Oh, Vienna! Albrecht Dürer visits Washington

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Larry Silver explores the ‘unmissable’ ‘Albrecht Dürer. Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina’ at the NGA

Few collections anywhere (perhaps only the Turners at the Tate, London) can rival the drawings and watercolours of Albrecht Dürer housed in Vienna’s Albertina.  To see the bulk of them abroad together seems nothing short of a miracle, like the collection itself, which has been reconstituted several times amidst vicissitudes across the centuries (the history of the 138 Albertina Dürer drawings is recounted in a catalogue essay by the director of the collection, Klaus Albrecht Schroeder).  Only the renowned poster subject, Dürer’s incomparable Hare (1502) failed to make this trans-Atlantic voyage.  Besides the Albertina works, Washington contributed nine Dürer drawings, and a number of stellar Albertina impressions of the artist’s related prints complement the drawing images on display.

The catalogue is concise and helpful, as are the individual entries, whose full-page reproductions make this book a visual treat more than a scholarly tome.  Besides the Schroeder essay, biographer Ernst Rebel has managed to distill his 542-page German monograph (1996) into an eight-page essay introducing the artist.  The real gallery guide to the exhibition is provided by curator Robison, whose pages provide a clear overview of the varied techniques of these media for paper as they articulate the several divisions of the installation, accompanied by fine images of the Washington contingent of drawings.

The exhibition is basically organized chronologically but arranged around leading themes.  Works in all techniques are exemplified: metalpoint, pen, wash, watercolour or gouache, black chalk or charcoal, and modelled ink drawings on tinted paper, especially Venetian blue paper.  Studies include animals and plants, the human body, nudes, drapery, decorative arts, portraits, and landscapes as well as compositional studies for both paintings and prints. 

‘Early Talent and Training’ (1484–94) begins with the precocious metal-point self-portrait at age 13 (no. 1) and takes Dürer through his training and up to his first trip to Venice (questioned by the 2012 Nuremberg exhibition on ‘The Early Dürer’).  Early works are dominated by pen drawings and the influence of Martin Schongauer (another point where the revisionist 2012 exhibition pointed more to local Nuremberg models). ‘Understanding Landscape and Italian Art’ (1495–96) focuses on the experiments with watercolour and landscapes, both local and Italian.  Dürer also began to accumulate costume studies and other drawing stock for later use, sometimes using models from Italian prints (especially Mantegna).   

After consideration of the later ‘Nuremberg Watercolors; A New Light’ (1496–1500), the exhibition turns to current preoccupations of Dürer. ‘Search for Perfection in the Human Form’ (1497–1513) includes works in all techniques, high-lighted by two unfinished Albertina proofs (nos. 29, 30) of the incomparable 1504 engraving, Adam and Eve.  Complementing those studies are the nature studies of ‘Details of Nature Captured and Reformed’ (1500 and later).  These are some of the most celebrated Dürer images, including the Great Piece of Turf (1503, no. 37) on the cover. 

Dürer’s meticulous works on coloured papers occupy the centre of the exhibit, including the ‘Green Passion’ works (1504, nos. 44, 46–47) and the famous Praying Hands and other studies on blue-toned Venetian paper for paintings (1506, nos. 48–67) in sections called ‘Preparing Compositions for Other Media’ (1503–5) and ‘A New Tonality and Finish in Details for Paintings’ (1505–7) with ‘Maintaining the Tonality in Preparing Details’ (1508). 

Yet ‘The New Tonality in Line’ (1509–13) maintains focus on the linear visual grammar of ink drawings, often for prints, including ‘The Master Engravings and Personal Crisis’ (1513–18).  Here again, superb Albertina impressions of immortal prints amplify these preparatory drawing studies.  At this same moment Dürer applied himself to image-making, ‘Works for [Holy Roman] Emperor Maximilian’ (1513–18) – the subject of a superb exhibition at the Albertina last winter, edited by Eva Michel.

The exhibition concludes with ‘Late Works in Pen’ (1519–26) after a rich segment recording Dürer’s impressions of his ‘Journey to the Netherlands’ (1520–1).  This section includes splendid studies in ink, silverpoint, and tonal modelling on prepared grey-violet paper. Many of the latter (nos. 105–8) were studies for his Lisbon Saint Jerome.  Finally, ‘Four Great Single Works’ forms a figural coda to the earlier banquet, featuring: a study head in black chalk of an African man (1508; no. 115), a maternal nursing Virgin and Child (1512; no. 116) in charcoal; a careful black chalk likeness of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg (1518; no. 117; for whom Dürer made two impressive engraved portraits); and a moving likeness of Agnes Dürer on grey paper (1519; no. 118), used for the Virgin’s mother in a three-generation Holy Family painting (Metropolitan Museum, New York).

By the end of this exhibition, the attentive viewer will have seen Dürer in all phases of his career and with all purposes for his drawings: initial sketches, studies for paintings and for prints, as well as independent works.  At the risk of shameless self-promotion, the interested visitor might want to consult another brief essay that surveys the drawings of Albrecht Dürer: Christiane Andersson and Larry Silver in The Essential Dürer, edited by Silver and Jeffrey Chipps Smith, 2010, 12–34).

Dürer annotated many of these very works, and he added his monogram and date to the bulk of them, an almost unprecedented act for drawings.  Seeing their range of techniques and topics, we no longer wonder why this supremely confident, self-aware artist on the eve of the Reformation saved his drawings for posterity and held them in such high esteem.  Like the Albertina itself, which rarely displays more than a fraction of these gems from its historic collection, this landmark Albrecht Dürer exhibition is not to be missed.