Rembrandt to Picasso: Five Centuries of European Works on Paper

Brooklyn Museum
June 21 – October 13, 2019

Showcasing the breadth of the Brooklyn Museum’s exceptional works on paper collection, Rembrandt to Picasso: Five Centuries of European Works on Paper highlights more than one hundred European prints and drawings, pairing masterworks by renowned artists such as William Blake, Albrecht Dürer, Francisco Goya, and Vincent van Gogh with lesser known, rarely seen drawings, prints, and watercolors. Works on view feature intimate portraits, biting social satire, fantastical visions, vivid landscapes, and more, and are organized into four broad chronological sections spanning the early sixteenth through the early twentieth centuries.

Rembrandt to Picasso: Five Centuries of European Works on Paper is curated by Lisa Small, Senior Curator, European Art, Brooklyn Museum, and is on view from June 21 through October 13, 2019. “There is an intimacy and immediacy to works on paper that seems to bring us nearest to an artist’s vision and process,” explains Lisa Small. “I’m thrilled for our audiences to have close - looking encounters with these highlights from Brooklyn’s extens ive collection of European works on paper, which are rarely exhibited because of light - sensitivity. These prints and drawings are examples of extraordinary technical achievement and vivid artistic experimentation, but they also offer an opportunity to expl ore compelling and provocative themes that continue to resonate today.”

The exhibition begins by exploring the rise of paper and print culture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With paper’s increased availability and the advent of printed images — first through woodcuts and engravings, then etchings — it became possible to create multiple images that could be widely circulated and consumed. This gave rise to an expanded market for works on paper and expressive possibilities for artists like Albrecht Dürer, whose technical skill and dramatic manipulation of the medium elevated printmaking to an independent art form.

A series of works by Dürer, including a large - scale, eight - part woodcut print, are on view in this section, alongside works by Rembrandt v an Rijn and Wenceslaus Hollar.

The second section highlights the work of artists who were active during the Enlightenment, an era that embraced intellectual and social reforms over tradition and superstition. Artists in the eighteenth century used print making to offer commentary on the world around them. Two prints by British artist William Hogarth are on view in this section: Gin Lane and Beer Street , both from 1751. Hogarth’s widely distributed satirical engravings memorialized the grim realities of Lon don’s urban poor, and became part of the impetus for reform efforts.

At the turn of the century, artists like Francisco Goya and William Blake began to question Enlightenment ideas of reason and rationalism and instead embraced the subjectivity and emotion of Romanticism, the first major artistic movement of the modern age. 

A number of highlights from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection are included here, including

 

Blake’s The Great Red Dragon and the WomanClothed with the Sun (1803 – 5), a group of etchings from one of Francisco Goya’s most acclaimed series, Los Caprichos (The Caprices) (1797 – 98),

 

Philipp Otto Runge (German, 1777-1810). Morning (Der Morgen), 1803-1805. Etching on wove paper, Sheet: 28 1/4 x 19 in. (71.8 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 38.623.

 Philipp Otto Runge (German, 1777-1810). Day (Der Tag), 1803-1805. Black ink etching on moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper, Sheet: 28 3/8 x 18 15/16 in. (72.1 x 48.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 38.6

and two etchings from Philipp Otto Runge’s rare cycle Times of Day (1803 – 5), which expressed the harmony of the universe through symbolism and allegory.

The exhibition’s final two sections explore the ways in which technical innovations and modern aesthetic movements shaped artists’ work. The late eighteenth century saw the invention of lithography, which allowed artists like Eugène Delacroix, Honoré Daumier, and Théodore Géricault to immediately capture their own drawings in a range of tones and textures.

Later, a revival of the more painterly, stylistic use of etchings encouraged artists such as Camille Corot, Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, and Edgar Degas to use the medium, as well as graphite, watercolor, and pastel, as a vehicle for compositional and technical experimentation.

Delicate works in color appear in this section, including Édouard Manet’s The Equestrienne (L'Amazone) (1875 – 76) and Woman Drying Her Hair (Femme s'essuyant les cheveux) (1889), by Edgar Degas.

