It was perhaps the most tragic and unsettling art-related news of 2016: The esteemed RJD Gallery located in Sag Harbor, New York, suffered a total loss during a massive fire on December 16. However, the gallery’s adroit owner quoted Mark Twain recently, saying, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

It was news that sent shockwaves across the contemporary art world on December 17: A massive fire in Sag Harbor, New York, had led to the complete destruction of at least four buildings, including the Sag Harbor Cinema and one of the premier contemporary art galleries in the country, RJD Gallery.

The void left by the catastrophe will likely take years to fill, but it is with great excitement that we report that measures to bring RJD Gallery back to its feet are proceeding with incredible quickness. If there is a silver lining after the loss of numerous fantastic artworks, it is the fact that the gallery had a large storage facility offsite, which has allowed operations to continue despite the destruction of its exhibition space.

RJD is currently breaking ground on a new location, 2385 Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton, New York, between Bobby Vans and the Candy Kitchen. The goal is to open the gallery space by March 2017. Did we mention that the new venue will feature twice the space as well?

In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that is regenerated or reborn. Associated with the sun, the phoenix rises and obtains new life from the ashes of its predecessor. In historical records, the phoenix symbolizes renewal and resurrection, emerging from its death stronger than before.

The flaming bird of Greek mythology is a perfect metaphor for RJD Gallery: It is sometimes through the most challenging of times that one can emerge stronger and more determined than ever.

Stay tuned to Fine Art Connoisseur and Fine Art Today as we track the rebirth of RJD 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.

Collectors and enthusiasts of the Art Nouveau movement will want to pay close attention to what’s happening in New York City on January 26. Why?

On Thursday, January 26, Swann Galleries in New York City will launch its 2017 auction season with a blockbuster sale of incredible masterworks from the Harry C. Meyerhoff Collection — the largest collection of works by Alphonse Mucha and his circle of Art Nouveau champions.

Of the 200 lots available, over half are by Mucha himself and represent the artist’s entire career, from his time in Prague to Paris and New York. Among the collection are nearly 240 breathtaking lithograph posters, expected to sell for from $35,000 to $50,000.

To learn more, visit Swann 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.

So many precious historical artworks are only preserved through a few black-and-white photographs. However, an incredible work — thought to have been lost for decades and known only through photography — was recently discovered in Los Angeles. What’s the story?

It’s refreshing to know that wonderful masterpieces many believe to be gone forever sometimes reappear. That was precisely the case in Los Angeles at Gallery 19C. Just a few weeks ago, the gallery came across a legendary work by Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), titled “L’angelus,” which was previously known only from black-and-white photographs.

First unveiled at the Paris Salon in 1859, the painting quickly earned a reputation, particularly for its acceptance and praise by a number of commentators, including the discriminating art critic Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Via ArtDaily: “Singled out for praise by numerous subsequent commentators, first in France and later in England, America, and Europe, and housed in some of the art world’s best-known and most discerning early twentieth-century private collections, the reappearance of L’angelus in 2016 is indisputably a monumental episode in the annals of modern art history. It now resides in an important private American collection. The new owner plans to share it via museum exhibitions with the public.”

To learn more, visit Gallery 19C.

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.

A number of outstanding historical artworks that examine the world of natural science will be presented alongside works by contemporary artists during a great show in New York.

This January, Sotheby’s Old Masters Department has combined forces with New York City’s Paul Kasmin Gallery to present “Naturalia,” a fascinating exhibition curated by Danny Moynihan. “Naturalia” features a range of outstanding historical works from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries along with works by contemporary artists.

The theme of the show revolves around the myriad presentations of the natural sciences in art. Via the gallery: “It is hard to imagine now the sense of wonder and discovery that artists of centuries past felt when studying nature, for man was still on the edge of the world; discovering new species of plants and animals at a pace unlike almost any other in modern history. Nature was as admired as it was feared, concurrently paradisiacal and dangerous, giving it both the sense of the exotic and of dark mystery.

It is in this spirit that earthly metaphors have been borrowed, stolen and created by artists and writers over the millennia. A host of preeminent contemporary artists, including Mat Collishaw, Mark Dion, Walton Ford, Damien Hirst and Sam Taylor-Johnson, have lent or created works especially for this exhibition.

“The sense of wonder and the sublime in nature is represented by Walton Ford’s monumental ‘Loss of the Lisbon Rhinoceros,’ 2008, juxtaposed here with Albrecht Dürer’s famous depiction of the very same exotic animal, both inspired by the story of the animal’s tragic 15th century voyage to Rome. With these two critical images as launching points, we cannot but help reflect on the consequences of human interference in our delicate world. Works by Theodora Allen, Adam Fuss, Michael Joo and Sean Landers evoke the sublime and conjure the same fantastical anthropomorphic narratives as the 17th century Dutch painter Matthias Withoos’ extraordinary ‘Landscape with Birds and Flowers in the Underbrush of a Wood,’ 1660.”

“Naturalia” opens on January 19 and will continue through March 4. To learn more, visit Paul Kasmin 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.

Fifty years is a long time, and in that span this leading American portrait painter has captured the likenesses of some of the most important leaders and much more. Some of his greatest achievements are currently hanging in one of New York’s most prestigious clubs.

