Past Exhibition

Prints and Drawings from the Permanent Collection

The drawing shows a reclining figure on a flat surface, positioned on their side with a slightly arched back, head leaned back, and facing upwards. The figure has a outlined face with closed mouth and defined chin, and loose hair. The body is unclothed, with attention to form and shading. The background is simple and sketched lightly. There are no visible accessories. The artwork is on textured paper, using charcoal or graphite for shading and white highlights for depth.
François Boucher, Reclining Nymph, c. 1752, black and white chalk on brown laid paper, Gift of Gertrude Laughlin Chanler, 2000.9.4

Details

  • Dates

    -
  • Locations

    West Building, Ground Floor, Galleries GS-5-GS 9
The drawing shows a reclining figure on a flat surface, positioned on their side with a slightly arched back, head leaned back, and facing upwards. The figure has a outlined face with closed mouth and defined chin, and loose hair. The body is unclothed, with attention to form and shading. The background is simple and sketched lightly. There are no visible accessories. The artwork is on textured paper, using charcoal or graphite for shading and white highlights for depth.
François Boucher, Reclining Nymph, c. 1752, black and white chalk on brown laid paper, Gift of Gertrude Laughlin Chanler, 2000.9.4

Overview: Four thematic selections from the Gallery's collection of works on paper made up this exhibition.

Eighteenth-Century Drawings from the Chanler Bequest presented 20 French and Italian drawings from the recent bequest of Gertrude Laughlin Chanler. An architectural fantasy by Piranesi and 6 drawings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard of the adventures of Don Quixote were included .

Through the Window: Framing and Meaning included 21 drawings, primarily from the Gallery's Rosenwald Collection, showing varied ways in which framing devices such as windows, arches, and doorways were used by artists from the 15th through the 17th centuries. 2 northern European books on perspective were included as well.

Prints and Drawings from the Ravenel-Smyth Bequest presented 24 prints and drawings selected from the recent bequest of Gaillard Ravenel and Frances Smyth-Ravenel. Ravenel had been head of the design and installation department and Smyth-Ravenel editor-in-chief at the National Gallery of Art.

Prints and Proofs by Richard Diebenkorn included 28 prints, among them figurative works, landscapes, still lifes, and abstractions printed between 1962 and 1992 at Crown Point Press, Gemini G.E.L., and Tamarind Lithography Workshop.

Organization: The curators were Margaret Morgan Grasselli, curator of old master drawings; Gregory Jecmen, assistant curator of old master prints; Andrew Robison, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator; and Charles Ritchie, assistant curator of modern prints and drawings.