This exhibition includes a selection of drawings made by Northern artists visiting Italy in the eighteenth century. Some were attracted by the crumbling ruins of well-known ancient buildings like the Colosseum, while others were drawn to more anonymous corners of the verdant countryside. Also on display is a recently acquired pastel study of a French Dragoon by Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson (French, 1767–1824) for "The Revolt of Cairo," shown with other military-themed images from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods.
From sixteenth-century Germany there is a group of chiaroscuro woodcuts, including Hans Baldung's (German, 1484/85–1545) monumental The Fall of Man and Hans Burgkmair's (German, 1473–1531) evocative Lovers Surprised by Death, which demonstrate how artists experimented with color to create tonality in woodcuts. On display from the nineteenth century is a selection of prints depicting women with birds, including works by Mary Cassatt (American, 1844–1926) and Paul Gauguin (French, 1848–1903); a group of Art Nouveau drawings, including a fan design by Alphonse Mucha (Czech, 1860–1939); and a series of lithographic views of the Imperial Palaces of Saint Petersburg from about 1850. Also on view is a group of World War I posters that focus on the ever-changing image of the Statue of Liberty and two sets of World War II trading cards, including the gruesome Horrors of War (1938), which were donated by Jefferson R. Burdick.