The magnetic natural landscape paintings by Simon Parkes are now on view in New York City. Where and for how long?
 
Opened on April 26 and through May 10, the outstanding works by painter Simon Parkes are on view at W.M. Brady & Co. in New York City. Among the artworks included are landscapes, cloudscapes, and still lifes. As founder of Simon Parkes Art Conservation Inc., Parkes spent years restoring paintings and through that sharpening his own skills. In an interview from 2009, the artist said, “I paint feelings, emotional memories, smells, temperature, and sounds … I try to garner an emotional response, which I hope is deeper than simple place recognition.”
 
To learn more, visit Simon Parkes.
 
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Whaling and man’s struggle with nature were the dominant themes of Herman Melville’s iconic Moby-Dick, first published in 1851. Just before its publication, between 1845 and 1846, the Royal Academy in London exhibited a few of one iconic artist’s last seascapes.
 
His canvases confounded critics with their tumultuous surges of color, expressive and abstracted brushwork, and brilliant energy. Nearing the end of his career, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) — one of greatest British Romantic artists — would paint a short series of four whaling scenes that formed the subject of an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. The four paintings are now part of a focus exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, marking the first time the pictures have been shown together since 1846.
 

J.M.W. Turner, “Whalers,” circa 1845, oil on canvas, 36 1/8 x 48 1/4 in. (c) MET 2016

 
Although Turner died in 1851 — the year of Moby-Dick’s publication — the exhibition seeks to “explore connections between Turner’s whaling scenes and the novel,” the museum states. “It is not certain that Melville saw the paintings when he first visited London in 1849, but he was unquestionably aware of them. Aspects of Melville’s prose bear a striking kinship to Turner’s style and to the criticism that it incited.”
 

J.M.W.Turner, “Whalers,” circa 1845, oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 48 in. (c) Tate Britain 2016

 
Equally exciting is the show’s inclusion of carefully selected watercolors, books, and quotes that “will offer insight into Turner’s paintings and their possible relationship with Melville’s text. Though modest in size, the exhibition will give viewers an opportunity to engage with the output of two great 19th century artists, and to assess for themselves whether the British painter inspired one of the crowning achievements of American literature.”
 

J.M.W.Turner, “Hurrah! for the Whaler Erebus! Another Fish!,” circa 1845, 35 x 48 in. (c) Tate Britain 2016

 
“Turner’s Whaling Pictures” opens on May 10 and will hang through August 7. To learn more, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
 
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Ohio residents and visitors will need their safari hats and Land Rovers for an exciting exhibition of wildlife subjects from some talented realists.
 
Opened on April 26, “Art and the Animal” at the Canton Museum of Art in Ohio is an exhibition for people of all ages. The show features a wide variety of wildlife subjects in countless environments, from domestic cats to bald eagles and iguanas. In addition to outstanding paintings, patrons will discover bronze sculptures of animals as well.
 

Grant Hacking, “Ancestral Bloodline,” 2014, oil on canvas, 47 x 57 in. (c) Grant Hacking 2016

 
Via the exhibition webpage: “Only the best animal art is selected for Art and the Animal. Consequently, it is extremely difficult, and therefore prestigious, for artists to have artwork accepted into the exhibition. Combining natural history and fine art in creative ways, SAA members compete to have their work included in annual exhibitions chosen by a selection jury comprised of SAA members who meet at the Salmagundi Club in New York each Spring. In addition, an awards jury, comprised of distinguished experts with the highest possible qualifications who are not members of the SAA are charged with the difficult task of reviewing annual exhibitions for the purpose of recognizing highest achievements and bestowing awards to respective artists. Artists who have won five or more awards are given the special status of ‘Master Signature Membership,’ which qualifies them to by-pass future annual exhibition selection juries and automatically have their work included in Annual Exhibitions.”
 

Rosetta, “Jasmine II,” 2014, bronze, 6 x 18 x 4 in. (c) Rosetta 2016

 
“Art and the Animal” will be on view through July 17. To learn more, visit the Canton Museum of Art.
 
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In conjunction with Bonhams’ 19th-century European Paintings sale on May 4, a captivating lecture will be held on May 1. Who are the speaker and subject?
 
Independent art historian and fine art consultant Dr. Emily M. Weeks will deliver a tantalizing lecture on May 1 at 2 P.M. at Bonhams in New York City. The subject of her talk, “Eastern Impressions: Frederick Arthur Bridgman, Edwin Lord Weeks and the Rise of American Orientalism,” will be in concert with the auction house’s upcoming European paintings sale on May 4.
 
To learn more, visit Bonhams.
 
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In this ongoing series for Fine Art Today, we take a longer look at the history and features of a soon-to-be-available artwork of note. This week: Vittorio Reggianini, “The Secret.”
 
Born in Modena in 1858, artist Vittorio Reggianini (1858-1939) is known today as one of the 19th century’s most talented academic realists. Educated at the Accademia di Belle Arti alongside Gaetano Bellei and Eugenio Zamphighi, Reggianini cultivated a lasting career in Italy focused on a new Continental taste for the luxurious lifestyles of the 18th and early 19th centuries.
 
