LONDON.- The breadth and scope of expertise at London Art Week Summer 2018, which runs through Friday 6 July at 40 fine art galleries in St. James’s and Mayfair, reveals master artists working in media such as drawings, watercolours, textiles, ceramics and marble.

Highlights among these shows, some of which have taken decades to collect and present, include:

Study for ‘Nude Pattern: The Holy Well’, by Sir William Orpen, R.H.A., R.A. offered by Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd. Orpen’s assured and subtly drawn large-scale study for the figure of a young peasant undressing to bathe relates to the painting of The Holy Well finished in 1916 and now in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

An important and newly-attributed inlaid marble table top circa 1565 by the master of stone inlay, Jean Ménard (French, active in Italy 1552-1582), similar to one made by the same artist for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese now at the Met in New York, is presented by Benappi Fine Art.

At the unprecedented exhibition of 100 British drawings collected by Jonny Yarker and Dr Richard Stephens over a ten-year period (and a show that offers important new scholarship on a neglected area of research), are major unpublished works by Sir Peter Lely, Godfrey Kneller, William Kent, Isaac Oliver and his son Peter Oliver (1598-1648), who drew one of the most beautiful works in the exhibition, a study of classical figures, later copied by Inigo Jones (a sheet now preserved at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire). The exhibition is staged at Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker Ltd.

From the van Roozendaal Collection of classical antiquities, a group of around 100 choice pieces acquired between 1968 and 1898, a highlight is a fine Corinthian pottery Trefoil Oinochoe painted with a frieze of animals (goats, panthers, a lion and a bull) dating to circa 630-620BC, and bearing traders’ marks, at Oliver Forge & Brendan Lynch Ltd.

A spectacular tapestry fragment from a set believed to have been displayed at the marriage of Charles the Bold (1433–1477) and Margaret of York (1446–1503) in 1468 is just one highlight at the exhibition mounted by Sam Fogg: Late-Medieval and Renaissance Textiles, which showcases some 40 examples of European textiles from the period 1400-1600, with a focus on embroideries such as opus anglicanum, Renaissance velvets, tapestries, and luxury Ottoman textiles created for the European market.

Two cartoons by François Boucher (1703-1770), chalk drawings depicting Aurora and Cephalus, and Neptune Rescuing Amymone, in original bespoke mounts, are among 60 works by artists such as Fragonard, Gericault, Ingres, Renoir, Tissot and Watteau at Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, whose exhibition focuses on French Drawings of the 18th and 19th centuries, may previously unpublished.

A striking Urbino (Italy) tin-glazed earthenware istoriato dish decorated by a painter close to the ‘Milan Marsyas’ circa 1530, depicting Aeneas And Achates Taking Their Leave From The Other Trojans On The Libyan Coast Near Carthage is one of a fascinating display of 16th century Italian maiolica and later ceramics with decoration derived from printed and other sources, curated by Raccanello Leprince. (The exhibition echoes Sharing Images: Renaissance Prints Into Maiolica and Bronze, currently (to 5 Aug 2018) at the National Gallery in Washington DC, which highlights the impact of Renaissance prints on maiolica and bronze plaquettes, the two media most dramatically influenced by the new technology of image replication.)

By Frederic Millet (1786-1859), a Self-portrait circa 1817 in watercolour, echoes a similar self-portrait of the artist (slightly larger) at the Musée du Louvre. One of the two drawings was presented at the Salon in 1817 under the title ‘Portrait de l’auteur’, and now makes one of the master drawings highlights at Didier Aaron.

London Art Week illustrates the extraordinary range and quality of art dating from antiquity to the 20th century available on the market and strongly underlines the unrivalled connoisseurship and expertise to be found in the city’s galleries. London Art Week provides a platform for leading international art dealers to present exciting selling exhibitions, engaging events and art talks, at private galleries in Mayfair and St. James’s. The exhibitions coincide with the Old Master paintings and drawings sales at the major auction houses, and attract countless collectors, connoisseurs and museum curators to the capital.