Upcoming Art Auction > Only rarely does an extraordinary Orientalist watercolor appear on the market, and now that time has come. Painted in 1873 by the Englishman John Frederick Lewis, “A Reception in the Harem” has been in a private U.S. collection since 1961, when the current owner bought it from a London dealer. It has never been seen publicly since, and can now be visited by appointment at Bonhams London, which will offer it at auction on March 26, 2025.

JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS’S “A RECEPTION IN THE HAREM”
Bonhams, London
bonhams.com

In her catalogue essay, scholar Emily Weeks says this is a larger version of Lewis’s oil painting now at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. Lewis was a master in both oil and watercolor, renowned then and now for jewel-like color and intricate detail. Weeks adds that Lewis “perfected an idiosyncratic approach to watercolor that could rival oil painting in the intensity of its hues (achieved through mixing watercolor pigments with Chinese white)” and in its precise brushstrokes, making it appear as “finished” and laboriously executed as an oil. Blessed with such talents, Lewis “systematically produced two nearly identical versions” of every major scene, one in each medium.

Britons’ fascination with the daily lives of fashionable women in Middle Eastern harems grew from the 18th century onward. The reclining figure on the blue divan at the scene’s center is Lewis’s wife, Marian, and her ornate surroundings were inspired by the reception room of their Cairo home. The Lewises lived in the Egyptian capital for 10 years, and in 1846, no less a tourist than the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray envied Lewis’s “dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life” there.

Before it came to America in 1961, this watercolor was owned by a series of well-known connoisseurs and ogled at well-attended exhibitions in 1878, 1887, 1891, and 1898. Because it may go right back into a private collection on March 26, art lovers visiting London this winter are strongly encouraged to go see it at Bonhams.

Attention Art Collectors!
May 20-22, 2025: Visit the Plein Air Convention & Expo’s robust pop-up art gallery at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno, Nevada, where hundreds of artists, including our master faculty, will have studio and plein air works on display and ready to purchase. Register for the full event at PleinAirConvention.com now.

View artist and collector profiles here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.

J. M. W. Turner paintings on view > Celebrate the 250th anniversary of James Mallord William Turner’s birth by seeing twelve of his watercolors from the Taft Museum of Art and the Cincinnati Art Museum. On view at the Taft Museum of Art through June 15, 2025, “J. M. W. Turner: Watercolor Horizons” is the first exhibition to bring together the entirety of the two museums’ luminous works by Turner in this medium.

More from the Museum:

Considered one of Britain’s greatest landscape painters, Turner (English, 1775–1851) was a master of the art of watercolor. A prolific artist and intrepid traveler, he was especially drawn to mountains, alpine lakes, glaciers, river valleys, and the sea, as well as the human presence within these dramatic settings. Watercolor Horizons features views of Switzerland, Germany, France, England, Scotland, and Italy. The exhibition explores Turner’s skill with a brush on paper through these remarkable landscapes, examples of his innovative techniques, and painting tools from the era on loan from local collections.

“’J. M. W. Turner: Watercolor Horizons’ is a rare opportunity to see these treasures up close and in person,” said the exhibition’s curator Tamera Lenz Muente. “Each is filled with exquisite color and mind-blowing details that you can examine with magnifying glasses we’ll have in the gallery. Paired with a tea from the café or a family program, the Turner birthday experience at the Taft is one not to miss.”

For tickets to see these J. M. W. Turner paintings, visit taftmuseum.org/Turner250.

Attention Art Collectors!
May 20-22, 2025: Visit the Plein Air Convention & Expo’s robust pop-up art gallery at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno, Nevada, where hundreds of artists, including our master faculty, will have studio and plein air works on display and ready to purchase. Register for the full event at PleinAirConvention.com now.

View more art museum announcements here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.

From the Fine Art Connoisseur March/April 2025 Editor’s Note: “The art collectors highlighted in this issue of Fine Art Connoisseur buy art with their eyes and hearts…”

Collecting Art for the Right Reasons

My favorite issue of the year is the one that highlights real-world collectors of contemporary realist art. This is that issue, and we hope you will enjoy “meeting” the individuals and couples who have so generously opened their doors. These folks now join 97 others we have profiled since 2015, and we are honored and grateful to welcome them to this community.

