The divine Raphael has arrived at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and spring is in the air. The advent of La Primavera is accompanied by a hive of activity across the museum world, including the opening of the British Museum’s much-anticipated exhibition on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Netherlandish drawings on 16 April, the National Gallery of Ireland’s exhibition on William Blake, which opens the same day, and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart’s exhibition on drawing at the Royal Academy in Paris around 1700, opening on 17 April. Coinciding with the Raphael exhibition, the Met will also present a second show, Gothic by Design: The Dawn of Architectural Draftsmanship, which offers a fitting counterpoint to the British Museum’s display. In academic circles, April is equally active, with significant symposia taking place in Geneva, focusing on 15th and 16th century French drawings, and in New York, centred on Raphael. By contrast, the drawings market draws its breath after a long month which included the major fairs of TEFAF Maastricht and the Salon du Dessin. Many thanks to all who joined us in Paris for an evening of conviviality and community, and to our kind collaborators for the event, Bella Maniera.
Keen-eyed readers will have noticed that we have launched a revitalised website in recent days. The update includes an ‘Archive’ of all back-issues and features from the newsletter and magazine, a ‘Drawings Hub’ dedicated to Trois Crayons’ programming, a ‘What’s On’ section for the global drawings calendar, a ‘Submission Form’ for readers’ news and forthcoming events, and a ‘Merchandise’ area – on which more below.
The new range of Trois Crayons merchandise includes T-shirts, caps and tote bags and draws inspiration from Charles-Moïse Briquet's Les Filigranes, a compendium of 16,112 watermarks spanning the Middle Ages to the early modern period, an essential reference for the study of paper. Watermarks – translucent impressions left in sheets of paper by the wire papermaking moulds used in production – take a variety of formats and styles, from fantastical creatures to coats of arms and geometric motifs, and serve as tools for identifying a sheet’s origin, maker, and approximate date. Each item in the collection is embossed with a watermark selected from Briquet as much for its visual appeal as for its symbolic resonance, bringing the material history of drawing into the everyday. The sun in splendour (13934, Paris, 1401) radiates light and has associations with the divine; the flower (6362, Verona, 1328/34), and pot à une anse with a flower (12592, Naples, 1436) have myriad symbolic interpretations, but we favour growth; and the pair of scissors (3731, Genoa, 1512) are the honest tools of the craftsman. Pre-order is available now.
Turning to this month’s magazine, we have news headlines, gallery listings, announcements, events and an overview of recent institutional acquisitions. For our Drawing of the Month, Jane Simpkiss, curator of Bruegel to Rembrandt: Drawing Life, Sketching Wonder shares a personal highlight from the exhibition at Compton Verney. For this month’s Demystifying Drawings interview, Olenka Horbatsch and Charlotte Wytema reflect on their 5-year research project and forthcoming exhibition on early Netherlandish drawings at the British Museum, and in the Review section, Emma Holter visits Drawn to Venice at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. After the month’s exhibition listings and the Real or Fake quiz, the issue concludes with a trio of audio, video and literary recommendations.
For next month’s edition, please direct any recommendations, news stories, feedback or event listings to tom@troiscrayons.art.
IN GALLERY, ART FAIR AND AUCTION NEWS
Until 2 April: 'Pose': Artists and Models at Philip Mould & Company (London).
Until 4 April: Léonard Sarluis – Singulier Symboliste presented by Caroline Thieffry – Artwins & Mathieu Néouze at Galerie Ambroise Duchemin (Paris).
Until 9 April: François Edouard Bertin 1797-1871. Le “Poussin Voyager” - Dessins at Galerie Christian Le Serbon (Paris).
10–12 April: IFPDA Print Fair at Park Avenue Armory (New York)
11 April – 6 June: Giuseppe Varotti - Paintings, Drawings, and Oils on Paper at Galleria de’ Fusari (Bologna).
16 April – 23 June: Drawing Biennial 2026 at The Drawing Room (London).
Until 25 April: Édouard Vuillard: Early Interiors at Skarstedt (New York).
Until 29 May: Tableaux & Dessins du XVIe au XXe Siècle at Galerie Alexis Bordes (Paris).
