DUBLIN.- This summer, a special free exhibition showcasing some of the greatest European artists through their works on paper is on view at the National Gallery of Ireland.
Fifty-seven works from the Gallery’s world-leading collection are on display, including drawings, prints, watercolours, pastels, photographs and miniatures.
From the 15th century to the present day, the exhibition explores the work of European artists across various schools and movements, from the Italian Renaissance to German Expressionism.
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The exhibition highlights contributions from all corners of the continent, featuring artists hailing from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Czechia, Poland, Finland, Britain, and Ireland.
It also explores Irish artists who were drawn to mainland Europe for inspiration, and conversely how Ireland inspired artists of other nationalities.
Visitors have an intimate opportunity to see the dedication to craft that works on paper reveal, where artists explore and refine their own technique and compositions, drawing inspiration from those who came before, and creating fully formed works of art in their own right.
Several works from the Italian Renaissance are on display, including by Raphael (1483-1520). Linked to his most famous fresco, A Standing Philosopher and Hand Detail (1509) shows Raphael working on the classical drapery and monumental poise that would appear in the Vatican’s The School of Athens (1509-11) later that year. The figure, who does not appear in the final work, demonstrates the careful detail that the great artist employed.
A black chalk portrait drawing, Portrait of a Bearded Man, perhaps Francesco II Gonzaga (1466–1519), dating to c.1490s and attributed to Andrea Mantegna (c.1431-1506), shows his ability to skillfully convey a sense of his sitter’s powerful physical and psychological presence. Here the subject is someone very familiar to him, as he had painted the 4th Marquess of Mantua three decades earlier for one of his very first commissions at the Mantuan court.
The Mannerism of Parmigianino (1504-1540) is seen in a preparatory drawing executed while decorating the Parma church of San Giovanni Evangelista. The drawing shows the artist’s own variation of a motif executed by Correggio (1489-1534) on the cupola decades earlier — that of a cherub embracing an eagle. Another example of the use of preparatory drawings is a red chalk drawing of the Pietà (1566) by Giovanni Battista Naldini for the altar of the Zaccaria family chapel in the Church of San Simone in Florence. This energetic drawing is one of several studies relating to that commission.
Famous for his portraits, Lorenzo di Credi’s (1456-1536) A Female Head (1480s) is most likely a study for the Madonna, bearing a similar grace and beauty that he used in a subsequent painting. This silverpoint drawing requires incredibly precise and defined lines with little room for error, showing the artist’s mastery of his materials.
Further works from Italian Renaissance artists include a Virgin representation by Milanese artist Gaudenzio Ferrari (1471-1546), a Florentine profile portrait of a young man by either Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1431/32–1498) or Piero del Pollaiuolo (c.1441–c.1496), the Head of a Friar by Fra Bartolommeo (1472-1517), and a mythological study by the French court favourite Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570).
Another master of the Renaissance period, this time from Germany, is included with Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1513). It depicts the Christian martyr holding the sword that would later be used to behead her. A comparable painted version of the saint can be found in the central panel of Hans von Kulmbach’s 1513 Tucher Altarpiece in Saint Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg. While the monogram on this sheet points to Dürer, the authorship of this drawing remains inconclusive; Dürer and von Kulmbach — deft draughtsmen in pen and ink — were both active in Nuremberg at this time.
Counter-Reformation imagery is seen in two expressive drawings by early Baroque practitioner Ludovico Carracci (1555-1619), depicting the stigmata in St Francis of Assisi (1588-9) and the assumption in The Apostles Carrying the Body of the Virgin to the Tomb (1605-9).
Specialists in portraiture are also on display, demonstrating the vogues and fashions of their times. Two portraits by the Italian portraitist Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757) show how she used thick blue paper for its chromatic vibrancy when applying radiant pastels to depict either a female head in the allegorical work Winter (1742/3) or the mythological goddess Diana (1742/43). German miniature portraitist Christian Friedrich Zincke (1683-1767) employed a stipple technique of tiny red dots to create skin tones, as seen in his portrait of The Hon Thomas Foley (1723).
The archetypal Pre-Raphaelite muse, Jane Burden, appears in a work of ink, graphite and wash with white highlights on paper by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). A preliminary study for a mural on Arthurian legend that was never executed, here Burden is depicted as Queen Guinevere.