It was a long time ago that portraitist John Howard Sanden first established himself as one of America’s leading painters. Since then, his reputation has only grown, to near-legendary status. Among his sitters have been Billy Graham, President George W. Bush, and African kings sitting for state portraits.

Opening January 16 at New York’s venerable Salmagundi Club and continuing through February 3 is a monumental retrospective of Sanden’s portraits. This can’t-miss exhibition explores one visionary’s path through some of the most important estates and is co-sponsored by the Portrait Institute and by Portraits, Inc. — widely recognized as the premier portrait gallery and brokerage in the country.

An opening reception will be hosted at the club on January 19 between 6 P.M. and 8 P.M. Also on the slate is an illustrated lecture with Sanden on Sunday, January 22 at 3 P.M.

To learn more, visit the Salmagundi Club.

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 this ongoing series, Fine Art Today delves into the world of portraiture, highlighting historical and contemporary examples of superb quality and skill. This week: “Head of a Woman” by a monumental painter from long ago. Did we mention it could also be yours?

For the right price, of course. Sotheby’s New York expects this week’s feature portrait to land in someone’s collection for a modest price of between $2 million and $3 million during its January 25 Master Paintings & Sculpture Evening Sale. Although most — if not all — of us may not be able to acquire Orazio Gentileschi’s (1563-1639) gorgeous “Head of a Woman,” we can still marvel at the mastery of this portrait.

Tightly cropped just below the neck and nearly square in format, the portrait presents us with the thoughtful gaze of an unknown female sitter. Immediately noticeable is Gentileschi’s fantastic use of color — the subtleties of gray-blue that flash over her skin, or the oranges and reds found within her flushed cheeks. With her shoulder bare, some have detected a certain degree of sexuality in the portrait, leaving to the viewer’s imagination what lies beneath the picture’s frame. The sitter’s head has been tilted in three-quarter view, but her gaze returns to the viewer, endowing the portrait with a brief sense of life and movement. Although we may never know her identity, her presence and vitality have been captured with incredible sensitivity — forever immortalized through brush, canvas, and paint.

To learn more, visit Sotheby’s.

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.

“Seductive,” “flamboyant,” and “deeply revealing” are the words used by this esteemed museum to describe the incredible family portraits executed by this well-known master. Who is he, and where can you catch a glimpse?

John Singer Sargent is, with little question, one of the greatest portraitists in art history. His ability to capture the subtleties of an individual’s dress and visage — revealing their character and so much more — is largely unparalleled.

A group of magnificent portraits by Sargent are currently on view through February 5 at the Jewish Museum in New York City. Fittingly, the portraits surround a prominent Jewish family during the Victorian era in England — the Meyers.

Painted in 1896, “Mrs. Carl Meyer and her Children” was met with vexed reviews upon its initial exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1897 — some loved the masterpiece, while others were skeptical. Harper’s Weekly critic Henry James wrote, “Of these elements Mr. Sargent has made a picture of a knock-down insolence of talent and truth of characterization, a wonderful rendering of life, of manners, of aspects, of types, of textures, of everything.”

Indeed, the family portrait is a tour de force of creative and artistic genius. The museum reports, “As a society hostess known for her exuberant soirées, enchanting voice, and support of the arts, Lady Meyer was also a socially concerned philanthropist supporting working class women, underprivileged families, and women’s suffrage. On loan from the Tate Britain in London, it has been over 10 years since this painting was on view in the United States. The exhibition highlights this remarkable work — contextualizing it with other family portraits, family photographs, personal correspondence and domestic memorabilia, as well as satirical imagery from popular culture that relates to both the Meyer family and John Singer Sargent.”

To learn more, visit the Jewish 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.

A current exhibition on view through February 12 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see for yourself how and why this Renaissance city was renowned for its seductive colors — both in reality and through the monumental artists who called it their home. Can you name it?

It’s not surprising that Venice, Italy, is renowned for much more than its unique geographic location, food, and iconic gondolas. Indeed, for centuries scholars, aristocrats, royalty, and — of course — artists have all become enamored with the jewel-like colors that dance off the city’s canals and pastel-colored buildings. Nearly all the artists who called “The Floating City” home are noted for their use and mastery of color, especially with regard to Renaissance masters, including the Bellini family, the Bassano family, Giorgione, and Titian — to name just a few.

The splendor of Renaissance Venice and the magnificent artists it produced are the subjects of a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition currently on view at the Denver Art Museum. On view through February 12, “Glory of Venice: Masterworks of the Renaissance” includes a number of spectacular paintings by Titian, Giovanni Bellini, and Giorgione that have rarely — if ever — been exhibited in the United States.

Spanning the mid-1400s through the early 1500s, “‘Glory of Venice’ emphasizes how masters during this period — whose sensitivity toward color and light remained unparalleled for centuries — veered from traditional techniques and began using oil paint to experiment with depth, emotion, and dimension in their work,” the museum writes. “‘Glory of Venice’ features about 50 significant works, and provides visitors with a rare opportunity to experience 19 artworks from Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia, which houses one of the greatest collections of Venetian Renaissance in the world. Additional masterworks on view include paintings on loan from the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, and the Fondazione Magnani Rocca in Parma, Italy, as well as signature paintings in the DAM’s collection.”

To learn more, visit the Denver Art 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.