Hans Baldung Grien (1484–1545), Portrait of Susanna Pfeffinger, 1517. Courtesy: Hôtel Drouot, Paris
IN LECTURE AND EVENT NEWS
8–10 April–Conference: For Art History 2026 Annual Conference at University of Cambridge (Cambridge). 08:30. £115–£430.
17–18 April–Conference: Peindre en France: trente ans de recherche sur le dessin des XV°-XVIe siècles at the Musée d'art et d'histoire (Geneva). Free entry.
18 April–Symposium: Raphael Up Close: Perspectives on Research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York). 10:30. Free with museum admission. Advance registration required.
18 April–Talk: The Drawings of Edward Burne-Jones: Form and Function Lecture at Birmingham and Midland Institute (Birmingham). 11:30. Organised by the Pre-Raphaelite Society. £11 (general public); £9 (members).
24 April–Talk: Michaelina Wautier at The Royal Academy of Art (London). Speaker: Julien Domercq. 11:00. £15.
25 April–Study Event: Seurat’s Seascapes: Dr Karen Serres and Dr Anne Puetz in Conversation at the Courtauld, Vernon Square (London). Speakers: Dr Karen Serres, Dr Anne Puetz. 10:30. £65 (in-person); £10 (online).
29 April–Lecture: French Ornament in the Nineteenth Century; A lecture duet by Ralph Ghoche and Estelle Thibault at Bard Graduate Center Gallery (New York). Speakers: Ralph Ghoche, Estelle Thibault. 18:00. Organised by The Drawing Foundation. $15 (general public); free for members.
IN LITERARY, MUSEUM AND ACADEMIC NEWS
Call for Papers: La taille et le trait. Dialogues entre dessin et estampe (XVe-XVIIIe siècle)at Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Application deadline: 3 April. Conference dates: 18–19 November.
Conference Announcement:Location, Location, Location: Artistic Procedures, Knowledge, and Place in Early Modern Netherlandish Art, the Center for Netherlandish Art Annual Colloquium 2026 at MFA Boston. Conference date: 15 May. In-person and online.
Call for Applications: Handmade Blue Paper Workshop. The Blue Paper Research Consortiuminvites applications for their summer workshop in traditional blue paper making methods at the Moulin de Verger, Puymoyen, France. Cost: €1300. Six full-tuition grants are also made possible thanks to the Tavolozza Foundation. To apply, please send a CV and motivation letter to: Leila Sauvage (leila.sauvage@gmail.com) and Edina Adam (eadam@getty.edu) with the subject line “Blue Paper Workshop Grant Application”. Workshop dates: 3–7 August.
Prize: Prix JRC. Organised by Bella Maniera. Prize: €4000. For the support of a research project on French or Italian drawings, from the 15th to the 19th century. Application deadline: 11 May.
New Publication: Gothic by Design: The Dawn of Architectural Draftsmanship by Femke Speelberg. Published 14 April by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, distributed by Yale University Press. £30.
New Publication: Early Netherlandish drawings, 1400–1600 by Olenka Horbatsch and Charlotte Wytema. Published by British Museum Press. £40.
New Publication: Félix Vallotton illustrateur: Catalogue raisonné by Katia Poletti, Sarah Burkhalter and Nadine Franci. Freely accessible on the Fondation Felix Valotton website.
Job Opportunity: Restorer at the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin. Application deadline: 7 April.
Anna Waser (1678–1714), Half length portrait of a Young Black Man, 1704. Photo: National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund and Courtesy of Raccard 6, 2025.52.1
IN ACQUISITION NEWS
Hans Baldung Grien (1484–1545), Portrait of Susanna Pfeffinger. The drawing has been declared a national treasure by the French Ministry of Culture and its scheduled sale at the auctioneers Beaussant Lefèvre & Associés in Paris has been postponed. A temporary export ban of 30-months will allow the sellers to seek a domestic buyer.
Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), Putto ailé, préparatoire pour la voûte du Palais Farnèse à Rome. Acquired by the Fondation Custodia, Paris, from Christie’s, Paris (sale: 25 March 2026).
