Under Cover: Artist's sketchbooks

For all those interested in seeing the contents of artists' sketchbooks, the Fogg Museum at Harvard University is planning an exhibition of artists' sketchbooks between August 1st and October 22nd.

The advance notice of the exhibition on the museum website states

Designed to be easily portable, a sketchbook is often kept in an artist's pocket and offers an unusually personal glimpse into the artist at work. Drawings and notes in sketchbooks vary from travel sketches and nature and figure studies to copies after the Old Masters, expense accounts, and lists of pictures. Some sketchbooks are self-conscious, with every page signed, while others are filled with seemingly random, hastily drawn sketches and doodles. Still others reveal the progression of an idea or are conceived as a whole.

This exhibition features a selection of the Fogg's important sketchbooks, including works by Jean-Honor Fragonard, Jacques-Louis David, Sanford Gifford, Edward Burne-Jones, John Singer Sargent, Reginald Marsh, George Grosz, and Christopher Wilmarth. The installation will also present pages from sketchbooks by John Constable, Edouard Manet, Henry Moore, Brice Marden, and others.

Other artists' sketchbooks can be viewed in the links posted yesterday.

Technorati tags: art , drawing , exhibition , sketching , sketchbooks