Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 8, 2008|Volume 36, Number 17

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino, created this drawing, titled "Caricature of a Man Wearing a Large Hat," circa 1630-1640. It is one of the drawings on view in the new exhibit.

Drawings by European ‘masters’
are featured in gallery exhibit

The Yale University Art Gallery will showcase important works from its collection of European drawings in a new exhibition opening on Tuesday, Feb. 12.

Titled “Master Drawings from the Yale University Art Gallery,” the exhibition features 87 works — many of them never before seen by the general public — that illuminate European draftmanship from the 15th to the 19th century. It will be on view through June 8.

It is the first time in over three decades that the Yale Art Gallery has shined a spotlight on this particular collection; the last time was in 1970 when Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann and Anne-Marie S. Logan published a complete catalogue of the gallery’s collection of European drawings made before 1900.

Almost 40% of the drawings on view in this exhibition have been acquired since 1970, and 18 were acquired in just the past seven years. They include works from across Europe, particularly France, Italy and the Netherlands. The show features works by Giulio Romano, Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), Claude Lorrain, Jacob Jordaens, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and Edgar Degas, as well as many lesser-known artists.

“The gallery’s collection of European drawings offers an intimate view across a broad range of artistic ideas and working methods,” says Jock Reynolds, the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale Art Gallery. “A collection-based exhibition such as this one is exciting to assemble, for it propels new research and scholarship, which in turn prompts a teaching museum such as ours to further strengthen its holdings. We are delighted to be able to share these works, seldom viewed beyond our very active print room, with the public at large.”

“Master Drawings” presents examples of nearly every artistic movement and drawing technique used by European artists from the Renaissance up to the beginning of the modern era. These include not only finished sheets, but also drawings from various stages of the creative process as well as those created for a wide variety of purposes — such as studies for paintings, and works used in the preparation of prints, stained glass, tapestries and embroideries.

A fully illustrated catalogue co-published by the gallery and Yale University Press will accompany “Master Drawings from the Yale University Art Gallery.” The 296-page book presents new scholarship, including the re-attribution of works in the collection, and features over 100 large-scale color illustrations.

The exhibition and the publication were organized by Suzanne Boorsch, the Robert L. Solley Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, and John Marciari, the Nina and Lee Griggs Associate Curator of Early European Art, both of the Yale University Art Gallery. The exhibit is supported by the Florence B. Selden Fund and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, with additional support provided by Mr. and Mrs. Bruce B. Dayton, B.A. 1940, and Dr. and Mrs. Edmund P. Pillsbury, B.A. 1965. The exhibition has traveled to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, and university museums in Austin, Texas and Chicago.

Several special events have been scheduled in conjunction with “Master Drawings from the Yale University Art Gallery.” These include the Ryerson Lecture, titled “Discovering and Acquiring Old Master Drawings: An Autobiographical Account,” by Sir Timothy Clifford, former director general of the National Galleries of Scotland, at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28; and gallery talks at 12:20 p.m. on Feb. 13 and at 4 p.m. on April 8, 15 and 22. These events are free and open to the public. For details, see the Calendar of Events in this paper or online at http://events.yale.edu/opa.

In addition, Marciari will lead a Master Class on the exhibition on Thursdays, Feb. 14 and 21 and March 6 at 5:30 p.m.; to register, call (203) 432-9525. Boorsch will give a special talk for gallery members, titled “Collecting with Special Exhibitions in Mind: ‘Master Drawings and Colorful Impressions,’” at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 3; to register for that talk, call (203) 432–9658.

The Yale University Art Gallery, located at 1111 Chapel St., is open to the public free of charge 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday (until 8 p.m. on Thursday through June) and 1-6 p.m. on Sunday. The gallery is closed Mondays and major holidays. For more information, or to explore its collections online, visit http://artgallery.yale.edu.

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