Studio of Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Study for the Mystic Marriage of St Catherine. Acquired by the Museum de Reede, Antwerp, from Galerie Lowet de Wotrenge, Antwerp.
Jean-Michel Moreau, le Jeune (1741–1814), Le Festin Royal ; et Le Bal masqué. Pre-empted by the Musée national du Château de Versailles, Versailles, from the Veil-Picard sale at Christie’s, Paris (sale: 25 March 2026).
Jean-Michel Moreau, le Jeune (1741–1814), L'Arrivée de la reine à l'Hôtel de Ville ; et Le Feu d'artifice. Pre-empted by the Musée national du Château de Versailles, Versailles, from the Veil-Picard sale at Christie’s, Paris (sale: 25 March 2026).
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, has announced its recent acquisitions honouring the institution’s centennial in a supplement to the March issue of The Burlington Magazine. The article features several drawings, including:
Parmigianino (1503–1540), Study of the dead Christ, for a Pietà. Promised gift of Roberta J.M. Olson and Alexander B.V. Johnson in honor of the Morgan’s centennial.
Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617), Callisto’s pregnancy revealed to Diana. Promised gift of Clement C. and Elizabeth Y. Moore.
Rembrandt (1606–1669), Study for Judas returning the thirty pieces of silver. Promised gift of Elizabeth and Jean-Marie Eveillard.
Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694–1752), Self-portrait as an abbé. Promised gift of Colin B. Bailey and Alan P. Wintermute in honor of the Morgan’s centennial.
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, has published its recent acquisitions. The announcement features several drawings, including:
Teresa del Pò (1649–1716), Penitent Magdalene, 1675.
Anna Waser (1678–1714), Half-Length Portrait of a Young Black Man, 1704.
Carl Frederick von Saltza (1858–1905), Portrait Study of Pierre Louis Alexandre, c. 1890.
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, has added several recent acquisitions and gifts to its online collection catalogue, including:
Anonymous c. 1560 – c. 1600, Design for the back of a breastplate, with helmeted female figures with palm branches and shields. Gift from Jaap and Marianne Kraaijenhagen-Jaski on the occasion of Reinier Baarsen's retirement.
Attributed to Johannes Nutges (1717–1777), Image of an interior. Donation by Mr. W. Vroom.
Studio of Luigi Valadier (1726–1785), Design for an Andiron. Donation from Marc Broch and Geert Post, Gouda.
Dutch School c. 1730, Design for a Buffet Cupboard. Donation from Christina van Marle.
TEFAF has published a press release, following the conclusion of the Maastricht edition of the fair, which notes several institutional acquisitions. More to follow as additional details are announced.
TROIS CRAYONS RECOMMENDS
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Jacques de Gheyn II (1565–1629)
Four studies of a nude woman combing her hair, 1602–1603
Black chalk, pen and iron gall ink, partly over a first sketch in black chalk, heightened with white chalk on beige-grey coarse-grained paper, 259/263 × 330/335 mm (irregular edges), Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Inv. 4060/1346
Jacques de Gheyn II (1565–1629), Four studies of a nude woman combing her hair, 1602–1603, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, inv. no.: 4060/1346
Jane Simpkiss, curator at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, has chosen our drawing of the month.
Time seems to fall away when I look at Jacques de Gheyn II’s (1565–1629) studies of a nude woman combing her hair. It is currently on display in Compton Verney’s latest exhibition Bruegel to Rembrandt: Drawing Life, Sketching Wonder, one of over 65 drawings on loan from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, most of which are in the UK for the first time ever. Whilst these drawings offer visitors a glimpse into the creativity of artists working in the 16th- and 17th-century Netherlands, De Gheyn’s sheet has a universal and timeless quality. Many of us can relate to the intense focus needed when detangling or braiding our hair – this could easily be a woman from today, who has just hopped out of the shower.
Of course, the subject of De Gheyn’s study is not a woman he has stumbled upon during a quiet moment of self-care, but most likely a model who has been staged to allow him to practice sketching from life. Having imbibed the importance of direct observation from his master Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617), De Gheyn moved away from his earlier decorative, mannerist style and began depicting more realistic figures. The woman here does not appear obviously posed but instead exudes a warmth and simplicity that seems relatable, and her limbs are not elongated or overly muscled and shaped. The model sits naked except for a sheet draped over her lap - the studies are intimate but not eroticised and whilst the artist captures his subject’s quiet focus, he is not a voyeur.