Why do we do this? First, people need role models, in any walk of life. We play tennis better after watching Coco Gauff, and we cook more effectively after Bobby Flay demonstrates the recipe. It’s harder with art collecting because there is no single way to do it, and unfortunately the best-known collectors are financiers and movie stars paying millions at auction for a Hirst or a Koons. Good for them, but that’s collecting warehoused-investment-assets with your ears, not art-to-live-with with your eyes. I’m far more intrigued by celebrities who collect items of comparatively low value: just for example, Tom Hanks buys antique typewriters, Angelina Jolie goes for medieval and Renaissance knives, and Claudia Schiffer seeks out mounted beetles, butterflies, and spiders.

Great, but this is a fine art magazine, and besides, buying anything when you’re a hundred-millionaire is not particularly difficult. The real trick is to buy wonderful “unbranded” art on a regular budget, away from the limelight and the art advisers who think about this stuff all day. The folks highlighted in this issue buy art with their eyes and hearts, living with and enjoying it, sometimes enhancing their lives further by getting to know the artists who made it.

The hardest step in this issue’s preparation is asking the collectors to choose just two artworks to illustrate in their profiles. That’s like choosing among your kids, but the collectors do it bravely, and they understand why we ask them to. It’s simple: we can dedicate only two pages to each collector, and if we were to fill them with seven or eight “favorite” images, there wouldn’t be room for the words. Besides, each artwork would look more like a postage stamp than a painting. And so we go smaller (in number) and bigger (in photo size), reminding everyone that these two images don’t represent the whole collection, only evoke it.

Our work on the collector profiles never stops, so it’s already time for us to plan next year’s edition. There are great collections — many still being formed — in every region of this country, and no one person could possibly know all of them. Though our research is well underway and we already have some terrific names in sight, I hereby invite you to send me suggestions or nominations of other collectors. Our criteria are simple: they must be U.S. residents (still living) who have collected, or are continuing to collect, superb contemporary realist art created any time after 1980.

Ideas are welcome from everyone: the collectors themselves, their friends, families, dealers, advisers, curators, etc. Please just send me an email (ptrippi@streamlinepublishing.com) and I will move it forward. Rest assured that our team is discreet; all communications with collectors will be virtual, and we will not turn up unannounced at their homes to take photos! The individuals selected will have an opportunity to fact-check everything, and in fact they themselves will provide the photos to be illustrated. That said, it’s our editorial team’s decision who goes in, and who doesn’t.

Thank you as always for your incoming suggestions, and please enjoy learning about this year’s fascinating collectors.

What are your thoughts? Share your letter to the Editor below in the comments.

Download the current issue of Fine Art Connoisseur here.

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There is a lot of superb contemporary realism being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted individual.

For more than 15 years, Fan Yu (b. 1985) was a successful groomer and handler of show dogs in competitions and seminars around the world. In 2009, little did he know that his innate artistic talent was about to intersect with his current career and lead him on a new path of creating clay and bronze sculptures of dogs.

Fan grew up in China’s culturally rich Imperial City, Beijing, in a visually sophisticated family. His parents dedicated most of their lives to Chinese classical architecture and exposed Fan to aesthetics at an early age. As a child obsessed with animals, he often accompanied his father to the zoo with a sketchbook in hand, and he amassed a large collection of animal books to sketch from as well.

As he got older, Fan realized the pressures of the Chinese education system didn’t suit him, so he pursued other paths. When an injury kept him bedridden for half a year, he began learning about purebred dogs through a book his father had bought him. Once recovered, Fan took a dog show handling class in Beijing and slowly began entering the profession.

In 2009 Fan created his first sculpture of the striking Kerry Blue Terrier “Mick” — the winner of several Best in Show awards — to present to Mick’s professional handler, Bill McFadden, who has long inspired him. Fan’s intimate understanding of the canine spirit, attained through many years of grooming and handling, allowed his hands to sculpt with informed ease, and the results were not only eye-opening for him but also for the public.

He began receiving numerous inquiries and commissions from owners, breeders, and kennel clubs worldwide. Clearly Fan had found his niche and started dedicating more time to his new passion, finally leaving the world of professional dog handling in 2017. “The hustle and bustle, triumphs, and frustration of my dog show career inspired me to follow my intuition, and once that intuition was awakened, I just followed the momentum,” the artist says.

