Currently on loan to the Bucerius Kunst forum, Hamburg
The Klesch Collection is delighted to share multiple works with the wider public at the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg and the Kunstmuseum in Basel as part of the dual-venue exhibition ‘Ingenious Women: Women artists and their companions’, curated by Dr Katrin Dyballa and Dr Bodo Brinkmann.
Bringing together 27 women artists and around 140 works, spanning the 16th to the 18th centuries, this exhibition traces the careers of outstanding women artists. With an innovative approach to the subject, it addresses the family context in which these women artists pursued their careers. During this early modern period, women artists were generally denied access to the guilds required to operate on a professional level. Many, if not all, women artists from these centuries came from or married into artistic families and, as a result, would spend their careers in the shadows of their fathers, husbands or brothers. This exhibition explores the rules and exceptions of the family ties in this gendered profession and juxtaposes the women’s work with that of their male relatives and fellow painters to emphasize stylistic likenesses and contrasts.
At the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg, visitors can view our Portrait of Martini Martini and Young Man Smoking a Pipe by Michaelina Wautier, Still Life of Flowers by Rachel Ruysch, Portrait of Count Gentile Sassatelli by Lavinia Fontana and Madonna and Child by Elisabetta Sirani. These paintings, with the exception of the Sirani, will then travel on to the Kunstmuseum in Basel.
The exhibition is on view at the Bucerius Kunst Forum until 28 January 2024.
Exhibition views Ingenious women. Women Artists and their Companions, Photo: Ulrich Perrey
Currently on loan to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Sir Peter Paul Rubens
(Siegen 1577 – 1640 Antwerp)
Portrait of a Young Woman, Half-Length, Holding a Chain
oil on canvas
85.5 x 66 cm (33 3/4 x 26 in.)
c. 1603–1606
The Klesch Collection’s Portrait of a Young Woman Holding a Chain by Sir Peter Paul Rubens is on display at the Dulwich Picture Gallery as part of the exhibition ‘Rubens & Women’, curated by Dr Ben van Beneden and Dr Amy Orrock.
This exhibition is the first to focus solely on one of Rubens’ most famous subjects: women. In this exhibition, over 40 paintings and drawings along with archival material from Rubens’ extensive career offer a fresh perspective on the type of women Rubens depicted, breaking away from the singular archetype of a voluptuous Rubenesque nude, as well as on the multifaceted roles women played in his world. The Klesch Collection’s early painting by the Baroque master is featured in the first section of the exhibition, which focuses on portraiture, where the young woman portrayed will shine alongside other formidable women, including Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia, Rubens’ two wives and his eldest daughter, Clara Serena.
The exhibition is on view until 28 January 2024.
Currently on loan to The J. Paul getty museum, los angeles
Jan Davidsz. de Heem
(Utrecht 1606 – 1684 Antwerp)
A Banquet Still Life
oil on canvas
139.2 x 115.1 cm. (54.8 x 45.3 in.)
mid-1660s
The Klesch Collection is delighted to announce the long-term loan of A Banquet Still Life by Jan Davidsz. de Heem to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
De Heem painted this opulent piece when he settled back in Utrecht in the mid-1660s, after living in Antwerp for 25 years. It was at this time that he moved away from the looser Flemish Baroque style to a more polished technique with a greater affinity for detail, as demonstrated here. De Heem flaunts his technical virtuosity on a grand scale, elaborately depicting a contrasting play of textures, surfaces, and colours, making this one of his finest and most important still lifes. Due to its considerable history and restitution provenance, the painting was on loan to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht for nearly 70 years, which makes it one of the most extensively researched and published still lifes by this master, featuring in twelve international exhibitions. With this long-term loan to the Getty Museum, The Klesch Collection is honoured to add to the painting’s rich history of being on public display.
