Paper, Color, Line

This handsome catalogue will shine a spotlight on the Wadsworth Atheneum's impressive collection of European drawings, watercolours and pastels. It features renowned artists, including Courbet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Schiele, Klee, Miró and Picasso, and includes fresh scholarship.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art's rich collection of European drawings, watercolours and pastels is little known and rarely seen. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the museum has acquired by purchase and gift a diverse group of nearly 1,250 European drawings of impressive quality. Paper, Color, Line: European Master Drawings from the Wadsworth Atheneum showcases some sixty highlights of the collection.

This long-overdue catalogue is a unique survey of artists working in drawing media over a span of more than five hundred years. The museum's holdings are particularly strong in works from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Renowned drawings by Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec are included in this selection, as well as highlights by Egon Schiele, Paul Klee and Joan Miró. The collection is distinguished by its theatrical designs, particularly those linked with the Ballets Russes, with contributions by Pablo Picasso, Léon Bakst and Natalia Goncharova.

Significant works from the Renaissance to the Rococo by artists such as Giorgio Vasari, Carlo Maratti and Jean-Baptiste Greuze emphasize the timeless appeal of drawing and will complement the overview.

This will be the first ever catalogue devoted to European drawings at the Wadsworth Atheneum. It will present fresh research on the objects as well as on the history of collecting European drawings at the museum. The catalogue is written by Oliver Tostmann, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of European Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum.

Exhibition Schedule

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Connecticut

16 January – 27 April 2025

Published by Paul Holberton Publishing