Upper Norwood, Londres by Jacob Pissaro

I am definitely not a hardcore fair-visitor. Maybe I have seen to much lazy fairs in the past. Yet, lately I tried it once again. I visited the TEFAF, The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht. I had no idea what to expect,  but the numbers certainly helped to arouse my attention. From its modest beginning as The Pictura Fine Art Fair in 1975 it evolved to its current position as the world’s leading fine art fair. It shows a selection of genuine masterpieces from 239 of the world’s most prestigious international dealers.

I have to say, I really had a great time. One discovery was the artist Michallon. This is one of Michallons paintings. And on screen it's not close to the original. Just beautiful.

Landscape Near Cava (formerly Described As Being Auvergne)

The painting is made with oil on paper (35 x 48.5 cm). The painting here was produced during the summer of 1814, when Michallon traveled to Auvergne with the L’Espine family. During a stop in Vichy the family met the Duchess of Angoulême, recently returned from exile. Michallon executed a series of small paintings of her in the company of the L’Espine family, though the series whereabouts today is unknown.

Another interesting issue concerns the painting of the famous artist Frans Hals. On the fair only Mark was exhibited, but Hals also depicted the three evangelists. On the image below you see that behind the man, a vague figure is visible. The same is true for the other three paintings. Mark is accompanied by a lion, John has an eagle, Luke a bull and Matthew a human child. These equal the characteristics of the heavenly creatures in Revelation 4:7 and Ezekiel 10:14. The description of the painting didn't even mention the animal in the background, so it remains a mystery why Hals connected these characteristics to the four writers.

The evangelist Mark by Hals

More about the fair can be found on the official website:

The Tefaf Art Fair