The National Gallery of Canada is receiving more than half of the print collection belonging to Dr. Jonathan Meakins and Dr. Jacqueline McClaran. The Montreal-based couple are donating 258 Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings, and woodcuts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the benefit of all Canadians. The donation includes work by Rembrandt, Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Brueghel, Jacob van Ruisdael, and many more printmakers.
The Meakins-McClaran print collection of more than 450 works spans more than 500 years, from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, and was patiently built up over four decades. At present, it is the largest private collection of Northern European prints in Canada.
A large selection of the prints is currently on display in the exhibition The Collectors’ Cosmos. The Meakins-McClaran Print Collection, organized by the National Gallery of Canada and on view until 14 November 2021.