Works on view by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cézanne from the late nineteenth century demonstrate a shift from naturalism to a more gestural, expressive aesthetic.

By the early and mid - twentieth century, and shaped by the trauma of a world war, artists like Vasily Kandinsky, Erich Heckel, and Käthe Kollwitz fully embraced this new style of Expressionism and exhibit a more graphic vocabulary of angular, distorted forms to commun cate meaning.

A number of geometric abstract lithographs by El Lissitzky from the series Victory Over the Sun (1923) demonstrate the period’s tensions between pure abstraction and representation. European artists were also influenced by encounters with the artistic style and peoples of Africa and the South Pacific.

Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian Woman (1894) and Emil Nolde’s South Sea (1915) are on view, along with Karl Schmidt - Rottluff’s woodcut of a kneeling woman and Pablo Picasso’s Nude Standing in Profile (1906), an early example of how ancient Iberian art influenced his work.




Vasily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944). Small Worlds VII, 1922. Color lithograph on wove paper, 10 5/8 x 9 3/16 in. (27 x 23.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Stephen Currier, 58.108.11. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

 Pablo Picasso, (Spanish, 1881–1973). Minotauromachy (La Minotauromachie), 1935. Etching, scraper, and burin on laid paper, Sheet: 19 1/2 x 27 ¼ in. (49.5 x 69.2 cm), Image: 27 x 19 5/8 in. (68.6 x 49.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund, Frederick Loeser Fund, and Museum Collection Fund, 59.30. © 2019 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.    Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973). Head of a Young Man (Tête de jeune homme), 1923. Grease crayon on pink Michallet laid paper, 24 ½ x 18 ⅝ in. (62.2 x 47.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Carll H. de Silver Fund, 39.18. © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York    Pablo Picasso, (Spanish, 1881–1973). Nude Standing in Profile (Nu debout en profil), 1906. Charcoal on laid paper, 21 1/8 x 14 1/4 in. (53.7 x 36.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Arthur Wiesenberger, 43.178. © 2019 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York  Max Beckmann (German, 1884–1950). Self-Portrait in Bowler Hat, 1921. Drypoint on laid paper, 12 1/2 x 9 7/16 in. (31.8 x 24 cm).      Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867–1947). The Little Laundry Girl, 1895–96. Color lithograph on wove paper, 11 7/16 x 7 7/8 in. (29.1 x 20 cm). Brooklyn Museum, by exchange, 38.444. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 
Georges Braque (French, 1882–1963). Fox, 1911. Etching and drypoint on Arches laid paper, Image: 21 1/2 x 14 7/8 in. (54.6 x 37.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund, 36.59. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Otto Dix (German, 1891–1969). Card Players, 1920. Drypoint on wove paper, 12 7/8 × 11 1/8 in. (32.7 × 28.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. F. H. Hirschland, 55.165.66. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst,

 James Ensor (Belgian, 1860–1949). Salon des Cent, 1898. Color lithograph on wove paper, Image: 22 1/4 × 14 1/2 in. (56.5 × 36.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, by exchange, 38.432.

Vasily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944). Small Worlds VII, 1922. Color lithograph on wove paper, 10 5/8 x 9 3/16 in. (27 x 23.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Stephen Currier, 58.108.11. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867–1945). The Volunteers, 1922–23. Woodcut on wove paper, Image: 13 3/4 x 19 9/16 in. (34.9 x 49.7 cm), Sheet: 19 × 25 3/4 in. (48.3 × 65.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Carll H.de Silver Fund, 44.201.2. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS),New York

 Edvard Munch (Norwegian, 1863–1944). Eva Mudocci, 1903.
Lithograph on wove paper, 23 5/16 × 18 3/8 in. (59.3 × 46.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Stewart Smith Memorial Fund, 38.253.
© 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
 
Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940). The Avenue, 1899. Color lithograph on laid paper, 12 3/8 × 16 3/8 in. (31.4 × 41.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, by exchange, 37.149.3. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954). The Odalisque, 1924. Lithograph on loose China paper, 14 3/8 x 10 3/8 in. (36.5 x 26.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 25.123. © 2019 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). Rembrandt with Plumed Cap and Lowered Sabre, 1634. Etching on laid paper, 5 1/4 x 4 1/4 in. (13.3 x 10.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Charles Pratt, 57.188.48
    .
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669). Clump of Trees with a Vista, 1652. Drypoint on laid paper, 5 x 8 3/8 in. (12.7 x 21.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Horace O. Havemeyer, 54.35.11
 
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890). Cypresses, June 1889. Reed pen, graphite, quill, and brown and black ink on wove Latune et Cie Balcons paper, 24 3/8 x 18 5/8 in. (61.9 x 47.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 38.123
 
Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883). The Equestrienne (L’amazone), circa 1875–76. Watercolor and graphite on tan wove paper, 8 3/16 x 10 5/8 in. (20.8 x 27 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Frank L. Babbott, 23.45 
Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916). Anemones and Tulips, 1902–3. Pastel on tan paper, 21 9/16 x 18 1/4 in. (54.8 x 46.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Horace O. Havemeyer, 42.198.   
Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867–1945). The Widow I, 1922–23. Woodcut on wove paper, 18 3/4 × 14 9/16 in. (47.6 × 37 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Carll l H. de Silver Fund, 44.201.4. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Cleared for press; must be 

Hieronymuss Bosch's music written on the butt of one of the characters

 

In the Hieronymuss Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights" painting (1480-1490 circa) there is some music written on the butt of one of the characters in hell.
But how sounds this 15th Century melody?
Here is how is the 600-years-old butt music from hell sounds:
 

Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman,

The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State will open its major special exhibition of the fall season, Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, on August 24. Featuring nearly eighty objects, including sculptures, paintings, works on paper, and archival materials, this exhibition is the first to reassess Harlem Renaissance artist Augusta Savage’s contributions to art and cultural history in light of her role as an artist-activist.
“We are honored to present this major exhibition of the American sculptor Augusta Savage at the Palmer this fall,” said the museum’s director, Erin M. Coe. “We are dedicated to shedding new light on underrepresented artists, and this examination of Savage’s career and achievements is both timely and relevant given the current focus on social activism and the concept of the artist-activist,” she added.
A gifted sculptor, Savage (1892–1962) was born in Green Cove Springs, Florida, and later became a significant teacher, leader, and catalyst for change. Overcoming poverty, racism, and sexual discrimination, she became one of this country’s most influential artists of the twentieth century. She played an instrumental role in mentoring many celebrated African American artists, including William Artis, Romare Bearden, Selma Burke, Robert Blackburn, Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence, and Norman Lewis, whose works are also included in the exhibition.
A prodigious and highly acclaimed artist in her own right, Savage’s art elevated images of Black culture into mainstream America. A central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, she worked with other leaders, writers, musicians, and artists to showcase the contributions of African American culture and was the first Black woman to open her own gallery. As a community organizer and teacher, she provided a bridge between Harlem Renaissance artists and subsequent generations of creative individuals.
Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman is curated by Jeffreen M. Hayes, Ph.D., and organized by the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Sotheby’s Prize. The presentation of the exhibition at the Palmer Museum of Art is supported by the Paul Robeson Cultural Center and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
A fully illustrated companion catalogue reexamines Savage’s place in the history of American sculpture and positions her as a leading figure who broke down the barriers she and her students encountered while seeking to participate fully in the art world.
The exhibition is on view at the Palmer Museum of Art through December 8.

Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman

Morgan Library & Museum, New York

October 4, 2019 through February 2, 2020

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591–1666), known as Guercino, was arguably the most interesting and diverse draftsman of the Italian Baroque era, a natural virtuoso who created brilliant drawings in a broad range of media. Supreme examples of virtually every genre of drawing produced in seventeenth-­century Italy survive from his hand: academic nudes, genre scenes and caricatures, energetic and fluid pen sketches for figures and compositions, highly refined chalk drawings, designs for engravings, and landscapes of many types.The Morgan holds more than thirty-­five drawings by Guercino but has never before mounted an exhibition focused on the artist or shown so many of the drawings together.

