The Paper Project was conceived by the Getty Foundation to help prints and drawings curators navigate the demands of the 21st-century museum. It supports curators both by preserving traditional skills that have been passed down through generations of specialists, and by making collections accessible to today's museum audiences. Other recipient of the Getty grants include The British Museum London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
How the grant will be used
The grant will be used by our curator of Prints and Drawings Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho (b. 1982), to develop her connoisseurship. She will be tracking down and researching the many sketches, preliminary drawings and trial proofs for the print series of the four Nabis artists Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), Maurice Denis (1870-1943), Ker-Xavier Roussel (1867-1944) and Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940). These works were all printed by Auguste Clot (1858-1936) and published by Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939) around 1899. The research project is called From Proof to Perfection.
Extraordinary insights
The research project From Proof to Perfection will provide the art world with extraordinary insights into the complex artistic processes that preceded the final edition of these masterpieces of printmaking, from proof to perfection. It will also delve into the collaboration between artist, printer and publisher. The aim is to define their subsequent, but also overlapping roles and to unravel the close relationship between drawings, prints and paintings within the individual practice of these four artists. All of this will establish a renewed appreciation of Nabis’ printmaking as a whole.
Connecting prints from all over the world
The Van Gogh Museum holds a substantial group of related drawings and proofs for these series in the collection, but most of these unique preparatory works are now scattered all over the world. They have never been brought together in a publication or exhibition before. That’s why the findings will be presented as a scholarly analysis and catalogue with a digital component, hosted by the Van Gogh Museum. In addition, several expert meetings will be organized to share our findings with other paper- and Nabi-scholars to gain further insights.
Maurice Denis, Trial proof for Our Souls, with Languorous Gestures (Nos âmes en des gestes lents) from the series Amour, 1892 - 1899