Almost all the great artists of the past—painters, sculptors, printmakers, architects—employed drawing as an integral part of their creative process. Using it to explore rough ideas, to study nature and the human figure, and also as an end in itself, artists created works on paper of extraordinary power and immediacy. The Getty Museum’s collection of European drawings began with the purchase of a single work by Rembrandt in 1981 and has grown to over 1,000 drawings and pastels from the 15th to the 19th centuries. From spontaneous sketches to carefully crafted compositions, these compelling sheets demonstrate an array of techniques, materials, and uses, revealing the multifaceted and dynamic nature of the practice and its central role in artistic endeavor. Details and images of all works in the collection are available online.
Drawings and pastels from the collection are displayed in a regular series of thematic exhibitions at the Museum and in national and international loan exhibitions. These works have been well preserved, often for centuries, by avoiding damage from overexposure to light. To continue safeguarding the art while making a range of drawings available to a wide audience, exhibition displays are changed approximately every three months. Any drawing not on display can be viewed by appointment in the Drawings Department study room (see details below).
