ReviewBooks
Not quite 50 shades of gris: new book on 18th-century French art reveals discrete gradations of erotic images
Careful study identifies four categories of eroticism in works
ReviewBook Shorts
The story of an Irish family’s history and its porcelain service are woven together in this fascinating book
The recovery of a Worcester soft-paste collection sheds light on 18th-century Anglo-Irish culture
ReviewBook Shorts
A catalogue demonstrates Boucher’s mastery of the 'Chinese' taste
The essays in this book investigate the many facets of this extraordinary 18th-century fashion
NewsConservation & Preservation
Gainsborough's newly restored Blue Boy awaits the end of lockdown
Closed by coronavirus, Huntington Library posts online video reflecting on 18-month conservation treatment of dazzling portrait
ReviewBooks
Despite its 'hybrid' approach, the Met's catalogue on French painting lacks detailed analysis
When used together, the New York museum’s print catalogue and supplementary website on their 18th-century French works make an excellent initial resource but offer little new information
PreviewExhibitions
Angelica Kauffman, who was lauded in her lifetime but later largely ignored by art historians, gets new show
Travelling Kunstpalast exhibition will feature the only known ceiling paintings created by a woman in the 18th century
ReviewBooks
National Gallery definitively catalogues 'small but perfectly formed' collection of French 18th century paintings
Humphrey Wine’s lavishly illustrated book details the London museum's 60 authentic works and 12 replicas, copies or pastiches
ReviewBook Shorts
Children’s portraits without shadows: new book on painting childhood
No Chucky or Lord of the Flies in portraits by British and British-based artists
ReviewBook Shorts
Boilly, prolific portraitist and genre painter
Almost unknown in Britain, his work was secretly amassed by Harry Hyams, the billionaire property developer
ArchiveExhibitions
Winckelmann's impact on modern concepts of art history is celebrated in Weimar
The man who wrote art history is remembered 300 years after his birth
NewsBooks
Sir Joshua Reynolds’s portraits in focus, at last
His most important works now take centre-stage
ArchiveBooks
Books: Lambert Krahe as a collector for instruction, rather than pleasure
A biography of a perceptive 18th century collector
ArchiveBooks
Portrait of Prince Nicholas II Esterházy as an avid collector, a bankrupt, and a womaniser
The Prince's passions cost him his fortune but gave Hungary a fine collection of art
ArchivePiranesi
Inside Piranesi’s prisons on show at the Venice Architecture Biennale
An immersive, digital film at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini reimagines the artist’s dark fantasies as if in three dimensions
ArchiveMuseums & Heritage
Bringing back the Baroque—colonial style
Yale prepares for the 2012 installation of its decorative arts galleries by reconstructing a period room
ArchiveBooks
Books: Saviour of the Habsburgs, richly rewarded
Soldier and collector Prince Eugene of Savoy’s role in the rise of the Austro-Hungarian empire
ArchiveBooks
Book review: the history of Irish furniture in all its finery
An invaluable resource, lavishly illustrated
ArchiveMuseums & Heritage
Metropolitan re-opens Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts
Also now open is its Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education
ArchiveBooks
Books: James Brydges, munificent benefactor or bad-taste merchant?
A reappraisal of the life of the first Duke of Chandos, patron, collector and philanthropist
ArchiveAuctions
November auctions of Important British Pictures failed to stir collectors leaving slew of unsold lots
Collectors shunned many 18th- and 19th-century works
ArchiveBooks
The story of the great Augustan collectors of antiquities
An explanation, an adoration and a lament
ArchiveBooks
This book argues that aristocratic collectors were the main cause of the emergence of a French School of painting
Shopping for France?
ArchiveThomas Gainsborough
Sweeping Gainsborough exhibition on at Tate Britain
The Tate has pulled out all stops for this exhaustive show
ArchiveExhibitions
Madame de Pompadour meets Philippe Starck at the Rijksmuseum
With a very glamorous display, this is the first serious look at Netherlandish rococo architecture and decorative arts
ArchiveExhibitions
Decadent collection of English art enthusiast and eccentric William Beckford to go on show at Bard Graduate Center
A sample of the collector's princely taste
ArchiveExhibitions
A survey of open-air Italian landscapes, 1780-1830, explores imagery, techniques and aims
“Un paese incantato" comes to London
ArchiveExhibitions
The scorned neo-Classicism of Anton Raphael Mengs is up for reconsideration in this comprehensive Paduan show
The expansive exhibition is on now at Palazzo Zabarella
ArchiveBooks
Charting Vanbrugh's contribution to the development of the 18th-century garden.
Christopher Ridgway and Robert Williams (eds), Sir John Vanburgh and landscape architecture: art and design in baroque England, 1690-1730
ArchiveAuctions
The Lagerfeld Collection: “We all have to live in our own times”
The couturier’s change to a minimalist lifestyle moved him to dispense with all his eighteenth-century furniture, his paintings, and decorative arts
ArchiveBooks
Books: Hilary Young, English porcelain, 1745-95
Identifying the common circumstances behind the 18th-century ceramics industry
ArchiveExhibitions
The man who made the Louvre: Dominique-Vivant de Non and the exhibition in his honour
An exhibition devoted to the ultimate Enlightenment man who built the collections of the world’s first modern museum
ArchiveExhibitions
Columbus Museum of Art, The Age of Enlightenment reaches Ohio
A major loan show from Dresden’s Picture Gallery concentrates on paintings rather than decorative arts
ArchiveBooks
Timothy Mowl's William Beckford biography casts the famed collector as "a sexual and architectural Lucifer"
The story of the Regency dilettante, eccentric and collector is told in all its scandalous detail
ArchiveBooks
Portrait miniatures, Little England
Three books demonstrate the revival of interest in portrait miniatures and the leading role of the Victoria and Albert Museum in this field
ArchiveBooks
Ceramics: Blue and white, all right!
A round-up of some recent books on porcelain, pottery and delftware
ArchiveTate
Important eighteenth-century and contemporary additions to Tate’s holdings
The works are from the Oppé collection and Janet Wolfson de Botton
ArchiveTate
Tate on the Grand Tour and the birth of tourism
The new exhibition displays over 250 works in a journey around the art inspired by the eighteenth-century infatuation with Italy and antiquity
ArchiveMuseums & Heritage
At last we have a serious decorative arts show: John Channon at the V&A,
The Victoria and Albert Museum may be getting back into its stride as the world's top decorative art museum if the exhibition is anything to go by.