Departmental Reports

DEPARTMENT OF DRAWINGS

The drawing collection comprises some 12,000 sheets, ranging in date from the fourteenth century to the present and encompassing works mainly from North America and Europe. We estimate that approximately 3100 drawings were created before 1946 and acquired by the Fogg after 1932, excluding works from the American, Canadian, British, and Irish schools.

Curatorial files exist for nearly all of the drawings under consideration. The files contain basic technical information (medium, measurements, inscriptions, etc.) as well as bibliography, exhibition history, and provenance (these three fields may not be complete in many cases). We are in the process of entering full catalogue information from the files into the collection database.

With the support of a grant from the Getty Grant Program, the Drawing Department is undertaking three catalogues of old master drawings: Italian, fourteenth century-1600; Dutch and Flemish; and French, fifteenth century-1780. Further research into the provenance of each of these drawings will be part of the cataloguing process.

DEPARTMENT OF PAINTINGS, SCULPTURE AND DECORATIVE ARTS

The department cares for over 1100 paintings made before 1901, some 800 of which were acquired after 1932. An initial survey of provenance records for all paintings meeting the target criteria has been completed. After examining the curatorial files for each of these paintings and eliminating those with a provenance clearly locating them in the United States throughout the relevant period, we arrived at a list of more than 500 paintings needing additional research. Along with researching our own records, we have been in contact with dealers, collectors, scholars, curators, and auction houses. We have also consulted the staff of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project, the Commission for Art Recovery, and other recognized experts in this field. In addition to utilizing the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, and the Getty Research Institute, we also draw on records in various European archives.

Priority for in-depth research has been given to works whose provenance includes names of collectors, dealers, and others associated with looted or otherwise illicitly transferred works. These names are published in The AAM Guide to Provenance Research as well as other published sources. In addition to these systematic efforts, individual provenances are investigated when objects are considered for acquisition or prepared for loan, or in response to outside inquiry.

Following completion of research for the paintings, we will investigate the provenance of sculptures in the collection. It has not yet been determined to what extent it will be possible to research the provenance of furniture and other decorative arts objects.

DEPARTMENT OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART

The Department of Modern and Contemporary Art was formed in 1997 with responsibility for European and American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts from 1901 to the present. (Twentieth-century works in the Wertheim Collection remain with the Department of Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.) An initial survey of this department’s paintings and sculpture created in 1901–45 reveals approximately 120 objects warranting further provenance investigation. Research on modern and contemporary paintings has already commenced.

BUSCH-REISINGER MUSEUM

The Busch-Reisinger Museum concentrates on the art of German-speaking and related cultures of Central and Northern Europe, with works in all media from the Middle Ages to the present. Of the approximately 17,000 works of art in the Museum’s collection, we estimate that over 750 were made before 1946 and acquired after 1932. This number excludes non-unique works of art such as prints and decorative arts, whose history is very difficult to trace accurately, and works made in the United States.

Research on the ownership history of these works has begun, with special attention to early-twentieth-century works of German modernism, which were the particular focus of the National Socialists’ campaign against so-called degenerate art. Curatorial files—some including relevant provenance information, as well as exhibition and publication histories—are available for all objects.