On view October 24, 2024, through March 9, 2025, the Walters Art Museum presents Art and Process: Drawings, Paintings, and Sculptures from the 19th-Century Collection, an exhibition delving into the creative process through the display of preliminary sketches and finished works in the museum’s permanent collection of 19th-century French art. Drawings and sketches record choices made by an artist, however, preparatory studies often don’t survive, and those that do are rarely exhibited due to their light sensitivity.
This exhibition provides visitors a window into the artist’s mind through 30 works on paper (pastel, graphite, charcoal, and watercolor), 23 oil paintings, and works in bronze, porcelain, and terracotta. Some of the most popular names of the period will be on display, including Antoine-Louis Barye (French, 1795–1875), Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875), Camille Pissarro (French, 1831–1903), Alfred Sisley (French and British, 1839–1899), and more.
“Opportunities for museum-goers to witness the artistic process—which is sometimes shrouded in such mystery—are rare. Allowing visitors the chance to explore it and better understand what an artist was potentially thinking during creation has the ability to spark creativity in all of us,” said Gina Borromeo, Interim Co-Director. “In that way, Art and Process humanizes methods of making, illustrating how artists endeavored to refine their compositions and technique. We hope this exhibition adds depth to the visitor experience, creating a place to connect not just with the art on view, but to better understand the people behind the works as well.”
In Art and Process, varying degrees of artistic approach are on view, proving there is no right or wrong way to create. The exhibition details how some creatives create detailed preliminary sketches, allowing them to execute their finished work relatively quickly, while others sketched rarely or not at all, opting instead to create from memory or directly from a subject. Others demonstrate the possibility to stay with a composition and refine works for unusually long periods of time, sometimes a decade or more. In some cases, artists signed and dated what they believed to be a finished work, later returning to the composition and covering their inscriptions when they made changes.
In the case of Barye, sketches proved to be essential to the artist’s process, allowing him to clarify a composition with reference to both live and dead animals prior to sculpting, as seen in Sketches of a Lion (ca. 1832), a preparatory work for his famous life-size statue Lion and Snake. He also created a reduced version of this work in terracotta, a relatively inexpensive and easily manipulated medium, allowing him to further work out the composition before casting it in bronze. In terracotta, he altered the snake’s head to stand more away from its coils, confronting rather than retreating from the lion, adding to the drama of the scene.
“These artworks remind us that when we encounter a display in a museum, we see only the endpoint in a dynamic process—one that may have been long and involved many twists and turns,” said Jo Briggs, Jennie Walters Delano Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century Art. “Through trial and error, the artist may have made dozens of changes along the way, resulting in a final product that looks nothing like their initial idea. This context helps the viewer see these works as more fluid and less static, proving that art is a living, breathing process—not just a painting on a wall or a sculpture on a plinth.”
Art and Process also presents visitors with the chance to see Two Students in the Life Room of the Heatherley School of Fine Art (1902) by Nellie Joshua (British, 1877-1960), creating a space for conversations about gender, access, and the artistic process. This remarkable painting offers a rare depiction of women in an art education environment in the late 19th century. At the time, women were barred from attending most fine arts schools because it was considered immoral for them to participate in “life drawing,” that is drawing undraped models, which was a foundational part of the process of learning to draw. However, Heatherley, a private art school in central London, admitted female students on equal terms with their male counterparts. Joshua’s painting of two female figures sitting in the “life room” at the school is, therefore, a comment on a woman’s right to access an artistic education and, therefore, the profession.
Art and Process: Drawings, Paintings, and Sculptures from the 19th-Century Collection is curated by Jo Briggs, Jennie Walters Delano Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century Art.
Images
The Sheepfold, Moonlight
1856–1860
Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875)
Oil on panel
Acquired by William T. Walters, 1884–1887
2.2. The Sheepfold, Moonlight
ca. 1858–1860
Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875)
Charcoal on beige, moderately thick, slightly textured
wove paper
Acquired by William T. Walters, before 1884
3.1. Study relating to “Study of Saint Sebastian”
1852
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875) Charcoal on rough, moderately-thick,
brown wove paper
Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters
3.2. Study for Saint Sebastian
ca. 1867
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875)
Watercolor and graphite underdrawing on cream,
moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper
Acquired by William T. Walters, 1884
4. Two Students in the Life Room of
the Heatherley School of Fine Art
1902
Nellie Joshua (British, 1877–1960)
Oil on canvas
Museum purchase, 2023
Camille Pissarro (French, 1831–1903), The Church at Eragny, 1884. Oil on canvas. Gift of Barbara B. Hirschhorn, Elizabeth B. Roswell, and Mary Jane Blaustein in memory of Jacob and Hilda Blaustein, 1991.
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The Sower
ca. 1865
Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875)
Pastel and crayon or pastel on cream buff paper
Acquired by William T. Walters, 1884
View of Saint-Mammès
ca. 1880
Alfred Sisley (French and British, 1839–1899)
Oil on canvas
Acquired by Henry Walters, 1909
