Building on the Morgan’s tradition of presenting to the American public distinguished works from outstanding institutions abroad, Van Eyck to Mondrian: 300 Years of Collecting in Dresden focuses on the exceptional drawing collection of the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden. Established by Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony, in 1720, the museum is one of the oldest and finest depositories of works on paper in the world. The Morgan will serve as the sole American venue for this exhibition, which is timed to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the founding of the collection.
Jan van Eyck (1390-1441), Picture of an Old Man, ca. 1435-1440
Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden
The exhibition will celebrate pivotal moments and key traditions in the history of European draftsmanship. Most remarkably, it will feature Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of an Elderly Man (ca. 1435–40)—an exceptionally rare drawing by the great Netherlandish Renaissance painter, which has never before traveled to the United States. The Kupferstich-Kabinett’s strength in Northern Renaissance and Baroque drawings will be further showcased through works by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hans Holbein the Younger, Rembrandt, and Rubens, while the museum’s rich holdings of Southern European works will be represented by Correggio, Bronzino, Sofonisba Anguissola, and others. Among works produced in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, highlights include studies by Caspar David Friedrich, Goya, Käthe Kollwitz, Gustav Klimt, Otto Dix, and Piet Mondrian.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue edited by Petra-Kuhlmann-Hodck, Stephanie Buck, Gudula Metze and Austèja Mackelaitė that explores eighty-four pieces from the collection in Dresden. See the publisher’s website for more information about the catalogue.