We often encounter hand drawings in museums today, but originally most had a different, smaller audience. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles explores the fascinating history of this medium in Finding an Audience: 19th-Century Drawings. The show opens Sept. 26.
Some great 19th-century hand drawings were shown in salons, almost on a par with oil paintings. Most of them fulfilled − with equally high quality! − other purposes: they were often studies for paintings, gifts to friends or relatives, or they were sold directly to collectors for private ownership. Drawings usually found a large audience during the 20th century or even in the 21st century in museum exhibitions. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles is taking the historical realities 200 years ahead of our time with Finding an Audience: 19th-Century Drawings, which will offer nearly 40 exhibits, some of them spectacular, from Sept. 26, 2023, to Jan. 7, 2024.
Among the artists are many famous representatives such as Sarah Stone, Edgar Degas, Gustav Klimt, Joseph Mallord William Turner, William Turner of Oxford, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and John Martin. Curated by Julian Brooks, the exhibition offers a wealth of fascinating background on the works, such as this one: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was an alcoholic and suffered from dementia, so his mother had him hospitalized for his aggressive behavior. There, he made drawings of circus scenes from memory to prove his sanity. It worked, he was released: »I bought my freedom with drawings«, the artist is said to have declared afterwards.
With this exhibition, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art examines how part of its collection developed: Collecting Impressionism at LACMA opens on December 21.
On the 500th anniversary of Jakob Fugger's death on December 30, the Schaezlerpalais is commemorating him as a patron of the arts: the wealthy merchant family commissioned numerous artists of their time. The exhibition Art’s Rich Heritage: Jakob Fugger and his Legacy runs until April 12, 2026, in Augsburg.
