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The Thaw Collection is an exhibition of works that have been acquired by Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw since 1994. In the decades since the early 1950s, when they obtained their first drawing, a figure study by Giambattista Tiepolo, they have assembled one of the finest collections of drawings and watercolors in private hands. On the occasion of the first exhibition of their drawings at The Morgan Library & Museum in 1975, the Thaws announced their intention to eventually present the collection to the institution.

Comprising fifty-eight examples in manuscript or printed editions, Painted Prayers: Medieval and Renaissance Books of Hours from the Morgan Library examined the tremendous popularity of Books of Hours through an exploration of their customary prayers and the beautiful pictures that traditionally accompany these texts.

“I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied.” —Julia Margaret Cameron

Drawing upon the rich holdings of the Morgan’s collection of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts, Now and Forever explores how people told time in the Middle Ages and what they thought about it.

By the early nineteenth century, artists throughout Europe had grown increasingly interested in depicting the weather.

This exhibition highlights more than 150 master drawings from the Thaw Collection, one of the world’s finest private collections containing over 400 sheets.

Treasure bindings—book covers encrusted with gold, silver, and gemstones—were a luxury in the Middle Ages.

This exhibition explores the history of the medium as a lucid, literate—but not always literal—tool of persuasion.

The show focuses on artists who worked on the frescoes, paintings, tapestries, and other decorative work that embellished the magnificent Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, best known as the home of the Medici dukes.