Paper, Color, Line: European Master Drawings from the Wadsworth Atheneum

When Daniel Wadsworth founded his eponymous museum in his home city of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1842, the collection comprised 79 paintings and a handful of sculptures, mostly by American artists such as Thomas Cole and John Trumbull, from his personal collection. Almost two centuries on, the Wadsworth Atheneum has become the oldest continually operational public art museum in the United States, boasting a large collection of Old Masters, classical bronzes, Impressionist paintings and much more. For this exhibition, the museum has delved into its 1,200-strong holding of European works on paper and selected around 70 for display – many of which are little known and have not been on public view for decades (16 January–27 April). The show begins in the 15th century with an illuminated page from a missal, moving through Vasari’s Descent from the Cross (c. 1537), Rosalba Carriera’s stately pastel Portrait of a Gentleman (c. 1730) and works by Tiepolo, Gainsborough, Ingres, Courbet and more, ending with an impressive collection of 20th-century works, including designs by Léon Bakst and Natalia Goncharova for the Ballets Russes and watercolours on paper by Otto Dix, Joan Miró, Maria Lassnig and others.

Find out more from the Wadsworth Atheneum’s website.
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Descent from the Cross (c. 1550), Giorgio Vasari. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Portrait of Louis-Pierre Haudebourt (n.d.), Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Self-Portrait (c. 1849), Gustave Courbet. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Costume Design for Vaslav Nijinsky as the Faun, from ‘L’Après-Midi d’un Faune’ (1912), Léon Bakst. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford