April 27, 2020
As a pandemic halts even the most mundane activities outside the home, you may be reflecting on past travel opportunities with a bit of nostalgia. Whether you’ve traveled extensively, rarely, or always postponed your dreams to “some day,” you may be looking forward to the time when we can once again journey near and far…
January 29, 2019
Frank Raysor, in 2011 when he was named Collector of the Year by VMFA Frank Raysor spent decades scouring flea markets, art auctions, and estate sales in New York City to acquire his collection of prints. In the process he accumulated what is the fifth largest collection of prints by 17th-century artist Wenceslaus Hollar in…
October 4, 2018
By Carol Sawyer, Margaret H. & William E. Massey Sr. Conservator of Paintings Jean-Frédéric Bazille, The Artist’s Studio, Rue Visconti, Paris, 1867; oil on canvas, 25 ½ in x 19 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 83.4. Unlike Nicolas Poussin’s Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes, which contains…
August 30, 2018
By Carol Sawyer, Margaret H. & William E. Massey Sr. Conservator of Paintings The Painting Conservation Department performs treatments, examinations and research related to the VMFA painting collection. In the course of doing this work questions regarding the authenticity of a work of art sometimes arise. Technical analysis and in-depth examination of the materials and…
August 10, 2018
By Bruce Suffield While studying Édouard Manet’s painting, On the Beach, Boulogne-sur-Mer (Accession # 85.498), in the painting conservation studio, it was noted that the artist had used numerous and different brush strokes around one of the compositional elements. He had most likely changed the area around the edges of the bathing machine or bathing…
March 25, 2015
Many of the paintings you’ll find in Van Gogh, Manet, and Matisse: The Art of the Flower are of lavish bouquets bursting with color and beauty. In fact, Vincent van Gogh spent 1886 and 1887 painting two dozen such floral still lifes, several of which are included in this exhibition. However, in the winter of…
March 11, 2015
We recently made improvements to the Mellon French Galleries. While I have received much positive feedback from visitors about the changes, I get the same question again and again: “What’s with that white frame?” Glad you asked. Although the simple white frame on Georges Seurat’s Landscape with Houses (which VMFA recently received from the Life…
March 3, 2015
As an art lover, there is always the temptation to reach out and touch objects in works of art to confirm what our eyes are telling us. But we resist (even the slightest fingerprint contains destructive chemicals that endanger even the hardest surfaces). However, few artists compel us to go against our better judgment like…
February 11, 2015
In 1874, French printmaker Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914) submitted more works than any other artist to the inaugural impressionist exhibition. The work Bracquemond displayed—at his friend Edgar Degas’s invitation—included portraits of his artistic contemporaries, naturalistic landscapes, reproductive etchings of historical European paintings, and emblematic images of birds accompanied by poems (such as Margot the Critique, or The…
September 26, 2013
Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) was one of the towering geniuses of the Romantic period. Partly self-taught and partly trained by Carle Vernet and Pierre-Narcisse Guerin, he arrived at a wholly personal style with which to portray modern life – turning his back and the grand mythological and religious subjects that had dominated art up to his…
