bury's blog

One of the founders of Surrealism, André Breton (1896–1966), had roles as an advisor to three Parisian galleries: La galerie Surréaliste (16, rue Jacques Callot, 1926–28), La galerie Gradiva (31, rue de Seine, 1937–1938), and A L'Etoile scellée (11, rue du Pré-aux-Clercs, 1952–56).

Twenty-seven percent of the Frick Art Reference Library's book collection has no other library location in WorldCat. One recent addition to these "uniques" is Couronne d'amour: poemes by the cloisonnist painter, Emile Bernard (1868-1941). It was published in 1902 by the Imprimerie E. Messina & Cie., Cairo, who also published Bernard's Extaxes et lutes, liberté: poemes in the same year.

It's an interesting moment when a book dealer brings in something that neither the dealer nor you yourself quite know what it could possibly be. The item in question was an eight-page manuscript in ink, entitled Catalogue of an exhibition of paintings now exhibiting at the Lyceum Strand the whole painted by Mr Keyse. It looks like a maquette for a printed catalog, as the manuscript hand imitates typography. And it has “Kemish printer Borough” on its cover. Intriguingly, there is a date of 1827, crossed out in pencil and Nov 1797 inserted. There are 72 paintings of which seven are starred as for sale, mainly works not by Keyse. Painting No. 51 is described as “lately painted by Mr Keyse at the age of 78 years.” Keyse may have been born in 1721, which would give an approximate date of 1799 and probably before Keyse died on 8 February 1800; otherwise it would have said “painted by the late Mr Keyse.” Many of the paintings were auctioned by Peter Coxe, Burrell & Foster on Thursday, 4 August 1803, which would make a date of 1827 unlikely.

The exhibition Precision & Splendor: Clocks and Watches at The Frick Collection takes place January 23, 2013 to February 2, 2014. The Frick Art Reference Library contains the library of Winthrop Kellogg (“Kelly”) Edey (1938-1999), whose collection of clocks and watches was bequeathed to The Frick Collection in 1999. The Library is open to the public without charge and without the need for an appointment.