Les Enluminures Expands to New York Gallery
PARIS January 2012 - Sandra Hindman, Ph. D. Owner and President of LES ENLUMINURES, specialists in Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts, Miniatures and Art, has announced that she will expand to New York by opening a new gallery in the penthouse of a townhouse at 23 East 73 Street in May.
“For twenty years we have operated from our main gallery at the Louvre des Antiquaires opposite the Louvre in Paris, and from our offices in Chicago. Now I feel our growing business will benefit from a more regular presence in New York, which attracts the most important museums and private collectors and where so many exhibitions, fairs, and auctions occur.”
“We know from the people we sell to now that they appreciate the opportunity not just to see our latest acquisitions but also to have the face to face contact with me and my staff. With an additional gallery in New York we can stage three or four important shows in New York each year in addition to the ones we already mount in our Paris gallery and at the most important international fairs.”
Les Enluminures is a featured exhibitor at many prestigious art and antique fairs including the Winter Antiques Show in New York each January, TEFAF Maastricht each March, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, the Salon du Dessin in Paris, Masterpiece London, and the Biennale Firenze in the fall.
The opening show at Les Enluminures new gallery in New York will be titled “12 Books of Hours for 2012” and will feature important Books of Hours from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
Hindman says, “This exhibition gives us an opportunity to display some of our most important Books of Hours which were “best sellers” during a 300-year period when more Books of Hours were made than any other type of book, even the Bible. From c. 1250, when the first Books of Hours began to appear, to 1571, when during the Counter-Reformation Pope Pius V prohibited the use of all existing Books of Hours, nearly every European family of a certain means owned at least one Book of Hours.”
“Textually interesting, aesthetically beautiful, Books of Hours survive as rich storybooks from the Middle Ages. Unlike the Bible, whose text was carefully regulated and whose picture cycle was relatively uniform, each Book of Hours is wholly unique. Every Book of Hours reveals a whole world through its stories.”
Dr. Sandra Hindman is Professor Emerita at Northwestern University, where she twice headed the Art History Department. A specialist in Gothic and Northern Renaissance Art, it was her years spent studying Medieval manuscripts that sparked her interest in acquiring key pieces, which led to her opening her Paris gallery.
She says, “When I worked as an expert for other dealers and handled these manuscripts on a daily basis, I gradually came to realize how coupling my academic knowledge with the purchase and sale of medieval art could lead to a shift in my career. I feel being a dealer and an academic, for me anyway, are two parts of the same thing, my left arm and my right arm, so to speak. I still write, publish, and teach, at the same time that I help museums and private collectors find important works for their collections.”
As a result, Les Enluminures is known for its ability to use its expert research capabilities to discover new facts about important Manuscripts and Miniatures. Most recently that resulted in a six figure sale to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art of a Book of Hours composed late in the reign of Francis I, a manuscript that is now considered to be the only extant Book of Hours with contemporary illumination made for and with a portrait of King Francis I.
American museums and libraries that buy from Les Enluminures include The Metropolitan Museum, The Morgan Library, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard University Library, Newberry Library, Huntington Library, Princeton University Library, and Columbia University, among many. Overseas Les Enluminures has sold important works to the Musee de Louvre, The British Museum, the Victoria and Albert, the Musee National du Moyen Age (Musee Cluny), Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the British Library, Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, Musee National de la Renaissance, and the Museum of the Abegg-Stiftung Foundation in Switzerland, as well as many regional libraries and museums in the US and abroad.
Les Enluminures New York gallery is located in an elegant townhouse at 23 East 73 Street just off Madison Avenue. The seventh floor penthouse space was previously occupied by Trinity Fine Art. It comprises three rooms and about 1200 square feet. Hindman is familiar with the building, having staged several important shows at C.G. Boerner gallery (one on Pen to Press in January 2010 and one on France 1500 in January 2011). C.G. Boerner also has its gallery in the townhouse.
“We are delighted to have found an ideal space to showcase important Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and Illuminations.”
The Les Enluminures web site --- www.lesenluminures.com --- includes video “tours” of the space, where Hindman provides background and history on the collections and special exhibitions. The site offers a dynamic “turn the page” feature to assist with viewing manuscripts, and four separate sections of areas of specialty to make visits by customers more convenient.
Les Enluminures also produces comprehensive catalogues on subjects related to its collections, most recently for its twentieth anniversary year. Its “20/20 Les Enluminures 1991-2011” catalogue featured twenty important sales of its first two decades and twenty items now on offer. Another 2011 publication, “Before the King James Bible” was timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first King James Bible. Dr. Hindman has authored more than ten books in her field and numerous articles on the history of illuminated manuscripts and early printed books.
Hindman is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, the Syndicat national de la Librariie Ancienne et Moderne, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, and the Syndicat des Antiquaires. She is also a long-standing member of many professional organizations; including the College Art Association of America, the Medieval Academy of America, the Historians of Netherlandish Art, and the International Center for Medieval Art.
Hindman adds, “Opening a gallery in New York is an important step in our gallery’s development. New York is an exciting city for art lovers on many levels, not the least of which is the buzz that attends the many important art exhibitions and shows there. We are delighted that Les Enluminures will now have a greater presence in New York and look forward to seeing many of our clients, and to meeting new ones too.”
