Art and Process: Drawings, Paintings, and Sculptures from the 19th-Century

 

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: 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

Lion and Snake

1832
Antoine-Louis Barye (French, 1795–1875) Terracotta
Museum purchase with funds provided by the S. & A.P. Fund, 1955

Sketches of a Lion

ca. 1832
Antoine-Louis Barye (French, 1795–1875) Graphite on paper
Museum purchase, 1949

The Sheepfold, Moonlight

1856–1860
Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875) Oil on panel
Acquired by William T. Walters, 1884–1887

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

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

. 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

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

The Church at Eragny

1884
Camille Pissarro (French, 1831–1903)
Oil on canvas
Gift of Barbara B. Hirschhorn, Elizabeth B. Roswell, and Mary Jane Blaustein in memory of Jacob and Hilda Blaustein, 1991

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 

The Walters Art Museum recent acquisitions

 The Walters Art Museum has made several acquisitions that build upon its extensive permanent collection with purpose and depth.

Works on Paper

As one of the great European Masters, Rembrandt van Rijn is renowned for etchings that are nearly as important within the history of printmaking as his paintings are in the history of that medium. 

Old Man with a Beard (mid 1630s) shows an older man with a beard seated and sleeping, wearing a mantle (similar to a cape or cloak), a fur hat, and a fringed scarf. The depiction of an older person dozing was common in Rembrandt’s early etchings and, given his fascination with human nature, it’s possible the artist was looking for wisdom in his subjects’ weathered faces. 

In Self Portrait of Rembrandt with Saskia (1636), Rembrandt has depicted himself in a slouched hat with a jaunty feather sitting at a table and looking out at the viewer while his wife, Saskia, sits slightly further back. These etchings join the Walters’ two other works on paper by Rembrandt, including one likely self portrait from 1634, as well as The Lute Player (1629) by Jan Lievens (Dutch, 1607–1674), a painting for which Rembrandt likely modeled.

Fatme (1855), a pencil on paper drawing by Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824-1904), adds to the Walters’ robust collection of paintings and drawings by the artist. Never before exhibited in a museum, Fatme depicts an Egyptian woman in profile and is currently on view in Art and Process: Drawings, Paintings, and Sculptures from the 19th-Century Collection. It’s known that the artist professed racist views that were reflected in his paintings, and Fatme poses thought-provoking questions about the power dynamics at play when the work was made: How did Fatme feel about being drawn by Gérôme? Was she paid for her time? Was she told what to wear or how to pose? How was she selected by Gérôme, or did she volunteer? In short, what control did she have over this encounter?

Oracion panegyrica… (1683) 

and Distribución de las Obras Ordinaria, y extraordinarias del dia, Para hazerlas perfectamente, conforme al Estado de las Señoras Religiosas, Instruida con Doze Maximas (1712) were printed by “widow printers,” a term used for women who took on their husbands’ printing presses after they died. These Spanish colonial books were printed by the remarkable Calderón-Benavides family, which saw many women helm their presses over nearly 200 years. The work from 1683 was printed by Paula de Benavides, who resumed operations at her late husband’s printing press when he died in 1640, going on to print a staggering 448 books in her lifetime. The work from 1712 was printed by Gertrudis de Escobar, who took over from her husband when he died in 1707 and ultimately printed 78 works of her own. Lynley Herbert, Robert and Nancy Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, plans to continue to acquire publications from every major printer across seven generations of the family. At present, the Walters holds works by five of the family’s 14 printers.

Paintings

The painting acquisitions include Tavern Owner on a Veranda with Two of Her Staff and a Client (1650s) by Willem van Herp (1614–1677); Two Students in the Life Room of the Heatherley School of Fine Art (1902) by Nellie Joshua (1877–1960);

Two Students in the Life Room of the Heatherley School of Fine Art, painted by English artist Nellie Joshua in 1902, is an important addition to Walters’ 18th- and 19th-century art collection, expanding the museum’s small collection of oil paintings by women from this time period. It also offers an extremely rare glimpse of women in an art education space from the 19th century. The work shows two women through the doorway of an art studio, sitting and conversing while surrounded by a variety of objects gathered for art students to draw. At the time, it was considered controversial for women to attend art school, where they would have to draw undraped (nude) models. Heatherley, the London art school Joshua attended, was one of the few institutions that admitted women, allowing Joshua to reveal this little-seen facet of 19th-century society through her unique perspective. The painting will be displayed at the Walters for the first time in Art and Process: Drawings, Paintings, and Sculptures from the 19th-Century Collection, opening October 24, 2024.

