Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection

September 29, 2017 through January 7, 2018

This exhibition highlights more than 150 master drawings from the Thaw Collection, one of the world’s finest private collections containing over 400 sheets. Assembled over the last fifty years, and made a promised gift to the Morgan in 1975, the collection has now been given in full to the museum by Life Trustee Eugene V. Thaw and his wife, Clare.

Drawn to Greatness focuses on pivotal artists and key moments in the history of draftsmanship. Works by major masters from the Renaissance to the modern era will be on view, including Mantegna, Rubens, Rembrandt, Canaletto, Piranesi, Watteau, Fragonard, Goya, Ingres, Turner, Daumier, Redon, Degas, Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, and Pollock.

Online Exhibition
Listen to the audio guide narrated by Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Morgan Library & Museum, and curators John Marciari, Jennifer Tonkovich, Isabelle Dervaux, and Ilona van Tuinen. All drawings from the exhibition are available online.

Lead Corporate Sponsor

Morgn Stanley

The exhibition and catalogue are also made possible by a major gift in honor of Eugene V. and the late Clare E. Thaw and in memory of Melvin R. Seiden, generous support from Cosima Pavoncelli, the Ricciardi Family Exhibition Fund, and the Franklin Jasper Walls Lecture Fund, and assistance from the ADAA Foundation and Mr. and Mrs. Clement C. Moore II.

Drawn to Greatness is a program of the Drawing Institute.

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), Leave It All to Providence, 1816-20, black ink and gray wash. Thaw Collection, The Morgan Library & Museum.

Publication: 

Selected images