LES ENLUMINURES in New York
23 East 73rd Street
7th floor
New York NY 10021
By appointment or 10am - 6pm during exhibitions
LES ENLUMINURES
Les Louvre des Antiquaires,
2 Place du Palais-Royal, 75001 Paris (France)
Tel: +33 1 42 60 15 58
info@lesenluminures.com www.lesenluminures.com
“For twenty years we have operated from our main gallery at the Louvre des Antiquaires opposite the Louvre in Paris, and from our offices in Chicago. Now I feel our growing business will benefit from a more regular presence in New York, which attracts the most important museums and private collectors and where so many exhibitions, fairs, and auctions occur.”
“We know from the people we sell to now that they appreciate the opportunity not just to see our latest acquisitions but also to have the face to face contact with me and my staff. With an additional gallery in New York we can stage three or four important shows in New York each year in addition to the ones we already mount in our Paris gallery and at the most important international fairs.”
Les Enluminures is a featured exhibitor at many prestigious art and antique fairs including the Winter Antiques Show in New York each January, TEFAF Maastricht each March, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, the Salon du Dessin in Paris, Masterpiece London, and the Biennale Firenze in the fall.
The opening show at Les Enluminures new gallery in New York will be titled “12 Books of Hours for 2012” and will feature important Books of Hours from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.
Hindman says, “This exhibition gives us an opportunity to display some of our most important Books of Hours which were “best sellers” during a 300-year period when more Books of Hours were made than any other type of book, even the Bible. From c. 1250, when the first Books of Hours began to appear, to 1571, when during the Counter-Reformation Pope Pius V prohibited the use of all existing Books of Hours, nearly every European family of a certain means owned at least one Book of Hours.”
“Textually interesting, aesthetically beautiful, Books of Hours survive as rich storybooks from the Middle Ages. Unlike the Bible, whose text was carefully regulated and whose picture cycle was relatively uniform, each Book of Hours is wholly unique. Every Book of Hours reveals a whole world through its stories.”
Dr. Sandra Hindman is Professor Emerita at Northwestern University, where she twice headed the Art History Department. A specialist in Gothic and Northern Renaissance Art, it was her years spent studying Medieval manuscripts that sparked her interest in acquiring key pieces, which led to her opening her Paris gallery.
She says, “When I worked as an expert for other dealers and handled these manuscripts on a daily basis, I gradually came to realize how coupling my academic knowledge with the purchase and sale of medieval art could lead to a shift in my career. I feel being a dealer and an academic, for me anyway, are two parts of the same thing, my left arm and my right arm, so to speak. I still write, publish, and teach, at the same time that I help museums and private collectors find important works for their collections.”
As a result, Les Enluminures is known for its ability to use its expert research capabilities to discover new facts about important Manuscripts and Miniatures. Most recently that resulted in a six figure sale to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art of a Book of Hours composed late in the reign of Francis I, a manuscript that is now considered to be the only extant Book of Hours with contemporary illumination made for and with a portrait of King Francis I.
American museums and libraries that buy from Les Enluminures include The Metropolitan Museum, The Morgan Library, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Harvard University Library, Newberry Library, Huntington Library, Princeton University Library, and Columbia University, among many. Overseas Les Enluminures has sold important works to the Musee de Louvre, The British Museum, the Victoria and Albert, the Musee National du Moyen Age (Musee Cluny), Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the British Library, Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, Musee National de la Renaissance, and the Museum of the Abegg-Stiftung Foundation in Switzerland, as well as many regional libraries and museums in the US and abroad.
Les Enluminures New York gallery is located in an elegant townhouse at 23 East 73 Street just off Madison Avenue. The seventh floor penthouse space was previously occupied by Trinity Fine Art. It comprises three rooms and about 1200 square feet. Hindman is familiar with the building, having staged several important shows at C.G. Boerner gallery (one on Pen to Press in January 2010 and one on France 1500 in January 2011). C.G. Boerner also has its gallery in the townhouse.
“We are delighted to have found an ideal space to showcase important Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and Illuminations.”
The Les Enluminures web site --- www.lesenluminures.com --- includes video “tours” of the space, where Hindman provides background and history on the collections and special exhibitions. The site offers a dynamic “turn the page” feature to assist with viewing manuscripts, and four separate sections of areas of specialty to make visits by customers more convenient.
Les Enluminures also produces comprehensive catalogues on subjects related to its collections, most recently for its twentieth anniversary year. Its “20/20 Les Enluminures 1991-2011” catalogue featured twenty important sales of its first two decades and twenty items now on offer. Another 2011 publication, “Before the King James Bible” was timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first King James Bible. Dr. Hindman has authored more than ten books in her field and numerous articles on the history of illuminated manuscripts and early printed books.
Hindman is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, the Syndicat national de la Librariie Ancienne et Moderne, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, and the Syndicat des Antiquaires. She is also a long-standing member of many professional organizations; including the College Art Association of America, the Medieval Academy of America, the Historians of Netherlandish Art, and the International Center for Medieval Art.
Hindman adds, “Opening a gallery in New York is an important step in our gallery’s development. New York is an exciting city for art lovers on many levels, not the least of which is the buzz that attends the many important art exhibitions and shows there. We are delighted that Les Enluminures will now have a greater presence in New York and look forward to seeing many of our clients, and to meeting new ones too.”
LES ENLUMINURES in New York
23 East 73rd Street
7th floor
New York NY 10021
By appointment or 10am - 6pm during exhibitions
LES ENLUMINURES
Les Louvre des Antiquaires,
2 Place du Palais-Royal, 75001 Paris (France)
Tel: +33 1 42 60 15 58
info@lesenluminures.com www.lesenluminures.com
