Bruegel and Rembrandt Drawings Come to Fogg

More than a hundred drawings hung in delicate gold frames fill four rooms of the Lee Gallery. The drawings range from delicate sepia-toned sketches of wooded landscapes by Pieter Bruegel the Elder to vibrant watercolors from lesser-known artists such as Maria Sibylla Marian.

Having returned from a European tour with stops at the British Museum and the Institut Netherlands in Paris, Bruegel to Rembrandt: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection is making its next stop at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum.

Organized in roughly chronological order, the exhibit includes a recently discovered work by Bruegel and seven drawings by Rembrandt, in addition to samples of work by other old masters, including Jacob von Ruisdael and Jacques de Gheyn II, whose “Three Studies of a Dragonfly” (c. 1600) is particularly stunning.

“It’s the best private collection of 17th century Dutch drawings anywhere in the world,” said Maida and George Abrams Curator of Drawings William W. Robinson, who curated the exhibition.

While some of the represented artists may not be familiar to most of the public, the exhibit offers viewers a broad introduction to the work of 17th century Dutch artists, and the various subjects they treat: landscapes, figure studies, architecture, Biblical subjects, quotidian scenes and natural history.

Though the big names—Bruegel and Rembrandt—may draw crowds, it may be lesser-known artists’ works that hold the longest gazes.

“Dutch art was a kind of vanguard art because of its interest in naturalistic representation and secular subjects,” Robinson said. “It was always considered a kind of art apart, just as the Dutch republic was a kind of novel form of government and regarded with disdain by aristocratic and monarchical regimes. So in that sense, Dutch art was a kind of revolutionary, innovative art in the 17th century.”

The current exhibit represents only a part of the personal collection of the late Maida Abrams—who passed away last year, and to whom the exhibit and associated catalogue are dedicated—and George S. Abrams ’54, who is also a Crimson editor. Over the course of 40 years of collecting, the Boston couple assembled the world’s most comprehensive private collection of 17th century Dutch drawings.

“My wife and I started collecting in 1960, when we were in our twenties,” Abrams said. “We loved drawings and very early on we started concentrating on Dutch 17th century drawings. We really were collecting for ourselves and it was a little against the trend of collecting at the time. The real interest in drawings was in Italian and French. But we loved the Dutch area.”

One piece of particular note is a recently-identified drawing by Peter Bruegel the Elder. Acquired by the Abrams in 1992, it remained anonymous until identified by prominent Bruegel scholar Hans Mielke in 1994.

“That’s part of the fun. One of the wonderful things is to learn about all of those things, and be able to recognize drawings by specific artists because most of them are not signed,” Abrams said. “Each drawing has stories like that. That’s what makes it fascinating.”

The Abrams began their relationship with Harvard and the Fogg Museum more than 25 years ago.

“My wife and I continued to collect in that area and periodically make gifts to Harvard to try to strengthen the Dutch drawing area in the Fogg collection,” said Mr. Abrams. “We always thought it was rather special to be able to hold wonderful works of art in your hands and be able to look at them intimately. We thought that students doing that would get a pleasure that they can’t normally get.”

Another significant portion of the Abrams collection was organized as another exhibit in the art museums in 1992, entitled Seventeenth-Century Dutch Drawings, A Selection from the Maida and George Abrams Collection. However, in the last decade alone, their collection has significantly grown, as 50 percent of the 113 drawings currently on display were acquired since the last exhibit.

“I can’t say that I have evidence that it’s bringing hordes of undergraduates through the door,” Robinson said. “But we hope, and that’s why we do exhibitions, that people will see the things in the gallery and then take an interest and come and see the many more examples that we have in our study room, which is accessible to anybody.”

Sixteen of the drawings currently on display have been permanently donated to the Fogg museum, part of a total donation of 110 works donated by the Abrams in 1999. Many of the rest, according to Robinson, are on long-term loan to the Fogg, and remain accessible even when not on display.

—Bruegel to Rembrandt: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection will be on display in the Fogg until July 6.