On 4 November 2017, a symposium at The Harvard Art Museums will bring together international experts on 17th-century Dutch drawings in honor of George S. Abrams.

Mr. Abrams and his late wife, Maida, pioneered the collecting of Dutch drawings in the United States and have been a unifying force for study and scholarship in the field. Their generous gift of 110 works in 1999 transformed the Harvard Art Museums’ Dutch drawings collection into one of the most comprehensive in any U.S. museum. Speakers will use the vast breadth and depth of the Abrams Collection as a touchstone for discussing the exceptional draftsmanship of the Dutch Golden Age, from Goltzius to Rembrandt.

Since 2010, George Abrams has supported CODART as a Patron. He was interviewed about his passion for Dutch drawings in the first issue of CODART eZine (Autumn 2012).

Speakers

• Stijn Alsteens, International Head, Department of Old Master Drawings, Christie’s
• Susan Anderson, Curatorial Research Associate for Dutch and Flemish Drawings, Harvard Art Museums; and Curator, Maida and George Abrams Collection
• Ger Luijten, Director, Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection
• William Robinson, Maida and George Abrams Curator of Drawings, emeritus, Harvard Art Museums
• Martin Royalton-Kisch, former Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, The British Museum
• Gregory Rubinstein, Senior Director and Head of Old Master & Early British Drawings, Sotheby’s Worldwide
• Peter Schatborn, Head of the Rijksprentenkabinet, emeritus, Rijksmuseum
• Jane Turner, Head of the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum; and Editor, Master Drawings

Session chairs

• Arthur Wheelock, Curator of Northern Baroque Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• Benjamin Weiss, Director of Collections and Leonard A. Lauder Curator of Visual Culture, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Peter C. Sutton, The Susan E. Lynch Executive Director, Bruce Museum

For more information, please see this page on the website of the Harvard Art Museums.

Support for this program is provided by the Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Support Fund.