Today Fan resides in Claremont, California, with his wife, Amy, and his sculptures are celebrated both in the dog show community and in the field of fine art. Particularly rewarding is the fact that, every day, Fan gets to create art that is a culmination of his lifelong interests and passions.

“The loyalty, kindness, simplicity, and directness I see in dogs’ eyes has always moved me,” the artist explains. “Every time I finish a sculpture, I feel like it has also sculpted a piece of my inner soul. As time passes, the dogs have sculpted me into who I am. In a sense, we are one.”

Attention Art Collectors!
May 20-22, 2025: Visit the Plein Air Convention & Expo’s robust pop-up art gallery at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno, Nevada, where hundreds of artists, including our master faculty, will have studio and plein air works on display and ready to purchase. Register for the full event at PleinAirConvention.com now.

View more artist and collector profiles here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.

The Flagler Museum is presenting “The Ethereal Worlds of Maxfield Parrish,” an exhibition of 25 works demonstrating the genius of the Philadelphia-born master (1870–1966) whose paintings evoke a dreamlike world that hovers between reality and reverie. Parrish was a leading figure in the Golden Age of American Illustration, whose approximately 900 commissions for advertisements, magazines, books, stage sets, murals, stationery, and children’s books made him world-famous. By 1925, one out of every four households in America possessed reproductions of his art in some form.

On view this season are artworks featuring his highly saturated colors (especially the distinctive “Parrish Blue”) and lustrous glazing techniques. The compositions often depict figures in lush landscapes that are both romantic and fantastical, often with a neoclassical flourish.

Originally named “Whitehall,” the Flagler Museum was built by the real estate developer Henry Flagler at the heart of his most prestigious creation, Palm Beach, Florida. It is a highly appropriate venue for this exhibition as its heyday overlapped with Parrish’s. When it was completed in 1902, the house was hailed by the New York Herald as “more wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world.” Parrish often depicted such grand, idealized buildings, too.

Details at a Glance:
“The Ethereal Worlds of Maxfield Parrish”
Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, Florida
flaglermuseum.us
Through April 20, 2025

Watch a special two-part series that exposes the secret criminal network dealing in Nazi art theft during World War II.

In the decade leading up to 1945, it’s estimated that the Nazis stole one-fifth of all artwork in Europe – the majority from Jewish families and other “undesirables” – in a culture war that was designed to rewrite European history. But that was just the beginning. A new two-part “Secrets of the Dead” special reveals the secret networks of curators and dealers, many of them Nazis like Bruno Lohse (the “Plunderer”) who made fortunes on the back of Nazi-looted art, perpetuating a decades-long war crime that has never been fully exposed or resolved.

Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief premieres on Wednesdays, February 19-26, 2025 at 10/9con PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/secrets and the PBS App.

Historian Jonathan Petropoulos, the John V. Croul Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College, investigates the life of former Nazi art dealer Bruno Lohse, Hermann Göring’s one-time “man in Paris.” Petropoulos conducted multiple interviews with Lohse over the course of nearly 20 years until the German’s death in 2007.

To uncover the truth about the extent of the Nazi-looting operation, and just what role Lohse played, Petropoulos also speaks with gallery owners, curators, art investigators, Lohse’s close friends, and descendants of victims of Nazi art theft. Looking at breathtaking masterpieces and an extensive archive of personal letters, “Plunderer” reveals the dark underbelly of the international art world, much of it built upon wartime tragedy.

“Nazi art looting was the greatest art scandal of the 20th century,” said Petropoulos. “I had no idea the shocking discoveries this investigation would uncover, nor the tangled mess I was getting myself into.”

“While some of the reveals are thrilling, it’s important to remember that most of the looted art has never been recovered and most of those involved have suffered no consequences,” said producer John S. Friedman. “My hope is that this documentary will spark an interest in helping these families regain their lost pieces, which, for them, mean more than just the art’s monetary value – it also represents a link to their past.”

Watch: “Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief” premieres on Wednesdays, February 19-26, 2025 at 10/9con PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/secrets and the PBS App.

