Master Drawings

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 of 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.

“Renoir the Draftsman,” at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, reprises the exhibition first seen in New York at our institution...
06/03/2026

“Renoir the Draftsman,” at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, reprises the exhibition first seen in New York at our institutional partner, the Morgan Library & Museum in late 2025. On view in until July 5, it is the first comprehensive exhibition in more than a century devoted to the works on paper of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The exhibit highlights the importance of graphic techniques in the evolution of his art and reveals the close links between his paintings and drawings. Presented are around one hundred works from around the world, including previously unseen sheets and several paintings.

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

The summer issue of MASTER DRAWINGS (Vol. 64, No. 2) honors former Editor of the journal, Jane Turner, and presents a re...
06/01/2026

The summer issue of MASTER DRAWINGS (Vol. 64, No. 2) honors former Editor of the journal, Jane Turner, and presents a remarkable number of exciting discoveries in the field of Northern European drawings, including a recently discovered sheet now in the Rijksmuseum of “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” by Gerrit Pietersz featured on the cover.

Original research on a wide range of draftsmen and subjects includes the identification of a group of works by the newly named “Master of the Hollow-Eyed Figures,” striking écorché studies by Jan Harmensz. Muller, and recently uncovered drawings and documents by Stradanus that shed light on the artist’s network and his practice of making print designs. Another essay documents the full range of Jan Boeckhorst’s preparatory studies for his “Story of Apollo” tapestry series, which also reveals some inventive paper reuse in the artist’s drawings. Additional contributions explore topics such as the collaboration in the “Atlas Blaeu–Van der Hem” between Willem Schellinks and Jacob Esselens; new attributions of figure and history subjects in drawings by Anthonie van Borssom; and the revelation of two landscapes by the Haarlem Mannerist Jan Nagel, expanding his small surviving oeuvre. Finally, the exhibitions of Flemish drawings held in Antwerp and Oxford in 2023–2024 are thoughtfully reviewed.

Subscribe (and renew!) now at https://masterdrawings.org/subscribe/ to read this impressive issue. Free digital access is included!

(Cover: Gerrit Pietersz, “The Rest on the Flight to Egypt (detail),” Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

“Early Netherlandish Drawings,” at the British Museum, brings together 110 works by well-known artists such as Rogier va...
05/31/2026

“Early Netherlandish Drawings,” at the British Museum, brings together 110 works by well-known artists such as Rogier van der Weyden, Lucas van Leyden, Pieter Bruegel the elder and Hendrick Goltzius. Lesser-known masters, anonymous sheets and workshop copies are also included, offering a rich and comprehensive account of drawing across the region.
The British Museum's collection of pre-1600s Netherlandish drawings, more than 1,200, is one of the most important in the world and provide an opportunity to piece together this sometimes-fragmented narrative.

The exhibit, on view until September 20, examines the function of drawings in the workshop, and their role in the design and production of paintings, tapestries, painted glass, sculpture and prints. Thematic displays highlight new subjects that were introduced into Netherlandish drawings during this period, including landscapes, proverbs, and a local iteration of the antique style, spurred by contact with Italy.

(Image: Lucas van Leyden, “An Old Man Drawing, the British Museum, London)

Learn about “Drawing and the Early Modern City” in a fascinating lecture on June 9 at 6pm at our institutional partner, ...
05/29/2026

Learn about “Drawing and the Early Modern City” in a fascinating lecture on June 9 at 6pm at our institutional partner, the Morgan Library & Museum. Katie Scott, Professor Emeritus in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the 2025–26 Thaw Senior Fellow at the Morgan Drawing Institute, will explore the emergence of a distinctly urban mode of drawing in Paris through the work of Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780) and Pierre-Louis Dumesnil (1698–1781).

The lecture considers not only how the city was visually characterized, but also the diverse modes and formats used to capture it—from sketchbooks and single-sheet prints to chalk, pencil, and pen and ink—revealing how drawing became an essential tool for observing, recording, and reimagining the early modern city.

The lecture is free, but registration is required. Learn more here: https://www.themorgan.org/programs/lecture-katie-scott-drawing-and-early-modern-city

(Image: Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin, “Young Woman Standing on the Seat of a Carriage,” black chalk, with black ink and wash, on paper, the Morgan Library & Museum, New York)

“Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds,” at the Jewish Museum in New York, focuses on the artist’s response to the rise of fa...
05/26/2026

“Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds,” at the Jewish Museum in New York, focuses on the artist’s response to the rise of fascism in 1930s Europe during the final decade of his life.
The exhibition, on view until July 26, features some 100 paintings and drawings, among them select works from Klee’s earlier practice, including his rarely exhibited and iconic Angelus Novus (1920). The works illuminate his search for new methods of expressing social critique, nonconformism, mythopoetic thinking, and an evolving approach to developing a new vocabulary for confronting the horrors of political persecution and violence.

