Nicholas Hall

Through one of the densest urban forests in the world, away from the noise of Rio de Janeiro, there is a waterfall known as the Cascatinha Taunay. Most people who hike past it today have no idea who Nicolas-Antoine Taunay was, or why a French academician who spent just five years in Brazil in the early nineteenth century left his name on a waterfall in the mountains above the city.

Camila Maroja grew up with that forest at her back. Her latest article in our Journal follows the extraordinary journey of the French painter who, among other contributions, recorded the Brazilian landscape and helped to establish the original Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Rio. Click the link in bio to learn more.

On the eve of America’s 250th birthday we published the newly digitized Lombard Index, a census of Lombard paintings from 1300–1800 in North American public collections. Born out of an exhibition at our gallery in 2019, it has been updated since it was originally compiled by the late Virginia Brilliant (1979–2025), who was known to many of our friends, clients and colleagues since her time as chief curator at the Ringling in Sarasota, Florida. Among the many schools of Baroque art in its collections, the Lombard school was prominent. Francesco Cairo’s Judith is a distinguished example which she chose as cover for her 2010 catalogue of highlights at the museum. What our Index reveals is the interest in this area of collecting, driven by ambitious, imaginative and philanthropic ideals that remain very much alive today. The ‘Circus King’,  John Ringling, was one of many who contributed to North America’s deep and often surprising holdings of Lombard painting, as well as to the broader culture of giving by private citizens which is so quintessentially American.

Follow the link in the bio to explore.
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Francesco Cairo, Judith Holding the Head of Holofernes, ca. 1633–37. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota

Photograph of John Ringling at the Whitehouse, 14 May 1925. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C., LC-F8-35658.

The surprising common denominator for The Le Nain brothers, Judith Leyster, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob van Oost, and Pierre Bedeau is the fact that they are all names once given to paintings by Michaelina Wautier. Even though she signed her pictures often and appeared in prestigious inventories like that of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Michaelina was still condemned to the margins of history until 1996. Her current monographic show Royal Academy makes no secret that almost half of the 30-odd pictures on view (more or less her entire known oeuvre) have been on the market in the last three decades, typically as anonymous or ascribed to a mixed bag of talent. As enlightening as it was to draw comparisons with the likes of Michael Sweerts in her previous exhibitions, here the focus is her progression, her aptitude across a wide range of subjects, and her relationship with her painter brother Charles.

Nature morte

by Jacques Linard, Louise Moillon, Upper Rhein school ca. 1470, Sebastian Stoskopff, French School early 17th century, attributed to Jan Willemszoon van der Wilde, Anne Vallayer-Coster, Chardin, and Hans Memling

From Bouwerij to Breukelen, Holland tunnel to Haarlem, we are constantly reminded that New York was Niewe Amsterdam once upon a time. The Dutch love of art collecting is certainly felt this week in the city. In this quaint exhibition of Dutch 17th century art almost all the works come from three prominent collections from New York and Boston, acquired in the last 40 years.

Still lifes hold a special place in the works of Francisco de Zurbarán and more so, of his son Juan, who is deservedly being recognized in the new Zurbarán exhibition at the . Juan died at the age of 29 but turned his father’s sporadic interest into a veritable speciality. It is a rare opportunity to see the father and son’s works side by side as there are only 20 or so works ascribed to the latter, all independent still lifes. They are found in collections as far reaching as Kiev, Mänttä (photo 8 ) and Sydney — which we had discovered in a small auction in Madrid in 2022 (last photo) and hoped to see again here.