christian OBE […]

Introducing our new series: Great collectors through the ages

The reasons people collect art are as diverse as the collections themselves. Some are passionate about the work of a particular artist or genre; others are collectors of works on paper, or perhaps miniatures; others specialise in a particular subject, and pursue that interest across categories and periods. The provenance of an object or artwork, […]

As the art world re-opens: museums

What have you been most looking forward to about the end of lockdown? A visit to the hairdresser to tame bedraggled locks? Date night at a favourite French bistro? An easyjet flight to Florence? For us, the reopening of museums and exhibitions have been at the top of the list. The Uffizi Gallery, Florence, reopened […]

Cézanne & Mt Sainte-Victoire: ‘The father of us all’

To the east of Aix-en-Provence, in the Sainte-Victoire Massif range, towering above the River Arc, stands the distinctive grey limestone silhouette of Mont Sainte-Victoire. The landmark remained a seminal motif for Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906) between 1877 and his death nearly three decades later, appearing in both oils and watercolours, either dominating the page […]

Travelling Expertise

You may not yet be ready to travel again – but we are! Dickinson’s Managing Director Emma Ward and French Consultant Marie-Lucie Bisiaux visiting FIAC fair, in Paris The Dickinson team is ready to get going and well positioned to reach clients across the globe: in addition to those of us based at the […]

Why now might be the time to consign

It’s not the way we’d have chosen to drum up business, that’s for sure. But it can’t be denied that, for whatever reason – collectors working from home and taking stock of their holdings, buyers looking to invest in secure, blue-chip art, or even other dealers seeking to continue doing business remotely – our wish […]

Dickinson’s Zoom Master Classes

Dickinson began hosting a series of zoom master classes as a way to keep in touch with international clients and collectors during the lockdown period – as well as providing a bit of education (and, we hope, entertainment!) to those confined to their homes. Rather than attempting to offer a survey course, we have touched […]

Why art fairs?

As numerous studies and articles in recent years have explained, the art fair – with over 400 examples taking place around the world each year – has fundamentally changed the way galleries do business, and fairs are a fixture for exhibitors and visitors alike. In a time-poor world that is driven by convenience, the art […]

Collection Management

At Dickinson, our involvement doesn’t end with the sale! We offer a comprehensive range of curatorial services to ensure that individual artworks and whole collections are conserved and displayed to their best advantage, whether in a gallery or a private home, and to oversee their safe transportation around the globe. Bringing art to you: Our […]

Virtual viewings: A valuable tool, but no substitution for the real experience

It’s 2020, and everyone is going digital! Even before COVID-19 forced the temporary closure of physical gallery spaces, dealers had been rolling out the latest in virtual viewing rooms and fair stands, while keeping up to speed on multiple social media channels. Auction houses, meanwhile, have been chasing online bidders for years, and they’re now […]

The Nude in Art

With over two months of lockdown now behind us, ‘dressing for work’ has taken on a new meaning – after all, will your colleagues really notice you’re in your gym gear, when all they can see is a postage-stamp-sized image over zoom? (Or is that just us?) It may even prompt some contemplation about the […]

Surrealism

Let us take you back to 1920s Paris and the origins of the Surrealist movement. Pioneered by influential writers André Breton and Paul Éluard, the movement sought to revolutionise human experience, rejecting rational perceptions of life in favour of the unconscious and dreams. These two pictures by Yves Tanguy and André Masson reflect Breton’s […]

A Virtual Visit to some Stately Homes

We’re guessing we’re not the only ones disappointed that the Covid-19 restrictions have led to temporary closures of some of our favourite National Trust properties, stately homes, and historic gardens – and just when the sun is out and the days are getting longer! To help pass the time until we can all revisit our […]

Transparent pricing: A win-win for galleries and for collectors

‘How much is it?’ What might initially seem like the simplest of questions is often one of the most complex when it comes to buying art. It is a common misconception that a public price discourages potential buyers from engaging in conversation, but in fact research has demonstrated that the opposite is true. Transparency, in […]

At the Artist’s Table: Saul Steinberg

A pioneer of graphic art in Post-War America, Romanian-born Saul Steinberg (1914–1999) is widely celebrated for the magazine covers and drawings he produced for The New Yorker for nearly six decades. He is equally acclaimed for his dexterity in a wide range of media, from painting, print, and collage to sculpture, all of which he […]

Collecting Old Masters

Let’s start with the most obvious question: what, exactly, is an ‘Old Master’? There is no fixed definition, but according to the parameters used by most auction houses, it’s a European artwork dating from approximately the 13th through the early 19th century. Within that scope there is an enormous range of choices – from multi-million-dollar […]

How To Cope With Quarantine

Spring has sprung, the sun is out, flowers are blooming and birds are chirping….but we’re all stuck inside, self-quarantining and social-distancing until further notice! For those of you who, like us, are struggling to pass the time while keeping busy and entertained, we’ve put together some suggestions, inspired – as ever! – by the artworks […]

The Great Outdoors: From Imagination to Impression

When we speak of plein-air painting we might think immediately of Impressionism, the movement whose very name derives from the practice of capturing spontaneous and informal images of the natural world. But the transition from formal studio painting to painting outdoors began much earlier, and was a more gradual process of development, as we can […]

