Leonardo to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Robert Lehman Collection

Opening at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 4, this exhibition will trace the development of European drawing from the Renaissance to the early 20th century through works by such celebrated masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Rembrandt, Tiepolo, Ingres, Seurat, and Matisse. Drawn from the Museum’s acclaimed Robert Lehman Collection and featuring approximately 55 drawings, the exhibition will present a dynamic array of styles, techniques, and genres—from compositional studies for mythological and biblical narratives to panoramic landscapes and arresting studies of the human form. The selection will also illustrate the different facets of the artists’ creative processes—from Leonardo’s keen anatomical observation in his Study of a Bear, to Dürer’s awakening artistic self-consciousness in his Self-Portrait study, to Rembrandt’s re-interpretation of Leonardo’s painted masterpiece, The Last Supper.

Leonardo to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Robert Lehman Collection is the first presentation to highlight the full range of Robert Lehman’s vast and distinguished drawings collection—numbering over 700 sheets—and to explore his significant activity as a 20th-century collector.

The exhibition is organized by Dita Amory, Curator in Charge, and Alison Nogueira, Associate Curator, both of the Robert Lehman Collection at The Met.

Education programs will accompany the exhibition.

The exhibition will be featured on the Museum’s website, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter via #MetMasterDrawings.

The Robert Lehman Collection

The Robert Lehman Collection is one of the most distinguished privately assembled art collections in the United States. Robert Lehman's bequest to The Met, a collection of extraordinary quality and breadth acquired over the course of 60 years, is a remarkable example of 20th-century American collecting. Spanning 700 years of western European art, from the 14th to the 20th century, the 2,600 works include paintings, drawings, manuscript illumination, sculpture, glass, textiles, antique frames, maiolica, enamels, and precious jeweled objects.

Image: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (French, Montauban 1780-1867 Paris), Study for "Raphael and the Fornarina"(?), ca. 1814(?), graphite on white wove paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection, 1975