Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The Magic of Handwriting: The Pedro Corrêa do Lago Collection

June 1 through September 16, 2018

Handwriting works magic: it transports us back to defining moments in history, creativity, and everyday life and connects us intimately with the people who marked the page. For nearly half a century, Brazilian author and publisher Pedro Corrêa do Lago has been assembling one of the most comprehensive autograph collections of our age, acquiring thousands of handwritten letters, manuscripts, and musical compositions as well as inscribed photographs, drawings, and documents.  This exhibition—the first to be drawn from his extraordinary collection—features some 140 items, including  letters by Lucrezia Borgia, Vincent van Gogh, and Emily Dickinson, annotated sketches by Michelangelo, Jean Cocteau, and Charlie Chaplin, and manuscripts by Giacomo Puccini, Jorge Luis Borges, and Marcel Proust.

Rather than focusing on a single figure, era, or subject, Corrêa do Lago made the ambitious decision to seek significant examples in six broad areas of human endeavor—art, history, literature, science, music, and entertainment—spanning nearly nine hundred years. From an 1153 document signed by four medieval popes to a 2006 thumbprint signature of physicist Stephen Hawking, the items on view convey the power of handwriting to connect us with writers, artists, composers, political figures, performers, explorers, scientists, philosophers, rebels, and others whose actions and creations have made them legends.

The exhibition and catalogue are made possible by a lead gift from The Dillon Fund in memory of C. Douglas Dillon.

The Dillon Fund

Generous support is provided by Patricia and Antonio Bonchristiano and Levy & Salomão Advogados, with assistance from Pictet North America Advisors, Galeria Almeida e Dale, Susan Jaffe Tane, and Ruy Souza e Silva.

Letter from seven-year-old Victoria, the future Queen of Great Britain, to her uncle the Duke of York, 16 August 1826. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Selected Images

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564). Pen and ink drawing with autograph instructions for a marble order for the facade of San Lorenzo, [Florence, 1518]. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727). Autograph manuscript related to coinage during his service to the Royal Mint, undated [after 1696 and before 1727]. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Adam Smith (1723–1790). Autograph letter signed, presumably to Thomas Cadell, [London, March 1767?]. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Concluding portion of an autograph letter signed, to his father, Leopold Mozart, [Mannheim], 7 February 1778. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Marie Antoinette (1755–1793). Letter signed, to Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, Versailles, 24 September 1788. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Victoria (1819–1901). Autograph letter signed, from seven-year-old Victoria, the future Queen of Great Britain, to her uncle Prince Frederick, the Duke of York and Albany, Tunbridge Wells, 16 August 1826. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900). Autograph letter signed, to Bram Stoker, London, [1879 or 1880]. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Signed cabinet photograph of Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), inscribed to James E. Kelly, 1882; photograph by Napoleon Sarony. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924). The Girl of the Golden West (La Fanciulla del West), autograph manuscript draft of a portion of act 1, ca. 1908. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Marcel Proust (1871–1922). Swann’s Way (Du côté de chez Swann), autograph manuscript draft of the opening passage, ca. March–April 1913. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago. Image used with permission of the Proust Estate.

Signed photograph of Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919), inscribed to Domingo Arenas Pérez, Tlaltizapán, Mexico, 12 November 1915; photograph by Heliodoro J. Gutiérrez, 1914. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Signed photograph of Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925), by Burr Photo Co., Shanghai, 1912 or later. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925). Autograph letter signed, to Ellen Armour Troxel, Tokyo, 2 February 1915. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Signed photograph of Josephine Baker (1906– 1975), inscribed to Mlle Le “Dunf.,” Paris, 1930; photograph by R. Sobol. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). Autograph invoice signed, to Roy Grinker, written on a personal correspondence card, Vienna, 30 June 1934. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944). Signed handprint, [1935]. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago. © Estate of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Albert Einstein (1879–1955). Autograph mathematical manuscript, ca. 1940s. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.

René Magritte (1898–1967). Autograph letter signed, to Francis Lee, Brussels, 22 January 1946. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago. © 2018 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society

Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) and Lee Krasner (1908–1984). Pen and ink, crayon, and pencil drawing by Pollock, mounted on paper, signed by Pollock on behalf of Krasner and himself, [1946], given to Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Langdon. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago. © 2018 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954). Signed photograph of Kahlo’s work The Frame (1938), hand-colored and inscribed to Roberto Botelho, 23 October 1947. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago. © 2018 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS)

Henri Matisse (1869–1954). Autograph note signed with initials, to Albert Skira, Nice, 16 February 1949. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.© 2018 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997). Signed self-portrait photograph, inscribed, Summit Ayers Rock Self Portrait Arms Length, 24 March 1971 [i.e., 1972]. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago. Courtesy Allen Ginsberg LLC

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018). Signed title page from A Brief History of Time (1993), with thumbprint signature witnessed by Hawking’s personal assistant, Judith Croasdell, inscribed by Croasdell to Philip Dynes, 9 October 2006. Collection of Pedro Corrêa do Lago.