CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

New issue of The Burlington Magazine devoted largely to Dutch and Flemish art: special offer to CODART members

The Burlington Magazine offers CODART members a significant discount on its issue of February 2006 and on subscriptions. See below.

The February 2006 issue of The Burlington Magazine is devoted to Dutch, Flemish and German art and includes some major attributions and re-discoveries, as well as a Supplement of recent acquisitions at the Mauritshuis, The Hague.

Contributions include:

Susan Frances Jones on Jan van Eyck’s Van Maelbeke Virgin

Copy of Jan van Eyck's lost Van Maelbeke Virgin, Ypres, first half of 17th century

Copy of Jan van Eyck’s lost Van Maelbeke Virgin, Ypres, first half of 17th century

The Van Maelbeke Virgin is considered to be Van Eyck’s last painting. Although lost in the later eighteenth century, it was seen by English travellers in the earlier part of the century who made detailed notes in diaries which have recently been discovered. On the basis of this new information and other sources, the author presents a new interpretation of the date, function and historical significance of this famous work.


Lene Bøgh Ronberg and Jørgen Wadum on two paintings in Copenhagen re-attributed to Rembrandt

The crusader, attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn, ca. 1659-61, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst

The crusader, attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn, ca. 1659-61, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst

Study of an old man in profile, attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn, ca. 1630, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst
Study of an old man in profile, attributed to Rembrandt van Rijn, ca. 1630, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst

Much as what happened at the Wallace Collection in London, in the course of the twentieth century the paintings attributed to Rembrandt in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen were demoted one by one. On the basis of technical evidence, the authors re-attribute to Rembrandt the Statens Museum’s Head of an old man and the so-called Crusader, the latter a study for the head of the Knight with a falcon (St Bavo?) in the Göteborgs Konstmuseum.


Libby Sheldon and Nicola Costaras on Johannes Vermeer’s Young woman seated at a virginal

Johannes Vermeer, Young woman seated at a virginal, 1670s, USA, private collection

Johannes Vermeer, Young woman seated at a virginal, 1670s, USA, private collection

Although widely publicised when this painting was sold at Sotheby’s, London, in 2004, the full technical examination that was carried out to test the hypothesis that it is in fact by Vermeer was not published. The authors present the findings of this examination in an absorbing article, throwing light on Vermeer’s studio practice.


Michael White on Mondrian, psychoanalysis and abstract art in the Netherlands

Piet Mondriaan, Devotion, 1908, The Hague, Haags Gemeentemuseum
Piet Mondriaan, Devotion, 1908, The Hague, Haags Gemeentemuseum

Before he became a completely abstract painter, Piet Mondrian showed some almost-symbolist figure paintings which some critics at the time deemed to be the result of a neurotic, even deranged artist. This article details the relation between art and psychoanalysis in Holland, particularly with reference to Freud’s influential theories, and examines the work of some of Mondrian’s contemporaries, both figurative and abstract.


Walter Liedtke on a rediscovered work by Jacob Jordaens

Jacob Jordaens, The adoration of the shepherds, ca. 1615, USA, private collection

Jacob Jordaens, The adoration of the shepherds, ca. 1615, USA, private collection (on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

In this article Walter Liedtke presents an unpublished Adoration by Jacob Jordaens in a private collection but currently on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (to August).


Margaret M. Doyle on Friedrich

Caspar David Friedrich, Northern landscape, spring, ca. 1823-25, Washington, National Gallery of Art
Caspar David Friedrich, Northern landscape, spring, ca. 1823-25, Washington, National Gallery of Art

The author presents one of the rare landscapes by Caspar David Friedrich to have come up for sale in recent times and bought in 2004 by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.


Marit Ingeborg Lange on the provenance of Vincent van Gogh’s Self-portrait in Oslo

Vincent van Gogh, Self-portrait, ca. 1888, Oslo, National Museum of Art

Vincent van Gogh, Self-portrait, ca. 1888, Oslo, National Museum of Art

In this article the author establishes that, contrary to what was thought to be the case, the provenance of the contested Self-portrait in the Nationalgalerie, Oslo, in fact goes back to the early 1890s, thus making the attribution to Van Gogh of this unfinished painting extremely likely.


Martin Bailey on Vincent van Gogh’s portraits of Alexander Reid

Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Alexander Reid, winter 1886-87, Norman, Oklahoma, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Alexander Reid, winter 1886-87, Norman, Oklahoma, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

The author establishes that there never were three portraits by Van Gogh of the Glaswegian art dealer Alexander Reid, as was assumed in the literature, but that instead the so-called "lost painting" is in fact one of the two known portraits of Reid – the one that is now preserved in the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, Oklahoma – painted in Paris in the apartment of van Gogh’s brother Theo.


Book reviews include:

– Christopher White on the fourth volume of the Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings
– Bernard Aikema on From Flanders to Florence. The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400–1500 (P. Nuttall)
– Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. on Portraits in the Mauritshuis 1430–1700 (B. Broos and A. van Suchtelen)
– David Bomford on Changing Pictures: Discolouration in 15th to 17th Century Oil Paintings (M. van Eikema Hommes)
– Emilie Gordenker on Stockholm, Nationalmuseum. Dutch and Flemish Paintings II. Dutch Paintings c.1600–c.1800 (G. Cavalli-Björkman)
– Micha Leeflang on Joos van Cleve. The Complete Paintings (J.O. Hand)
– Luuk Pijl on The Paintings of Karel du Jardin. Catalogue Raisonné (J.M. Kilian).

Exhibition reviews include:
– Quentin Buvelot on the recent Frans Post exhibition at the Louvre
– Catherine Reynolds on the recent Limbourg brothers exhibition at Nijmegen
– Lorne Campbell on the exhibition of fifteenth-century Netherlandish drawings currently in Bruges
– Beverly Louise Brown on the recent exhibition on Caravaggio and Realism in Barcelona.

An illustrated Supplement in colour is entirely devoted to recent acquisitions at the Mauritshuis, The Hague (1997–2005), including outstanding paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt.


Special offer to all members of CODART:

Save 40% on our February 2006 issue (offer price €15.00 including postage and packaging)

Save 30% on an annual subscription (offer price €218.00 including postage and packaging)

Academics/ Students at institutions with a current full-price subscription can save 50% on an annual subscription (offer price €156.00 including postage and packaging)

To take advantage of either offer, please contact Sarah Hillier on hillier@burlington.org.uk quoting CODART

There are limited copies of February 2006 available so please order promptly in order to avoid disappointment.