France

Woman excluded from the guild of artists was nevertheless highly rated by kings and emperor

A Sèvres cabaret service painted with portraits of famous women was a New Year’s gift from a French empress

A painting by the French 18th century artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was discovered last January hanging on the wall in a local home.

An Old Master drawing by the Italian Baroque sculptor, architect and artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) sold for a hammer price of €1.55m (£1.34m) at an auction in Compiègne in France.

Attributed to northern Italian sculptor Girolamo Campagna (1549-1625), this hitherto unrecorded model of Amphitrite, Poseidon’s wife, features in an exhibition of Renaissance sculpture under way at Galerie Sismann.

Colonel stationed in Africa then China amassed an impressive collection that sold at auction in France earlier this month

With so much talk of fairs cancelled, auctions postponed and dealer activity constrained, it makes a change to feature the opening of a new gallery.

This 9¼in (23.5cm) diameter Sèvres porcelain plate is painted en grisaille with a portrait of the artist Annibale Carracci within borders of chrome green and gilt laurel and oak leaves, fleur de lys, palmettes and florets.

A sale of design and 20th century decorative arts to be staged by Aguttes on March 30 spans items from the Art Nouveau era through to the latter decades of the 20th century.

No fewer than 248 pieces feature in this grand Paris porcelain table service painted with floral reserves on a green and gilt border and central flowersprays.

A bronze figure of Mars from the studio of Giambologna will be one of the highlights in a sale of furniture, paintings, sculpture and works of art to be held at Drouot by L’Huillier on April 2.

This elaborate still-life featuring a vase containing a rich variety of flowers including roses, peonies and tulips, is a work by Maria van Oosterwyck (1630-93), a 17th century Dutch golden age female artist who specialised in still-life subjects.

A new art and antiques fair is being planned for the end of November to replace the Paris Biennale (Biennale des Antiquaires).

Osenat is holding one of its periodic sales titled L’Empire à Fontainbleau in its Fontainebleau saleroom on March 22.

The work of Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) will feature prominently in the dedicated sale of Old Master and 19th century drawings at Christie’s Paris.

The Madoura pottery founded by Suzanne and Georges Ramié in Vallauris, a village in the south of France renowned for pottery production, was a popular place for many artists in the post-war years. From 1948-55 Pablo Picasso lived in Vallauris and divided his time between painting and creating ceramics at Madoura.

On March 30 Christie’s France is offering a selection of around 70 Modern and Post-war works from an unnamed Parisian collector that have been assembled over four decades.

A painting by Pierre Soulages (b.1919) sold at Caen Enchères (20% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Normandy featured a particularly notable provenance.

As the pandemic continues to upend the art market calendar, two heavyweights of the Contemporary art and design fair scene are going digital.