Old Masters Worldwide

Markets, Movements and Museums, 1789–1939

Dr Susanna Avery-Quash editor Dr Barbara Pezzini editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:19th May '22

Currently unavailable, currently targeted to be due back around 25th January 2025, but could change

Old Masters Worldwide cover

Investigates for the first time the origin, development and rise of the Old Master market in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and its international dissemination.

As a result of the Napoleonic wars, vast numbers of Old Master paintings were released on to the market from public and private collections across continental Europe. The knock-on effect was the growth of the market for Old Masters from the 1790s up to the early 1930s, when the Great Depression put an end to its expansion. This book explores the global movement of Old Master paintings and investigates some of the changes in the art market that took place as a result of this new interest. Arguably, the most important phenomenon was the diminishing of the traditional figure of the art agent and the rise of more visible, increasingly professional, dealerships; firms such as Colnaghi and Agnew's in Britain, Goupil in France and Knoedler in the USA, came into existence. Old Masters Worldwide explores the ways in which the pioneering practices of such businesses contributed to shape a changing market.

How did Old Master paintings—once feared to be tainted by unscrupulous copies and dubious attributions—come to hold such a prized pride of place in private collections and museums? This fascinating collection, full of fresh research and exciting archival discoveries, reveals a complex network of dealers, agents, and collectors at work over the turbulent decades from the French Revolution to the Great Depression, developing new modes of authoritative expertise and adopting shrewd strategies in order to render the Old Master market into a global business. * Anne Helmreich, Getty Research Institute *
An urgently needed study which brings together an impressive range of international scholarship to illuminate the history of a central element of the secondary art market. This volume carefully delineates the genealogy and subsequent development of the market for Old Master paintings in all its vibrant complexity, mapping out key aspects of the market in a variety of international contexts and highlighting the networks, actors and practices in its evolving ecology. It is essential reading for anyone studying the history of the art market. * Mark Westgarth, Associate Professor in Art History & Museum Studies and Director of the Centre for the Study of the Art & Antiques Market, University of Leeds, UK *

ISBN: 9781350283633

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

320 pages