Liberty to the Imagination: Drawings

The Morgan celebrates the 100th year of its founding with a series of exhibitions devoted to promised gifts to the museum, including twenty-eight drawings from the holdings of New York–based collectors Elizabeth and Jean-Marie Eveillard, which will be on view during the summer of 2024. 

The selection comprises drawings from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. It includes a rare compositional study for Rembrandt’s first painting; Greuze’s virtuoso depiction of a young cook made for his friend Wille; Delacroix’s intimate portrait of Jenny, his confidante and caretaker; and a spectacular nude by Bonnard. Also in the gift are significant sheets by major artists such as Rubens, Guercino, Jordaens, Watteau, Géricault, Constable, Degas, Renoir, Seurat, Gauguin, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rodin, Vuillard, and Gris, including many rarely seen drawings. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue in which drawing specialists explore the creation and context for each sheet, considering the artists’ choices and the ways in which drawing liberated the imagination in these exploratory studies.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website