Exhibition dates: January 21–April 26, 2009
Exhibition location: Galleries for Drawings, Prints, and Photographs
Press preview: Wednesday, January 21, 10:00 a.m.–noon
Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna is the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the European Old Master and 19th-century drawings from this distinguished Swiss collection. On view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art beginning January 21, 2009, Raphael to Renoir provides a rare opportunity to see 120 master drawings, ranging across 500 years of the history of art, from the Renaissance to 1900. Representing a range of artistic schools, the selection includes works by famous artists—such as Carpaccio, Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Parmigianino, Canaletto, Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Watteau, Chardin, Boucher, Fragonard, Goya, Ingres, Gericault, Delacroix, Manet, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Degas, Cézanne, Redon, Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Seurat—as well as superb and poignant drawings by lesser-known artists.
The exhibition is made possible in part by the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund.
"Jean Bonna is among the finest drawings collectors of our time, with discriminating taste and a wide breadth of interests," commented George R. Goldner, Drue Heinz Chairman of the Metropolitan Museum's Drawings and Prints Department. Highlights of Raphael to Renoir include extraordinary drawings such as Raphael's Study of Soldiers in The Conversion of Saul (ca. 1615–16), Parmigianino's The Holy Family with Shepherds and Angels (ca. 1523–24), and Jean-Antoine Watteau's Three Studies of Female Heads, as well as Hans Hoffmann's beautifully rendered watercolor A Wild Boar Piglet (1578), and Odilon Redon's colorful pastel Sailing Boat with Two Passengers (La Barque, ca. 1900).
At the Metropolitan Museum, the exhibition is organized by George R. Goldner, Drue Heinz Chairman, and Carmen C. Bambach, Curator, both of the Department of Drawings and Prints.
Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue written by a team of international scholars. It will be published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press, and will be available in the Metropolitan Museum's book shops.
The exhibition and its related programs are featured on the Museum's website at www.metmuseum.org.
Following its showing at the Metropolitan, the exhibition will be on view at the
National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh at the Royal Scottish Academy Building
from June 5, 2009, through September 6, 2009.
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January 21, 2009
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