De Gheyn was the first artist in the Northern Netherlands to produce studies of naturalistic nudes, of which this is one, working in this vein from the 1600s onwards. It seems highly probable that the drawings on furthest left and furthest right of this sheet were drawn from life, whilst the two innermost drawings are copies after them respectively, something suggested by the spacing of the drawings on the page.
De Gheyn likely drew the sketch on the furthest left first, then the bust copy, followed by the sketch to the furthest right, finally squeezing in the drawing second from the right. The cross hatching, particularly on the belly and legs, highlights De Gheyn’s familiarity and skill with the techniques of engraving, where cross hatching was often used. De Gheyn experiments with rendering the model’s curves with different materials, starting with softer strokes of black chalk (with white for highlights) and then considering how to evoke the same volume, for both flesh and fabric, with pen and ink, in one instance combining the two in one sketch.
To date, we do not know of any paintings or engravings that these drawings relate to and, therefore, the drawing may have been made for its own sake, as a study or exercise. De Gheyn made several nude studies, some of which undoubtedly represent the same model seen here. This realistic and detailed representation of a domestic scene links back to the art of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) and Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1527–1569) as well as prefiguring the naturalism of Rembrandt (1606–1669). Within the exhibition, we have been able to draw an interesting connection between De Gheyn’s work and later depictions by Rembrandt’s followers, including Ferdinand Bol (1616–1680), who were also captivated by intimate scenes of women – one looks in the mirror whilst adjusting an earring, the other stretches amongst a tangle of sheets in bed.
One of the recurring threads running through Bruegel to Rembrandt is the tension that exists between the real and the imagined and how draughtsmen in this period combined their experiences and sketches of the real world with their wide-ranging imagination. De Gheyn’s drawing here feels like the perfect combination of hand, mind and eye. Looking at the drawing, we can easily suspend our disbelief and imagine that rather than a study after an artificial set-up, we are, in fact, catching a rare snapshot of life over 400 years ago, which is testament to the continuity of human nature and experience.
Bruegel to Rembrandt: Drawing Life, Sketching Wonder is open at Compton Verney until 28 June.
The Seventeenth-Century Italian Drawings of the Musée Condé
Ulysse Jardat, curator at the Musée Condé
in conversation with the Editor, Tom Nevile
Bernardino Barbatelli, called Il Poccetti (1548–1612), The Seven Founders of the Servite Order Retiring to the Villa Camarzio, Private collection
From 7 March, for the first time in the Musée Condé’s history, the museum’s collection of Seicento (seventeenth century) Italian drawings will be exhibited to the public. Alongside loans from institutional and private collections, the museums’ lesser seen drawings are set to receive their moment in the sun.
Ulysse Jardat joins the editor to discuss the history of the collection, the goals of the exhibition and the drawing he’d most like to take home with him.
Jusepe de Ribera, called Spagnoletto (1591–1652), A Martyrdom Scene © GrandPalaisRMN-Domaine de Chantilly - Sylvie Chan-Liat
Could you outline the scale and scope of the Musée Condé’s holdings of Seicento Italian drawings and explain how they came to enter the museum’s collection?
The Musée Condé’s collection of seventeenth-century Italian drawings remains relatively limited when compared to the extraordinary richness of its Italian painting collection, where the Baroque period holds a prominent place, with artists such as Guercino, Domenichino, Guido Reni, Salvator Rosa, and Mattia Preti. This contrast is, in fact, one of the paradoxes of the collections assembled by Henri d’Orléans, Duke of Aumale: while the painting gallery offers a particularly dense panorama of the Seicento, the graphic arts strongly favour the Renaissance.
This imbalance is largely explained by the origin of the collection. Most of the Italian drawings come from the collection acquired in 1861 from Frédéric Reiset (collector and later Louvre curator, a discerning eye!), whose tastes were strongly oriented toward the masters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Reiset primarily sought sheets attributed to the great names of the Renaissance, which were relatively abundant on the market at the time.
