Dürer to Friedrich: German Drawings from the Ashmolean Museum

Wednesday, 31 January 2007 23:44

Oxford, UK - Spanning four centuries, this exhibition comprises forty drawings by a range of the most celebrated German Old Masters.  The work of sixteenth century artists Altdorfer, Dürer, Grünewald and Holbein will be displayed alongside later artists from the nineteenth century, including Friedrich and the Nazarenes.  Although small, the Ashmolean Museum's distinguished collection of German drawings is renowned.  The antiquarian Francis Douce bequeathed the earlier drawings to the University in 1834, and of these Dürer occupies pride of place.  The well-known works on paper from the nineteenth-century were left to the Museum by Dr Grete Ring, who came to England from Germany in the 1930s.  On exhibition 27 February to 20 May, 2007.

Highlights of the exhibition include Albrecht Dürer’s (1471-1528) Youth Kneeling before a Potentate.  Watched by two men looking through a window, a young man in a turban kneels before an elder in a vaulted chamber.  The youth is thought to be a self portrait of the artist while the theme of the drawing illustrates a biblical story, possibly Jacob departing from Isaac, Joseph before Pharaoh, or David and Saul.  Dating from between 1492 and 1494, the drawing was likely to have been made following Dürer’s apprenticeship when he traveled widely in the North of Europe. An Elderly Woman with Clasped Hands by Matthias Grünewald (c.1480-1528) is the most striking of the few drawings to have survived by one of the greatest geniuses of German art.  This powerful image of grief ranks alongside the finest drawings by Dürer.

The costume study Portrait of a Woman by Hans Holbein the Elder (1497-1543) was used by Ruskin in his Lectures on Landscape to teach students the rules of drawing.  Ruskin admired Holbein’s ability to create form through the use of light, combined with what he described as “A perfectly sharp linear limit”.  While Dürer was the dominant figure in Nuremberg, Hans Burgkmair (1473-1531) was the most important artist in Augsburg.  An active painter, etcher and a designer of woodcuts, he played a significant role in the development of the chiaroscuro woodcut.  The Ashmolean's Portrait of a Man is a vivid example of his talent in capturing a likeness.

Two centuries later, Caspar David Friedrich’s (1774-1840) Landscape in Bohemia with a View of Mount Jeschken was produced from a sketching tour in Bohemia.  A dedicated draftsman Friedrich undertook sketching tours throughout his career.  This small landscape is characteristic of his early sepia style where the washes were applied in a single layer on top of the original pen drawing.  Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869), founder of the Brotherhood of St. Luke, or the Nazarenes, was influenced by Raphael and Perugino.  Following Friedrich’s arrival in Rome in 1810, Overbeck cherished the idea of producing an illustrated Bible to which other members of the Brotherhood would contribute illustrations.  Although the book was never realised The Prophet Elijah Casting his Mantle over Elisha is thought to have been drawn with this in mind.

For further information please contact The Ashmolean, Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PH at : www.ashmolean.org