MUST SEE, MUST SEE!

The WARTS AND ALL Exhibition is an historic exhibition of works by the 17^th Century Master, Samuel Cooper, and his contemporaries, held at the Philip Mould Gallery in Dover Street, London W.1.  Arranged in a museum-like setting within the Gallery, this superb exhibition is curated by Emma Rutherford, their in-house miniature specialist.  

Although none of the exhibits is for sale, there is an extensive range of miniatures for sale from the gallery’s own collection.

The exhibition runs until 7^th December, and is open 10.00-5.00p.m. and on Saturday 12 – 4.00p.m.  Entrance is free.

For those unable to go, there is an accompanying catalogue featuring all the miniatures on display with a lot of additional information – more of a reference book than a catalogue, it is available from Philip Mould at £25 (www.philipmould.com). 

2013 RMS Exhibition - Two for One!

The Exhibition was opened by the Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo who did a wonderful job and set the pace for the first exciting few days.

An extra bonus is the retrospective exhibition of miniatures by Michael Bartlett PVPRMS (1922-2008), curated by the well known art critic, Anthony Lester.  This gives a fascinating insight into Michael's life with some of his famous 'soldier' miniatures on show, which he loved painting and made something of a speciality. 

  

With an exceptionally high standard of entrants, there are many 'highlights', but  here are a few of our favourites.  If you happen to be in London, why not go and see for yourself?  

Francesca Resta by Pauline Denyer Baker (no. 211)

The Cape Gooseberry by Benjamin Hope (No. 333)

Lady in a Bird Hat by Markissia Touliatos (no. 511)

Mrs. Jill Stevenson by Elizabeth Meek (no. 391)

Val by Elizabeth Meek (no. 391)

Garganey Drake by Philip Nelson (no. 41)


The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers Annual Exhibition runs from 15th October to 27th October, open 10am to 5 pm daily and closing at 1 pm on the final day.  Entrance is free.
  If you happen to be in London, why not go and see for yourself?  You might pick up some wonderful and original early Christmas presents or some fantastic, unique and well priced Christmas cards from a large selection.

European Portrait Miniatures - Conference in Celle

The Fifth Exhibition of the Tansey Collection was opened on 25th
January 2013 in Celle, Germany at the wonderful Bomann Museum. 

Bomann Museum

At the
same time, an International Conference was held at the nearby Celle
Castle Residence Museum, open to all, free of charge, through the
generosity of Mrs. and Mrs. Tansey. 

Celle Castle

The couple live in Celle, Mrs.
Tansey's home town, although her husband is American.  They have been
collecting miniatures for over 30 years.  In 1997 they created a
Foundation to preserve their collection and make it available for
anyone to see, either physically at the Bomann Museum or online in
English at www.miniaturen-tansey.de/en.

Mr And Mrs Tansey (on the left) attending the conference

Celle is an ancient town in Lower Saxony, filled with timber framed
houses and dominated by the grand Celle Castle.  It has a population
of about 71,000.  The romantic setting of the castle, almost
surrounded by water, was frozen and children were skating on the ice.

With freezing temperatures of -11C and below in Celle itself, Europe
was gripped in an icy hand and participants swapped horror stories of
delayed travel, with one of the speakers stuck for two hours on the
runway, whilst the wings of the aeroplane were de-iced manually by a
man with a scraper on the equivalent of a hydraulic stepladder!  He
arrived in the early hours of the morning.

The Conference was packed with miniature enthusiasts, curators,
conservators, art historians and other specialists and the atmosphere
was very exciting, as participants were able to hear presentations
from some of the most knowledgeable experts in the world and see
images of collections not readily available to the public.  It was
also an occasion to meet and talk to others with a shared interest in
miniatures during the many opportunities during the two days of the
Conference.  The event was brilliantly organized by the well known art
historian/conservator/author Bernd Pappe, Juliane Schmieglitz-Otten,
Head of the Residence Museum at Celle Caste, and Dr. Gerrit Walczak,
Art Historian, Berlin.  Bernd and Juliane wrote the beautiful
catalogue 'Miniatures from the Time of Marie Antoinette in the Tansey
Collection' to accompany the Fifth Exhibition,  which helpfully
includes an English translation.
This book can be ordered online from the Tansey website or from Amazon
and is also available from large bookstores.

The papers from the Conference will be published later this year and
will be available to purchase.