Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Two New Paintings at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts



Montreal Museum of Fine Art
Gift and Acquisition


Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is getting two new paintings.  One is a generous gift by Jorisch family. The painting was looted seventy years ago during the Anschluss and later restored to the descendants of its owners. This donation is Jorisch family's tribute to Montreal, the city that offered refuge to so many exiles. Stolen from Amalie Redlich in Nazi Austria, this work - Children on Their Way Home from School - is by the most famous Austrian painter of the Biedermeier period, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (see image above).


The painting on the left - Woman Tuning a Lute - is by a Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst. It represents the museum's most recent acquisition. It was purchased by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts at the recent art fair in Maastricht. The painting was unknown until it re-emerged on the art market earlier this year from a private collection in France. It is signed and dated (G. Honthorst fe. 1624).

These two painting will be displayed at the museum's permanent collection section that is always open to the public free of charge.

Consult the museum's website for more information and events

http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en

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1 comment:

Julian Brown said...

How wonderful to see a smiling portrait!

This is obviously related to Frans Hals' 1624-5 work "The Lute Player" referred to in Angus Trumble's book "A Brief History of the Smile."