Flemish artist Willem van Herp also brought to light an underrepresented slice of life in his painting Tavern Owner on a Veranda with Two of Her Staff and a Client. This work, made in the 1650s and recently purchased by the Walters, depicts a richly dressed Black woman—the tavern owner—sitting on a veranda and preparing a pipe while she is attended by two employees. The signs of the woman’s economic success speak to the growing participation of people of African ancestry in the economic life of the Southern Netherlands in the mid-1600s. The van Herp painting is a remarkably early European depiction of a Black businesswoman, a subject not often portrayed in artworks of the time. The work joins several other 17th-century paintings centering Black subjects now on view at the Walters, including 

Balthazar (ca. 1700), a French painting possibly from the workshop of Hyacinthe Rigaud, and 

Moses and His Ethiopian Wife (ca. 1650), a work by Flemish artist Jacob Jordaens the elder on loan from the Rubenshuis in Antwerp.

REMBRANDT’S AMSTERDAM GOLDEN TIMES?

 

Städel Museum 

27 November 2024 to 23 March 2025

Amsterdam – one city with many faces. In the 17th century, Amsterdam was the metropolis in Europe. The economy and trade were booming, the population rapidly increased, and the arts and sciences flourished. An influential civic society shaped the city’s fortunes and glorified itself in splendid group portraits made by the greatest Dutch painters of the age, foremost among them Rembrandt, alongside Jacob Backer, Ferdinand Bol, Govert Flinck, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy, and Jan Victors. 

From 27 November 2024 to 23 March 2025, the Städel Museum, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Museum, showcases portraits from the Rembrandt period in a major exhibition, with the magnificent group portraits of the Amsterdam Museum taking centre stage. These works are rarely lent out, and this is the first large-scale presentation of them in Germany. Around 100 paintings, sculptures and prints and cultural and historical artefacts from other prominent Dutch and international museums will be on view in Frankfurt, including masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Koninklijk Museum van Schone Kunsten in Antwerp and the Muzeum Narodowe in Warsaw. The exhibition will also feature remarkable works by Rembrandt and his contemporaries from the Städel Museum’s own collection.

The exhibition challenges the traditional view of the 17th century as the Netherlands’ ‘Golden Age’. The economic and cultural prosperity of the Rembrandt era was bolstered by the aggressive trade policies of the United Netherlands, which relied on the establishment of colonies in Asia and South America as well as the enslavement and exploitation of people. As wars, poverty and religious and political persecution swept across Europe, migration to the Dutch Republic – particularly Amsterdam – steadily increased. A robust labour market and an unparalleled degree of religious tolerance attracted many in search for a better and freer life, a goal that some, but by no means all, achieved. It was primarily Amsterdam’s urban elite that commissioned lavish portraits of themselves: members of the civic guards and the craft and trade guilds, as well as the governors of the social institutions supported by civic society. While showcasing these prestigious paintings, the exhibition at the Städel Museum also illuminates the experiences of other social groups. Visitors will encounter images and narratives reflecting a pluralistic Amsterdam society, which tell of wealth and poverty, joy and hardship, power and powerlessness.

In the words of Städel Director Philipp Demandt: “With this exhibition, we are bringing Rembrandt’s Amsterdam to the Städel Museum. By taking a critical look at the realities of 17th-century Amsterdam, we engage with the ongoing discourse surrounding the re-evaluation of the Netherlands’ ‘Golden Age’. The masterpieces of Rembrandt and his renowned contemporaries depict a city in flux, undergoing profound economic and social transformations. No other museum in the world houses as many group portraits from this period as the Amsterdam Museum. At the Städel Museum, we are excited to unite these works with other international loans and our own exceptional collection of paintings and prints by Rembrandt, which our museum’s founder already collected with passion. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the lenders and sponsors who have generously supported our exhibition. This ambitious project would not have been possible without their commitment.”

“Amsterdam – Europe’s vibrant metropolis, a timeless favourite among travellers and a haven of art and culture. This holds true today just as it did during Rembrandt’s era. During the life of the renowned painter, the city’s economy and culture flourished on an unprecedented scale. This exhibition explores both the ‘Golden Age’ and its darker aspects. Following the 2021 Rembrandt exhibition at the Städel Museum that focused on the peerless artist himself, we now invite visitors to immerse themselves in the city where he lived and worked with many other pioneering artists. As ING Germany, we are delighted to support this exhibition, making Dutch art once again accessible to the Städel’s visitors”, says Nick Jue, Chairman of the Board, ING Germany.

As Sylvia von Metzler, Chairwoman of the Board of the Städelscher Museums-Verein e. V., comments about the exhibition: “The exhibition ‘Rembrandt’s Amsterdam’ is the highlight of our anniversary year. For 125 years, we have been supporting the Städel Museum in all its endeavours, and the Städel’s own works by Rembrandt featured in this exhibition reflect our extraordinary commitment. We are thrilled that this great Dutch artist is once again at the centre of a major exhibition, alongside many of his contemporaries. We will experience Rembrandt’s Amsterdam in a new and surprising light.”

Daniel Hoster, Chairman of the Board of the Dagmar-Westberg-Stiftung, points out that “Our founder, Dagmar Westberg, was a devoted patron and friend of the Städel Museum. She had a lifelong passion for the art of the Old Masters, which also informed the donations she made to the museum’s collection. Our support of the exhibition ‘Rembrandt’s Amsterdam’ reflects her desire to share her fascination with Old Master painting with a broad audience and reveal the stories behind the works of art. The Dagmar Westberg Foundation wishes the Städel Museum great success and many interested visitors.”

“The Dutch group portrait emerged primarily in Amsterdam. It is probably the most striking example of Dutch art from Rembrandt’s time. It can be attributed to the unique conditions of Amsterdam, a mercantile city with a distinctly bourgeois and Protestant character. During this time, the city transformed into a booming global trade hub, where the ruling elite celebrated their status and civic commitment through prestigious paintings created by leading artists. While the notion of the 17th century as a ‘Golden Age’ has long been uncritically accepted in the Netherlands—partly due to these artworks—this perspective has begun to erode in recent years. Our exhibition addresses this shift by also highlighting those individuals who were deemed ‘unworthy of portrayal’ at the time and thus left little mark on the tradition of portraiture. The quest to uncover their stories is both overdue and valuable, as it will enhance our understanding of Rembrandt’s Amsterdam,’ explains Jochen Sander, curator of the exhibition, Deputy Director and Head of the collections of Dutch, Flemish and German painting before 1800

IMAGES

Govaert Flinck, Company of Crossbowmen (Voetboogschutters) under Captain Joan Huydecoper and Lieutenant Frans van Waveren, 1648/50

Johannes Lingelbach, View of Dam Square with the New Town Hall under Construction, 1656

Arent Arentsz, called Cabel (1585–1631), Skaters on the Amstel, ca. 1621

Nicolaes Berchem, Allegory on the Expansion of Amsterdam, ca. 1663

Bartholomeus van der Helst, The Wardens of the Kloveniersdoelen, 1655

Jacob Colijns, Copy after Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, ca. 1653–1655

Jacob Adriaensz Backer (1608–1651), The Regentesses of the Burgerweeshuis, 1633/34

Govaert Flinck, Company of Crossbowmen (Voetboogschutters) under Captain Joan Huydecoper and Lieutenant Frans van Waveren, 1648/50

Unknown Amsterdam artist, Portrait of ‘Malle Baandje’ (Barend Jansz Bode, ?–1719?), ca. 1700

Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy (1588–1650/56) or Werner van den Valckert, (attributed), The Osteology Lesson of Dr Sebastiaen Egbertsz, 1619

Arent de Gelder (1645–1727),Self-Portrait as Zeuxis Portraying an Ugly Old Woman, 1685

Nicolaes Maes (1634–1693), Portrait of a Woman Wearing a Black Dress, ca. 1668–1670

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606–1669), Rembrandt, Beggar Seated

FANTASY AND PASSION: DRAWING FROM CARRACCI TO BERNINI

Städel Museum

10 October 2024 to 12 January 2025 

 The Städel Museum presents the great masters of Italian Baroque draughtsmanship. For the brothers Agostino and Annibale Carracci, Guercino, Stefano della Bella and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, drawing was a central component of their artistic work. In their drawings, they not only laid the foundations for their paintings, sculptures or prints, but also demonstrated the independence of the medium. Executed with pen and brush or black or red chalk, the sheets are sketches, studies or precisely rendered individual works. They impress with their sweeping lines, their dramatic chiaroscuro and their extraordinary expressiveness. From 10 October 2024 to 12 January 2025, the Städel Museum will be showing 90 of these remarkable Italian Baroque drawings from its own collection in an exhibition parallel to the Frankfurt Book Fair with Italy as this year’s Guest of Honour, inviting visitors to an intimate encounter with the artistic drawings of a bygone era.

The scholarly analysis of the drawings was made possible by the generous support of the Gabriele Busch-Hauck Foundation in Frankfurt. This multi-year research project has produced a wealth of new information on individual artists and their working methods, the subjects depicted and the techniques used, as well as on contemporary and later collectors.

The 17th century was a time of change in Italy. Baroque art emphasized movement and dynamism, contrasts and the play of light and shadow. These characteristics can be seen not only in the paintings and sculptures, but also in the drawings of the period. The artists studied individual motifs, figural groups, postures, draperies and sequences of movement. They drew from nature, developed complex pictorial narratives and created designs for large-format works. The emotional spectrum of their depictions ranges from delicate and introspective to ecstatic, expressive and sometimes cruel. The works on paper were often the basis for paintings, sculptures or prints and refer to the exchange between artists and patrons. They are therefore not only an expression of individual artistic creativity, but also a reflection of larger cultural contexts.

IMAGES

Giuseppe Passeri, (1654–1714) An angel crowning two saints, Saint Andrew and a knight saint, as martyrs

Stefano della Bella (1610-1664), Deer hunting, ca. 1654

Jacopo Chimenti, called da Empoli (1551–1640), Artist at a draughtsman’s table, ca. 1620–1630

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) (1591—1666), Christ in Emmaus ca. 1619

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, called Il Grechetto (1609–1664), Woman with child riding an ass, ca. 1635–1640

Giovan Gioseffo dal Sole (1654—1719), Virgin and Child ca. 1700 (?)

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598—1680), Portrait of a man, ca. 1635

Ferdinando Galli da Bibiena (1656/57–1743), Columned hall, at left a portal (left half), early 18th century

Christofano Allori (1577—1621),Study of the head of a youth with visor cap ca. 1600

Annibale Carracci (1560—1609), Study of Venus at Rest ca. 1602

Agostino Carracci (1557–1602) Study for a St Jerome 1600/1602

Mariana: Velázquez’s Portrait of a Queen from the Museo Nacional del Prado

Norton Simon Museum 

December 13, 2024 - March 24, 2025

On special loan from the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, Diego Velázquez’s extraordinary painting Queen Mariana of Austria (1652–53) will be exhibited on the West Coast for the first time.

The Norton Simon Museum presents Mariana: Velázquez’s Portrait of a Queen from the Museo Nacional del Prado. On view from December 13, 2024, through March 24, 2025, the exhibition is centered on the nearly life-size portrait Queen Mariana of Austria (1652–53) by 17th-century Spanish painter Diego Velázquez (1599 –1660). One of the highlights of the Prado’s world-renowned collection of works by the artist, this masterpiece has never before been exhibited on the West Coast, and its presentation at the Norton Simon Museum offers visitors a rare opportunity to see this remarkable work in person.