The Seicento was thus represented by a limited group—originally about ten identified drawings—supplemented over time, through reattributions and occasional acquisitions by the Duke of Aumale, by other sheets now recognized as belonging to the seventeenth century. This history explains the very selective nature of the corpus: each drawing appears as an isolated piece, yet often of high quality, reflecting a logic of choice rather than a systematic plan.
The exhibition therefore proposes, for the first time, to consider this collection in its historical and stylistic coherence, placing it within a broader network thanks to loans that restore the artistic contexts to which these works belong.
What curatorial story does the exhibition seek to tell? Around which narrative, thematic, or didactic threads has the display been structured?
The exhibition unfolds over five ground-floor rooms of increasing scale, structured according to a chrono-thematic principle that allows visitors to follow the transformations of Italian drawing from the late Mannerism to the affirmation of the Baroque.
Rather than a strictly monographic overview, the layout highlights several artistic centres and stylistic currents: the naturalistic revolution initiated by the Carracci, the tensions between classicism and expressiveness in central Italy, Rome’s role as a centre of exchange and diffusion, and the artistic circulations between Naples and the Iberian Peninsula.
The comparisons made possible by the loans help to reconstruct dispersed groups, clarify stylistic or technical contexts, and shed light on influence networks. The exhibition thus adopts both a didactic and a sensitive approach: it invites visitors to explore the shifting cartography of seventeenth-century Italian art, a century marked by artists’ travels, school rivalries, and a diversity of graphic languages, from Barocci, Moncalvo, and Guercino to Poccetti and Stefano della Bella.
Federico Barocci (1535–1612), Study for The Perugia Deposition © GrandPalaisRMN-Domaine de Chantilly - René-Gabriel Ojeda
The show includes over fifty drawings, typically with one representative work per artist, chosen from the museum’s collection and from private collections. How did you arrive at your selection, and how do these loans serve to enhance the collection’s holdings?
The selection was built according to a deliberately focused principle, drawing on the Musée Condé’s core holdings and the specific characteristics of each work—artist, technique, and, above all, period of activity. It allows for the presentation of precise stylistic moments, such as Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione after his stays in Rome, or Bernardino Poccetti between Pistoia and Florence during the last ten years of his activity.
The loans place the Musée Condé’s drawings within particularly active networks of exchange in seventeenth-century Florence and Rome, notably in landscape painting and major decorative projects.
Several works concretely illustrate these circulations. The frieze project held at the Fondation Custodia, attributed to Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, sheds light on collaborations between landscape painters and quadraturists (illusionistic ceiling painters) in the palace decorations of Rome. It directly dialogues with marine and ship studies preserved at Chantilly, particularly those by Filippo Napoletano, revealing the circulation of common motifs between Rome and Tuscany in the early decades of the Seicento.
These comparisons allow us to reconstruct not only workshop practices but also collaborative logics that often escape a strictly monographic reading. Loans thus play a decisive role: they do not merely fill material gaps in the collection but renew its interpretation.
Compared with other areas of the collection – such as the paintings of the Renaissance or the Ancien Régime – Seicento drawings have received relatively little attention at Chantilly. Did the research process yield any surprises, or lead to discoveries that are being presented to the public for the first time?
Yes, the systematic re-examination of the corpus led to several significant reattributions and reclassifications, revealing the true scope of the seventeenth-century holdings, long underestimated. Several sheets previously attributed to other schools or more famous masters have been returned to Seicento artists, notably a sensitive study by Alessandro Tiarini (once thought by Reiset to be by Correggio or Schedoni) and a rare landscape by Dughet, formerly attributed to the Carracci school.
These new attributions, often based on precise stylistic comparisons and material study of the sheets, now allow a better understanding of the chronological coherence of the collection. Several drawings are thus presented in a renewed reading, often for the first time to the public, such as works by Baglione, Ribera, or Domenichino. The same applies to most loans from the Louvre or private collections, with works by the Carracci, Baglione or Arpino which had never before been publicly exhibited.
