"Interior with Drinking and
Smoking Peasants," Adriaen van Ostade, 1680. Brown ink,
watercolor and gouache, over graphite, on cream antique laid
paper. Courtesy Harvard University Art Museums.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. - An exhibition of more than 100 drawings from
the Maida and George Abrams Collection are on exhibit at
Harvard's Fogg Art Museum through July 6.
Developed over more than 40 years, the collection includes Dutch
and Flemish drawings and is the foremost group of Seventeenth
Century Dutch drawings in private hands. The exhibition will
highlight works recently acquired by the Abramses and will allow
visitors to examine many important drawings that have seldom been
on public display.
"Bruegel to Rembrandt" will feature the Abramses' most
significant acquisitions in the past decade, including works by
Rembrandt van Rijn, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hendrick Avercamp,
Jan van Goyen, Joachim Wtewael and Cornelis van Haarlem. The
exhibition will also showcase a rare group of watercolors
depicting plants and animals. Through their connoisseurship and
acquisition of these watercolors, Maida and George Abrams helped
establish this genre as a collecting area.
Maida and George Abrams established a dynamic relationship with
the Harvard University Art Museums that has lasted since the
1960s. They opened their home to students and scholars, developed
a strong relationship with curator William W. Robinson, and have
helped build the collection of Dutch drawings at Harvard, having
given approximately 200 works of art to the museum.
"Bruegel to Rembrandt" is curated by William W. Robinson, Maida
and George Abrams curator of drawings. The Fogg Art Museum is the
only US venue on the exhibition's international tour.
The first section of the show consists of works by landscapists
from Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his Flemish followers Hans Bol
and Paul Bril to the pioneers of the genre in the northern
Netherlands including Claes Jansz, Visscher, Hendrick Avercamp,
Esaias van de Velde, Cornelis Vroom, Jan van Goyen and Pieter de
Molyn. Among the most significant works in this group is "Wooded
Landscape with a Distant View toward the Sea," 1554. by Pieter
Bruegel the Elder.
A strong selection of figural works created from the 1590s
through the 1620s follows the landscape drawings. This second
group includes biblical subjects, portraits, studies of models
and scenes of daily life by Hendrick Goltzius, Jacques de Gheyn
II, Abraham Bloemaert, Roelandt Savery, Willem Buytewech and
others.
This section will include "The Truce," 1612, a technically
flawless and impeccably preserved drawing by Joachim Wtewael that
belongs to his renowned suite of drawings known as The
Netherlandish History.
Drawings by Rembrandt and his pupils and followers form the third
section of the exhibition. Among the most significant works in
this group is Rembrandt's "A Farm on the Amsteldijk," circa
1650-52.
The next major group features landscapists and marine artists
from the 1640s through 1700. Works by Reolant Roghman, Jacob van
Ruisdael, Anthonie Waterloo, Isaac de Moucheron, Reinier Zeeman
and Willem van Velde the Younger will be included in "Bruegel to
Rembrandt."
Figure and genre drawings from the same period include works of
peasant subjects by Haarlem artists, Adriaen and Isack van
Ostade, Cornelis Bega and Cornelis Dusart. Cornelis Saftleven's
"Standing Drinker," 1636, exemplifies the ingenious technique and
pungent characterization that distinguish the finest of
Saftleven's signed and dated figure drawings.
Natural history illustration includes examples by Johannes
Bronkhorst, Maria Sibylla Merian and her stepfather Jacob Marrel.
"Two East Indian Birds" by Johannes Bronkhorst (1646-1727)
features a long-billed spider-hunter and a Buru
paradise-kingfisher found only on Buru Island and not described
by scientists until 1790 and 1825, respectively, making
Bronkhorst's drawings significant milestones in the taxonomic
history of the species.
The exhibition is complemented by a 300-page catalog published by
the Harvard University Art Museums and distributed by Yale
University Press.
The lecture "An Excellent Avocation: Collecting Drawings in 18th
Century Holland" will be presented on April 3 at 6 pm in the
Sackler lecture hall. The speaker is Michiel C. Plomp, associate
curator of drawings and prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
On April 13, at 2 pm, in the Fogg Art Museum there will be a
gallery talk by Edouard Kopp, Lynn and Phillip A. Strauss Intern,
drawings department.
The Fogg Art Museum is at 32 Quincy Street. Hours are Monday
through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm. For
information, call 617-495-9400 or visit
artmuseums.harvard.edu.
