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. The selection comprises drawings from the seventeenth to the twentieth century that exemplify the sense of wonder that underlies the Eveillards’ collecting practice. Describing it, Betty Eveillard has quoted the eighteenth-century French philosopher, Denis Diderot: “Perhaps we find sketches so attractive only because, being somewhat indeterminate, they allow more liberty to our imagination.” The exhibition includes a study for Rembrandt’s first masterpiece; Greuze’s virtuoso depiction of a young cook made for his friend Jean-Georges Wille; Delacroix’s intimate portrait of Jenny, his confidante and caretaker; and a striking watercolor landscape by Cézanne. Also in the gift are significant sheets by major artists such as Rubens, Guercino, Jordaens, Watteau, Géricault, Constable, Degas, Renoir, Seurat, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rodin, Vuillard, Bonnard, and Gris, including many rarely seen drawings. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
Liberty to the Imagination: Drawings from the Eveillard Gift is organized by John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Department Head of Drawings and Prints, and Curatorial Chair, and Jennifer Tonkovich, Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator of Drawings and Prints.
Liberty to the Imagination: Drawings from the Eveillard Gift is supported by Mr. and Mrs. Clement C. Moore II and the Lucy Ricciardi Family Exhibition Fund. Additional support is provided by Diane A. Nixon, with assistance from Mr. and Mrs. Randall Barbato, Mr. and Mrs. David M. Tobey, and Jane Richards. The exhibition is a program of the Morgan Drawing Institute.
Jean Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725–1805)
A Kitchen Cook, Reading, 1759
Black, white and red chalk, with smudging, on light brown paper.
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, promised gift of the Elizabeth and Jean-Marie Eveillard.
