In Celebration of Editor Jane Turner
After 22 years of exceptional service to the journal, Jane Turner is retiring from her position as Editor following the publication of this issue. Jane’s remarkable skills as a drawing connoisseur and her talents as an editor have significantly contributed to the journal’s success over the past two decades.
Jane’s editorial journey began when she was hired by Felice Stampfle as Assistant Curator in Drawings and Prints at the Morgan Library in the late 1970s. Stampfle, one of the journal’s founding editors, provided Jane with invaluable guidance that helped her quickly learn the intricacies of producing a quarterly journal while also serving as a curator. After leaving the Morgan in 1984, Jane further honed her editorial skills during her twelve-year tenure as the Editor-in-Chief of the landmark 34-volume Grove Dictionary of Art (1996).
In 2004, Jane was appointed Editor of Master Drawings. Following an elegant redesign of the journal by Jak Katalan in honor of her appointment, her first issue (vol. 43, no. 1) was published in the spring of 2005. Since her arrival, Jane has worked closely with a diverse range of scholars to create compelling and informative issues that are richly illustrated, with articles that have helped define and advance the field. During her tenure, the journal celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2013 and its sixtieth in 2023, while also expanding its reach to include articles and reviews exploring drawing from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century.
The journal publishes four times a year—in late January, early April, late July, and early November. Jane has never missed a deadline, despite challenges such as January blizzards, the annual rush of Maastricht and the Salon du dessin in March, summer vacations that take authors and editorial board members away from their desks, and autumn filled with fairs, events, and holidays. There were many late nights and weekends spent with page proofs and her laptop, and in time urgent phone calls and faxes gave way to rapid exchanges of emails and pdfs. Throughout 80 issues, Jane developed deep and lasting friendships with members of the drawing community, from graduate students to senior scholars, all of whom appreciated her thoughtful editing, unwavering dependability, and midwestern openness.
From 2012 until the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Jane also led the Rijksprentenkabinet in Amsterdam. In addition to mentoring staff and fellows—many of whom became contributors to the journal—she implemented a robust program of exhibitions and publications. Alongside Ger Luijten, she developed a two-year Rijksmuseum-Fondation Custodia Fellowship to train the next generation of drawing curators. Her 2016 exhibition dedicated to the drawings of Frans Post provided groundbreaking research for an entire issue of the journal. Jane’s proactive approach led to the creation of an online Digital Resources component for the journal in 2020, allowing Master Drawings to publish longer catalogues, checklists, archival documents, and other original content on the website that could not fit into a print issue.
Her passionate commitment to mentoring dates back to her early experiences under Stampfle’s guidance. One of her notable achievements for the journal was the establishment of the Ricciardi Prize in 2018, awarded for the best article by an author under 40. This initiative has successfully encouraged the next generation of scholars not only to contribute to the journal but also to learn firsthand about the publication process. The prize has far exceeded its goals in encouraging submissions from emerging scholars, with nearly one-third of the journal’s content each year now comprising contributions from young scholars.
Throughout her tenure, Jane has been a tireless advocate for connoisseurship. Beyond copyediting and page layout design, she has thoroughly checked footnotes, scrutinized arguments, secured difficult-to-obtain images, and done everything within her power to maintain a rigorous standard for the journal’s content. She has embraced ambitious ideas and new approaches, providing both compassionate support and tough love to authors as needed. That she has done so with humor, grace, and a spirit of generosity reflects the qualities that make her a treasured colleague and mentor.
Chips Moore, President, and the Board of the Master Drawings Association, along with the Editorial Board of Master Drawings, express their heartfelt appreciation for Jane’s tireless efforts and wish her a wonderful, deadline-free retirement!
