Stories

The news, views and stories behind the art

The Return of the Canaletto Market

Is there a resurgence of interest underway in the works of the great Venetian view painter Canaletto? We pose this question following a year of regular requests from collectors for work by Canaletto. Dickinson has received more calls for classic Venetian views this year than we have for decades, and this has resulted in multiple […]

Dickinson’s Year in Sales

James Ward, R.A. (1769 – 1859), A View of Somersetshire from Fitzhead, the Seat of Lord Somerville, 1805 2024 got off to a fine start with a sale of a Profile Relief of a Roman Emperor (c. 1460-65) by Gregorio di Lorenzo to the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. This was quickly followed by another […]

Artistic depictions of Feasts

Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, c.1495-98, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan Feasts appear regularly in religious paintings, often with iconographic overtones. Depictions of The Last Supper, such as the celebrated painting by Leonard da Vinci in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan (c. 1495-98), are among the best-known feast subjects. In […]

Our Top 5 Exhibitions to see in London this Autumn/Winter Season

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, August 1888, The National Gallery, London Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, The National Gallery, 14 September 2024 – 19 January 2025 The work of Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890) has universal charm; thoughtful and colourful, his paintings are as fresh today as when they were first made. The National […]

Five haunting artworks for Halloween

Hieronymous Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (detail of hell panel), c. 1490-1500, Museo del Prado, Madrid Bosch is one of the most enigmatic painters in Western art history; the meanings of his pictures, and the often-bizarre imagery he employed, are still hotly debated by scholars to this day. His monumental triptych in the Prado is […]

Five centuries of London views in art

Many great artists have chosen London as their subject, and captured views of it in various media. Our selection of these views demonstrates not only how London has changed in 500 years, but also how artists’ attitudes towards view painting have evolved in that time. Wenceslaus Hollar, Long View of London from Bankside (one sheet), […]

Five Great Florentine Frescoes

Giotto di Bondone, Scenes from the Life of Saint Francis, Death and Ascension of St Francis (detail), c. 1325, fresco, Bardi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence Anyone who has a history of art A-Level will likely tell you that the first stirrings of the Italian Renaissance were those of Giotto. Although this is not strictly true […]

History and Highlights of the National Gallery, London

Passing London’s Trafalgar Square, it is difficult to imagine a time when the site was not dominated by the neoclassical silhouette of the National Gallery, which celebrated its bicentenary on 10 May of this year. The museum was founded in 1824 and its collection, while considerably smaller than that of the Louvre or the Prado, […]

The Market for Paintings by Titian

Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian (c. 1488/90 – 1576), was one of the most extraordinary Venetian painters of the sixteenth century. He trained under the renowned Venetian artists Gentile Bellini (active 1459 – 1516) and Bellini’s pupil Giorgione (1477/78 – 1510), learning to prioritise colorito (colour) over the Florentine disegno (design or drawing), and painting […]

Summer Exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts

Since its foundation in 1768, London’s Royal Academy of Arts has hosted an annual Summer Exhibition in which examples by artists – both lesser-known and household names – are put on view (and on sale) to the general public. As the world’s oldest and largest open-submission show, the Summer Exhibition welcomes entries from all levels, […]

The Art Market for Donatello

[Donatello’s] work showed such excellent qualities of grace and design that it was considered nearer than was done by the ancient Greeks and Romans than that of any other artist …. He was superior not only to his contemporaries but even to the artists of our own time (Giorgio Vasari, Lives, 1568). In keeping with […]

Political Art: 10 great politically-charged paintings

It won’t have escaped anyone’s notice (no matter how much we might wish it) that 2024 is a year of political upheaval, with important elections held around the world. In March, elections in Russia saw Vladimir Putin elected for a fifth term, with an overwhelming majority that surprised no one. In France, two rounds of […]

The Greatest Artistic Depictions of Sport

Football Easily the most popular sport in the world, both to play and support, football has a global appeal. The sport had obscure and violent origins in medieval England before being codified in the second half of the 19th century. Since the foundation of The Football League in 1888, the game has been exported around […]

