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Master Drawings

Master Drawings is the leading international periodical for the study of drawings from the fourteent Master Drawings Association, Inc.

is a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the State of New York on March 16, 1962, for the purpose of disseminating knowledge in the field of Western draftsmanship since the Renaissance. Its mission is fulfilled mainly through the publication of the subscription-based, academic quarterly Master Drawings, which was launched in 1963. The founding Editor was the late Felice Stampfle, Curator o

f Drawings and Prints at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the first Associate Editors were the late Jacob Bean, Curator of Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, who is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Master Drawings aspires to be the leading international periodical for the study of drawings from the fourteenth century to the present day in Europe and the Americas. Edited to the highest academic standards, it seeks to present the best and most important new research in a clear, elegant, and accessible format. The journal is primarily concerned with the publication of newly discovered material, significant reattributions, and fresh interpretations. Each issue, extensively illustrated with high-quality color and black-and-white images, consists of approximately 144 pages of articles, notes, exhibition and book reviews, as well as trade advertising. Other features, such as interviews with living artists and essays about historical collectors or collections, are intended to foster a sense of continuity between the pre-modern and modern eras. The journal’s target readership is a diverse and interrelated constituency of international curators, academics, students, collectors, and dealers. The language of the quarterly is English, but submissions are encouraged from a broad range of specialists throughout the world, mainly Europe and the Americas. may hold events that advance its mission and promote contact and collaboration within all sectors of the international drawings community. In light of changing research patterns in a digital age, the Board of Directors is committed to maintaining an online presence for the journal in order to increase its accessibility by making past content available through internet archiving programs.

01/07/2026

New scholarship by authors under 40 is the focus of the annual MASTER DRAWINGS Symposium, returning in 2026 for its tenth year. The journal awards the Ricciardi Prize to the most groundbreaking contributions by young scholars.

This year, MASTER DRAWINGS is pleased to award the prize to Giovanni Lusi, author of “Behind abstraction: Cy Twombly and Leonardo da Vinci's drawings.” Lusi, a Ph.D. student at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, brilliantly presents the intense relationship Twombly had with the drawings and notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, notably during the early phase of his career, in 1959 and 1960. The opportunity to consult Twombly's private library, together with the rediscovery of important archival materials, has allowed the author to trace the sources of the artist’s often-surprising reinterpretation of Leonardo's model. The research reveals the remarkable role the dialogue with the Renaissance master had on the invention of Twombly’s pictorial language.

The symposium also features 2025 prize runner-up Femke Speelberg, who will discuss her fascinating analysis of a rare, monumental design for a sacrament house attributed to the Late-Gothic German architect Lorenz Lechler. In focusing on Lechler’s design, and its immediate context, Speelberg, Curator of Historic Ornament, Design, and Architecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illuminates the little understood but fundamental role of drawing in the design practice of Gothic artists and craftsmen across a range of disciplines.

Join us on Tuesday, February 3rd at 4:00pm at Villa Albertine, The Payne Whitney Mansion, 972 Fifth Avenue. The symposium is free but registration is required. Register at https://annual-master-drawings-symposium-2026-tickets.eventbrite.com

This event is organized by The Drawing Foundation and MASTER DRAWINGS, and in association with Master Drawings New York 2026. The Symposium is made possible through the generous support of the Tavolozza Foundation.

(Image: Lorenz Lechler and workshop, Detail from “Design for a Monumental Sacrament House,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

01/05/2026

Curators, academics, independent scholars, and doctoral students working in any area of
British visual and material culture can further develop their research by applying for a short-term fellowship at our partner institution, the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA). Applicants may be of any nationality. North American predoctoral applicants must have completed all academic requirements except the dissertation to qualify. Fellowships provide US $5,000 for a four-week research period, with funding prorated for stays of two to four weeks.

Fellows are expected to spend most of their time consulting the museum’s collections but will also have access to other Yale museums and libraries. They are encouraged to participate in YCBA programs and to engage with the broader scholarly community at Yale; are expected to give a brief presentation on their research to YCBA staff; and may also be invited to contribute to one of the museum’s in-gallery program series focusing on individual works in the collection.

The application deadline is January 20, 2026. Apply at https://britishart.yale.edu/research-fellowships-yale-center-british-art

(Image: Joseph Mallord William Turner, “St. Mawes, Cornwall,” watercolor and scraping out on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven)

01/02/2026

“Individuality and Identity: Naming Sitters in French Portrait Drawings,” at our partner institution the Morgan Library & Museum, explores stories of (mis)identification in drawings by some of nineteenth-century France’s artists and their followers, including Théodore Chassériau, Charles Damour, Eugène Delacroix, Joseph Ducreux, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and Léon Louis Antoine Riesener.

In each of the drawings, on view until March 15, the artist’s choices in rendering physiognomy, setting, and wardrobe create the impression that the person represented is real and specific. Naming many of these individuals, however, has proven complex. In some cases, researchers have identified the sitters in drawings that the artist did not intend as portraits but rather as academic exercises, observational sketches, or studies for larger compositions. In others, a sitter’s identification has changed over time, or their name has been lost altogether. These drawings reflect attempts by artists and their subjects to form or reinforce social bonds and to navigate encounters across cultures and social class.

(Image: Léon Riesener, “Study of the Head of a Man,” black and white chalk, on brown paper, the Morgan Library & Museum, New York)

01/01/2026

Wishing all our readers and subscribers a joyful 2026!

Ring in the New Year with a subscription to MASTER DRAWINGS https://masterdrawings.org/subscribe/

(Image: Edwin Austin Abbey, “The Dance,” pen and ink, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

12/29/2025

Learn more about the centrality of drawing to Auguste Renoir’s artistic practice at a symposium taking place Friday, January 30, 2026, from 1-5pm at our partner institution, the Morgan Library & Museum.