Landscapes across the continent and throughout the centuries are included, such as French Post-Impressionist and Gauguin associate Armand Seguin (1869-1904), who, while based in Le Pouldu in Brittany, created his Trees above the estuary (1892). A graphite and watercolour work by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) shows La Montagne Sainte-Victoire from Les Lauves, near Aix-en-Provence (1902-04), a place which became a focal point for some of his later masterpieces.
A rare drawing by the influential Jan Both (c.1615/18–1652) shows his clear Italian influences in Bridge in a Mountain Landscape with Waterfall (1645). An exquisite etching by near contemporary Rembrandt (1606-1669) shows him combining imagination and realism in a scene of contrasting dwellings. We see a rich city, possibly Amsterdam, at left, a wealthy manor house at right, and a rural dwelling in the centre in his meticulous view Landscape with Cottages and a Hay Barn (1641).
A watercolour work by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) shows Bregenz, Lake Constance, Austria (1840), a place full of ancient monasteries and churches that the artist visited on a journey from Rotterdam to Venice, and here depicts using blue paper.
With a focus on Ireland, the exhibition includes the exalting of classical antiquity with The Parthenon, Athens (1891-1892) by Irish realist artist Nathaniel Hone the Younger (1831-1917), Roderic O’Conor’s (1860-1940) post-impressionist rendering of The Cliff (1893), and a 2006 photograph of the ancient dry-stone walls of the Aran Islands by fellow Irish artist Sean Scully (b.1945), evoking his iconic stripes.
Those at work are also captured through the centuries, from the Dutch painter Constantijn Verhout’s (active 1658–1667) depiction of An Old Woman Frying Pancakes (1660s), to German artist Käthe Kollwitz’s (1867-1965) Working Woman with a Blue Shawl (1903), a colour lithograph that evokes sympathy for the plight of the working labour movement.
Leisure and cultural pursuits have also been a particular focus of works on paper throughout the centuries.
Famous for his depictions of ballet scenes, Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is represented by the pastel Two Ballet Dancers in a Dressing Room (1880), conveying the tumult behind the scenes of a ballet company, while Pablo Picasso’s (1881-1973) own take a few decades later in Two Seated Dancers of Les Ballets Russes, Monte Carlo (1925) shows a more relaxed scene with two dancers reading a newspaper on a break. A further Degas pastel shows Two Harlequins (1884) resting.
Nicolaes Berchem the Elder (1620-1683) shows a different type of pursuit with A Deer Hunt (1657-58), an energetic composition as horseback riders close in on a stag jumping in terror. The work is an example of the brilliance of the 17th-century Dutch painter’s draughtsmanship, which brings out movement and light through black chalk.
Visitors are able to see how draughtsmanship and drawing changed during the beginning of the 20th century, when new and radical art movements were forming.
Although it does not have the colour of his Fauvist works, Henri Matisse’s lithograph on Chinese paper Dancer Reflected in the Mirror (1927) contains his expressive style as a dancer observes her reflection in a mirror. The influence of Fauvism on one of Ireland’s first abstract artists, Mary Swanzy (1882-1978), can be seen in her colourful pencil sketch Panoramic Landscape View over a Plain (1920).
German Expressionism is represented through three of its major proponents. Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966) depicts his own poverty in a reed pen and ink illustration Bettler (1916), highlighting the radical new style and themes that would come to define the Weimar Republic. The moodiness of Max Beckmann (1884-1950) can be seen in the drypoint etching Family Scene (The Beckmann Family) (1918), featuring his estranged wife in a tense and heavy moment. One of the founding members of the movement, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976), is represented by his woodcut on paper At the Nets (Bei den Netzen) (1914).
The exhibition also includes works by artists working today, including printmaker Elke Thönnes (b.1960) and photographer Markéta Luskačová (b.1944).
Niamh MacNally, Curator of the exhibition, Rembrandt to Matisse – A Celebration of European Works on Paper, said: “This exhibition emphasizes the wealth of artistic talent in the collection, and points to the close cultural connections that exist across the countries of Europe. The range of diverse artistic ideas, tastes and traditions on show reveals something of the melting pot that is Europe, an aspect that will hopefully be cherished by generations to come.”
