"Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings" offers the unique opportunity to enjoy one of America's finest private collections of master drawings. It includes ninety-three of the best drawings from the collection: a variety of Italian, French, Netherlandish, German and British works that span more than four centuries of European art. The roll-call of artists featured in the book is impressive. About half the drawings are Italian, beginning with two exquisite Renaissance sheets by Fra Bartolommeo and including major works by Bronzino, Correggio, Bernini, Guercino and Guardi. Approximately one-quarter of the book is devoted to French drawings, with a particularly strong representation of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century masters, among them Fragonard, Ingres and Delacroix. The Netherlandish and German schools include superb composition drawings by Ferdinand Bol and Koninck and a small but beautiful watercolour by Caspar David Friedrich. The British drawings include landscapes by Gainsborough and Martin, as well as an atmospheric seascape by Constable.
This book provides a rare opportunity for collectors, scholars and general readers to enjoy major works of art that are rarely reproduced. The catalogue's sumptuous layout shows all the works in full colour and contains new scholarship on each drawing.