Calvin Discovers Decades-Old Drawings

From: Phil de Haan <dehp@calvin.edu>
Date: Mon Oct 01 2007 - 10:46:45 EDT

October 2, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: A trio of drawings hidden in the permanent art collection at Calvin College for over four decades was recently discovered by the college's director of exhibitions.

Full story see For more see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2007-08/den-hague.htm

A trio of drawings hidden in the permanent art collection at Calvin College for over four decades recently was discovered by the college's director of exhibitions.

Joel Zwart uncovered the previously unknown sketches by Dutch artist Anton Mauve late this summer as he was preparing for "Between Nature and Nationality: The Hague School in the Nineteenth Century," a major exhibition of Dutch art opening at Calvin this week.

He found the new drawings on the backs of three of a quartet of Mauve drawings that Calvin has owned since the 1960s.

"It's a great lesson in conservation," Zwart says, "because several of the drawings had experienced severe fading due to exposure to light. In preparation for the exhibition, I set about to re-frame them. In the process of doing so, I discovered that three of the drawings had additional drawings on the back."

He says all of the Mauve drawings probably date to the late 1800s, and since their acquisition by Calvin, the original four had been displayed in various locations on campus. After inspecting the drawings, the paper they were drawn on and its watermarks, Zwart concluded that the works came from one or more Mauve sketchbooks.

Anton Mauve, a Dutch painter of the late 1800s, was an eminent representative of the Hague School, a group of artists who painted in and around The Hague in the Netherlands.

The new drawings will add strength to the upcoming Hague School exhibition. Scans of the discovered drawings will be displayed among their original counterparts as well as Mauve paintings from a private collection, The Detroit Institute of Art, the Grand Rapids Art Museum and The Art Museum at Michigan State University.

Contact Zwart at 526-6271

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Received on Mon Oct 1 23:59:20 2007

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