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino (1591–1666),

Vision of St. Philip Neri

Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman highlights the richness of the Morgan’s collection, and with the addition of a few loans offers an overview of Guercino’s brilliance as a draftsman across a career that spanned half a century.


Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino
(Italian, 1591–1666)
The Triumph of Galatea, 1620s
Pen and brown ink, brown wash, squared in black chalk
Private collection


Catalogue 

• By John Marciari

  October 2019
  Paperback, 210 x 210 mm
  80 pages, 60 colour illustrations
  ISBN: 978-1-911300-69-4
  
  
  

  Accompanying an exhibition of drawings by Guercino from the collection of the Morgan Library & Museum, Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman offers an overview of the artist’s graphic work, ranging from his early genre studies and caricatures, to the dense and dynamic preparatory studies for his paintings, and on to highly finished chalk drawings and landscapes that were ends in themselves.

  
  

  Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino (1591-1666), was arguably the most interesting and diverse draftsman of the Italian Baroque era, a natural virtuoso who created brilliant drawings in a broad range of media. The Morgan owns more than twenty-five works by the artist, and these are the subject of a focused exhibition, supplemented by a handful of loans from public and private New York collections, to be held at the Morgan in the autumn of 2019. 

  
  

  This volume accompanies that exhibition. It includes an introductory essay on Guercino’s work as a draftsman followed by entries on the Guercino drawings in the Morgan’s collection. These include sheets from all moments of the artist’s career. His early awareness of the work of the Carracci in Bologna is documented by figures drawn from everyday life as well as brilliant caricatures; two drawings for Guercino’s own drawing manual are further testament to his interest in questions of academic practice. Following his career, a range of preparatory drawings includes studies made in connection with his earliest altarpieces as well as his mature masterpieces, including multiple studies for several projects, allowing the visitor to see Guercino’s mind at work as he reconsidered his ideas. The Morgan’s holdings also include studies for engravings as well as highly finished landscape and figure drawings that were independent works. 

  
  

William McGregor Paxton and Elizabeth Okie Paxton: An Artistic Partnership

 

 

 

The Butler Institute of American Art,
Youngstown, OH

August 18 – November 10, 2019

 

William McGregor Paxton, Sylvia, Oil on canvas, 49 x 39 1/2 inches.

Opening August 18, an exhibition examines the relationship between these two talented individuals, William McGregor Paxton and Elizabeth Okie Paxton, who were an important part of the Boston School of painters at the turn of the twentieth century. Together their careers spanned almost five decades, and they were married for over forty years. During that time, the Paxtons experienced many changes, both personal and artistic, which affected their careers and which this exhibition aims to document.



William McGregor Paxton, The Breakfast, 1911. Oil on canvas. Private collection

Elizabeth Okie Paxton (1878–1972) is best remembered as a still life painter. She first met William Paxton while still a teen-aged student at the Cowles Art School in Boston. For the next ten years she served as his chief model and muse, letting her own career take a back seat to his. Later she returned to painting, concentrating on intimate still life compositions featuring familiar and readily available objects that she created in her home studio. After her husband’s death in 1941, she once again gave up her own art to focus on promoting his art and legacy. Her work, although included in some previous exhibitions of women painters, has never before been the subject of individual study.

The other half of this marital and artistic partnership was William McGregor Paxton (1869– 1941). Like many of his contemporaries in the Boston School, Paxton had studied abroad and, inspired by the work of seventeenth century Dutch painters, particularly Jan Vermeer, concentrated on creating images of young women in domestic interiors. In his later years, Paxton, skeptical of the modernism that emerged after World War I, became an advocate for the atelier method of artistic study, which he had experienced in Paris with his mentor Jean-Léon Gérôme.

William McGregor Paxton and Elizabeth Okie Paxton: An Artistic Partnership is the first look at the work of William Paxton in nearly four decades, and is the first comprehensive study of Elizabeth Paxton and her career. Through a representative selection of each artist’s paintings, the exhibition examines the Paxtons’ art, their marriage, and their ever-evolving partnership.

