In 2025, the Musee departemental des arts asiatiques, Nice, regularised the acquisition of 1,092 Japanese prints donated between 2015 and 2017 by M. Hans Herrli. It took several years of work to identify and scan this considerable ensemble, comprised of single sheets, polyptychs and albums. Covering a vast chronological period, from the second half of the 18th century to the mid-20th century, and reflecting the diversity of engraving practices, it presents various themes ranging from portraits of kabuki actors and everyday scenes to images of war and advertising posters. The collection is particularly remarkable for the light it sheds on prints in the modern periods, especially the Meiji era (1868-1912) and the shin hanga and sosaku hanga movements, bearing witness to the modern renaissance of Japanese prints. This acquisition endows the museum with a reference group for the study of Japanese prints, from the Edo period to the modern era.
The Musee de Fecamp is the first French museum to have taken part in the collaborative project Skin&Art, developed by the International Society of Icono-diagnosis (ISI). Thanks to an unprecedented cooperation between the worlds of medicine and museums, this project, devoted to dermatology, aims to identify works whose models bear visible clinical signs enabling a retrospective diagnosis to be suggested. While four of the five models featured in the works that the Musee de Fecamp submitted to the members of the ISI present minor skin disorders, such as seborrheic keratosis or naevi, one of the paintings depicts a scene that is particularly interesting for art history and medicine, given its rare, indeed hitherto unseen, illustration of a human case of furious rabies. In tandem with these icono-diagnoses, retracing the evolution of the gaze on body markings in the history of the portrait - from obliteration or concealment to identity assertion and aesthetic statement - this article furthermore paves the way for reflection on the role played by skin in the construction of the image.
In September 2024, the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Caen, acquired Guirlande de fleurs avec sainte Marie Madeleine, a work by Jan van Kessel the Elder (1626-79), a painter active in Antwerp. The study of this work and the context of its creation provide an opportunity to reconsider the career of this artist, a scion of the Brueghel family, whose practice oscillated between adopting and reviving the legacy of his forebears. Analysing his works here also enables us to touch on the fundamental themes of artistic production in Antwerp, such as artistic collaboration, but also the widespread taste of 17th-century connoisseurs for floral still lifes, in which Van Kessel distinguished himself in particular. The Caen painting also recalls religious symbolism, for which floral still lifes became a privileged support in the early 17th century, as attested by the commissions made by Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564-1631), as well as devotional practices promoted by the new religious orders after the Council of Trent.