The Della Robbia workshop: terracotta sculpture and its market

“I suppose nothing brings the real air of a Tuscan town so vividly to mind as those pieces of blue and white earthenware… like fragments of the milky sky itself, fallen into the cool streets, and breaking into the darkened churches” (English critic Walter Pater, writing on the work of the Della Robbia family in […]

Claude Monet: Impressionist artist-gardener

Claude Monet can without doubt be considered the Impressionist artist-gardener. And yet his renown as a painter often overshadows his horticultural success. For Monet himself, it was the gardens that he built at Giverny that were his greatest work of all and it is to his efforts there that we are indebted for his painterly […]

A day in the life of an English Grand Tourist in Rome

Some of the most remarkable, and exciting, paintings Dickinson has sold have come from historic English collections and were acquired by ancestors on Grand Tour. This refers to a period of time spent travelling on the Continent – usually in Italy – by members of the aristocracy or wealthier merchant classes, and by those who […]

Four great artists whose genius was unappreciated in their time

El Greco (1541 – 1614) El Greco, Presumed self-portrait, or portrait of an anonymous man, c. 1595-1600, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Dominikos Theotokopoulos was born on the island of Crete in 1541. This Greek island was, in the 16th century, host to both Venetian (Crete was part of the Republic of Venice) and eastern […]

Camille Pissarro: his art and its market

Camille Pissarro, Self-Portrait, 1873, Musée d’Orsay, Paris Camille Pissarro may not be the most famous of the French Impressionists – that honour typically belongs to Claude Monet – nor was he, perhaps, as consistently innovative as Caillebotte or Degas, but without Pissarro, there many never have been such a society as the Impressionists. Scholar John […]

Pieter Lastman: his art and its market

Pieter Lastman, The Angel of the Lord preventing Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac, 1616, Musée du Louvre, Paris Pieter Pietersz Lastman (1583 – 1633) was the fourth of at least seven children born into the Dutch middle-class family of Pieter Segersz and Barber Jacobsdr. From a young age, he was surrounded by skilled artists […]

Angelica Kauffman: her art and its market

Angelica Kauffman, R.A., Self Portrait, c. 1770-75, oil on canvas, 73.7 x 61 cm., National Portrait Gallery, London Angelica Kauffman (1741 – 1807) was the epitome of an international 18th Century painter. She was born in Switzerland, died in Rome and worked in Florence, Bologna, Venice and, notably, in Britain. This Spring, she is the […]

Han van Meegeren and the fake Vermeers – would you be fooled?

In the world of Old Master art dealing, the question of authorship is of paramount importance. Unlike most modern and contemporary artworks (which either are, or are not, by an artist in question), the authorship of Old Master pictures is usually located somewhere on a sliding scale from autograph, through the varying levels of studio […]

Signed vs stamped paintings, what’s the difference?

When browsing an exhibition of Impressionist paintings, it is not uncommon to spot a work with a signature that looks a bit different to what we might expect. Look more closely, and the raised edges of the text betray an interesting fact: the ‘signature’ is a stamped facsimile of the artist’s handwriting. This distinction is […]

The Market for Sir Anthony van Dyck

Sir Anthony van Dyck, Self Portrait, c.1640, National Portrait Gallery, London Sir Anthony van Dyck was a painter who enjoyed tremendous success during his lifetime and who continues to appeal to collectors in the modern era. Born in comfortable circumstances and possessed of obvious talent, Van Dyck was already an independent painter in 1615, around […]

Eight wintry paintings for the festive season

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Allegory of Winter, 1563. Kunsthisorisches Museum, Vienna. Whilst allegorical imagery is relatively common in art, Arcimboldo’s depictions of the Four Seasons are undeniably unique. Composed of fruit and floral specimens, these “seasonal series” were first begun in 1563 and – with the exception of Autumn – the original versions of the artist’s […]

To buy… or not to buy?