The artist’s best works were predominantly genre subjects that highlighted the fashions and luxurious lives of ladies and gentlemen in 18th-century France. In particular, Reggianini is known for his pictures of young, beautiful, and fashionable ladies wearing sumptuous and saturated fabrics. Typically narrative in nature, the women are often involved in a romantic story or plot that is suggested in the work.
 
Heading to auction on May 6 via Neal Auction Company in Louisiana is a quintessential Reggianini. Titled “The Secret,” the painting displays the artist’s famed female subjects. In this example, the central figure has received a love note, which she reads in the company of her sisters. Particularly noteworthy is the verisimilitude of the satin gowns, which are executed with incredible precision. Via the auction website, “the empire waist and décolletage of the women’s dresses and the curled hair, style to resemble Grecian fashion, perfectly personify the styles worn during Napoleon’s Empire period from 1804-1815.” Auction estimates are between $80,000 and $120,000.
 
To learn more, visit Neal Auction Company.
 
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Nearly 100 years after he visited Rome with his wife, Art Nouveau master Alphonse Mucha will have his first retrospective.
 
The Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, Italy, is overjoyed to be presenting over 250 works from Czech icon Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939). Over his illustrious career, Mucha became one of the most renowned artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries with his distinctive French Art Nouveau style. Characterized by soft, organic lines, seductive female subjects, and pastel colors, Mucha’s illustrations and original poster designs were readily commissioned and bought by both Parisian and, later, European patrons.
 

Alphonse Mucha, “Self-portrait,” 1899, color lithograph, 85 x 29 1/4 in. (c) Mucha Foundation 2016

 
The exhibition will run in Rome through September 11 and traces the artist’s entire career trajectory through six themes: The Bohemian in Paris, The Creator of Images for the General Public, The Cosmopolitan, The Mystic, The Patriot, and The Artist-Philosopher.
 
To learn more, visit the Complesso del Vittoriano.
 
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.
 

Earlier this week, Christie’s announced robust sales during its Classic Week, with totals reaching eight figures. More details here.
 
Between April 12 and 15 in New York, Christie’s hosted its greatly anticipated Classic Week, which brought together exhibitions and auctions from Antiquities, Decorative Arts, Old Master paintings, Sculpture, and Japanese Arts. The inaugural event was met with outstanding success, the auction house reports, realizing $70,142,751 in sales across all categories. Seventy percent of the sales were via lot bidding and substantial online bidding.
 
Raw numbers:
$70,142,751 realized
482 works sold
70% sold by lot
Registered bidders from 48 countries across 5 continents
Over 3,000 visitors to the Classic Week preview
8 new world auction records
14 lots sold over $1 million
 
To learn more, visit Christie’s.
 
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Ancient Mesopotamia is known for the domestication of animals, the first forms of writing in cuneiform, agriculture, and powerful spiritual beliefs that led to a wealth of artistic production. Do you believe in magic?
 
Over 80 magnificent artifacts from the ancient world — including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome — are featured in “Magic in the Ancient World” at the Penn Museum in Pennsylvania. Opened on April 16 and on view through April 30, the exhibition explores how ancient cultures used a variety of objects and artworks to “fulfill desires through supernatural means,” as the museum writes.
 
Many of the cultures explored in the exhibition addressed some of life’s biggest questions through religion and magic. Whether it was natural disasters, law codes, dreams, disease, or war, each used a unique combination of science and religion to find answers. Drawing parallels with our own contemporary culture, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on their own beliefs and magical solutions to modern problems.
 
To learn more, visit the Penn Museum.
 
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Earlier this week researchers in Italy announced they have discovered the living relatives of this Renaissance genius.
 
How would you like to claim Leonardo da Vinci as your blood relative? Thirty-five individuals have recently been informed that they are living relatives of the Renaissance genius — the outcmoe of a process that has taken historians Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato over 40 years to complete. Interestingly, one of the living relatives is a prominent part of Italy’s contemporary art scene.
 
Unfortunately, Da Vinci’s remains have been lost since the 16th century, but the historians painstakingly dug through church, council, and estate documents to trace out a family tree. Da Vinci never fathered children, but he did have many siblings who were the main subjects of the research.
 
To learn more, visit the BBC.
 
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Ninety master drawings, prints, paintings, and more from Frans Floris to Peter Paul Rubens are the subject of a major exhibition is Brussels. Other blockbuster names include….
 
Dating from the 16th to the 17th centuries, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels is hosting an exhibition of over 90 drawings from many of the nation’s most celebrated artists. In addition to the drawings, a number of paintings, prints, stained glass pieces, and tapestries are included in the exhibition.
 
“From Floris to Rubens” will also feature outstanding landscapes from Hendrick Goltzius and Cornelis De Vos, Pieter Stevens, and Adriaen Frans Boudewijns. As exciting as the names is the fact that many of the works on view have never been shown to the public before. The 90 drawings included in the exhibition are from a private Belgian collection.
 
The exhibition will hang through May 15. To learn more, visit the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
 
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.