German Master Drawings: From the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection 1580-1900

In late 2007 the National Gallery of Art acquired one of the finest private European holdings of Old-Master drawings -- the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection. This unique survey includes drawings by many of the most important artists from the German-speaking areas of Europe, including Switzerland and Austria. Passionately assembled by Wolfgang Ratjen (1943-1997) over three decades, the drawings presented in this beautiful scholarly catalogue include rare, evocative, and influential examples by Hans von Aachen, Johann Rottenhammer, and Adam Elsheimer; studies for soaring religious ceilings by some of the greatest Bavarian artists, including Cosmas Damian Asam, Matthäus Günther, and Franz Anton Maulbertsch; delightful Augsburg designs for rococo prints by Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner, Johann Esaias Nilson, and Gottfried Eichler; landscape watercolors by Johann Georg von Dillis and Caspar David Friedrich; architectural watercolors by Balthasar Neumann, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and Rudolf von Alt; and an exciting group of realist drawings by Hans Thoma, Otto Greiner, and Adolph von Menzel. The addition of the collection to the Gallery's already strong holdings creates the finest survey of German drawings in a museum outside Europe. This book will accompany an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from May 16 through November 28, 2010.