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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.

07/05/2025

“Giuseppe Penone: Arboreal Interventions” at our partner institution the Morgan Library & Museum, highlights a group of drawings gifted to the collection by the artist Giuseppe Penone in celebration of the museum’s centennial. Though Penone is best known as a sculptor of the Arte Povera movement, which emerged in Italy in the late 1960s, drawing has always been at the core of his practice. These drawings, on view until August 24, explore the range of the artist’s production on paper, much of which connects to his sculptures or performances.

(Image: Giuseppe Penone, “Tra scorza e scorza (Between Bark and Bark),” graphite, typographical ink, acrylic, and coffee on Japanese paper, the Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the artist in honor of the Morgan's Centennial, 2024, 2024.35. © 2025 Giuseppe Penone / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris Photography by Janny Chiu)

07/03/2025

“Contemporary Drawings from the Stenn Family Collection,” at the Art Institute of Chicago, celebrates the family’s 2023 gift to the museum of 100 drawings and prints. Chicagoan Irving Stenn Jr. assembled a collection of 20th-century art from various movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, and Post-Minimalism. Among these works, on view until September 15, are groups of drawings by Joseph Albers, Sol LeWitt, and Mel Bochner.

(Image: Judy Chicago, “Study for Pasadena Lifesavers Yellow series,” colored pencil over graphite on cream wove paper, 1968. Gift of the Irving Stenn, Jr. Family. © 2025 Judy Chicago & Donald Woodman / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago)

07/01/2025

William Powell Frith and his under-studied drawing practice are thoughtfully explored byMark Bills in the current issue of MASTER DRAWINGS (Vol. 63, no.2). Bills, former Senior Curator of Paintings, Prints, and Drawings at the Museum of London, Curator of Watts Gallery, and the recently retired Director of Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, observes that for Frith, “drawing was the skeleton in the body of a painting, its groundwork, and its definition, the core language of a narrative painter. Without style and fluency in this language, he could not convincingly paint the subjects he did.”

Subscribe now (https://masterdrawings.org/subscribe/) and peruse online before receiving your mailed issue. Access to our digital platform is FREE with your individual subscription.

(Image: William Powell Frith, “From The Road to Ruin,” black chalk, heightened with white, on blue-grey paper, British Museum, London)

06/30/2025

Join Jennifer Tonkovich, Associate Editor of MASTER DRAWINGS, and Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator, Drawings and Prints, the Morgan Library & Museum, for an exciting discussion on “The Drawings of Jean-Antoine Watteau” taking place on Saturday July 5 at 2 pm in London.

Dr. Tonkovich will be joined by panelists Grant Lewis, The Smirnov Family Curator of Italian & French Prints & Drawings (1400-1880) at the British Museum, and Axel Moulinier, collaborator on “A Watteau Abecedario,” catalogue raisonné of the artist’s paintings. The panel will be held during the TROIS CRAYONS selling exhibition “Tracing Time,” featuring drawings from the 15th century through the present day. MASTER DRAWINGS is pleased to partner with TROIS CRAYONS for this thought-provoking discussion.

The panel is free, but registration is required. Learn more and register at:
https://www.troiscrayons.art/tracing-time-events-programme-summer-2025

(Image: Antoine Watteau, “Seated Young Woman,” black, red, and white chalk on buff paper, Morgan Library & Museum, New York)

06/28/2025

“Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers,” at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, showcases MoMA’s recent acquisition of “Nature Studies,” a portfolio of 46 botanical drawings by the Swedish artist. On display for the first time, until September 27, the exhibition explores af Klint’s engagement with the natural world. Created during the spring and summer of 1919 and 1920, the portfolio presents the broad range of Sweden’s flora and showcases the artist’s keen botanical eye. The artist combines her approach to abstraction with traditional botanical drawing, juxtaposing detailed renderings of plants discovered in her surroundings with enigmatic abstract diagrams.
(Image: Hilma af Klint, “Tulipa sp. (Tulip),” Sheet 35 from the portfolio “Nature Studies,” watercolor, pencil, ink, and metallic paint on paper, The Museum of Modern Art, New York)

06/20/2025

Patrick Noon’s first supplement to his 2011 catalogue raisonné of drawings by nineteenth-century British artist Richard Parkes Bonington is revealed in the current issue of MASTER DRAWINGS (Vol. 63, no. 2). The supplement features 54 works on paper, including 27 watercolors, 25 drawings, and 2 oil studies. The twenty-seven watercolors consist primarily of finished landscapes or literary illustrations intended for alba amicorum (friendship book).

Subscribe now (https://masterdrawings.org/subscribe/) and browse through these beautiful works of art before receiving your mailed issue. Access to our digital platform is FREE with your individual subscription.

(Image: Richard Parkes Bonington, “View of the Seine at Saint-Cloud,” (Cat. no. 6), watercolor and pen and ink over graphite with scratching out on wove paper, Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston)

06/18/2025

“In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney,” at the Drawing Center in New York, is the first comprehensive Delaney exhibition at a New York museum in over three decades. It’s also the first-ever exhibition devoted to drawing—the medium that was central to his oeuvre. On view until September 14, the exhibit includes approximately 90 drawings, gouaches, pastels and notebook sketches marking distinct periods of Delaney’s career. Also included are several works on canvas and a detailed display of ephemera—documentary photographs, correspondence, exhibition brochures, and press clippings—compiled with the goal of providing a biographical backdrop for Delaney’s artmaking practice.

(Image: Beauford Delaney, “James Baldwin, 1945,” pastel on paper, gift of the Baldwin family to MacDowell (2018))

06/15/2025

“Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits,” at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, includes more than 100 graphite and acrylic works on paper, and archival materials, spanning over 70 years. Organized chronologically and thematically, they show a range of work from each decade of the artist’s career, many of which have never been exhibited. Works in the exhibition, on view until August 4, were selected from some 17,000 portraits by the artist. Many represent the illustrious social circle of Bachardy and his longtime partner, Christopher Isherwood, including Truman Capote, Bette Davis, and David Hockney, among others.
(Image: Don Bachardy, “Self-portrait 08 18, 2018,” acrylic on paper, Don Bachardy Papers. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. ©Don Bachardy, 2018)

06/13/2025

Join TROIS CRAYONS, an innovative platform which aims to increase awareness, accessibility and visibility of drawings in all their forms, for a series of talks from leaders and specialists in the field. The panels are taking place during “Tracing Time,” a selling exhibition dedicated to drawings and works on paper which span the 15th century until the present day. The presentations will be both on site at Frieze No.9 Cork Street and at other locations throughout London.

MASTER DRAWINGS is pleased to partner with TROIS CRAYONS for an important discussion on THE DRAWINGS OF JEAN-ANTOINE WATTEAU on Saturday July 5 at 2pm. The discussion will be moderated by Jennifer Tonkovich, Associate Editor OF MASTER DRAWINGS, and Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator, Drawings and Prints, at our partner institution, the Morgan Library & Museum. She will be joined by panelists: Grant Lewis, The Smirnov Family Curator of Italian & French Prints & Drawings (1400-1880) at the British Museum, and Axel Moulinier, collaborator on A Watteau Abecedario, catalogue raisonné of the paintings by Antoine Watteau.

Other fascinating discussions taking place June 27-July 5 include:

- Friday, June 27 at 4pm Timeless Materials: A Conversation on Drawing with Contemporary Artists
- Saturday, June 28 June at 2pm Women Artists in Focus: Curating New Narratives
- Monday, 30 June at 4pm The Drawings of John Constable
-Tuesday, July 1 at 4pm Piccadilly Jim: The Discovery of James Gibbs’s Designs for The Façade of Burlington House
-Wednesday, July 2 at 4pm New Ways of Looking at Italian Renaissance Drawings
-Thursday, July 3 at 4pm The Intimate Collector: Why Drawings Thrive in the Digital Age
-Friday, July 4 Between Drawings and Ceramics

Events are free but registration is required. Learn more and register at:
https://www.troiscrayons.art/tracing-time-events-programme-summer-2025

(Image: Antoine Watteau, “Head of a Girl in Cap,” red and black chalk, with white opaque watercolor on light brown paper, Morgan Library & Museum, New York)

06/12/2025

In the current issue of MASTER DRAWINGS (Vol. 63, no. 2) read about eighteenth-century British collector and art theorist Uvedale Price and his 1768 visit to Perugia, Italy. Stefano Rinaldi’s insightful essay discusses several drawings Price bought at a private house, among them were six landscapes by Salvator Rosa, an artist who influenced Price’s “Essay on the Picturesque, as Compared with the Sublime and the Beautiful.” Rinaldi has now identified some of his Perugian purchases, including three important Rosa drawings preserved in the British Museum and three sheets by other artists.

Subscribe now (https://masterdrawings.org/subscribe/) and peruse online before receiving your mailed issue. Access to our digital platform is FREE with your individual subscription.

(Image: Salvator Rosa, “A Group of Broken Trees,” pen and brown ink, British Museum, London)

06/10/2025

“Reform to Restoration: French Art from Louis XVI to Louis XVIII from the Horvitz Collection,” at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, includes 125 drawings and 20 paintings featuring more than 70 artists of the period. Represented are Classicists such as Joseph-Marie Vien, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, François-André Vincent, and Jacques-Louis-David; and early Romantic works by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, Baron Gérard, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and Théodore Gericault. On view until September 14, it also offers a wide array of drawing types and painting styles, from figural and compositional studies to highly finished works for book illustration to major, large-scale public commissions.

(Image: Joseph-Marie Vien, “Love Giving the Prize,” pen with black ink and brush with brown wash on off-white laid paper, The Horvitz Collection, Wilmington.)

06/07/2025

Seize the chance to win the $5,000 Ricciardi Prize for an article on a drawings topic!

The deadline for submissions is NOVEMBER 15, 2025.

Your work will be published in an upcoming issue of MASTER DRAWINGS. The competition, aimed at encouraging young scholars to explore and research drawings, is open to all authors under the age of 40.

You can read this year's winning article in the September 2025 issue of MASTER DRAWINGS.
Go to https://masterdrawings.org/ricciardi-prize/ for information about essay requirements and how to apply. You can also learn about the broad range of research by past winners of the prize.

(Image: Jean-François Millet, “Seated Woman Reading at a Table, Portrait of Pauline-Virginie Ono, the Artist’s First Wife, pastels, heightened with white on brown paper, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam)

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