David to Corot: French Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum

The Harvard University Art Museums hold one of the world's finest collections of early nineteenth-century drawings; the nearly 500 works reproduced in this catalogue include the most significant groups of drawings outside France by the masters of the age-David, Gericault, Ingres, Delacroix, and Prud'hon. Although familiar to scholars, the collection has never been the subject of a comprehensive catalogue, and many of the drawings are published here for the first time.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by James Cuno Preface Note to the Catalogue CATALOGUE Appendix A. The Leclere and Percier-Fontaine Albums Appendix B. Drawings Aquired since 1979 Bibliography Exhibitions

About the Author :
Agnes Mongan, Curator Emeritus of drawings and former director of the Fogg Art Museum, served the Museum for more than forty years until her retirement in 1975. She is the author of numerous publications in the field of French drawings.

Review :
The Fogg’s holdings of early 19th-century French drawings are a near embarrassment of riches. Along with the Ingres, the Fogg owns the most significant groups of drawings of David, Gericault, Delacroix and Prud’hon outside of France...‘David to Corot: French Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum’ also celebrates the publication of a major catalog of the same name. Thirty years in the making, it is the grand effort of the legendary curator of drawings and former director of the Fogg, Agnes Mongan...[A] landmark. [A] masterful piece of scholarship...Author Agnes Mongan and a host of contributing scholars assembled this catalog over the course of decades, creating a work whose text offers as much to the historian and biographer as its handsome plates do to fanciers of draftsmanship. For those who can't travel to Boston to visit this superb collection, Mongan has created a portable resource...whose first-rate illustrations capture the nuances of touch that are so much the appeal of drawing for connoisseurs. More than 300 drawings are illustrated in black and white, including works by such major figures as Delacroix, Gericault and Ingres...To see them all reproduced in this catalog is a bit like peeking over the artist's shoulder as he sketched. [Mongan’s] catalog includes a detailed, interesting, and scholarly text, which accompanies the reproduction of each drawing. The provenance is included for each drawing, as well as an extensive bibliography of books and an appendix of historically relevant exhibitions. The book provides a wonderful visit to the Fogg’s internationally renowned collection of these 19th-century French drawings.