Another famous painting is in doubt as to who could have painted it and experts now believe it has been mis-attributed. This time, is ' The Skating Minister ' long thought to be the work of the Edinburgh artist Sir Henry Raeburn. The Skating Minister is the most emblematic image of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, it has been reproduced on millions of posters, Christmas cards, mugs, coasters and books. But Stephen Lloyd, senior curator at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, believes that it is by Henri-Pierre Danloux ( 1753-1809 ) a "refugee" court painter from France who stayed in Edinburgh during the French Revolution in the 1790's. He points out that the picture is different from any other work by Sir Henry Raeburn. The picture is smaller, unsigned, and the brushwork is "more reminiscent " of Danloux, less so of the more famous painter's "robust style" The canvas is also of a traditional type, while Raeburn preferred a canvas with a herringbone weave.
Neither the case of El Coloso (The Colossus ) a painting long attributed to Goya nor the case of 'The Skating Minister' is yet settled. The Colossus has the marks of Goya's genius, its fearful and sublime idea, the pugilist giant rising up behind the world, could have been one of his ideas. The Skating Minister is a different pickle: Its unlike any other work by Raeburn, but much better than any other work by Danloux. As the art critic Tom Lubbock says: " In its teetering balance between dignity and absurdity, between statis and speed, it creates a work of high comedy that's rare in painting anywhere. It's a work of genius- but whose ? It lingers in an uneasy limbo: a marvellous painting that has, in effect, arrived from nowhere. It will be a long time before people give up finding an author "
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11 comments:
Hi Maria
Well of course I'm not equipped to judge, but if it's much better than any other work by Danloux, then I'd tend to go with Raeburn. It's only DIFFERENT from his other pictures, but with Danloux it's "much better" than his other ones.
I have to say that it does not surprise me to hear this. Sometimes, you have a feeling about a painting and every time I looked at this painting, I always thought that it seemed to me to be Dutch and not painted by a man but by a woman. Its execution is very delicate indeed and it's not a big painting either. I always had that feeling whenever I was in front of it. Now that it turns out that the painting is unsigned it makes it open for speculation.
Robert, I do have a good eye for paintings. Back in March, we went to a stately home called Lyme Park and one of the persons who looks after the rooms told us that two paintings hanging there were by Van Dyke. I said said "No, I don't think so. I think that two paintings are by Sir Peter Lely." The guide nervously and quickly looked at his notes and then exclaimed: "By God you are absolutely right!" then he looked at me and he said: " I thought you said you have never visited Lyme Park before" and I said: "That's right, I have never been here before and never seen those two pictures before either." Then he said, "How the devil did you know that these paintings were by Sir Peter Lely?" and then I said," because I have seen enough of the style of both painters to know it, even if I had never seen those two paintings in my life before" And with that said, I walked away leaving him scratching his head.
The latest one of these episodes was on the Spanish television channel TVe where they have a quizz programme every day and on one of the questions they showed a fraction of a painting and the contestants had to come up with the right answer. It went on for weeks; enough time to allow them to trace the painting and all they could say was that it was an Italian painting but for me, the first time I saw it, I knew it was not Italian but Spanish in style and painted by Diego de Velazquez Two weeks later, that was the right answer. It was the top prize and Peter was so impressed that he wanted to put my name forward to be a contestant. Unfortunatelly, you have to live in Spain to participate, besides, my arithmetic is not that fast to do the human calculator quiz.
Hi Maria
I'm amazed that you could tell who painted those pictures without getting out a magnifying glass etc.
It's a shame you can't go on that Spanish quiz.
Actually there have been very few quiz shows on art. The only one I can remember was about 20 years ago, and run by George Melly.
Do you have anyone in mind as the woman who could have painrted the skater?
Hello Robert,
Yes, I do. Angelica Kauffman.
Actually, Robert the TVe quiz show is called: ' Saber Y Ganar ' which means: Know and Win. It is not only about Art, but its a general knowledge quiz, sometimes it could be pictures or a building or maybe a place. it is more of a general knowlege game and sometimes it can be a visual quiz. Also, there is a challenge where they define the meaning of a word and the contestant has to guess what is that word they want and so they give you a clue by showing you the three first letters of the word.
Today, was really exciting because I knew the word ' deslizar ' and the contestant who teaches at the universidad Complutense in Madrid was having trouble finding the correct word but right at very last nano-second before his time expired, he blurted out the right word and he nearly fainted ! He just slumped on the podium. I was shouting the right word from my sofa as well and its such a great thrill when you find out you were right, and got it long before the contestant did. I was really pleased for him that he finally got it in the nick of time too. The programme is being shown at around half past two. You should watch it. Sometimes even Peter participates when he is around making himself a cup of tea, he also screams out the right answers, like for example: On which film did Peter O'toole appeared in the desert ? and Peter was shouting from the kitchen: Laurence Of Arabia !!!
Hi Maria
I used to watch quizzes. I remember some of the questions could be quite clever. For example, they would ask "On a pack of playing cards, how many of the kings are in profile and how many face full-on?" Or "On a pack of playing cards,which Jacks are in profile?" Everyone has seen these cards hundreds of times but it's amazing the way people can see things but not see them at the same time.
Because there is a difference between seeing and watching, between hearing and listening. Ven,ven,ven means; Come,come,come in Spanish and is clear as water to someone who speaks Spanish, otherwise you can see the word a million times without having a clue about the real significance of the word ! on a pack of playing cards you can see the King in profile showing only one facet of his personality but if you see it in full face, it would appear the same to those who do not observe it and taking a it at full value !
Its funny you should mention that, since 15 years ago, I made a painting with a hidden significance that included a pack of cards emerging from a walnut; some of the cards had the King in profile whilst other cards were in full face. The walnut was really the brain where many wonderful, beautiful things emerged from, like ideas and illusions. The pack of playing cards also meant destiny, luck or the future. The painting was stolen in California.
Shame, because I'd have liked to have seen that.
One of the questions they used to ask on game shows, was to show a tray of miscellaneous objects, give the contestants 30 seconds to memorise, and then ask them how many they could recall. It was always unrelated objects, like a reel of cotton, a pen, a wristwatch....
Hi Robert,
On this show, they also do that but a lot easier for the general public so that they can phone in, and the first one to get it right gets a prize. The way they do it is.. they show you several objects and the public has to tell them which one was repeated. Like for example: boat, telephone, television, train, car, typwriter.
On the last quiz, they had pseudonyms used by women writers and the contestant had to say which of them belonged to the correct author for each pseudonym.
Hm, I'm a bit wary of phone-ins.
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