By David Masello

Architect Peter Pennoyer is reluctant to cut and paste a document or fire up the CAD drawing software typical in his industry. Instead, he and his staff architects prefer to do much of their designing by hand, actually drawing the moldings and staircases, fireplace surrounds, and coffered ceilings that figure into his residential projects.

“Hand drawing connects you to the human scale,” says Pennoyer from his New York office, where for decades he has been designing scores of America’s most notable, traditionally styled residences. The latest are featured in his book Peter Pennoyer Architects: City/Country (Rizzoli). “You realize quickly that drawing teaches you humility, and you realize that people, architects in particular, who drew regularly in their day did it better than we can today. Some things should be difficult. Struggle isn’t always bad.”

Such methodologies echo why Pennoyer has remained fascinated by “The Architect’s Dream” (above), an 1840 canvas by Thomas Cole (1801–1848) that is in the permanent collection of Ohio’s Toledo Museum of Art. Within a span of just five weeks, Cole, also a trained architect, painted this monumental canvas for his commissioning client, I. Town, a prominent New York architect of the day. The painting reveals a kind of timeline of architectural styles through the ages.

“The moment I saw the Cole, I remember being absolutely stunned,” Pennoyer recalls. “He probably made a smaller-scale sketch of this, a cartoon. He was astonishingly talented at then laying down paint on a canvas.”

The scene, which depicts an amalgam of idealized buildings — a glowing neo-Gothic church, the looming form of an Egyptian pyramid, an arched Roman aqueduct, towering obelisks, circular edifices, an Assyrian temple — is presented to the viewer as a skyline of structures. Indeed, the architectural panorama is viewed from what Pennoyer surmises is a Romanesque-style loggia, its opening framed by billowing green curtains.

Fronting the array of structures is a public gathering space populated by an inestimable number of people, who appear to be attending a ceremony. Of the buildings the artist chose to depict, Pennoyer feels confident that “Cole is definitely editorializing, holding up the Greek as the pinnacle of architecture. Where does the brightest light shine in the painting? On the Greek temple.”

A visit to Pennoyer’s Manhattan office reveals not only teams of architects busy at their drafting tables, but also floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled with architectural volumes, pattern books, and monologues — a repository of design wisdom and inspiration practically on the scale of the lost library of Alexandria.

In a metaphorical sense, then, it is fitting that Pennoyer is able to “read” even more into Cole’s scene than is initially presented to the viewer. Pennoyer points to the architect in the painting, who is depicted lounging atop a column, surrounded by volumes larger than he. “I’m an old-fashioned footnotes person,” he says, “and I’m pretty sure I remember learning that Town paid Cole for the work in architectural treatises.” Pennoyer surmises that such volumes might have included Claude Perrault’s 17th-century editions of his translations of the tenets of Roman architect Vitruvius. (Pennoyer has two copies in his office.)

“Just as hand drawing connects you to the human scale, so here does Cole relate the scale of the architecture,” Pennoyer emphasizes. Recognizing that computer technology does have its advantages, Pennoyer zooms up the image on his screen and comments on the crowd that appears to be marching in a procession from the Greek temple. “The fires suggest a pagan ritual, but while we can’t get in the head of Cole, it’s impressive to see how much he manages to pile on in this painting.”

***

Fine Art Today covers artists and products we think you’ll love. Linked products are independently selected and linked to for your convenience. If you buy something using a link on this page, Streamline Publishing may receive a small share of that sale.

Attention Art Collectors!
May 20-22, 2025: Visit the Plein Air Convention & Expo’s robust pop-up art gallery at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno, Nevada, where hundreds of artists, including our master faculty, will have studio and plein air works on display and ready to purchase. Register for the full event at PleinAirConvention.com now.

View more artist and collector profiles here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.

Visit Scottsdale, Arizona now through March 13 to check out the state’s longest-running art show and an annual juried art show and sale highlighting artworks by top students and alumni.

Celebration of Fine Art

Through March 30, 2025

Now entering its 35th year, Celebration of Fine Art is Arizona’s longest-running art show. It brings together 100 artists from across America, all invited to spend 10 weeks creating pieces in front of visitors. Their works range widely in both aesthetics and media, from realist to abstract, Western to modern, and everything in between.

