French Drawings of the XV-XVI Centuries from the Collection of the Hermitage

On 12 October 2004 an exhibition opened in the Hall of Twelve Columns in the New Hermitage which includes around 80 works of graphic art from the museum’s Cabinet of Drawings.

The collection dates from 1768 when the Russian ambassador to the Hague, Dmitry Alexeevich Golitsyn, purchased on behalf of Empress Catherine the Great some 46 paintings and about 4,000 drawings of various schools from the collection of the Belgian art enthusiast Count Karl Kobenzl (1712-1770). Among the works of French drawing masters there was a small but notable group of portraits in pencil from the 15th and 16th centuries, all in all 130 sheets.

Two drawings from the collection of Catherine de Medici are especially worth mentioning. These are the Portrait of Charles IX and the Portrait of Henri d'Alba, both works by Francois Clouet (1522 - 1572).

Among the works devoted to specific themes, there is an interesting series of Landscapes with Mythological Figures by Jean Cousin the Younger (ca.1522 - ca.1594) and the cycle of Children's Games by Thomas de Leu, which are among the rarest drawings of the artist.

The main and most valuable part of the Hermitage collection of French drawings from the 15th and 16th centuries constitutes one of the best collection of portraits drawn in pencil which exists outside of France.
Portraits from the 15th century are among the rarest. These are firstly the Portrait of a Man in a Hat by Jean Fouquet (ca.1420 - 1481), às well as portraits by Jean Bourdichon (pre-1457 - ?), Jean Perreal (ca.1455 - 1530) and masters from their circle.

The collection of works dating from the 16th century is significantly richer. Here we find nearly all the major painters represented to a greater or lesser extent: five portraits by François Clouet and his atelier; six portraits by an artist close to the master who was known as the Anonymous Lecourier; a very rare portrait drawing by the founder of an artistic dynasty, Geoffroi Dumoustier; six works by Pierre Dumoustier the Elder (ca.1540 - ca.1600) including a rare set of matched portraits of the artist brothers; and nine works by Benjamin Foulon. Most of the portraits of this period were done on a white background using black chalk and sanguine; over time colored chalk was added, and, at the end of the century, pastels as well.

A 152-page scholarly catalogue of the exhibition has been issued by the Slavia Publishing House. It includes 77 full-color and 38 black-and-white illustrations. The author of the catalogue and curator of the exhibition is I.N. Novoselskaya, who has a doctorate in art history and heads the Department of Western European Art in the State Hermitage.

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Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky at the opening of the exhibition

The catalogue
Larger view

At the exhibition