*Miss. Sullivan THE ETROPOLITAN NEWS MUSEUM OF ART RE^JSE Thursday, May 10, 1956 FIFTH AYE.at82 STREET • NEW YORK
Press View Wednesday, May 9, 10 A.M. to 12 M.
LOAN EXHIBITION OF GERMAN DRAWINGS 14TH-20TH CENTURIES SHOWN AT METROPOLITAN MUSEUM; DISPLAY TO BE AUGMENTED 13ITH GERMAN ART FROM THE MUSEUM AND N.Y. PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
An impressive exhibition of German art will be presented at The Metropolitan
Museum, opening to the public today (Thursday, May 10), and will continue through
Sunday, June 10.
Nucleus of the exhibition is a group of 153 drawings of the 14th to 20th
centuries lent by twenty-five museums and private collections in West Germany. The
drawings, from such famous collections as those in the Print Rooms of Berlin, Munich,
Nuremberg and Cologne, include works by some of the best-known German artists such
as Diirer, Cranach and Holbein. They are being circulated in the United States by
the Traveling Exhibition Service of the Smithsonian Institution.
The showing at the Metropolitan will be enriched by additional drawings from the
Robert Lehman Collection and The Pierpont Morgan Library, as well as by numerous
works from the Museum's own collections and those of The Cloisters. The generosity
of the lenders and the richness of their collections combine to make this one of
the most comprehensive and instructive displays of German art ever shown in this
country.
The genius of Albrecht Durer, perhaps the best known and most popular of German
artists, is represented by twenty-four drawings. Fourteen of these come from Germany;
four rare and beautiful ones, including Durer's earliest self-portrait, are lent by
Robert Lehman; four other fine examples are contributed by The Pierpont Morgan
Library; and two are added from The Metropolitan's Museum's collection.
Every phase of Durer's artistic development is shown, from the Two Young Riders,
a pen-and-ink drawing of about the year 1500, to the magnificent Head of St. Mark, a
metalpoint sketch of 1526. The Museum is also exhibiting Durer's painting of Christ
Blessing, which, because of its unfinished state, is a unique example showing each
step of the artist's method from a preliminary drawing to a finished painting.
Among examples of earlier German art are two works by Martin Schongauer, Durer's
famous predecessor, as well as drawings by an anonymous artist of the end of the 14th
century and by the Master E S, active between 1440 and 1467.
The sixteenth century is represented by several important draughtsmen including
Albrecht Altdorfer; Hans Baldung Grien; Lucas Cranach, the Elder and the Younger;
(more) German Drawings--2
Matthias Grunewald and Hans Holbein. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century artists
include Adam Elsheimer; Wenzel Hollar; Mattheus Merian; the Asam brothers; Daniel
Chodowiecki, and Angelica Kauffmann.
A wide selection of drawings by such masters as Caspar David Friedrich; Wilhelm von Kobe11; Hans von Marees; and Max Liebermann provides an unusually good picture of the German nineteenth century. From its own collection the Museum has supplemented this section with drawings by Menzel and Schwind and such famous paintings as
Bocklin's Isle of the Dead. Two late drawings by Lovis Corinth and a Self-Portrait by Kathe Kollv/itz bring the exhibition into the 20th century.
A number of other German paintings, masterworks of German sculpture, goldsmiths' work, porcelain, armor, furniture and tapestries, from the Museum's collections and those of The Cloisters, will be shown with the drawings.
Among pieces from The Cloisters are the statue of Caspar from the Lichtenthal group of the Three Kings; two silver-gilt ewers from the Treasury of the Teutonic
Knights in Vienna; a silver beaker from the Town Hall of Ingolstadt, engraved after designs by the Master E S ; a tapestry lent by Charles Ikle, which depicts scenes from the Life of the Virgin, one of them taken from a print by Martin Schongauer.
The Museum's Department of Medieval Art has contributed a number of works including a pair of late 15th century busts representing St. Catherine and St.
Barbara; two wood reliefs from South Germany, one a Visitation after a woodcut by
Durer, the other a Nativity after an engraving by Schongauer; a large statue of
St. Christopher and the Christ Child, on loan to the Metropolitan from Mrs. George
Trubner; and a 15th century statuette of the Virgin and Child on loan from Mr. and
Mrs. Alistair Bradley Martin (The Guennol Collection).
A sixteenth-century statuette in lindenwood, Figure of Death on a Galloping
Horse; the famous early 17th century chalice of gold, enamel and jewels, known as the Wolff-Metternich chalice; and a large 18th century figure of a dog in Meissen porcelain, a gift of R. Thornton Wilson in memory of Florence Ellsworth Wilson, are among the important objects selected for the exhibition by the Department of
Renaissance and Modern Art. A rare and beautiful saddle of about 1400 from the
Department of Arms and Armor, adorned with plates of carved staghorn, is also shown.
With these and many other additions, the exhibition GERMAN DRAWINGS composes a panorama of the whole art of Germany, spanning a period of five hundred years.
(more) German Drawings--3
Germany has always been especially distinguished for its graphio art. Many
of the draughtsmen represented in the loan exhibition were also famous printmakers, and their drawings were often preparations for engravings. Adjacent to the exhi
bition and opening at the same time is a display FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OF GERMAN PRINTS, composed of fine impressions from the Museum's Print Collection.
Made possible by the cooperation of the German Government, the Staatliche
Graphische Sammlung, Munich, and the German Embassy in Washington, the loan exhi bition of drawings from overseas has attracted a total attendance of more than
250,000 during its seven-month tour in the United States. Since it opened last
Ootober at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, it has been shown at The
Cleveland Museum of Art; The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; The
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and The Toledo Museum of Art.
Exhibition Open Seven Days a Week; Admission 25 4. Free on Mondays.
Admission to the exhibition GERMAN DRAWINGS at The Metropolitan Museum of
Art is 25 cents except on Mondays, when it is free. Members of the Museum are ad mitted free at all times on presentation of their membership cards. Children under
12 are admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Exhibition hours are 10 a.m. to
5 p.m. weekdays; 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays and Memorial Day, May 30.
A catalogue of the exhibition is priced at $1.50. It contains 28 black-and- white illustrations and an introduction by Dr. Peter Halm, Director of the Staatliche
Graphische Sammlung in Munich.
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