Founded in 2001 by Katrin Bellinger, the Tavolozza Foundation is a non-profit, charitable organisation based in Munich. Named Tavolozza, the Italian word for palette, the flat surface on which a painter arranges and mixes paints, the Foundation offers a range of support to museums, galleries and other cultural and educational institutions. This includes providing funding for exhibitions, acquisitions, scholarly publications as well as special projects such as conferences and study days.

The Foundation is particularly interested in furthering research into the theme of the artist at work and promoting it internationally through educational initiatives. Works encompassing that precise subject form the core of the Katrin Bellinger collection, which is also administered by the Foundation (see under Collection).

The Foundation offers a range of support to museums, galleries and other cultural and educational institutions. This includes providing funding for exhibitions, acquisitions, scholarly publications as well as special projects such as conferences and study days. The Foundation is particularly interested in furthering research into the theme of the artist at work and promoting it internationally through educational initiatives. For more information or to apply for support please email [email protected]

RIESENER MICROSITE, WALLACE COLLECTION

The Foundation supported the Wallace Collection in the creation of the Riesener Microsite. Launched in 2020, the microsite is dedicated to one of the eighteenth century’s most celebrated furniture-makers, Jean-Henri Riesener (1734–1806). The Wallace Collection has one of the most important holdings of Riesener furniture in the world and this site provides information about his life, his work for the royal French court and his patrons. Most importantly, it examines the furniture at the Wallace Collection, revealing insights into his working methods, the materials he used and the cabinetmaking techniques he employed.

See: www.wallacecollection.org/riesener/

The Artist's Studio Museums of Europe

The Foundation supported the initiative to create the first-ever international network of museums based on artists’ former studios or homes: www.artiststudiomuseum.org. Launched in 2016 the network, concentrating on museums in Europe, provides resources and exciting collaborative opportunities intended to inspire future exhibitions and publications. The Tavolozza continues to support the project and its continued growth, as studio museums are added regularly to the website.

William Shipley Group for RSA History

The Tavolozza supported the William Shipley Group for RSA History Symposium, held at the Royal Academy on Friday, 27 March 2015, ‘Drawing: A Pre-eminent Skill’. William Shipley (1715-1803) was a drawing master and founder of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in 1754. One of the first aims of the Society was to encourage drawing ability in young boys and girls, in the hope that good design would reinvigorate the British school of painting as well as induce the production of increasingly competitive British manufactured goods. To mark the tercentenary of Shipley’s birth in 2015 and to honour Shipley’s biographer and historian of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), Dr David G.C. Allan, the William Shipley Group for RSA History held a one-day symposium. The event considered the story of drawing schools from their inception up to the foundation of the Royal Academy, with a focus on the work of Shipley’s own school. It also explored the work of a regional academy. See the Press page for Dr Susanna Avery-Quash’s report on the symposium for the William Shipley Group newsletter.

International Colloquium on Artists' Studio Museums, Watts Gallery

The principal focus of the Tavolozza is the representation of the artist at work, particularly in the atelier with its original trappings. To this end, the Foundation supports initiatives that explore the subject such as the International Colloquium on Artists’ Studio Museums held at the Watts Gallery, the last remaining artist studio and house of the 19th century retaining its original collection, in Surrey on 15 November 2013.

The aim of the colloquium was to establish an international network of Artists’ Studio Museums. Pioneered by the Watts Gallery in collaboration with Giles Waterfield, Senior Research Fellow, the event explored opportunities for some of the most important Artists’ Studio Museums to promote international co-operation between museums devoted to the preservation of artists’ studios.  Speakers included directors and curators from a range of institutions including the Rubenshuis, Antwerp; the Henry Moore Foundation, Much Hadham; Francis Bacon’s Studio, Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane; the Max Liebermann Villa, Berlin; the Polenovo Museum, Russia; the Musée Bourdelle, Paris; and the Gallen-Kallela Museum, Helsinki.

A resounding success, the colloquium resulted in establishing a framework to launch the first ever international network of artist’s studio museums.

See www. artiststudiomuseum.org

The Tavolozza Foundation supports public art collections across the United Kingdom, Europe and North America including the following:

UK

The Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge (supported the acquisition of the Portrait of Claude-Armand Gérôme)
Art UK (website) London
Sir John Soane’s Museum London (Trustee; Supporter, ‘Adopt-a-Model’ initiative)
The National Gallery London (Trustee & The George Beaumont Circle)
The British Museum London (The Ottley Group & The Vollard Group)
Victoria and Albert Museum London
The Wallace Collection London
Leighton House London
Royal Academy of Art London
The Courtauld Gallery London
The Ashmolean Museum Oxford (The Elias Ashmole Society)
The Watts Gallery Guildford, Surrey
Yorkshire Sculpture Park West Bretton, Wakefield (Supporter Circle)
The Bowes Museum Newgate, Barnard Castle

Europe & USA

The Rembrandthuis Amsterdam
The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
The Kunsthalle Hamburg
The Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
The Bayrische Staatsgemäldesammlung Munich
The J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles (The Disegno Group)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York (Visiting Committee, Department of Drawings and Prints)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York (Visiting Committee for Paper Conservation)

The Foundation also provides funding to a variety of organisations that promote the liberal arts and education.

The Royal Drawings School London (Patron)
The Royal Opera House London (Maestro's Circle)
IntoUniversity London
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich
Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen Munich
Master Drawings Association New York
L’Association Mariette Paris
The Hazara Charitable Trust Romford
Scholarship, MA in the in Art Market and the History of Collecting, The University of Buckingham and the National Gallery in association with Waddesdon Manor Buckingham and London
Scholarship, History of Art and Film Department, University of Leicester Leicester
The University of Reading Reading
Art UK (website) London
Hospital Rooms London

Hui Luan Tran, Vor-Bildliches Sterben. Der Tod der Kleopatra als bildtheoretisches Motiv in der Frühen Neuzeit, zephir 9, Edition Imorde, 2020

Dr Marianne Koos, ‘Malerei als Augentrug. Alexander Roslins Selbstporträt mit Marie Suzanne Giroust-Roslin an der Staffelei’, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 83 (2020), pp. 506-553

Sarah Ferrari and Alessandra Pattanaro, eds., Disegnare l’antico, riproporre l’antico nel Cinquecento. Taccuini, copie e studi intorno a Girolamo da Carpi, Padova University Press, Padua, 2019

Jan Marsh, with contributions by Peter Funnell, Charlotte Gere, Pamela Gerrish Nunn, and Alison Smith, Pre-Raphaelite Sisters, exhibition catalogue, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2019

Catherine Jenkins, Nadine M. Orenstein, and Freyda Spira, The Renaissance of Etching, exhibition catalogue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2019

Kate Macfarlane (ed.), with an essay by Hannah Williams and texts by Marco Livingstone, Deanna Petherbridge, Karsten Schubert, Anita Viola Sganzerla and Colin Wiggins, Close: Drawn Portraits, exhibition catalogue, Drawing Room, London, 2018

Dr. Nino Nanobashvili, Die Ausbildung von Künstlern und Dilettanti: Das ABC des Zeichnens, Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg, 2018

Deanna Petherbridge and Anita V. Sganzerla, Artists at Work, Paul Holberton Publishing with The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2018

Dr. Thea Vignau-Wilberg, Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel: Art and Science Around 1600, Hatje Cantz, Berlin, 2017

Sonja Brink and Beat Wismer (eds.), Idea Et Inventio: Italienische Zeichnungen des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts aus der Sammlung der Kunstakademie Düsseldorf im Museum Kunstpalast, Band1, Imhof Verlag, Petersberg, 2017

Michael Plomp, Martin Sonnabend and Christoph Vogtherr (eds.), Watteau, Thoth, Uitgeverij, 2017

Building Identity: Chaim Gross and Artist’s Homes and Studios in New York City, 1953-74, The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation, New York, 2017

Lucia Tantardini, Aurelio Luini: The Complete Paintings and Drawings, Ugo Bozzi Editore, Rome (in preparation)

Yuri Primarosa, Ottavio Leoni (1587-1630), eccellente miniator di ritratti. Catalogo ragionato dell’opera grafica e pittorica, Ugo Bozzi Editore, Rome, 2017

Nicole Hegener (ed.), Nackte Gestalten: Die Wiederkehr des antiken Akts in der Renaissanceplastik/Naked Revival: The Return of the Ancient Nude in Renaissance Sculpture, proceedings of international conference, The Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 7-9 April 2016 (forthcoming, expected Autumn 2017)

Special issue of Upstate Diary dedicated to Alexander Calder, 2, 2016

Sibylle Appuhn-Radtke, Josef H. Biller, Dagmar Dietrich and Maria-Luise Hopp-Gantner (eds.), Johann Andreas Wolff (1652–1716) – Hofmaler und Kunstintendant, Munich, 2016

Kurt Zeitler (ed.), Linien – Musik des Sichtbaren: Festschrift für Michael Semff, Berlin, 2015

Notes in Honor of William W. Robinson, special issue of Master Drawings, 53, no. 4 (Winter 2015)

Adriano Aymonino and Anne Varick Lauder, Drawn from the Antique: Artists & the Classical Ideal, Libanus Press with Sir John Soane’s Museum, London and The Teylers Museum, Haarlem, 2015

Peter Märker, Carl Philipp Fohr 1795-1818. Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Munich, 2015

Kurt Zeitler, Linien – Musik des Sichtbaren: Festschrift für Michael Semff, Berlin and Munich, 2015

Florian Härb, The Drawings of Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), Rome, 2015

Gottfried Boehm, Matthias Schaller: Das Meisterstück, 2015

Stijn Alsteens, ‘The Drawings of Pieter Coecke van Aelst’, Master Drawings, 52, no. 3 (Autumn 2014)

Claudia Schnitzer, Constellation Felix: Die Planetenfeste Augusts des Starken anlässlich der Vermählung seines Sohnes Friedrich August mit der Kaisertochter Maria Josepha 1719 in Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden, 2014

Peter Schatborn and Leonore van Sloten, Old Drawings, New Names: Rembrandt and his Contemporaries, Amsterdam, 2014

Adriano Aymonino, with Lucy Gwynn and Mirco Modolo, Paper Palaces: The Topham Collection as a Source for British Neo-Classicism,  Eton College, 2013

Emmanuelle Brugerolles, Georges Brunel and Camille Debraban, The Male Nude: Eighteenth-century Drawings from the Paris Academy, London, 2013

Fritz Koreny, Hieronymus Bosch. Die Zeichnungen. Werkstatt und Nachfolge bis zum Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts, Turnhout, 2012

The Foundation sponsors many exhibitions and catalogues of Old Master drawings, paintings as well as contemporary art.