Seven centuries of drawings close Sunday at the National Gallery of Art

Pablo Picasso, Spanish, 1881 – 1973, Two Fashionable Women, 1900, charcoal, Woodner Collections, Dian Woodner. © 2017 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 
Francisco de Goya, Spanish, 1746 – 1828, Mendigos que se llevan solos en Bordeaux (Beggars Who Get about on Their Own in Bordeaux), 1824/1827, chalk on greenish paper, National Gallery of Art, Woodner Collection, 1993

Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Edgar Degas, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Pablo Picasso are some of the artists represented in the Woodner Collections, 106 drawings now up for only one more day at the National Gallery of Art.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French, 1732 – 1806, Avenue of Cypresses at Villa d’Este, 1760/1765, pen and ink with wash over chalk counterproof, National Gallery of Art, Woodner Collection, Gift of Dian Woodner, 2013

The 1000 works in the National Gallery's collections from Ian Woodner (1903-1990) and his daughters, Dian and Andrea, cover seven centuries, starting from around 1340 A.D. and ending with the 20th century. Some pieces are promised gifts to the Gallery.

The show stretches over several galleries, beginning with the Italians, then, the 18th and 19th centuries, 19th century watercolors, and beyond.

Odilon Redon, French, 1840 – 1916, Cactus Man, 1881, various charcoals with stumping, wiping, erasing, incising, and sponge work, Woodner Collections, Promised gift of Andrea Woodner

Mr. Woodner, a successful real estate developer, was an artist himself who began collecting in the 1950s.  In his professional career, he helped design the Central Park Zoo and 1939 World's Fair buildings, and later he turned attention to development of residential and commercial properties in New York and Washington.  
 
Zanobi Strozzi, Italian, 1412 – 1468, Initial Q with a Procession of Children, c. 1430s, tempera and gold leaf on parchment, National Gallery of Art, Woodner Collection, Gift of Dian Woodner, 2013

His watercolors and pastels enjoyed exhibitions in New York, Munich, London, Madrid, and Jerusalem. At the Woodner Apartments in Washington, some of Mr. Woodner's works may still be seen in the lobby.

Curating the National Gallery's display was Margaret Morgan Grasselli, head of the Gallery's department of old master drawings.

We the people of the U.S. and visitors to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. are grateful to the Woodners for their splendid gifts to the National Gallery whose walls fill with spectacular art for the people to see with free admission. 

Thank you.

What: The Woodner Collections:  Master Drawings from Seven Centuries

When: The National Gallery of Art is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday. The exhibition closes Sunday, July 16, 2017. 

 
Where: The ground floor of the West Building, the National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.

Admission charge: None

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

Last weekend for Rembrandt and friends at the National Gallery of Art

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Rape of Ganymede, 1635, oil on canvas, Gemaldegalerie, Dresden

 Rembrandt van Rijn, The Rape of Ganymede, 1635, pen and brown ink, brown wash on paper, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Washington art aficionados who have not seen the exhibition, Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt, or who want to go again, have through Monday to view Dutch Golden Age drawings and paintings by 54 artists at the National Gallery of Art before the presentation moves to the Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection in Paris.

The display of 91 drawings and 27 paintings tells the "stories behind the paintings," said curator Arthur Wheelock at the show's opening. Like an author's or writer's first draft, these are the basis of the artists' last drafts. Said Mr. Wheeler: "The artistic process unfolds." Rather than painting "on site," many put colors and ink to paper in studios after they observed and sketched spectacular scenery, people, and interiors.

Seeing the "befores" and "afters" firsthand provides insight on the ways the artists worked, their methods and practices, what they kept, what they discarded.

Jan van Goyen made sketches of his trips out to the country which later became his landscapes; Pieter Jansz Saenredam used a compass, rulers, and a straightedge to make exquisitely detailed sketches of church interiors. Pieter Molijn completed Landscape with Open Gate, 1630-1635, in the studio after a visit to the Dutch shore where he drew the scene.

The drawing and painting above of Rembrandt's The Rape of Ganymede, both 1635, are a rare instance of an almost complete drawing used by the artist for his finished work.  The catalog notes the final version contained the mother figure only but outlines of both parents at the bottom in the drawing shows the father aiming a weapon at the eagle. In the oil, the child urinates, in shock.  Most artists drew Ganymede as a youth, and not as a baby. Mr. Wheeler said Rembrandt based it on the artist's observation of "a screaming kid being picked up by his parents."

Arthur Wheelock, curator of northern baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, one of the curators of the show and an author of the catalog, talks about the National Gallery's newly acquired A Woman Feeding a Parrot, with a Page (below), 1666 by Caspar Netscher, the purchase made possible by the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, the first at the National Gallery by Netscher, the first time on view in the U.S., the first time it's hung with its "ricordo" (below)/Photo, Patricia Leslie

A Woman Feeding a Parrot, with a Page (above and below) by Caspar Netscher became part of Hermann Goering's collection after the Germans confiscated it in 1942 during World War II from the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Belgium where the owners had stored it for safekeeping.  When the war ended, the painting was purchased by a private collector and eventually was returned only two years ago to the heirs of the original owners. Then it sold at Christie's for $5.093 million to a London art dealer who sold it to the National Gallery this year.

Caspar Netscher, A Woman Feeding a Parrot, with a Page, 1666, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Caspar Netscher, Young Woman With a Parrot, 1666, the British Museum, London. The label says that rather than a study, this is likely a sketch or "ricordo" Netscher drew to hang in his studio as a reminder of the finished product after it sold. Through collaboration and rather than the usual timing of nine months to achieve such a loan, in a flash of a week, the British Museum rushed the drawing to Washington for the exhibition, marking the first time the two works have hung together.

Michiel van Musscher, An Artist in His Studio with His Drawings, mid-1660s, oil on panel, Liechtenstein, The Princely Collections, Vaduz-Vienna.

Leendert van der Cooghen, Study of a Nude Man, Seated Three-Quarters Length on a Cushion, n.d., black chalk on paper, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris.

A member of a wealthy family, Leendert van der Cooghen did not need art to survive financially.  Consequently, only three of his paintings, but several drawings and etchings, survive.  He probably painted from life, from models in studios.

Aelbert Cuyp, Landscape with Herdsmen, c. 1650-1652, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Corcoran Collection

Aelbert Cuyp's landscape (above) was a scene from the Rhine River Valley populated with animals and humans he drew from other sources.

His Excellency Henne Schuwer, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, welcomes members of the press to Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt. Joining him in the foreground to welcome guests is Girl with Water Lilies by Herbert Adams, bronze, 1928, gift of the HRH Foundation in memory of Helen Ruth Henderson/Photo, Patricia Leslie

A color catalog of more than 300 pages with essays, history, biographies, bibliographies, and more is available. The National Gallery of Art and the Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection, Paris organized the exhibition.

What: Drawings for Paintings in the Age of Rembrandt

When: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday. The exhibition closes January 2, 2017.  The National Gallery of Art is closed on New Year's Day. 

Where: West Building, the National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.

Admission charge: Always free

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com