Velázquez's Queen Mariana of Austria is one of the artist’s most accomplished portraits, depicting the 18-year-old monarch in full splendor. She is clad in quintessential Spanish fashion, wearing a luxurious black and silver dress over the rigid support structure known as the guardainfante—which is so-called because its dramatically wide hips could mask pregnancy. The young queen, who had recently recovered from the birth of her first child with King Philip IV, gazes out with a somber, almost inscrutable expression, somewhat at odds with the spirited flamboyance of her beribboned wig and colossal feathered headpiece. Mariana was Velázquez's first major composition after returning to Madrid from several years in Rome, and it ushered in a distinctive and final chapter of the artist's storied career. For the first time, the artist focused primarily on images of women and children, which he depicted with great sensitivity and a new flair for color.

At the Norton Simon Museum, the portrait of the young queen will be surrounded by an international group of artists whose works were collected by the Habsburg court. Paintings by Nicolas Poussin, Guido Reni and Peter Paul Rubens, all highlights of the Museum’s collections, will be displayed side by side to evoke Mariana’s quotidian access to remarkable works of art and to invite comparisons between Velázquez and artists he knew and admired. The Velázquez portrait will also be shown in relationship to the Museum's paintings by Jusepe de Ribera, Bartolomé-Esteban Murillo and Francisco de Zurbarán, displayed in an adjacent gallery, providing a unique chance to experience this essential quartet of 17th-century Spanish painters under one roof.

The loan of Queen Mariana of Austria continues a new exchange partnership between the Norton Simon Museum and the Museo Nacional del Prado, which was launched with the loan of Francisco de Zurbarán's Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose, on view in Madrid from March 18 to June 30, 2024. Signed works by Velázquez are exceedingly rare and appear in only a handful of American institutions. The Prado possesses a remarkable 48 paintings by Velázquez—nearly 40 percent of the artist's extant body of work—including many of his most iconic compositions. Queen Mariana of Austria was exhibited in the United States only once before, when it was lent to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a 1989 retrospective.

The exhibition is organized by Chief Curator Emily Talbot and Associate Curator Maggie Bell.

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (Spanish, 1599–1660)
Queen Mariana of Austria, 1652-1653
Oil on canvas
92.20 x 51.97 in. (234.20 x 132 cm)
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, (P001191), ©Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado

Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature

 

Metropolitan Museum of Art 

February 8–May 11, 2025

From February 8 through May 11, 2025, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature, the first comprehensive exhibition in the United States dedicated to the most important exponent of German Romantic art. Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) reimagined European landscape painting by portraying nature as a setting for profound spiritual and emotional encounters. Working in the vanguard of the German Romantic movement, which championed a radical new understanding of the bond between nature and the inner self, Friedrich developed pictorial subjects and strategies that emphasize the individuality, intimacy, open-endedness, and complexity of our responses to the natural world. The vision of the landscape that unfolds in his art—meditative, mysterious, and full of wonder—is still vital today.

The exhibition is made possible in part by Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, Barbara A. Wolfe, and Trevor and Alexis Traina.

“The most significant painter of German Romanticism, Caspar David Friedrich brilliantly illuminates our understanding of the natural world as a spiritual and emotional landscape,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “This very first major retrospective of Germany’s most beloved painter in the United States follows the celebrations of his work on the occasion of the artist’s 250th birthday this year. We are thrilled to collaborate with our German museum colleagues and many other generous lenders on this rare opportunity to reflect on Friedrich’s portrayals of nature and the human condition.”

