Image: Giovanna Garzoni after Raphael, ‘St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness’ (detail), c. 1642–50, black chalk, bodycolor, and gum Arabic on vellum laid down on panel. The Clark, Gift of Aso O. Tavitian Foundation, 2025.1.114
The Clark Art Institute held the first of three Works on Paper Highlights Talks on the Aso O. Tavitian gift on Wednesday 12 August 2026, from 1 to 1:30 pm in the Manton Study Center, devoted to the drawings of the seventeenth century. Two sessions remain, on 19 and 26 August.
Anne Leonard, Interim Chief Curator and Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, leads the series, which offers a first look at the thirty-nine drawings included in the gift. The Manton Study Center for Works on Paper houses the Clark’s collection of more than 6,800 prints, drawings and photographs. Capacity is limited and places are first-come, first-served.
The seventeenth-century group includes head studies by Abraham Bloemaert (Dutch, 1566–1651), Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish, 1591–1652) and Salvator Rosa (Italian, 1615–1673), together with two full-colour scenes on vellum by Giovanna Garzoni (Italian, 1600–1670), whom the Clark describes as one of the most famous woman artists of her time and notes worked for the Medici court in Florence.
The 19 August talk turns to the eighteenth century, with battle scenes by Charles Parrocel, a pair of red-chalk portraits by Jean-Baptiste Greuze and a rare figure study on blue paper by Thomas Gainsborough. The final session, on 26 August, covers nineteenth-century sheets, among them representations of women by Franz Xaver Winterhalter and Giovanni Boldini and a group of eight drawings by Camille Pissarro.
The series accompanies ‘An Exquisite Eye: Introducing the Aso O. Tavitian Collection’, the first display at the Clark of works from the 331-piece gift received in 2024 from the collection of Aso O. Tavitian (1940–2020). The exhibition is organised by the Clark and curated by Esther Bell, Hardymon Director, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, Aso O. Tavitian Curator of Early Modern European Painting and Sculpture, ahead of the collection’s permanent home in the Aso O. Tavitian Wing, due to open in 2028.
