Now confirmed as the leading light of that generation Guthrie gathered his increasingly tight-knit group around him and off they went to the East Coast of Scotland to establish their own artists’ colony. ibid.
The most extraordinary and innovative work the boys produced: George Henry and E A Hornel: The Druids – Bringing in the Mistletoe. ibid.
They established Glasgow as an important artistic centre. ibid.
Britain has a rich and diverse landscape. Ceaselessly changing with the seasons and the life of its people. It has provided inspiration to artists for centuries. Painting the landscape is a familiar occupation. This Green And Pleasant Land: The Story of British Landscape Painting
In 1733 he [Lambert] painted this view of Box Hill in Surrey. It may be the first time a British artist painted a British landscape for its own sake. ibid.
The portrayal of Britain as a new Rome never lost its appeal to the aristocracy. ibid.
In the early years of the nineteenth century Britain suddenly found herself with two powerful but contrasting visions of her landscape. The paintings of John Constable and William Turner were the stars of the Royal Academy shows. But they were as different in temperament as they were in artistic technique. ibid.
The Camden Town Group, named for the area where they met, depicted a serene and tranquil urban landscape. ibid.
Hampstead Garden Suburb from Willifield Way: William Ratcliffe. ibid.
The talents of professional poster artists and powerful images of the British landscape were combined to spur us on to victory. The most enduring of these was a series painted by a prolific draftsman from Bradford: Frank Newbould. ibid.
British landscape painting has come a long way in four centuries. From disdain to deep respect, and we cherish these images as we cherish the landscape that inspired them. ibid.
In 1922 Albert Barnes created the Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion Pennsylvania, five miles from the center of Philadelphia. The Foundation houses the most important and valuable collection of Post-Impressionist and Early Modern art in the world. Storyville: The Billion Dollar Heist ***** BBC 2011
During these negotiations Governor [Ed] Rendell promised a boost in state money to the under-funded Lincoln University. ibid.
No member of the Lincoln or Barnes Foundation boards involved in these negotiations would speak on the record. ibid.
The money to relocate the Barnes Foundation was placed in Pennsylvania’s budget before the Barnes’ Trustees announced their intention to move. The availability of state funds was never disclosed to the judge deciding the fate of the Barnes’ move. ibid.
The Immaculate Appropriation. ibid.
The Friends of the Barnes and Montgomery County did not appeal the judge’s decision. ibid.
Dr Albert C Barnes’ collection is scheduled to be removed from his Foundation and installed in the new facility by 2012. ibid.
The Barnes Foundation would attack ... the enemies of intelligence and imagination in art, whether or not those enemies were protected by financial power or social prestige. Dr Albert C Barnes
Philadelphia is a depressing intellectual slum. Dr Albert C Barnes
The main function of the museum has been to serve as a pedestal upon which a clique of socialists pose as patrons of the arts. Dr Albert C Barnes
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a house of artistic and intellectual prostitution. Dr Albert C Barnes
They’ve got more Cézannes than the entire city of Paris, 181 Renoirs, wall to wall, 59 paintings by Matisse ... Picasso 46, 7 by Van Gogh, 6 by Seurat. Nick Tinari, Attorney and former Barnes Foundation student
The Barnes Collection is the only sane place to see art in America. Henri Matisse
He tried to create a collection that was proof against commercial exploitation. Professor Robert Zaller
Just what is the link between art and money? Alastair Sooke, The World’s Most Expensive Paintings, BBC 2011
Value isn’t only linked to quality. Something that can send the price of a painting rocketing is what’s known in the art world as provenance. ibid.
Including Commission:
10) Mark Rothko, White Centre $72,840,000, Sothebys, New York 2007
9) Peter Paul Ruben’s Massacre of the Innocents, $76,529,058, sold 2002
8) Renoir, Au Moulin de la Galette, $78,100,000
7) Claude Monet’s Water Lily Pond, $80,379,591
6) Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Dr Gachet, $82,500,000
They leapt to their feet, they cheered, they yelled ... My feeling was one of, I have to admit it, really great distaste ... They weren’t applauding for Van Gogh, they weren’t applauding for the work of art, they were applauding for money. Christopher Burge, Christie’s Auction House
Whatever Saito’s motives were for buying the Van Gogh and the Renoir he faced financial ruin soon afterwards. Extraordinarily, he threatened to burn the paintings rather than sell them. In 1996 he died. And the paintings haven’t been seen since. Alastair Sooke
5) Francis Bacon, Triptych, $86,281,000, Southerby’s New York, 2008
4) Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer II, $87,936,000 2006
Additional: Neue Galerie, 5th Avenue New York, another Adele Bloch-Bauer: One of the most famous pictures in the world ... Ultimately, it’s a portrait about infatuation, not just infatuation with a beautiful woman, infatuation with high society ... Paid the notorious price, reportedly, of $135,000,000 for this painting alone in a private transaction. Alastair Sooke
3) Picasso, Dora Maar au Chat, $95,216,000, Southerby’s 2006
2) Picasso, Garcon a la Pipe, $104,168,000, 2004
1A) Picasso, La Reve, Christie’s New York ... In 2006 he [Steve Wynn of Las Vegas] agreed to sell La Reve, which means The Dream, for $139,000,000. But before the deal was done he put his elbow through the canvas, and suddenly the deal was off.
1) Picasso, Nude, Green Leaves & Bust, $106,482,500
They’ve agreed to lend it to Tate Modern in London for two years. ibid.
Just what is it about art theft that we can’t resist? Alastair Sooke, The World's Most Expensive Paintings, BBC 2013
Boston Massachusetts St Patrick’s Day 1990 ... the greatest art theft in history ... 13 works of art, many crudely cut from their frames. ibid.
Italian police estimate that half a million works of art have been stolen in Italy over the last four decades. ibid.
Historically, the largest art thefts have been carried out not by individuals but by armies. ibid.
Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, Old Nick – the Devil has many names and many different faces ... The Devil we know today is a human creation, owing more to the minds of artists than the pages of the Bible. Alastair Sooke, How the Devil Got His Horns, BBC 2012
Dante does what Giotto doesn’t: he makes Satan three- dimensional. There is the first hint of empathy with the Devil in this poem. ibid.
We have more art than we know what to do with. 80% of the paintings in our public collections aren’t even on display. Alastair Sooke, Your Paintings: A Culture Show Special, BBC 2013
Over 200,000 works have been painstakingly uncovered, photographed and put on line, some for the very first time. ibid.
It was the ancient Greeks who shaped our ideas of what art should look like. No other civilisation has played such an important role in creating our vision of artistic perfection of beauty, of realism. Alastair Sooke, Treasures of Ancient Greece I, BBC 2015
Mycenae and other kingdoms across the Mediterranean rapidly fell apart ushering in a new age characterised by hardship, pain and grief. ibid.