Tate, London
Joan Carlile’s Portrait of an Unknown Lady
The Tate has bought its earliest work by a female artist, Joan Carlile’s Portrait of an Unknown Lady (1650-55), as part of a push to improve the gender balance in its collection. Carlile is thought to have been the first woman in Britain to work as a professional portrait painter in oil. Although only a few works have been attributed to her, research shows that she specialised in small-scale, full-length portraits in landscape settings. The dealer and art historian Bendor Grosvenor discovered the painting at a regional auction house, Woolley & Wallis, in 2014. He paid £4,200 (hammer price) for the work, which the Tate bought from him for £35,000. The painting will go on display after conservation at Tate Britain in April 2017.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and British Museum, London
Italian writing casket and drawings by John Flaxman
The London-based antiquities gallery Daniel Katz is the first company to donate works to UK museums in lieu of tax through Arts Council England’s Cultural Gifts Scheme. A gilt bronze writing casket attributed to the workshop of the Italian sculptors Vincenzo and Gian Gerolamo Grandi (around 1540-50) will enter the permanent collection of the Ashmolean Museum, where it has been on long-term loan since 2002. The second gift, an album of 37 drawings by the British sculptor John Flaxman (around 1815), illustrating the Greek poems of Hesiod, will go to the British Museum.
Centre Pompidou, Paris
20th-century Russian art donation
The Centre Pompidou has received a major gift of more than 250 works of Russian and Soviet art from the second half of the 20th century. The collection includes donations from the foundation of the Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin, as well as from private collectors, artists and their heirs. The works are on show at the museum until 27 March as part of the Franco-Russian Year of Cultural Tourism.
