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Very Rich Hours in Chantilly

It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: the chance to see one of the greatest -- and most fragile -- works of European art before your very eyes. The illustrated manuscript known as the  Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry contains images that have shaped our view of the late Middle Ages, but it's normally kept under lock and key at the Château de Chantilly, north of Paris. It's only been exhibited twice in the past century. Now newly restored, the glowing pages of  Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry are on show to the public for just a few months. "Approche, approche," the Duke of Berry's usher tells the visitors to the great man's table for the feast that will mark the start of the New Year. It's also your invitation to examine closely the illustration for January, one of the 12 months from the calendar in this Book of Hours -- a collection of prayers and other religious texts -- that form the centrepiece of this exhibition in Chantilly.  It's su...
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Opening in December

A month ago, we published a preview of November's new exhibitions, only to find within a few hours that the new coronavirus lockdown in England had rendered half of it irrelevant. Still, with the reintroduction of a tier system and the builders in at Buckingham Palace, there's a lot more certainty about December's openings....

The Picture Gallery at the Palace is home to a truly stunning collection of Old Master paintings, but it's a location the public really only gets the chance to tour when the royal residence is open in the summer (and we've noticed on our visits to Buck House that many a tourist just sees the fabulous art on the walls as part of the opulent decor). With the palace's wiring and water pipes now being updated, there's the opportunity to appreciate 65 of those paintings in the purpose-built Queen's Gallery next door. Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace features Vermeer, Rembrandt, Titian, Canaletto and van Dyck, among others. Even if the pandemic drags on, with further lockdowns, you've got plenty of time to see this one. It starts on December 4 and runs for 14 months, right through to January 31, 2022. 
The National Gallery is offering a Christmas-themed immersive digital experience in Room 1, with a chance to really get inside the 16th-century Netherlandish artist Jan Gossaert's The Adoration of the Kings. Sensing the Unseen will use narration from one of the characters depicted in the painting, King Balthasar, to lead the viewer into the details of one of the gallery's most popular seasonal pictures. From December 9 to February 28, and it's free of charge!

Let's recap on the shows in England that were due to start in November but will now be getting under way on December 2 or shortly after, as the lockdown ends: 

At the Royal Academy, there's Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul, from December 7 until February 28, while Tate Britain features the paintings of contemporary British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Fly in League with the Night runs until May 9. Dulwich Picture Gallery's Unearthed: Photography's Roots, which shows the history of photography through depictions of plants and botany, starts on December 8 and is also on till May 9. Art & Action: Making Change in Victorian Britain, at the Watts Gallery in Compton, Surrey, will run until March 21. 

Just one exhibition in continental Europe to signal this month: A chance at the Kunsthaus in Zurich to rediscover another woman artist who was once famous but then lapsed into obscurity. Ottilie W. Roederstein (1859-1937) was a Swiss contemporary of Giacometti and Hodler, but 80 years after her death, the first solo show of her work, with some 60 exhibits, will take place from December 18 to April 5. Roederstein settled in Frankfurt in her 30s with her partner, Germany's first female surgeon, so it's fitting that that you can see this artistic pioneer at the city's Städel Museum from May 19.

Last chance to see....

Any readers in the New York area have until January 2 to get to the Museum of Modern Art to find out all about Félix Fénéon, anarchist, art critic and collector, and promoter of Neo-Impressionism, in an exhibition full of surprises and delights. We saw it at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris in 2019. 

With coronavirus restrictions still very much in flux, do check museum websites for up-to-date information. And Merry Christmas!

Images

Johannes Vermeer, A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman (The Music Lesson), early 1660s, Royal Collection Trust. © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Ottilie W. Roederstein, Self-Portrait with Hat, 1904, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. Photo © Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Paul Signac, Setting Sun. Sardine Fishing. Adagio. Opus 221 from the series The Sea, The Boats, Concarneau, 1891, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
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