The image of Vladivostok in paintings and graphics from the funds of the Arsenyev Museum of the History of the Far East

В художественной коллекции Музея истории Дальнего Востока имени В.К. Арсеньева хранится более 200 произведений живописи и графики, посвященных Владивостоку. Они созданы во второй половине XX – начале XXI века. Приведенный в статье краткий обзор этого массива позволяет говорить о разнообразии техник и приемов, о широте образов, стремлении авторов запечатлеть неповторимое лицо города, о трансформации натурного подхода в символическое видение. Материалом исследования послужили произведения М.В. Филиппова, В.И. Герасименко, Б.Ф. Лобаса, И.В. Рыбачука, Ф.Н. Бабанина, А.В. Телешова, П.Я. Рогаля, Ж.С. Кочубея, И.А. Кузнецова, К.И. Шебеко, В.А. Гончаренко, В.П. Белоусова, Ю.С. Рачева, Е.В. и О.В. Осиповых, Л.А. Козьминой, В.А. Камовского, П.П. Куянцева, А.П. Заугольнова, С.М. Черкасова. The art collection of the Arsenyev Museum of the History of the Far East contains more than 200 paintings and graphics dedicated to Vladivostok. They were created in the second half of the 20th – early 21st centuries. The overview of this array given in the article allows us to talk about the variety of techniques and techniques, the breadth of images, the desire of the authors to capture the unique face of the city, about the transformation of the full-scale approach into a symbolic vision. The research material was the artworks by M.V. Filippov, V.I. Gerasimenko, B.F. Lobas, I.V. Rybachuk, F.N. Babanin, A.V. Teleshov, P.Ya. Rogal, J.S. Kochubei, I.A. Kuznetsov, K.I. Shebeko, V.A. Goncharenko, V.P. Belousov, Yu.S. Rachev, E.V. and O.V. Osipov, L.A. Kozmina, V.A. Kamovsky, P.P. Kuyantsev, A.P. Zaugolnov, S.M. Cherkasov.

Mental Health Perceptions from Artwork

The relationship between artwork and mental health has been the subject of various research endeavours. Whilst artwork has been long used as a means of emotional expression, it is also a method of raising mental health awareness. In this study, an art collection was presented to depict the challenges faced by many individuals living with a mental illness. Through a series of open-ended questions, twenty-nine participants were requested to give a title to each piece and to describe the perceived message and emotions related to each painting. The thematic analysis process of the participants’ descriptions led to the identification of three themes, namely those of Darkness, Solitude and Recovery. Whilst congruence was often observed between the participants themselves and between the viewers and the artist, discrepancies were also noted. Artwork can be an important medium in addressing stigma and in guiding reflections on mental health topics.

A letter to Agnes McCausland Richardson Etherington (1880-1854)

“Dear Agnes” is a fictitious correspondence that I shared with Agnes McCausland Richardson Etherington (1880–1954) during my doctoral studies in the Cultural Studies Program at Queen’s University (2014-2019). Agnes Etherington is a key figure in the development of fine arts programs at Queen’s, including its art collection. Owing to her bequest of the Etherington House, the university’s art facility bears her name. The entire correspondence that we shared, and that was inserted as textual interruptions into my final dissertation portfolio, includes personal photos and a genealogy that chronologically records activities of Indigenous resurgence that occurred during my studies. What follows is an excerpt of the correspondence. This text is based on one of the four letters found in the portfolio.

“By order of His Majesty the King”: The Painter-Restorers of the Art Collection of Ferdinand II of Portugal

This study reveals and discusses the role played by five painter-restorers – António Manuel da Fonseca, António Tomás da Fonseca, Carl Kathan, Gaetano Marmocchi, and Étienne Le Roy – at the service of King Ferdinand II of Portugal, from 1850 to 1864. It draws on a dataset of more than one hundred and fifty restored paintings, used here as evidence of the painter-restorers’ activity and versatility in the private art market, as well as of the king’s commitment to managing, repairing and preserving his collection of paintings. Ultimately, by identifying the paintings that have been restored by order of the “Artist King” and relating them to the restorers, this research opens the door for direct analyses and a more precise characterization of the methods and techniques used by these painter-restorers in 19th century Europe.

Enduring Victoria: Iconoclasm and Restoration at the British Embassy in Tehran

The Government Art Collection (GAC) shares British art, culture and creativity through displays in UK Government buildings worldwide. It is the most widely distributed collection of British art, displayed in 129 countries where it is seen by thousands of visitors each year, and makes an important contribution to UK cultural diplomacy. New acquisitions continually develop the diversity of representation within the collection to better reflect contemporary British society.The Collection holds a number of portraits of Queen Victoria that are displayed in UK diplomatic buildings in Moscow, Paris, Tehran, Tokyo, Tunis, Washington and New Delhi, amongst others.  Over two centuries, these portraits have silently witnessed Britain’s changing position in the world while recalling her former influence. The first part of this article will focus on George Hayter’s portrait of Queen Victoria, painted 1862-63, and displayed in the British Ambassador's residence in Tehran, Iran. This is one of many autograph copies of the artist’s original 1838-40 coronation portrait, currently on display at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. It features an unusual Persian inscription and was commissioned specifically for the new embassy building in Tehran, completed in 1875, shortly before Queen Victoria was entitled Empress of India, and has been displayed there ever since.The second part of the article will reflect on the display of art recently installed in the British Ambassador's Residence in Tehran, and the curatorial challenges this presented in a country with a long and troubled relationship with Britain. This new display was itself a consequence of an iconoclastic attack on Victoria’s image in 2011 when the embassy was stormed by Iranian protesters - the latest event in a turbulent history.At a time when the UK is having a profound national conversation about how it engages internationally, can Victoria’s image help to build cultural relations in diplomatic spaces or is it only a relic of an imperial past?

Object Biographies and Museums: 100 X Congo in Antwerp, Exhibition at the Museum aan de Stroom, Antwerp, Belgium, 3 October 2020 - 12 September 2021

The Museum aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp, Belgium, opened the doors of its long-anticipated exhibition, 100 X Congo, on 3 October 2020, highlighting the presence of a Congolese art collection that has been owned by the city for a hundred years (1920-2020). Tackling the often uneasy history of how these things ended up in museums in the colonial ‘motherland’, this exhibition signals a step forwards in museology in Belgium, away from mere aestheticism of Congolese and, by extension, African arts, towards, in contrast, a focus on provenance, context and cultural importance.

Migration: Traces in an Art Collection, Maria Lind and Cecilia Widenheim (eds)

Review of: Migration: Traces in an Art Collection, Maria Lind and Cecilia Widenheim (eds)Berlin: Sternberg Press (2021), 320 pp., p/bk,ISBN: 978-3-95679-547-3, US $29.95

William S. Bucklin and George P. Bartle: Accomplished Artists of Phalanx, New Jersey

This narrative describes the lives and artistic careers of William Savery Bucklin (1851–1928) and George Parker Bartle (1853–1918), both of Phalanx, a hamlet in Colts Neck, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Three of the works illustrated come from the art collection of the Monmouth County Park System. They acquired them because the paintings depict woodland scenes on the opposite side of the Swimming River Reservoir from their Thompson Park campus, the back areas of which still retain this wooded character.