Acquisitions of the month: September 2024

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth
Penitent Mary Magdalene (c. 1625–26), Artemisia Gentileschi

In September 2021 Jesse Locker, a professor of art history at Portland State University, published an article in Apollo confirming the discovery of a long-lost painting by Artemisia Gentileschi. The work, a depiction of Mary Magdalene, was held in a private collection in the United States and, until 2021, was thought to be a copy of the original. Locker wrote: ‘In every respect, it is clearer, brighter, more legible, and better painted than the other versions, and shows a subtlety of light and colour, and masterful portrayal of flesh and fabric, that is consistent with the artist at the height of her powers.’ It was purchased by the Kimbell Art Museum in Texas in September and has now gone on public display.

Penitent Mary Magdalene (1625–26), Artemisia Gentileschi. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

Bibliothèque nationale de France
Breviary for the use of the Sainte-Chapelle (c. 1370)

In 1368, Charles V began constructing a library in the Louvre for his collection of manuscripts. That library formed the basis of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), which today stands on two sites in Paris. One of the manuscripts in that original collection was the Breviary for the use of the Sainte-Chapelle, a cow-vellum document with miniatures mostly from the hand of the Master of the Bible of Jean de Sy, who illuminated a Bible in Paris in the 1350s which is held in the BnF’s collection. The breviary had been in a private collection, but last year, the BnF launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise the €1.6m required to purchase the manuscript, which, it has announced, it has now done.

A spread from the Breviary for the Use of Sainte-Chappelle (c. 1370). Photo: Anthony Voisin/BnF

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A Book Peddler (c. 1670–90), Master of the Canesso Peddler

The Met has acquired a painting from the late 17th century by an anonymous artist, probably painted in Lombardy. This enigmatic portrait of a bookseller clutching a basket, a staff and a bundle of pamphlets had been thought to be the work of the baroque artist Giacomo Ceruti – and was classified as Ceruti’s in an exhibition last year in Brescia – but the Met has rejected the attribution. A painting of a spectacle-seller, thought to be by the same artist, was bought by the Medicis in 1689 and currently hangs in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

A Book Peddler (c. 1670–90), Master of the Canesso Peddler. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Woman with a Violin (1911), Pablo Picasso

The Pinakothek der Moderne is home to a substantial collection of early 20th-century modernist art, including works by Magritte, Miró, Beckmann and Ernst. One of the most recognisable works of early cubist art, Georges Braque’s Woman with a Mandolin (1910), is held there, and now it has been joined by a strikingly similar work, Picasso’s Woman with a Violin (1911). Oliver Kase, chief curator of modern art at the Pinakothek, says that until now, the museum had ‘no central work devoted to analysing the human form from Picasso’s peak period’. The painting was on loan at the Pinakothek from a private collector since 2014, but has now been purchased for an unknown sum thanks to state and federal funding and donations by private patrons.

Woman with a Violin (1911), Pablo Picasso. Photo: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen/Haydar Koyupinar; © Sucession Picasso/VG Vild-Kunst, Bonn 2024

Centre Pompidou, Paris
23 works by 17 Perrotin artists

As the Pompidou Centre gets ready to close next year for substantial renovations, the museum has received a gift of 23 artworks from the gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin. The works are by 17 artists represented by Perrotin and the donation as a whole has been valued at €6m – an unusually large one from a commercial gallery to a major institution and one that comes in at more than three times the Pompidou’s annual acquisitions budget. Among the donated works are a sculpture of a homeless figure by Maurizio Cattelan, two bronze alien figures by Jean-Marie Appriou, a monochrome photograph by Sophie Calle and a series of prints by Laurent Grasso, as well as works by artists including Tavares Strachan, Lionel Estève and Genesis Belanger.

Self-Portrait as King Oba with Blue Soldiers (2023), Tavares Strachan. Photo: © Miho Suzuki; courtesy Perrotin/the artist; © Tavares Strachan

Museo del Prado, Madrid
Saint Christopher (1434), Juan de Peralta

The tale of Saint Christopher, in which he carried a boy across a river to safety, not knowing that he was carrying Christ, has been depicted many times throughout art history. The Prado has now acquired, for €100,000, a large panel from 1434 signed by the little-known artist Juan de Peralta – possibly a follower of the painter Juan de Sevilla – which is thought to have been commissioned for the Church of San Miguel in Caltojar, Spain.

Saint Christopher with the Child (1434), Juan de Peralta

Fenimore Art Museum, New York
Campanile at Lido (1879), J.M. Whistler; Still Life with Fruit, Vase and Cup (1910), Max Weber

The Fenimore Art Museum, which occupies a neo-Georgian mansion in the village of Cooperstown, New York State, specialises in American art, manuscripts and objects that relate to the cultural heritage of the United States, particularly the local area. Over the past nine months, it has been expanding its collection with an ambitious programme of acquisitions: 25 oil paintings and two pastels by artists including Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keeffe and John Singer Sargent have joined the museum at a total cost of $33.8m. The museum has now announced the acquisition and installation of the final two works of this project: Campanile at Lido (1879), a gentle Venetian pastel sketch by Whistler, and Still Life with Fruit, Vase and Cup (1910) by Max Weber, which are currently on view in the exhibition ‘American Masterworks’ (until 29 December).

Campanile at Lido (1879), James McNeill Whistler. Photo: Richard Walker