Guests are invited to ask questions as the artists work, and these encounters are complemented by Art Discovery discussions every Friday during which visitors learn about the processes, adventures, and techniques that shape the art. Everyone is welcome to explore the one-acre sculpture garden, which features nearly 100 pieces, and to enjoy meals and wine in the cafe on site.

In 1991, inspired by California’s Laguna Beach Festival of Arts, Tom and Ann Mor-row collaborated with Scottsdale officials and the community to open CFA’s “big white tents” for the first time. Now encompassing 40,000 square feet of covered space, the event is carried on by Tom’s daughter Susan Morrow Potje and her husband, Jake Potje. She notes that, since last year’s show, CFA has moved just 200 yards south of its previous location, though the entrance and layout remain the same. She is particularly excited about a few welcome updates inside and in the sculpture garden.

Scottsdale Artists’ School: “Best & Brightest”

February 8 – March 13, 2025

Now in its 41st year, the Scottsdale Artists’ School is set to present “Best & Brightest,” the annual juried art show and sale highlighting artworks created by its top students and alumni living around the world. All artists who have taken a workshop, program, or online class through the school since 2019 were invited to submit their works for consideration.

The official reception and awards announcement ceremony is set for February 13. First and second place awards will be presented in each of six categories: drawing, oil painting, pastel, water media, sculpture, and small work.

The school’s executive director, Trudy Hays, is quick to praise the “professional quality of Scottsdale Artists’ School students” and laughs that she does “not envy the team assembled to jury the pieces, because they have a difficult assignment.”

The Winter Show in NYC, a benefit for East Side House, announces its highlights, including over 70 exhibitors of rare and exceptional art and antiques, taking place January 24 through February 2, 2025.

More from the organizers:

With dealers from across the Americas and Europe, the 2025 edition of The Winter Show will once again showcase the finest museum-quality works to an international audience of collectors, connoisseurs, and enthusiasts, alongside an acclaimed program of talks, panels, and events with leading experts in art, antiques, and design.

All ticket proceeds from the fair and its benefit events, including the Opening Night Party on January 23, sponsored by Bank of America, and Young Collectors Night on January 30, directly fund East Side House Settlement. Chubb returns as The Winter Show’s presenting sponsor, celebrating 29 years of partnership and support.

Executive Director Helen Allen said, “With every edition of The Winter Show, we look forward to sharing the world-class works our dealers bring to the fair. This year, we are particularly pleased with the exciting range of works across periods, styles, cultures, and makers. We are proud to uphold our extremely high standards of excellence among our exhibitors, ensuring a selection of truly unique and remarkable works for collectors and fairgoers of every variety. As always, the experience will be enhanced by complementary programming featuring panels and lectures by experts across the fields of art and design.”

For more details about The Winter Show benefit for East Side House, please visit www.thewintershow.org.

From January 17 – February 28, 2025 and accompanied by a fully illustrated scholarly catalogue, The Kennedy Marshall Art Collection will be on view at Schoelkopf Gallery in New York City.

From the gallery:

This exhibition features one of the most significant private collections of American regionalist and social realist art created between 1920 and 1970. The art collection belongs to acclaimed film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, whose careers have defined modern cinema.

Spanning nearly 40 remarkable works—including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper—the exhibition highlights iconic pieces by artists such as Romare Bearden, Thomas Hart Benton, Jared French, Jacob Lawrence, Paul Sample, and Ben Shahn. Each work reflects figurative storytelling with a modern sensibility, embodying the cultural and social narratives that defined 20th-century America.

Kennedy and Marshall are celebrated as two of the most influential figures in entertainment, best known for founding Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and producing classics like E.T., Jurassic Park, and the Back to the Future trilogy. With numerous Academy Award nominations and wins, their impact extends far beyond film, exemplified in their thoughtful and genre-defining approach to art collecting.

For more details, please visit schoelkopfgallery.com.

Attention Art Collectors!
May 20-22, 2025: Visit the Plein Air Convention & Expo’s robust pop-up art gallery at the Nugget Casino Resort in Reno, Nevada, where hundreds of artists, including our master faculty, will have studio and plein air works on display and ready to purchase. Register for the full event at PleinAirConvention.com now.

View more fine art gallery exhibitions here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.