This exhibition was organized by Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee.

Exhibition catalog

Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
September 15, 2019, through January 12, 2020

The National Gallery of Art is pleased to present Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence, the first-ever monographic exhibition in the United States on Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435–1488), the innovative artist, painter, sculptor, and teacher whose pupils included Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, and likely Sandro Botticelli as well. The exhibition examines the wealth and breadth of Verrocchio's extraordinary artistry by bringing together some 50 of his masterpieces in painting, sculpture, and drawing that allow viewers to appreciate how his work in each art form stimulated creativity in the others. Groundbreaking technical research explores Verrocchio's materials and techniques, offering revelations about his artistic choices. Several carefully argued new attributions in different media are proposed in the exhibition.

The sole American venue, Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence will be on view at the National Gallery of Art from September 15, 2019, through January 12, 2020.

Andrea del Verrocchio, Putto with a Dolphin, c. 1465/1480, bronze Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

As a sculptor, Verrocchio was the most important figure in Renaissance art between Donatello and Michelangelo, making works of unprecedented technical accomplishment and breathtaking naturalism and beauty. As a painter, he formed a direct link in the central chain of Florentine painting between his master, Fra Filippo Lippi, and his own pupil, Leonardo da Vinci. As a draftsman, he was a pivotal figure who explored new media techniques and functions of drawing and profoundly influenced Leonardo, Raphael, and others. As a teacher, he headed a studio that became a kind of laboratory for experimentation and innovation and helped lead to the creation of the High Renaissance in the early 16th century. It is no accident that of the founders of the High Renaissance—Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael—one was the pupil of Verrocchio and the other two were trained by pupils of Verrocchio.

"A 'Renaissance man' in every way, Andrea del Verrocchio was a pioneering, versatile artist whose talents stood out for their brilliance," said Kaywin Feldman, director, National Gallery of Art. "We are grateful to the institutions and private collectors, as well as to the Bank of America and to the Buffy and William Cafritz Family Fund, without whom this exhibition would not be possible."
"Verrocchio was a visionary," said Andrew Butterfield, the exhibition curator and an internationally recognized expert on the artist. "He had a restless imagination and a relentless drive to experiment and improve on what he or anyone else had done before. But he was also like the maestro of an orchestra who could bring together many talents and draw forth the best from them. This was one of his secrets as a teacher."

Exhibition Organization
The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art in collaboration with the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, where a different version of the show was on view from March 9–July 14, 2019.

.Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435–1488)
Verrocchio had the good fortune to be born when the Medici family was rising to dominance in the cultural life of Florence, sparking a massive boom in the patronage of painting, sculpture, and architecture that completely transformed the city. Trained initially as a goldsmith, Verrocchio as a young man also learned to paint and sculpt, probably working with such luminaries as Fra Filippo Lippi, Desiderio da Settignano, and Lorenzo Ghiberti and his workshop. By the time he was about 30 years old, Verrocchio had emerged as a master of the first rank and the Medici began to entrust him to make the most important bronze sculptures in the city: first, around 1465,

 

a statue of David with the Head of Goliath, made as a kind of complement to or rival of

 

Donatello's earlier bronze of the same subject; and then in 1467 awarding Verrocchio the most prestigious sculpture commission of late-15th century Florence, the bronze group of  



Christ and Saint Thomas  for an outdoor niche on Orsanmichele, the church and grain reserve at the center of Florence. Taking 16 years to complete, the sculpture, upon its unveiling in 1483, was declared to be "the most beautiful work there is."

In these years he also began making other celebrated masterpieces, among them the tomb of Giovanni and Piero de' Medici (c. 1469–1473), the Cardinal Niccolò Forteguerri Monument (begun 1476), and the famous

 

Equestrian Monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice (begun c. 1479).

