Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna

Alsteens, Stijn, Carmen Bambach, George Goldner, Colta Ives, Perrin Stein, and Nathalie Strasser, eds.
2009
324 pages
298 illustrations
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Lovers of European drawing will take delight in this beautifully illustrated volume of 120 drawings that cover some 500 years of art history and represent a diversity of artistic schools in Italy, Northern Europe, France, and Great Britain. They were selected from the notable collection of Jean Bonna of Geneva, Switzerland, and they highlight the rich quality and diversity of the Bonna Collection.

The drawings are as varied in their range of subject matter as they are in medium and artistic style, and they encompass fine examples by both major masters and less well-known artists. Narrative scenes, religious subjects, studies of the human figure, formal and informal portraits, animal and nature studies, landscapes, cityscapes, and seascapes predominate in the collection. The catalogue begins with such Italian artists as Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, Palma Il Giovane, Ludovico and Annibale Carracci, Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, and Giandomenico Tiepolo. The Northern European artists include the Master of the Farm Landscapes, Jacob Jordaens, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Lambert Doomer. Eighteenth-century accomplishments in French art are exemplified in exceptional works by Claude Lorrain, Pierre Puget, Charles Le Brun, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Pierre-Adrien Pâris, Jean-Siméon Chardin, and François Boucher. From the nineteenth century, there are emblematic works by such varied artists as Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Théodore Gericault, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Odilon Redon, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Georges Seurat. Although many of the drawings in Jean Bonna's collection have previously been published and exhibited, the quality and scope of his holdings have not been explored so fully until this publication and the exhibition it accompanies.

The works from the Bonna Collection are illustrated in color, and whenever possible, at their actual sizes. They are arranged chronologically by the artist's date of birth and are grouped according to the main artistic schools. This volume is introduced by an interview with Jean Bonna by George Goldner, Drue Heinz Chairman of the Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each drawing is then described in an entry, many of which have comparative illustrations that shed further light on individual works. The entries were written by the curators of the Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the curator of the Bonna Collection; and well-known specialists in their respective fields.

Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalamatia, Robert Adam  British, Scottish, Illustrations: etching and engraving
Robert Adam
1764
A Hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus), Hans Hoffmann  German, Watercolor and gouache
Hans Hoffmann
before 1584
Omnia Vincit Amor, Agostino Carracci  Italian, Engraving
Agostino Carracci
1599
Kneeling Female Figure with Upraised Arms, Abraham Bloemaert  Netherlandish, Red chalk, heightened with white chalk
Abraham Bloemaert
late 16th–mid-17th century
Figure Studies, from Drawing Book, Frederick Bloemaert  Dutch, Engraving
Frederick Bloemaert
Abraham Bloemaert
1650–56
The Ruins of Castle Merxem, near Antwerp, Jan Brueghel the Elder  Netherlandish, Pen and brown ink with pink, blue, gray, and yellow washes
Jan Brueghel the Elder
1610
Study of an Old Tree, Gillis Neyts  Flemish, Pen and brown ink
Gillis Neyts
17th century
Landscape with old trees and figures, Gillis Neyts  Flemish, Pen and brown and black ink, brown wash
Gillis Neyts
17th century
Gravures de Boucher pour les Oeuvres de Molière [Figures de Boucher pour Molière], Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse in graphite, frontispiece French, Drawing in graphite; etching; engraving; mezzotint
Multiple artists/makers
mid-18th century
The Caprices (Los Caprichos), plates 1-80, Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)  Spanish, Etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)
1799
Madame Loubens, Edgar Degas  French, Charcoal and pastel with red, black, and white chalk over graphite on beige wove paper
Edgar Degas
ca. 1869
Terracotta statuette of a standing woman, Terracotta, Greek, probably Boeotian
Greek, probably Boeotian
late 4th–early 3rd century BCE

View Citations

Metropolitan museum of art, and National gallery of Scotland, eds. 2009. Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna [Exhibition Held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from January 21 to April 26, 2009, and at the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, from June 5 to September 6, 2009]. New York: the Metropolitan museum of art.