Agostino Carracci (1557–1602), Three Studies of Women in Draperies © GrandPalaisRMN-Domaine de Chantilly - Sylvie Chan-Liat
A recent conservation campaign uncovered historic mounts, inscriptions, and watermarks that helped refine both provenance and attribution. What were the most significant discoveries to emerge from this process?
The conservation campaign revealed for instance preparatory stylus lines or corrections that were difficult to discern on works never before cleaned, making the stages of the graphic elaboration more directly visible. It also uncovered marks from major European collections, such as those of Count John Spencer, revealing the circulation of baroque Italian drawings and prints early in the eighteenth century.
Moreover, the identification of watermarks allowed for more precise dating and a better understanding of production contexts. For example, one of the most monumental sheets in the collection—a head of Christ previously attributed to the circle of Sebastiano del Piombo—was reattributed to Giuseppe Cesari, called Cavaliere d'Arpino. The watermark dates from after 1550, a chronological discrepancy that was decisive in rejecting an early sixteenth-century attribution and placing the sheet in the context of early seventeenth-century Rome.
More broadly, the study of old mounts helped reconstruct certain historical groupings made by collectors, providing valuable insight into the reception of Italian drawings in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: for instance, the Barocci sheet revealed an interesting light green English mount from the eighteenth century.
If you had to choose one drawing from the exhibition to take home with you, what would it be and why?
I would choose the preparatory drawing by Bernardino Poccetti for a fresco cycle in Pistoia, which I had the chance to identify in a private collection.
Beyond the personal connection of its rediscovery, this sheet seems particularly emblematic of the exhibition’s project: it occupies a pivotal moment between the late decorative culture of Florentine Mannerism and the new narrative demands of early Seicento. It displays both the linear precision inherited from the sixteenth century and a more direct attention to the rhythm of figures and the visual effectiveness characteristic of large wall cycles.
It is also a drawing that reminds us how these works, often created for now-transformed or fragmentary sites, can be among the most vivid witnesses of vanished or, in this case, even forgotten decorations. In return, it helped reattribute the Chantilly drawing, also preparatory for Poccetti’s Pistoia cycle, rather than the better-known, later Florence cycle.
Seicento in Carta. 17th-Century Italy, in the Musée Condé’s Graphic Collections is open at the Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly, from 7 March 2026 – 14 June 2026.
Drawn to Venice
24 January 2026 – 2 August 2026
Legion of Honor, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco
Reviewed by Emma P. Holter, PhD candidate
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727–1804), Punchinello's Children Begging for Sweets. Photograph by Randy Dodson, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
On view at the Legion of Honor from 24 January through 2 August, “Drawn to Venice” showcases early modern Venetian draughtsmanship with examples selected from the permanent collection of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). Curated by Furio Rinaldi, the exhibition brings into focus over thirty drawings and prints dating from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries.
Divided into four sections and spread across a single white-cube gallery, the exhibition is organised into a chronological presentation. It presents many of the protagonists of the Venetian canon, strategically supplemented with loans from local public and private collections in the Bay area—especially in the Renaissance section. Notably, this included a black chalk study on blue paper of A Fallen Warrior Holding a Sword and Shield attributed to Titian, and loaned from the collection of Rosemary Baker. Displayed nearby is a double-sided drawing by Jacopo Tintoretto featuring studies after Michelangelo’s sculptureof Samson and the Philistines and an antique bust of Vitellius, loaned from the Cantor Art Center at Stanford University.
A thread running through the exhibition labels emphasises the oft-repeated qualities that distinguish Venetian draughtsmanship from other artistic centres on the Italian peninsula, particularly a preoccupation with capturing the effects of light and colour. Likewise, autonomous drawings are showcased throughout the display. The title wall of the exhibition brings together an impressive array of four large-scale drawings from Domenico Tiepolo’s Divertimento per li ragazzi (Entertainment for Children), a series that chronicles the misadventures of Punchinello, a character from the Neapolitan commedia dell’arte. Tiepolo conceived of these drawings as finished works of art, signing his name in the lower margin of Punchinello’s Children Begging for Sweets, which is numbered as 17 in the series of 104 drawings.
Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757), Portrait of a Lady as Diana. Photograph by Randy Dodson, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Independent portrait drawings emerge as a recurring theme across each section of the display. Some marvellous examples included a pastel Portrait of a Lady as Diana by Rosalba Carriera (the most famous and successful Venetian portraitist of the eighteenth century), a trois crayons portrait of a gentleman by Carlo Caliari, and two sheets by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta of A Boy Playing a Guitar and Bust of a Girl Holding an Apple. Drawings on blue paper, a support quite typical of Venetian draughtsmanship, were also featured; the most striking were two exquisite red chalk studies of male heads by Giambattista Tiepolo.
Carlo Caliari (1570–1596), Bearded Man Wearing a Ruff. Photograph by Randy Dodson, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Rounding out the survey of Venetian preparatory practices, the display included a grisaille oil sketch on canvas for Giovanni Battista Pittoni’s Descent from the Cross (ca. 1753), lent by the Legion of Honor’s Department of Paintings. While Venetian painting is often associated with rich colour, this monochromatic bozzetto for a monumental altarpiece also acknowledged the long-standing practice of painting in a limited palette of black, grey, and white.
The permanent collection rotation coincides with the loan exhibition “Monet in Venice,” which opened on 26 March and is co-organised by the FAMSF with the Brooklyn Museum in New York. “Drawn to Venice” gives local audiences an opportunity to appreciate the region’s rich holdings of Venetian drawings by some of the most notable artists active in the lagoon across three centuries. From the vedute drawing by Guardi to the prints after designs by Canaletto, these works act as evocative precedents for Claude Monet’s luminous Venetian seascapes on view in the adjacent galleries of the museum.
Drawn to Venice continues at Legion of Honor until 2 August.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1527/39–1569), Prudence, 1559, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, inv. no.: 4060 / 490 / photo: J. Geleyns – Art Photography.
One of these drawings is by a pupil and close follower of Rembrandt, produced in 1646, while the other is a copy by an eighteenth century French artist, Charles Coypel. Which drawing is the model and which is the copy? For a bonus point, can you name the Rembrandt pupil?
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The original is the right image.Right Image: attributed to Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–1678), Sitting Male Nude, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, inv. no.: FL 251
Left Image: Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694–1752) after Samuel Van Hoogstraten (1627–1678), Étude d’homme assis, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, inv. no.: 10995
The right drawing, which is presumed to be Rembrandt’s pupil van Hoogstraten, belongs to a group of stylistically comparable figure studies from the artist’s student days. The drawing can be dated to around 1646 as the model and his position are drawn from a print rendered by Rembrandt earlier that year.
Over half a century later, the drawing entered the collection of one of Charles-Antoine Coypel’s patrons, the Marquis de Paulmy, and arrived in Paris, where it was copied by Coypel. Coypel’s copy is an example of how collecting tastes have affected training and the history of art, and testifies to the influence of Dutch painters of the seventeenth century on the French painters of the eighteenth.
To celebrate the opening of the Royal Academy’s exhibition on Michaelina Wautier, Katy Hessel joins Katlijne Van der Stighelen, whose decades-long research into Michaelina has led to what some critics have labelled the “greatest artistic discovery of the 21st century”. The interview explores Michaelina’s life, reputation and rediscovery, and is followed by a tour of the Royal Academy’s exhibition with senior curator Julien Domercq.
Jacopo Tintoretto (1518/19–1594) changed the face of Venetian painting. His loose, fast and furious brushwork was compared to a thunderbolt. Combining the rich colours of Titian with the dramatic muscularity of Michelangelo’s human figures, Tintoretto covered the walls of his native city with pictures that astounded his contemporaries; one critic declared him “the most extraordinary brain that the art of painting has ever produced.” This documentary narrated by Stanley Tucci includes original footage of Tintoretto’s works in the churches and palaces of Venice and interviews with curators and scholars.
Carole Blumenfeld interviews George Goldner, one of the most influential names in the recent history of premodern drawings, for La Gazette Drouot. Goldner, Curator of Drawings and Paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum from 1982 to 1993 and then chairman of the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum from 1993 to 2015, is currently an art advisor to Leon Black and president of the Art for Animals Foundation.
