European Drawings 2: Catalogue of the Collections

FOREWORD

Here, as promised, is the second catalogue in a series devoted to the Getty Museum's collection of

drawings. The first, covering acquisitions from 1981 through 1985, appeared in 1988. This one contains

the 144 drawings we purchased during our second four years of activity in this field, 1986-89. We hope

that readers will forgive the inconvenience of having to consult separate volumes and will feel compensated

by the relatively prompt publication of this material, much of which is unfamiliar and some of which is

entirely new to the literature.

Despite scarcity, competition, and inflation, we have been able to make the drawings collection far

stronger and more broadly based in the past four years. As a result, the four exhibitions we mount each

year have become more and more diverse in subject. The curator, George Goldner, has nevertheless con-

tinued to concentrate on Italian Renaissance drawings, believing them to be the foundation of any impor-

tant collection. The results are striking: a great double-sided sheet by Leonardo and fine examples by the

leading artists of successive generations in Florence, Rome, and Venice—Carpaccio, Pontormo, Sarto,

Titian, Parmigianino, and dozens of others. We have sometimes been able to buy drawings in groups, add-

ing sudden strength to whole areas of our holdings, as with the half-dozen new Poussin sheets and the eigh-

teen German and Swiss Renaissance examples that now make our collection in this field one of the strongest

in America. Major draughtsmen are still the curator's main target, but he has found dozens of very fine

drawings by lesser-known figures as well. The objective is to have perhaps five or six hundred drawings

by the time the Museum moves to new quarters in 1996—enough for a lively, varied program of exhibi-

tions that will be somewhat bigger than those we hold at present.

Since volume i appeared in 1988, Lee Hendrix, whose work on both catalogues was invaluable,

has become associate curator, Nancy E. Yocco has become assistant conservator, and Kelly Pask has

become curatorial assistant. George Goldner has been put in charge of the Museum's paintings as well as

drawings, a further tribute to the versatility and discernment of this remarkable curator.

John Walsh

Director

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