Inspired by the 250th anniversary of Friedrich’s birth, the exhibition is organized in cooperation with the Alte Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and the Hamburger Kunsthalle, which are presenting independent exhibitions of Friedrich’s work in 2023–24 as part of the artist’s jubilee celebrations in Germany. Following these shows, The Met’s exhibition will feature unprecedented loans from all three institutions—the most substantial collections of Friedrich’s work in the world—and from more than 30 other public and private lenders in Europe and North America. Despite Friedrich’s celebrated reputation, there have been only two exhibitions dedicated to his work in the United States: The Romantic Vision of Caspar David Friedrich: Paintings and Drawings from the U.S.S.R., held at The Met and the Art Institute of Chicago in 1990–91 and featuring 9 paintings and 11 drawings by Friedrich; and Caspar David Friedrich: Moonwatchers at The Met in 2001, which included 7 paintings and 2 drawings by the artist.

Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature will present approximately 75 oil paintings, finished drawings, and working sketches from every phase of the artist’s career, along with select examples by his contemporaries, illuminating Friedrich’s development of a symbolic vocabulary of landscape motifs to convey the personal and existential meanings that he discovered in nature. Among the loans that will be exhibited for the first time in the United States are Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (Hamburger Kunsthalle) and Monk by the Sea (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie), two of the most iconic paintings in Friedrich’s oeuvre and in all of Romantic art. Many other signature works, such as Dolmen in Autumn (Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden), have not been seen in the United States for decades. The exhibition will also bring together for the first time all five of the Friedrich paintings owned by museums in the United States (The Met, the Kimbell Art Museum, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Saint Louis Art Museum), placing these rare American holdings in the broader context of Friedrich’s art. A rich selection of works on paper from both domestic and international collections will showcase Friedrich’s talents as a draftsman and the centrality of drawing to his creative practice, an aspect of his production that is unfamiliar to most museum audiences in the United States. As a partnership between specialists in paintings and drawings, the exhibition will also consider the ways that the artist’s pictorial interests persisted and shifted across media and how different materials and techniques prompted his formal and thematic innovations.

The exhibition will unfold chronologically and thematically, tracing the evolution of Friedrich’s imagery over the course of his four-decade career. Each section will highlight aspects of his engagement with the landscape of northeastern Europe and examine the unconventional pictorial tactics that give Friedrich’s subjects their visual drama and depth of meaning. Groupings of works will invite viewers to consider the range of themes that Friedrich explored: religious faith; solitude and companionship; the passage of time and human mortality; the perception of the ineffable and transcendent; concepts of nationhood rooted in the land; the security of the familiar versus the appeal of the unknown; and, most broadly, ways of seeing and relating to nature. As a whole, the exhibition will distill Friedrich’s unique vision of nature and situate his art within the tumultuous politics and vibrant culture of 19th-century German society, illuminating the role of German Romanticism in shaping modern perceptions of the natural world.


Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature is co-curated by Alison Hokanson (Associate Curator, Department of European Paintings, The Met), and Joanna Sheers Seidenstein (Assistant Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Met).

Catalogue

Picasso and Paper,

Cleveland Museum of Art 

December 8, 2024 through March 23, 2025 

Picasso and Paper showcases nearly 300 works spanning Picasso’s almost eight-decade career. 

The artist’s diverse use of paper is the subject of this blockbuster exhibition, which was organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris. From expressive prints and drawings to colossal collages, Picasso’s works on and with paper showcase his extraordinary capacity to innovate and reinvent himself using a material with limitless possibilities. These are juxtaposed with some of the artist’s celebrated paintings on canvas and bronze sculpture.

“To create the innovative works for which he is remembered today, Picasso returned again and again to paper, ultimately producing thousands of prints and drawings,” said Britany Salsbury, CMA curator of prints and drawings. “We’re excited to be able to feature these works alongside experimental paper cutouts, Cubist collages, and even torn and burned shapes created for his closest friends. Together, the artworks in Picasso and Paper offer an opportunity to see the artist at his most radical. They also allow us to better understand the collaborative relationships—with printers, publishers, dealers, models, and partners—that contributed to his canonical reputation.”

The exhibition opens with paper cutouts made by Picasso at the age of nine, then proceeds chronologically, covering his long, rich career. Endlessly fascinated with new and varied types of paper, Picasso used traditional materials, but also others that were unusual, including mass-produced wallpapers and daily newspapers. 