To buy… or not to buy? That is often the question on our clients’ minds as they peruse the Mayfair galleries and auction houses or stroll the aisles of Frieze or TEFAF. What seems a relatively simple question must actually factor in a number of points, so here are the questions to ask yourself when […]

The five greatest country houses ever destroyed

Country houses are an ever-present English phenomenon – they are at once ancient markers on the landscape and a constant feature of centuries of British literary and artistic tradition. There is, however, a more lamentable side to their story. Over the centuries, thousands of country houses have been destroyed and their contents scattered. Never was […]

12 paintings to see before you die

The Lascaux Cave Paintings, Palaeolithic period, Lascaux, France Thought to be at least 20,000 years old, these extensive cave paintings are among the world’s best-preserved examples of Palaeolithic art. The paintings primarily depict animals which were once native to the south-west region of France including cattle, birds and felines as well as human figures. Perhaps […]

Hôtel Drouot – History of an Auction House

Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams… Hôtel Drouot? It’s not a hotel, and in fact not even an auction house – but it might be the most exciting sale venue you’ve never heard of. Having opened its doors on 1 June 1852, Drouot is the world’s oldest auction sale venue. Technically it’s not a single entity but rather […]

A reappraisal of Walter Sickert – is his market going to continue to rise?

Virginia Woolf, in her 1934 essay Walter Sickert: A Conversation, concluded that the artist “always seems more of a novelist than a biographer…He likes to set his characters into motion”. Born in Munich in 1860 to a German-Danish father – who was also an artist – and an Anglo-Irish mother, Sickert was relocated to England […]

The unexpected artists who transformed modern British art

Some months ago Dickinson listed ten of the greatest foreign Old Master painters to have worked in Britain. Now we pick up where we left off with ten more great artists, this time from the modern period. Like their predecessors, they embraced Britain both as a home – either temporary or permanent – and as […]

The Decline and Rise of the Market for John Singer Sargent – An Overview

John Singer Sargent, Self-portrait, 1892, National Academy of Design, New York John Singer Sargent was born in Florence in 1856, but was always considered an American expatriate painter. He trained as an art student in Paris, where he first came to public attention in the worlds of Impressionism and academic painting. In 1886 Sargent […]

Who is the greatest animal painter in art history? We nominate our Top 12.

Paolo Uccello, The Hunt in the Forest, c. 1470 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 1. Paolo Uccello (1397 – 1475) Bridging the gap between Gothic and Renaissance, the Florentine painter Paolo Uccello used animals as a vital tool in his quest to make sense of the visual world around him. Vasari tells us that Uccello was so […]

La Serenissima: Who were the greatest painters of Venice?

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, Piazza San Marco, c. 1730 Harvard University Art Museum, Cambridge Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, Piazza San Marco, c. 1730-34 Our list must surely begin with a painting by Canaletto (1697 – 1768), whose reputation is arguably synonymous with that of Venice. Canaletto was born in Venice, so it seems fitting […]

The Rise of Female Artists: Will it Continue?

Clara Peeters, [Possibly] self-portrait of Clara Peeters, seated at a table with precious objects, c. 1618 In the past few years we have witnessed a widespread trend from museums and other public collections – a desire for artworks by female artists. From the conversations we are having across the market, the artworks that seem to […]

What is happening in the Old Master market? (July 2023)

A fortnight of dealers’ exhibitions, auction sales and a new London art fair are over and here are some thoughts on what is happening in the market for Old Masters. Michael Sweerts, The Artist’s Studio with a Seamstress (Sold at Christie’s, 6 July 2023) The market for masterpieces is growing. It is easier to […]

Are artists lazy? Or are they the ultimate multi-taskers?

Raphael, The School of Athens, 1509-11 Renaissance The term ‘Renaissance man’ is often used in modern parlance to describe someone with numerous talents or abilities. The original Renaissance man was surely Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519), who, in addition to his considerable talents in the creative fields of painting, draughtsmanship, sculpture and architecture, could boast […]

English Country House Taste: A Reflection by Octavia Dickinson

“The English country house is a living work of art, filled with history, beauty, and elegance” – David Hicks I grew up in a seventeenth-century house in Gloucestershire whose interiors and gardens were the epitome of English Country House Taste. My father is, unsurprisingly, an avid collector. Finishing school, he set off in his Mini […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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