Painting was less his principal focus, and yet he was active and innovative in this field as well. His best-known work is his  

 

Baptism of Christ (c. 1472–1474, Gallerie degli Uffizi) made with Leonardo da Vinci, who was still his student and assistant at the time, likely in the early 1470s. Verrocchio generally took a collaborative approach to painting, employing younger masters to execute his pictures from his designs before coming in at the end to put the finishing touches on the works. Among the artists known or believed to have spent time in this capacity are Leonardo, Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, and others. A collaborative approach to painting in a master's workshop was not new in Renaissance Italy, although Verrocchio seems to have organized this painting production more thoroughly than any other painter before. Verrocchio was highly regarded in his lifetime as a painter, working for the Medici and other discerning patrons, and he was praised by contemporaries as the "spring" from which other painters drank "whatever they have that is good."

His contributions to the history of drawing are especially clear. Trained as both a goldsmith and painter, he united the drawing techniques of the two practices and made something new. His pen and ink drawings have an unprecedented vivacity and freedom, so much so that both Leonardo and Raphael were deeply influenced by them. His black-chalk and charcoal drawings have a new subtlety in the depiction of light and form; they are perhaps the first images in Italian art that unambiguously display sfumato—a kind of smoky effect in shading, which helps to amplify the apparent three-dimensionality of the forms. Sfumato was to become a fundamental component of Leonardo's painting and drawing.

Exhibition Highlights

Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence is the first comprehensive exhibition to present his sculptures, paintings, and drawings together as a group. Driven by a passion for inquiry and innovation, Verrocchio shows the cross-fertilization he embodied through the combination of ideas and practices from the variety of media in which he worked. Among these important groupings of works on view together in the exhibition for the first time are three images of ideal beauty created in different media—

 

Lady with Flowers (c. 1475) in marble,



and the black-chalk drawing, Head of a Woman with Braided Hair (c. 1475/1478), alongside the Gallery's

Ginevra de' Benci (1474/1478) by Leonardo.

The exhibition brings together Verrocchio's sculptures in a variety of material, including bronze, marble, painted and unpainted terracotta, terra cruda (unbaked clay), plaster, gilded silver, and agate. This presentation allows viewers to see the range not only of Verrocchio's materials but also of his artistic practice, from initial, quick compositional sketches to exquisite completed works.



Among the sculptural masterpieces on view is the celebrated statue David with the Head of Goliath (c. 1465, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence). With its elegant design, tensely graceful movement, and absorbing facial expressions, it may be Verrocchio's earliest statue in bronze and probably was made for Piero de' Medici, the father of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

A core group of Verrocchio's paintings is on view in the same room for the first time in the exhibition, except for the  
 

Madonna di Piazza (1475/1485, Pistoia Cathedral, San Zeno) and the



Baptism of Christ (c. 1468–1475, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence), providing a rare opportunity to see and understand his mastery as never before.

Several of the paintings on view have not traveled to the United States prior to this exhibition, including  



Madonna and Child with Two Angels (c. 1470/1474)

 

 and Tobias and the Angel (c. 1470)—both from the National Gallery, London—which show Verrocchio's collaboration with Leonardo and other assistants in his workshop.

Verrocchio's highly personal technique and style of execution in his drawing exemplify the relationship between sculpture and painting and depict his original and experimental combinations of different media. Several preparatory drawings for his sculptures and paintings are on view in the exhibition, including studies of nudes, animals, drapery, and funerary monuments, as well as one of his earliest surviving drawings—Study of the Madonna Adoring the Child (c. 1470).

Technical Study of Verrocchio's Masterpieces
Technical research for the exhibition was realized by Gallery conservators Dylan Smith, Robert H. Smith Research Conservator in the department of object conservation, and Elizabeth Walmsley, senior painting conservator, and Gallery scientist John K. Delaney, senior imaging scientist in the scientific research department. They were assisted by a distinguished team of conservators and scientists from various international institutions. Modern methods of analysis allowed the investigations of Verrocchio’s works to take place in advance and at their respective institutions, providing a wealth of new observations that inform and enrich the exhibition and accompanying catalog.

