Liberty to the Imagination: Drawings from the Eveillard Gift

This elegant publication presents the Eveillard Gift of drawings to the Morgan Library & Museum. Accompanying a celebratory exhibition, the book features a catalogue of the extraordinary works, many of which are being presented for the first time, by a team of drawings specialists.

The Morgan commemorates the 100th year of its founding with a series of exhibitions devoted to promised gifts to the museum, including 28 drawings from the holdings of New York-based collectors Jean-Marie and Elizabeth Eveillard. The selection comprises drawings from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, and includes a rare compositional study for Rembrandt’s first painting, Greuze’s virtuoso depiction of a young cook made for his friend Georges Wille, Delacroix’s intimate portrait of his confidante and caretaker Jenny Le Guillou, and a spectacular nude by Bonnard.

Also in the gift are significant sheets—many rarely seen—by other major artists including Rubens, Guercino, Watteau, Constable, Seurat, Cézanne, and Vuillard. In fully illustrated entries, drawings specialists explore the creation and context for each sheet, considering the artist’s choices and the ways in which drawing liberated the imagination in these exploratory studies.

Published by the Morgan Library & Museum in association with Paul Holberton Publishing

Images © The Morgan Library & Museum, Photography by Carmen González Fraile