Master Drawings, Autumn 2024
A menagerie of finely drawn animals adorns the cover of the latest issue of Master Drawings (Vol. 62, no. 3). In the lead article Tamara Kobel delves into the fascinating world of Swiss artist Wilhelm Stettler and his “Eyerstock,” sketches and doodles that formed a rich artistic tool with a fertile pantry of motifs. What role did these diverse drawings (dozens of animals alongside war machines, musical instruments, skeletons, flowers, temples, and ships) play in the artist’s career and his creative process? Read this prize-winning essay to learn more.
The Fall issue also features explorations into two eighteenth-century draftsman whose work deserves closer study. A significant body of unpublished drawings by French artist Hyacinthe Collin de Vermont is brought to light by François Marandet, revealing why he stands out as such an original artist. Elania Pieragostini presents two unpublished watercolors by English painter William Pars, further illustrating how his journey through Greece and Asia Minor spurred his well-known visual documentation of ancient monuments.
A resounding five reviews shed light on the wide range of recent exhibitions and literature being produced globally by drawings scholars. The significant undertaking of Botticelli Drawings, the 2023 exhibition at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Académie de France in Rome’s Gribouillage/Scarabocchio: De Léonard de Vinci à Cy Twombly presentation of almost 300 original works spotlighting many generations of artists scribbling and doodling; and Drawing on Blue: European Drawings on Blue Paper, 1400s–1700s at the Getty, are all closely examined. Other reviews include a deep dive into Berlin’s 2024 exhibition of Maarten van Heemskerck and a compendium on the artist’s drawings and sketchbooks while an analysis of the two-volume catalogue raisonné of Paula Modersohn-Becker fills a major gap in the understanding and appreciation of this nineteenth-century German master.
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(Cover image: Wilhelm Stettler, Exotic Animals and Other Motifs, Burgerbibliothek, Bern)
Post 9/1/24