(Image: Paul Klee, “Tropical Blossom (Tropische Blüte),” oil and pencil on primed paper on cardboard. Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern. ©2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

Shana Cooperstein’s book, “Drawing Pedagogy in Modern France: Habit’s Demise,” is thoughtfully reviewed by Britany Salsb...
05/24/2026

Shana Cooperstein’s book, “Drawing Pedagogy in Modern France: Habit’s Demise,” is thoughtfully reviewed by Britany Salsbury in the current issue of MASTER DRAWINGS (Vol. 64, No. 1).

“Overall, the book suggests a framework for new ways of considering the graphic output of artists from nineteenth-century France and is a welcome contribution to scholarship on this topic,” concludes Salsbury, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Subscribe now https://masterdrawings.org/subscribe/ to read Salsbury’s insightful review. Free digital access is always included with your subscription.

(Image: Frédéric Régamey, “Winter Scene in a Paris Boulevard: Excavators and Carmen at Work, Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

“Drawings in Theory and Practice: Connoisseurship – Collecting – Curatorial Practice,” organized by the Albertina and th...
05/21/2026

“Drawings in Theory and Practice: Connoisseurship – Collecting – Curatorial Practice,” organized by the Albertina and the Institute of Art History at the University of Vienna with generous support from the Wolfgang Ratjen Foundation, is a unique opportunity for doctoral students and early post-doc researchers working in the field of drawings and prints. The course will include discussions of current research on the graphic arts and, at the same time, provide insight into one of the most renowned collections of prints and drawings. Participants will also learn about different curatorial practices: conception and planning of exhibitions, publication of catalogues, conservation and marketing, collecting and provenance research.

The course takes place in Vienna, July 27 – 31, 2026 and is directed by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sebastian Schütze and Dr. Christof Metzger. Participants are expected to present aspects of their current research in a 30-minute paper. Applications, including c.v., short description of the drawing or print related research project, and a reference letter from a university professor, should be sent by June 8, 2026 to Dr. Silvia Tammaro: [email protected]. Applicants will be notified by June 15, 2026.

(Image: Framed Drawings from Giorgio Vasari’s “Libro dei Disegni,” Albertina Museum, Vienna)

“Hubert Robert & Fragonard Exhibition: The Feeling for Nature,” at the Musée de Valence, highlights the artistic dialogu...
05/20/2026

“Hubert Robert & Fragonard Exhibition: The Feeling for Nature,” at the Musée de Valence, highlights the artistic dialogue between these two eighteenth-century painters and their shared sensitivity to landscape, a fascination that bound them throughout their careers. The exhibition includes nearly 80 drawings, paintings, and engravings. It draws on the richness of the museum's collection, one of the most important devoted to Hubert Robert, as well as on international loans. On view until June 21, it retraces the artists’ beginnings in Rome in the mid-eighteenth century, where they met, became friends and sketched in the gardens of villas and in front of the waterfalls of Tivoli. Their careers subsequently diverged: Robert took up official duties with the king in France, while Fragonard travelled to Holland and Flanders. The exhibit focuses on the complementary nature of the two men’s intellectuality and sensuality, based on their respective favorite themes, ruins and pastoral scenes.

(Image: Jean-Honoré Fragonard, “Terrace in an Italian Garden (Terrasse dans un jardin italien),” red chalk on laid paper, Courtauld Gallery, London)

“The National Gallery in Prague: Italian Drawing from the 16th to the 18th Century: Illustrated Summary Catalogue,” is r...
05/17/2026

“The National Gallery in Prague: Italian Drawing from the 16th to the 18th Century: Illustrated Summary Catalogue,” is reviewed by Catherine Monbeig Goguel in the current issue of MASTER DRAWINGS (Vol. 64, No. 1)

“A catalogue such as this, ripened over several decades… constitutes a very trustworthy corpus,” says Goguel, a specialist in the history of Italian drawing from the 16th to the 18th century.

Subscribe now https://masterdrawings.org/subscribe/ . Free digital access is always included with your subscription.

(Image: Astolfo Petrazzi, “The Assumption of the Virgin with Donors,” National Gallery, Prague)

“Paper Technologies: Italian Prints and Drawings,” at the Dallas Museum of Art, delves into the complex world of early m...
05/12/2026

“Paper Technologies: Italian Prints and Drawings,” at the Dallas Museum of Art, delves into the complex world of early modern Italian prints and drawings (1500-1750) and their “afterlife.” The exhibition reflects the diversity of works on paper across artistic centers from Venice to Rome. Featuring “The Banquet of the Rich Man,” a rare drawing by Neapolitan artist Luca Giordano, the exhibit, on view until September 20, presents treasures from the DMA’s permanent collection alongside never-before-seen works from private collections.

(Image: Luca Giordano, “The Banquet of the Rich Man,” graphite, chalk, ink on paper, Dallas Museum of Art)

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