Panini and the Pantheon

Giovanni Paolo Panini – painter, architect, and designer of stage sets – was as much responsible for Grand Tourists’ images of Rome as his fellow countryman Canaletto was for romantic notions of La Serenissima. But how accurate were these depictions? Neither Canaletto nor Panini felt constrained by the rules of strict topographical fidelity, and […]

The Benefits of Private Sales

Dickinson’s history as a leader in private sales Dickinson gallery was founded in 1993 as a specialist in private sales. When Simon Dickinson and David Ker first formed a partnership, they identified a significant gap in the art market for a discreet way to buy and sell artworks on the secondary market outside the public […]

Dickinson Discusses: The Art of Journalism

THE ART OF JOURNALISM: HOW DO JOURNALISTS SHAPE OR INFLUENCE THE ART MARKET? Chaired by Thomas Marks, the panel includes Emma Crichton Miller and Kamiar Maleki. Together they will explore the influence journalism has on the art market and how changes in media over the last 25 years have affected the art world. 2018 marks […]

What can signatures tell us

To sign or not to sign? And does a signature really add that much value to an artwork? For some collectors it can, providing visible evidence of the artist’s own approval. And they’re not wrong: artists would often sign works when they were satisfied with them. Van Gogh didn’t even wait for his paintings to […]

Slow Art Workshop at Dickinson

On the evening of April 11th, Dickinson welcomed journalist Susan Moore and a group of guests for a Slow Art Workshop entitled Back to Front, where we looked at the clues to be found on the backs of paintings, or hidden on their fronts. Managing Director Emma Ward and Old Masters specialist Dr Molly Dorkin […]

20 Years of Dickinson at TEFAF Maastricht

2018 marks not only Dickinson Gallery’s 25th anniversary, but also the 20th year Dickinson has participated in TEFAF Maastricht. Some of our most exceptional sales over the past two decades have taken place at TEFAF, with important works by Old master, Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary artists negotiated to both museums and private collections. In honour […]

Landesmuseum Hannover acquires Corinth via Dickinson

Dickinson is delighted to have facilitated the acquisition by the Landesmuseum Hannover of Lovis Corinth’s exuberant Bacchanale, painted in 1896. Having been restituted in December 2016 to the heirs of Alfred Salomon, this Bacchanale was a highlight of Dickinson’s stand at TEFAF Maastricht 2017. Corinth in Munich and Berlin Painter, printmaker and founding member […]

The Art of Collecting at Dickinson

Last night Dickinson Gallery hosted representatives from Hunters law firm, one of the main sponsors of London Art Week, for a seminar and drinks reception to kick off London Art Week Winter, which opens today. From 3pm today through 8 December, we will be showing “Dickinson + Lennox Cato, Form and Figure: Paintings and Furniture, […]

Bellini’s “Wittgenstein Madonna” goes on view with the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi

Bellini’s “Wittgenstein Madonna” sold by Dickinson at Tefaf Maastricht goes on view at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. This week marks the long-awaited opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, a £3 billion collaboration between the ruling Al Nahyan family and the Musée du Louvre, Paris, which seeks to transform the deserts of Abu Dhabi into the next […]

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen acquires Brauner via Dickinson

Dickinson is pleased to have facilitated the acquisition by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen of Le Déserteur by the Romanian-Jewish avant-garde artist Victor Brauner. ”Painting is life, the real life, my life.” – Victor Brauner Although he began by painting Cézanne-esque landscapes, Brauner was introduced to the Surrealist circles by Yves Tanguy and Alberto Giacometti […]

German Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe acquires rare 1927 work by Magritte through Dickinson

Dickinson gallery is pleased to have facilitated the acquisition by the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe of a rare early work by the great Belgian Surrealist René Magritte, Le Goût de L’invisible. “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.” – René Magritte Le Goût de L’invisible was […]

Van Gogh Museum acquires Bastien-Lepage via Dickinson

Dickinson is pleased to have facilitated the Van Gogh Museum’s acquisition of Jules Bastien-Lepage’s Naturalist landscape Au Temps des Vendanges’ (At Harvest Time) at this year’s TEFAF Maastricht. “I wish to represent country life in all its phases” – Jules Bastien-Lepage Executed in 1880, shortly before the artist’s death in 1884, Au Temps des Vendanges […]

Robert Delaunay – La Ville de Paris, La Femme et La Tour Eiffel 1925

Associate Director Dr. Molly Dorkin talks about Robert Delaunay’s 1925 Painting “La Ville de Paris, La Femme et La Tour Eiffel” Robert Delaunay’s towering work of Orphism, “La Ville de Paris, La Femme et La Tour Eiffel” is no stranger to public exhibition. Standing at a phenomenal 4.5 metres tall, the crown jewel in Delaunay’s […]

Renoir – Au Bord de l’Eau, 1885

Director James Roundell talks about Renoir’s 1885 masterpiece “Au Bord de l’Eau” in the latest Dickinson video production As Europe’s most splendid and well-populated art fair, TEFAF Maastricht 2016 approaches, DICKINSON reveals its pièce de résistance at the upcoming event: a masterwork of impressionism painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1885. “Au Bord de l’Eau” in the words […]

The Art Room at DICKINSON

Dickinson is proud to announce its recent partnership with The Art Room charity Founded in 2002, The Art Room is an organisation that helps 5-16 year-olds experiencing emotional and behavioural challenges, using art as a form of therapy. With eight art rooms at present in Oxfordshire, London and Edinburgh, the charity offers a unique methodology […]

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