Women at Their Toilette, Paris, winter 1937–38. Cut wallpapers with gouache on paper pasted onto canvas; 299 x 448 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris, Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP176. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Adrien Didierjean. © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The numerous highlights in Picasso and Paper include Women at Their Toilette (1937–38), an extraordinarily large collage (9 13/16 x 14 1/2 feet) of cut-and-pasted papers, exhibited for the first time in the United States; other rarely seen Cubist collages; the artist’s private sketchbooks, including studies for his best-known paintings; constructed paper guitars from the Cubist and Surrealist periods; prints that reveal Picasso’s complex working process; and an array of works related to the artist’s most celebrated paintings and sculptural projects.

“Paper offered Picasso an intimate space in which he could not only respond to events in his personal life and in the world around him, but also carry out formal experimentation,” said Salsbury. “Picasso and Paper traces some of the most significant shifts in modern art through his practice and features rarely seen artworks from the most internationally significant holdings of his work.”

The exhibition also includes the CMA’s La Vie (1903), from Picasso’s Blue Period, featured with preparatory drawings and other works on paper exploring corresponding themes. In the Cubist section, Picasso’s bronze Head of a Woman (Fernande) (1909) (Musée national Picasso-Paris) will be surrounded by a large group of related drawings. Seen together, these groupings highlight the connections that Picasso saw between media, his fascination with the materials that he worked with, and the integral role that paper played throughout his artistic practice. Picasso and Paper was originally scheduled to open at the CMA in September 2020 but was delayed due to the global pandemic. 

“We are eager to share Picasso and Paper at its only North American venue,” said William M. Griswold, director and president of the Cleveland Museum of Art. “This exhibition offers an opportunity for visitors to better understand Picasso and his influence on modern art, or for those already familiar with the artist to see him in an entirely new light. The innovative focus of this exhibition allows for numerous surprises and encourages us to see Picasso’s genius in a new and thought-provoking way.”

Exhibition Catalogue

Picasso and Paper is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by the Royal Academy ofArts. It features essays by distinguished Picasso scholars and leading authorities in various aspects oftechnical art history, including William H. Robinson, formerly of the Cleveland Museum of Art; AnnDumas of the Royal Academy of Arts; Emilia Philippot of the Musée national Picasso-Paris; and Claustre Rafart Planas of the Museu Picasso, Barcelona. Specific aspects of Picasso’s engagement with paper area ddressed by Christopher Lloyd, an expert on Picasso’s drawings; Stephen Coppel, curator of prints an ddrawings at the British Museum; Violette Andres, photography curator at the Musée national Picasso-Paris; Johan Popelard of the University of Paris; and Emmanuelle Hincelin, a paper conservator with scientific expertise in the types of paper Picasso used at key moments in his career

IMAGES

 

Self-portrait, Montrouge, 1918. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973). Graphite and charcoal on wove paper; 64.2 x 49.4 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris, Pablo Picasso gift in lieu, 1979. MP794. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Mathieu Rabeau. © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Violin, Paris, fall 1912. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973). Laid paper, wallpaper, newspaper, wove wrapping paper, and glazed black wove paper, cut and pasted onto cardboard, with graphite and charcoal; 65 x 50 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris, Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP367. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Mathieu Rabeau. © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Head of a Woman, Mougins, December 4, 1962. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973). Graphite on folded paper cutout; 42 x 26.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris, Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. MP1850. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Béatrice Hatala. © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

 

Nude, Study for “The Harem,” spring–summer 1906. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973). Gouache on laid paper; 63.6 x 48.3 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection, 1932.719. © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Portrait of Françoise, Paris, May 20, 1946. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973). Graphite, colored pencil, and charcoal on wove paper; 66.5 x 50.8 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York  

Still Life Under a Lamp, 1962. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973). Color linocut on wove paper; 53.1 x 64 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1984.61. © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Village Dance, c. 1922. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973). Pastel and oil on canvas; 139.5 x 85.5 cm. Musée national Picasso-Paris, Pablo Picasso Gift in Lieu, 1979. © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York