The well-documented influence of classical art and antiquity on the artwork of modern icon Gustav Klimt is the focus of this must-see exhibition in Vienna.

Vienna’s Belvedere Museum recently opened “Klimt and Antiquity,” an engaging exhibition that seeks to illustrate a development in the artist’s career, one that saw his interest in Historicism evolve into a spirit of antiquity. In addition to several of Klimt’s most memorable paintings, curators have juxtaposed antiques, including a Greek vase and casts of sculptures that were known to have inspired Klimt.

Via the museum, “Further highlights are Klimt’s illustrations for a new edition of Dialogues of the Courtesans by Lucian (c. 120–185 A.D.). Published in 1907, this erotic compilation represents a perfect pairing of Klimt’s risqué drawings with Josef Hoffmann’s Wiener Werkstätte design to create one of European Jugendstil’s most beautiful books. Select examples of Attic red-figure vase paintings offer a glimpse of the world in which the classical author Lucian set his Dialogues of the Courtesans. Although separated by more than two millennia, the interplay between classical vase painting and Klimt’s linear art reveals surprising correlations, unveiling new perspectives on how the artist appreciated antiquity.”

“Klimt and Antiquity” continues through October 8. To learn more, visit the Belvedere Museum.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

In 1722, English artist, scientist, and explorer Mark Catesby landed in Charleston, South Carolina, to embark on an incredible journey that saw him document the birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and mammals indigenous to the American colonies. Forty-four of Catesby’s paintings, on loan from the British Royal Collection, compose an exhibition currently on view here

For the first time, original watercolors by Mark Catesby will be on view in Charleston, South Carolina, at the Gibbes Museum of Art — nearly 300 years after the artist landed there to begin documenting New World animals. In fact, “Artist, Scientist, Explorer: Mark Catesby in the Carolinas” is only the second time his watercolors have ever been on view in the United States.

On view through September 24, the show has brought together 44 of Catesby’s watercolors. “To underscore the significance of Catesby’s masterful paintings, the exhibition will also include a selection of watercolors created circa 1733 by George Edwards,” the museum writes. “Like his friend Mark Catesby, Edwards created precise watercolor renderings of birds. In many cases the two artists painted the same subject matter, including a bird particularly important to South Carolina, the now extinct Carolina Parakeet. Collected by John Drayton in 1733, rediscovered in 1969, and recently conserved, the Edwards paintings will be on loan from The Lenhardt Collection of George Edwards Watercolors at Drayton Hall, a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.”

To learn more, visit The Gibbes Museum of Art.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

J.M.W. Turner’s (1775-1851) profound influence on the elevation of “stained drawings” and watercolor as an independent art in the 19th century is a story being told by this Midwest museum through August 21.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is currently showing a dynamic selection of work by English revolutionary and Romantic Joseph Mallord William Turner. The exhibition draws heavily upon the institution’s robust collection of watercolors by the artist and his contemporaries.

“Turner was a lifelong seeker of picturesque and sublime places,” the museum writes, “and his annual sketching tours took him across Great Britain and Continental Europe. Some of his colleagues sought novel sketching grounds far across the British Empire and beyond. Together, these artists elevated the lowly ‘stained drawings’ of the eighteenth century into the independent art of watercolor painting, England’s contribution to nineteenth-century art.

“The Indianapolis Museum of Art’s collection of watercolors by Turner and his contemporaries was founded more than a century ago. Its wide renown, however, is due to the singular efforts of Kurt F. Pantzer, an Indianapolis attorney, who was devoted to all things related to Turner.”

To learn more, visit the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

The diverse career of California Impressionist E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) is being highlighted this summer at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

On view August 20 through January 7, 2018, “The Colorful Spirit” calls attention to an important stage in the life and career of famed California Impressionist E. Charlton Fortune, circa 1928, when she began a pioneering new vocation in liturgical art. The exhibition brilliantly pairs the artist’s impressionist and modernist landscapes with her ecclesiastical paintings, sculptures, furnishings, and other designs that she produced for the Catholic Church.

According to the museum, in 1928 Fortune became increasingly disenchanted with mass-produced ecclesiastical art, which “led her to create designs of her own.” Through approximately 80 works, “The Colorful Spirit” highlights Fortune’s contributions to early California painting and American liturgical design. 

To learn more, visit the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

Nestled along the northern edge of Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina you’ll find the quaint town of Blowing Rock, the home of Blowing Rock Frameworks & Gallery, which will soon host an exhibition of new works by Jason Drake.

On view August 14-26, “Close to Home” is a fantastic exhibition featuring both figurative and landscape paintings by artist Jason Drake. Although the painter will present watercolor, oil, and egg tempera work, Drake’s characteristic technique — with crisp, tightly rendered subjects — can be seen in each.

Via the gallery, “[Drake] is a penetrating observer of the quiet, simple framework that makes up life in this region, and his compositions evoke the emotion he suffuses into each painting. A reception will be held on Saturday, August 19 from 5 to 8 p.m. where you can meet the artist.”

To learn more, visit Blowing Rock Galleries.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

The Holton Studio Gallery is currently presenting new and old works by California native Carol Peek during its ongoing “Highlight Series.”

Intimately influenced by the local landscape around Marin County, as well by as her mother’s passion for art, artist Carol Peek delights in capturing the quickly disappearing agricultural landscape of Marin and Sonoma Counties, focusing on the family farms that once covered the area.

The Holton Studio Gallery in Berkeley, California, is currently showcasing several of Peek’s work during its ongoing “Highlight” series. Opened on July 15 with a reception and artist talk, the exhibition continues through August 5.

To learn more, visit The Holton Studio Gallery.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.