Master Drawings Rediscovered Treasures From Prewar German Collections

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Master Drawings Rediscovered Treasures from Prewar German Collections.Tatʹjana Afanasʹevna Ilatovskaja (Kuratorin.), Gosudarstvennyj ĖrmitažState Hermitage Museum, 1996 - Art - 224 … more Master Drawings Rediscovered Treasures from Prewar German Collections.Tatʹjana Afanasʹevna Ilatovskaja (Kuratorin.), Gosudarstvennyj ĖrmitažState Hermitage Museum, 1996 - Art - 224 pages
Recently it became known that for nearly fifty years the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has held in storage a major trove of artworks from German private collections. Taken to the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, these masterworks had not been seen since and were generally thought to have been lost or destroyed. Among the treasures of Master Drawings Rediscovered is a magnificent collection of thirty-five drawings by Francisco de Goya. The volume also features large groups of works by such central French artists as Honore Daumier and Paul Signac, as well as individual sheets by Paul Cezanne, Eugene Delacroix, J.-A.-D. Ingres, Jean-Francois Millet, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. There are in addition numerous drawings by the German Adolph von Menzel and by the Englishman Thomas Rowlandson. From the twentieth century, there are works by Emil Nolde and an extensive group by Alexander Archipenko. A highlight of the volume is one of the most famous of all Vincent van Gogh's images, his renowned watercolor Boats at Saintes-Maries. For each of these works, Dr. Tatiana Ilatovskaya has written an illuminating commentary, placing the drawing within the context of the artist's oeuvre. Citations are given for each work's provenance and literature. All eighty-nine drawings are reproduced in color, as full-page plates, supported by comparative illustrations reproduced in black-and-white.This volume reproduces 89 drawings chiefly from former private collections, a number of them previously unpublished. The drawings span the 19th and 20th centuries, with 30 by Goya and substantial numbers by Daumier, Menzel, Signac, and Archipenko, as well as individual sheets by Ingres, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and others. The detailed two- to three-page commentary on each work is perceptive and focused on the art-historical and aesthetic issues. A brief introduction sketches the provenance of many of the drawings. The political question of ownership is raised but not resolved; in any case, placing these images back in circulation is itself a great service. Valuable for general readers and specialists, this is highly recommended for all collections.
* Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harry N. Abrams; First Edition (January 1, 1996)
* Language ‏ : ‎ English
* Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages less