CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Mirror of Holland: Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection

Exhibition: 20 November 2010 - 6 March 2011

One of the remarkable aspects of seventeenth-century Dutch visual culture is the extraordinary number of gifted artists—even if we leave aside artists of Rembrandt’s caliber—who were active in those years. This is true not only for painting but also for drawing. The Maida and George Abrams Collection is one of the finest assemblages of Dutch drawings ever brought together, featuring works from the late sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The core of the collection, however, is the seventeenth-century drawings. “Mirror of Holland: Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection” features more than 45 works, many of which, particularly the figure drawings, are studies for works in other media, such as paintings or engraved illustrations. Others were conceived as finished works in their own right. The subject matter is highly varied: Portraits, landscapes, and scenes of everyday life coexist with more traditional allegorical, mythological, or religious themes. A special feature of the Abrams Collection is the highly finished studies of natural history subjects.

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