German Master Drawings
from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection 1580–1900
- Fact Sheet
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- Press Release
This catalogue is published by Paul Holberton in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, to accompany an exhibition there, which is on view from 16 May to 28 November 2010.
In late 2007 the National Gallery of Art, Washington, acquired one of the finest private collections of Old Master drawings, which had been passionately assembled by Wolfgang Ratjen (1943–1997) over three decades. The collection includes rare and influential examples of German works on paper encompassing 16th-century mannerism, the 17th-century baroque, the 18th-century rococo, early 19th-century romanticism, and late 19th-century realism, by many of the most important artists from the German-speaking areas of Europe, including Switzerland and Austria.
The 120 drawings from the collection presented in this beautiful scholarly catalogue range in date from 1580 to 1900. They include rare, evocative, and influential examples by Hans von Aachen, Johann Rottenhammer and Adam Elsheimer; studies for soaring religious ceilings by some of the greatest Bavarian artists, including Cosmas Damian Asam, Matthäus Günther and Franz Anton Maulbertsch; delightful Augsburg designs for rococo prints by Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner, Johann Esaias Nilson, and Gottfried Eichler; landscape watercolours by Johann Georg von Dillis and Caspar David Friedrich; architectural watercolours by Balthasar Neumann, Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Rudolf von Alt; and an exciting group of realist drawings by Hans Thoma, Otto Greiner and Adolph von Menzel.
The catalogue is written by Peter Prange, Andrew Robison and Hinrich Sievekin, with contributions by Sarah Faunce and F. Carolo Schmid.
Peter Prange is curator in the department of prints and drawings at the Hamburger Kunsthalle; he has written extensively on German drawings, especially of the baroque and rococo.
Andrew Robison is A.W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Art.
Hinrich Sieveking is an independent art historian and a leading expert on German drawings of the nineteenth century.
Sarah Faunce is the retired curator of European painting and sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum; she is currently working on a catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Gustave Courbet.
F. Carlo Schmid is director of C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf; his areas of expertise are art around 1800, German expressionism, and book art.
ISBN: 978 1 907372 06 3
320 pages, jacketed hardback, 318 x 240 mm, 193 colour and 22 b&w illustrations
