Tag Archives: Christie’s Videos

Art History: Rembrandt’s Prints & Life In Amsterdam

Christie’s (November 26, 2023) – Rembrandt House Museum Specialist Tim Schmelcher and Head of Collections, Epco Runia, discover more about Rembrandt’s life in Amsterdam, in particular his printmaking.

Then a more detailed look at the Sam Josefowitz Collection of Rembrandt prints – the most comprehensive and impressive in private hands – as we examine some of the highlights of these graphic masterpieces.

On 7 December 2023, Christie’s will be offering a selection of these prints across two sales in London: Old Masters Part I and The Sam Josefowitz Collection: Graphic Masterpieces by Rembrandt van Rijn.

Art History: Two Paintings Survey Canaletto’s Venice

Christie’s (November 23, 2023) – Immerse yourself in a dreamlike vision of Canaletto’s Venice where the floating city of the 1700s appears strikingly unchanged centuries later. Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto (1697-1768), was born and died in Venice.

Did Canaletto paint these paired views of Venice for the Countess of Essex?

Home for most of his life, the city was also the artistic subject that dominated his career. Canaletto helped establish the veduta — or topographical view — as one of the chief genres of Venetian painting in the 18th century, as well as a prime export. A pair of vedute by Canaletto, unknown to scholars until now, will lead the Old Masters Part I sale at Christie’s in London on 7 December 2023, as part of Classic Week.

Coming from a private collection, these masterpieces were painted around 1734, when Canaletto was at the peak of his powers, almost certainly for an English patron.

Find out more: https://www.christies.com/en/stories/…

Interview: British Fashion Designer Sir Paul Smith On His ‘Picasso Celebration’

Christie’s (July 10, 2023) – Iconic British fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, in his legendary chock-full studio, talks about bringing out “Picasso’s playful side” in a stylish new exhibition at the Musée National Picasso-Paris: Picasso Celebration: The Collection in a New Light.

Sir Paul Smith, guest artistic director at the Musée National Picasso-Paris. Photo © Paul Smith. Artwork © Succession PicassoDACS, London 2023
Sir Paul Smith, guest artistic director at the Musée National Picasso-Paris.

It is fifty years since Pablo Picasso died, on 8 April 1973 at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, his home in Mougins. The body of work that he left behind had a profound impact on the entire 20th century.


For this anniversary year, the Musée National Picasso-Paris has invited the British designer Sir Paul Smith, known for his work with colour, tailoring and unexpected details, to lead the artistic direction of an exceptional exhibition showcasing the museum’s collection.

Affiche Expositon Picasso Célébration

Profiles: Zhang Daqian’s Rare & Exquisite Paintings

Christie’s (May 11, 2023) – From Zhang Daqian’s atmospheric masterpiece ‘Ancient Temple in Misty Mountain’ to Qiu Ying’s ‘Celestial Mountains and Pavilions’, a rare and exquisite painting that belonged to the personal collection of Zhang Daqian, enter the beautiful world of Zhang Daqian as an artist and a collector.

Works by Zhang Daqian at Sotheby’s

Chinese Paintings: The World of Zhang Daqian - YouTube

Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a guohua painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned as a modern impressionist and expressionist painter.

Art Views: Claude Monet’s “The Basin At Argenteuil”

Painted along the banks of the Seine, Le bassin d’Argenteuil captures the rise of the middle class and the founding tenants of Impressionism Painted in 1874, Le bassin d’Argenteuil provides a glimpse into the ‘golden’ era of Impressionism. During this time, Claude Monet and his fellow Impressionists, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet and Alfred Sisley, codified their ideas while painting along the banks of the Seine. Expressing the dynamism of nature and the modernity of the Third Republic, Le bassin d’Argenteuil combines light and leisure to evoke the excitement of a new visual language. The painting, which brings together the artist most synonymous with Impressionism and the town identified with its origins, will be sold at Christie’s on 11 November as part of The Cox Collection: The Story of Impressionism. Learn More: https://www.christies.com/features/cl…

Art Videos: American Painter Cy Twombly’s ‘Apollo 11’ Homage (1969)

In the summer of 1969, Cy Twombly made a series of paintings inspired by the Apollo 11 space mission.

Born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1928, Edwin Parker ‘Cy’ Twombly studied art in Boston and at the avant-garde Black Mountain College in North Carolina. After graduating, he served as a cryptologist in the US Military — an experience that left a distinctive mark on his artistic style.

Learn more: https://www.christies.com/features/Mo…

Modern Art: ‘Shangri-La, 2017’ By Matthew Wong

An invitation into any artist’s imagined world involves an intimacy rarely encountered outside of portraiture, but Matthew Wong does this without fear by relying on our one nugget of shared understanding – Shangri-la. What is paradise after all but knowing and being known? “You sit in front of this painting, and it overwhelms you.” – reveals our specialist Isabella Lauria, –

“We get lots in our dreams, and this painting makes me feel lost in the best way.” Post-War and Contemporary Art Day sale, October 7 2020

View sale highlights: https://www.christies.com/features/Po..

Matthew Wong was a Canadian artist. Self-taught as a painter, Wong received critical acclaim for his work before his death in 2019 at the age of 35. Roberta Smith, co-chief art critic at The New York Times, has praised Wong as “one of the most talented painters of his generation.”

Art History Videos: Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger – 1955” (Christie’s)

Christie's logoBetween 13 December 1954 and 14 February 1955, Picasso painted a series of fifteen canvases based on Eugène Delacroix’s masterwork Les femmes d’Alger, each of which he assigned an identifying letter from A to O. Together, these paintings constitute Picasso’s single greatest achievement in the decades following the end of the Second World War. They represent his first comprehensive appropriation and thoroughgoing exploration of an important painting by an earlier artist, as well as the most focused analysis he had done since the war years of the female figure set within a specific spatial environment.

Picasso painted the present Femmes d’Alger, Version F on 17 January 1955, around the halfway point in the cycle. It is the culminating, most fully resolved canvas from the first phase of the series, when Picasso favored medium-sized formats for his protean explorations.

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Video Profiles: British Artist Jonathan Yeo – “FaceTime Portraits”

Since lockdown started in the UK, British artist Jonathan Yeo began a ‘FaceTime Portraits’ series where sittings have been filmed by his household, offering viewers a live glimpse into his portrait painting process.

Here he tells us about the pros and cons of painting faces by digital means and how he sees the future of portraiture as technologies continue to evolve.

Jonathan Yeo is a British artist who rose to international prominence in his early 20s as a contemporary portraitist, having painted Kevin Spacey, Dennis Hopper, Cara Delevingne, Damien Hirst, Prince Philip, Erin O’Connor, Tony Blair, and David Cameron among others.