Drawings of the Early Netherlandish School in the Gallery of Graphic Art of the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg was all about the connection between prints and drawings. The exhibition consists of 72 works and spans the chronological period of the 1430s to the 1580s: from the time when Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy united feudal territories in the Low Countries under his rule until the moment when the Early Netherlands broke apart in the course of civil war into a Protestant Holland and a Catholic Flanders. 

The drawings featured in the exhibition are diverse in terms of their subject matter, purpose and technique. Rapid sketches made with pen and brush can be found alongside works executed in the refined silverpoint technique, life studies with compositions on biblical, allegorical and mythological subjects, free improvisations with carefully worked up designs for prints, tapestries, and stained-glass windows. 

The exhibit includes works by Petrus Christus, Jan Gossaert, Maarten van Heemskerck, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Cornelis Massys, Gillis Mostaert, Hans Bol and other major artists. Many of them have never previously been exhibited or reproduced in print. 

The first display of early Netherlandish drawings in the history of the Hermitage took place in 2010. At that time, the public was presented with many previously unknown works that had been identified and given an attribution in the course of the scholarly processing of the collection. Today, thirteen years later the present display has been refreshed to a considerable degree. It includes some works of early Netherlandish graphic art that have come to light in the museum’s stocks in recent years and have not hitherto been published. 

A catalogue in Russian has been published for this exhibition (State Hermitage Publishing House, 2023).