The Gallery's research includes the first comprehensive survey of Verrocchio's bronze sculpture, combining careful visual examination, alloy analysis with portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and x-radiography. In addition to the major bronzes presented in the exhibition, such as David with the Head of Goliath and his Candelabrum (1468–1469), the study considers works that could not be present. Investigation of Verrocchio's Tomb of Cosimo de' Medici (by 1467) and Tomb of Giovanni and Piero de' Medici (c. 1470–1473) in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence offers new insights into these remarkable multimedia monuments. A new interpretation of the casting technique of Verrocchio's Christ and Saint Thomas from Orsanmichele is also given. Considered together, these new observations offer a clearer understanding of the innovative methods Verrocchio used to design and execute his bronzes, as well as new insights into their chronology, including the proposal of an earlier date for Putto with a Dolphin (c. 1465/1480).

For the exhibition, a select group of Verrocchio's paintings was intensively examined. Noninvasive chemical imaging techniques and point analysis (x-ray fluorescence and multi- and hyperspectral reflectance spectroscopies) were used to confirm Verrocchio's palette and better understand the paint handling and techniques. Two distinct interpretations of the Madonna and Child (c. 1465/1470; c. 1470/1472) from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin were considered, as well as Tobias and the Angel (c. 1470) from the National Gallery, London—all of which are on view in the exhibition. In addition, the Gallery's advanced high-resolution infrared spectral imaging cameras were used to study Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci's Baptism of Christ in the collection of the Gallerie degli Uffizi. The spectral images obtained reveal differences among the figures regarding the paint buildup and use of materials that further our understanding about the working methods of artists in Verrocchio's workshop.

Exhibition Curators

The exhibition is curated by Andrew Butterfield, an internationally recognized historian whose monograph The Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio (Yale University Press 1997) won the prestigious Mitchell prize. Collaborators include Gretchen A. Hirschauer, associate curator of Italian and Spanish painting, and Alison Luchs, curator of early European sculpture—both from the National Gallery of Art, Washington; and Lorenza Melli, curator of the Corpus of Italian Drawings 1300–1500/Rome-Munich-Florence, based at the Kunsthistorisches Institut/Max-Planck Institut, Florence. The exhibition was conceived by the late Eleonora Luciano (1963–2017), associate curator of sculpture and decorative arts, National Gallery of Art, and is dedicated to her memory.

Industry, Work, Society, and Travails in the Depression Era: American Paintings and Photographs from the Shogren-Meyer Collection

Hillstrom Museum of Art, St. Peter, Minnesota

September 9 through November 10. 

Tweed Museum of Art - University of Minnesota Duluth

January, 2021

The Hillstrom Museum of Art presents Industry, Work, Society, and Travails in the Depression Era: American Paintings and Photographs from the Shogren-Meyer Collection, on view from September 9 through November 10.

Industry, Work, Society, and Travails in the Depression Era will feature 95 works of art, mostly dating from the 1930s.  Among the photographers represented in the Shogren-Meyer collection and the exhibit based on it are Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks.  Among the painters included are Marvin Cone, John Steuart Curry, Ernest Fiene, Thomas Nagai, and Zoltan Sepeshy.

Collector Daniel Shogren and his wife Susan Meyer have always been fascinated by the 1930s and its art, possibly related to both of them having been interested in history since childhood. Of particular interest to the passionate collectors are American Scene and Regionalist artworks. 

Shogren states, "In my career, I have traveled the Midwest and worked in factories where I witnessed today's working men and women. I compare today, where we have full employment and a booming stock market, to the America of the 1920s and 1930s.  Are we seeing warning signals, such as climate change and income disparity, that portend a future depression? Susan and I are deeply moved by art from the 30s and how it reflects those times, which remain relevant in 2019. This exhibition is a dream come true for us. We are delighted to share these amazing works of art with the public."

Industry, Work, Society, and Travails in the Depression Era will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue with object texts written by collectors Susan Meyer and Daniel Shogren, Donald Myers (director and chief curator, Hillstrom Museum of Art), and Christian Peterson (independent scholar and former long-time photography curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Art).

The Hillstrom Museum of Art is located in the Jackson Campus Center of Gustavus Adolphus College, 800 West College Avenue, St. Peter, Minnesota.