The past of works of art

How did works of art end up in museum collections? Provenance research has taken on an increasingly important role in recent years. The Kunsthalle Bremen is now presenting the results of many years of research: Comprehensive object biographies have been produced on 40 drawings and two sketchbooks by French artists of the early modern period. The focus was on works whose paths into the collection urgently needed to be clarified, for example because they came into the possession of the Kunsthalle during or shortly after the Nazi era. The exhibition Corot to Watteau? On the Trail of French Drawings can be seen at the Kunsthalle Bremen from April 30 to July 27. This special show was curated by Dr. Maria Aresin and Dr. Brigitte Reuter.

The exhibited works include numerous never-before-seen master drawings by artists from the 16th to 19th centuries. They include Michel Corneille, Camille Corot, Antoine Coypel, Jacques-Louis David, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Baptiste Huet, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Amédée van Loo, Charles Joseph Natoire, Charles Parrocel, Hubert Robert, Marie-Ernestine Serret, Pierre Le Sueur, François Verdier, Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Simon Vouet.