Nude Woman with a Snake (detail), about 1637, Rembrandt van Rijn. Red chalk with white opaque watercolor. The J. Paul Getty Museum
Artists as Collectors
GETTY CENTER
West Pavilion, Plaza Level
This is a past event
Artists were the earliest and greatest collectors of drawings. Celebrated painters including Edgar Degas, Thomas Lawrence, and Giorgio Vasari were passionate collectors, and their appetites for drawings by old and contemporary masters compelled them to acquire exceptional examples of draftsmanship by artists such as Delacroix, Raphael, and Rembrandt. Not just a tool for the making of works of art, drawings were valued as intellectual property, coveted rarities, and powerful status symbols.