Drawing wisdom from drawings
We think of drawing as a simple process, but a new exhibition at the Harvard Art Museums illustrates how, in the hands of masters, it can be anything but. The show offers up a diverse sampling of the museums’ vast and rich collection of drawings, and also highlights the creativity of Harvard’s classrooms. In a third-floor teaching gallery, vivid pictures by Edgar Degas and Vincent van Gogh hang near those by artists who, though lesser-known, produced works no less evocative, such as a lush pastel by French portraitist Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, and a haunting black-chalk image by French realist Gustave Courbet. The exhibition features 60 pieces, including 54 drawings and three sketchbooks, and is largely the construction of two Harvard seminars. The Harvard Art Museums has a diverse and rich collection of drawings, such as Henri de Toulouse‑Lautrec’s “At the Circus: Jockey, 1899.” Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop,...