Nativity at night

DE BEER, Jan (c.1475–1528)

1520
Nativity at night (verso)

Oil on wood

137 X 137 cms

Barber Institute of Fine Art, Birmingham

The mannerist Jan de Beer from Antwerp was the son of the painter Claes de Beer and the father of the glasspainter Arnould de Beer. A student at the Antwerp Guild of St Luke, he became a master in 1504. In 1515 he became a dean of the Guild. He later took on apprentices, including his son, Aert de Beer. The artist is undocumented between 1519 and 1528, by which date he was dead. In 1567 Guicciardini included de Beer in his list of famous Netherlandish painters. This rare, double-sided panel featuring an image of Christ’s Nativity has recently arrived home in time for Christmas after undergoing major conservation. From around 1520, it depicts on one side the unusual Nativity at Night, and on the other the Apocryphal tale of Joseph and the Suitors (see below). Believed to be a section of a large, multi-part altarpiece, it was returned to its place on December 9, 2014 after extensive treatment by Stratford-upon-Avon conservator-restorer Stewart Meese.

The cleaning brought to greater prominence some small but significant details, including a letter ‘B’ on the thigh of one of the suitors – thought to be a signifier of the artist’s name. It also produced evidence supporting the suggestion that the landscape and secondary figures in the Nativity were executed by another hand – or hands – working with de Beer. Previously, the panel, which was possibly commissioned by a guild for their chapel in Antwerp Cathedral, was framed and hung at the Barber Institute as a traditional-style easel painting, with only one side visible at any one time.  It will return to the Green Gallery in a new, period-style frame and on a custom-made, free-standing plinth that will allow gallery visitors to view both sides of the panel and appreciate the paintings properly for the first time in decades.

 

The shortening Winter's Day is near a close

FARQUHARSON John (1846-1935)

1903

The shortening Winter's Day is near a close
Oil on canvas

82 x 119.25 cms

Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool

This and pictures like it are often seen on Christmas cards. Joseph Farquharson is the most celebrated British painter of winter scenes. His depictions of sheep in snow were painted at Finzean, Aberdeenshire, and he commissioned a mobile studio/bothy on his estate so he could work virtually en plein air in the most inhospitable conditions. Farquharson's considerable commercial success was based on the snow scenes he exhibited almost annually at the Royal Academy 1894-1925, earning him the nickname 'Frozen Mutton Farquharson', and celebrated printsellers Frost and Reed assured him a steady income by selling deluxe editions of his works. This subject is one of his most celebrated, and the primary version (now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery) was shown at the RA in 1903. Farquharson was known to create several versions of his best works, either to sell as replicas or to retain as aides memoires. Here he contrasts the hard, smooth finish of the snow with the soft, shaggy texture of the sheep — a contrast all the sharper because both are white. The setting sun, shining at the spectator, only makes the total effect all the more an ingenious test of the artist’s skill in portraying subtleties of reflected colour and tone on his white surfaces. Farquharson’s titles sound like quotations, but in fact are his own inventions. The art dealer Thomas Agnew purchased the painting from Farquharson on 25 March 1903 and sold it to Lever five days later for £850.