“A Draftsman of the First Order: Renoir’s Drawing Practice,” is in conjunction with the exhibition “Renoir Drawings” and will bring together experts on the artist and his works on paper, including exhibit co-curators, scholars, and conservators. They will examine some of his major projects and reveal the details of his working methods.

To register go to https://www.themorgan.org/programs/symposium-draftsman-first-order-renoirs-drawing-practice

(Image: Auguste Renoir, “Study for “The Great Bathers,” red and white chalk, with smudging and blending, on paper mounted to canvas, the Morgan Library & Museum, New York)

12/26/2025

“Fragile: Friable Media in Belgian Art on Paper 1870-1940,” in the Spilliaert Room at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Belgium, pays tribute to Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert and spotlights rarely seen, fragile works from the museum’s collection. Since May, the Spilliaert Room has immersed visitors in the world of the Belgian painter, illustrator, and draftsman. The exhibit, on view until April 19, 2026, also includes works by other artists in the collections, including Henry De Groux, Berthe Art, and Georges Lemmen.

“Fragile” is dedicated to the research project “Friable,” which studies the vulnerability of modern works on paper using powdery materials such as pastel, charcoal, and chalk. It aims to develop a protocol for the conservation and management of this type of collection and to train professionals in the preventive conservation of these works.

(Image: Léon Spilliaert, “Boxes in Front of a Mirror,” pastel, charcoal on paper, fully mounted on cardboard, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium)

12/24/2025

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Happy Holiday season from MASTER DRAWINGS.

(Image: Jean-François Millet, “First Steps,” black chalk and pastel on beige laid paper, The Cleveland Museum of Art)

12/23/2025

“Raymond Pettibon: Underground,” at the Musée Picasso in Paris, explores the artist’s work through seventy drawings and a dozen fanzines. Pettibon's drawings, on view until March 1, 2026, tap into a wide range of sources, from literature to art history, from popular culture to religion, from politics to sports. A self-taught American artist, Pettibon emerged in the late 1970s on the Californian punk-rock scene by designing album covers for the band Black Flag, founded by his brother Greg Ginn.

(Image: Raymond Pettibon, “No title (Let ugly darkness...),” PETRA1920Z © Raymond Pettibon Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner Photo: Kerry McFate)

12/21/2025

“The Carracci Drawings: The Making of the Galleria Farnese,” at the Louvre in Paris, provides visitors a closer look at the decorative interior in the heart of the Palazzo Farnese — the current seat of the French Embassy in Italy. The museum moved the Galleria Farnese to Paris, where the collection of extraordinary preparatory drawings recreates the gallery in the manner of a jigsaw puzzle. Never have so many drawings for a painted interior been preserved, from the rapid sketch outlining the artist's initial ideas to the large cartoon measuring several meters per side, which contains a full-scale drawing of the fresco. The immersive exhibition design reproducing the Galleria’s vault, on view until February 2, 2026, also includes a second ceiling: that of the Camerino, a small room Annibale Carracci was given to test his designs.

(Image: Annibale Carracci, “Torso study,” black chalk, heightened with white, on grey-blue paper, Royal Collection Trust, London)

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12/18/2025

A fresh interpretation of an early heraldic drawing by Albrecht Dürer is put forth by Luming Guan in the current issue of MASTER DRAWINGS (Vol. 63, No. 4). Guan, who specializes in late medieval and northern Renaissance art, suggests that “the content of [this] drawing has not been properly understood by past art historians, nor has its satirical intent been correctly interpreted.” Her thorough analysis demonstrates that “through the study of a specific motif—the bird wing—we can but begin to decipher these enigmatic images, revealing a rich and vibrant world of symbolic pictorial narration in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century German art.”

Subscribe (and renew!) now at https://masterdrawings.org/subscribe/ to read this impressive issue which proudly celebrates the Ricciardi Prize for young scholars. The issue honors the journal’s forward-thinking patron, Lawrence R. Ricciardi, whose generosity makes the prize possible. Free digital access is always included with your subscription.

(Image: Albrecht Dürer, “Coat of Arms with a Pelican and a Man Leaning on a Stove, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam)

12/15/2025

“Nordic Noir: Works on Paper from Edvard Munch to Mamma Andersson,” at the British Museum, includes around 150 pieces from 100 different artists in an exhibition celebrating graphic works on paper from the Nordic region. Key themes throughout the exhibition are nature and the vital urgency to preserve the environment of the fjords, mountains and forests unique to the region. The artworks, on display through March 22, 2026, also delve into the worlds of Norse myth, inner struggles with mental health, post-war angst and the threat of the Cold War, and feminism and the rights of the Indigenous Sámi people. In addition to Edvard Munch and Mamma Andersson, featured artists include Olafur Eliasson, John Savio, Vanessa Baird, Yuichiro Sato, Fatima Moallim, John Kørner and many more.

(Image: Vibeke Slyngstad, “Shuafat II, 2023,” watercolor, reproduced by permission of
the artist © The Trustees of the British Museum)

12/12/2025

“David Wilkie: Drawings,” at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, shows the variety of Wilkie’s drawings throughout his career and the role they played in his complex paintings. On view until February 8, 2026, the artworks demonstrate his use of pen and ink for spontaneous sketching, and precise chalk studies of key details. From the 1820s, Wilkie increasingly added watercolor to his drawings. His late drawings combine chalk and bold color to create powerful, independent works of art.
(Image: Sir David Wilkie, “The Burying of the Scottish Regalia,” pen and watercolor on paper,” National Galleries of Scotland)

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