Corot to Watteau?   On the Trail of French Drawings   30.04. – 27.07.2025

Corot to Watteau? On the Trail of French Drawings

Every work of art in the museum tells a story. Usually, they are stories of the motifs or artistic statements presented in an exhibition. In reality, however, every piece has already been on a journey before it becomes a part of a museum’s collection. This show will trace the winding path taken by several highlights from the collection of French drawings before arriving at the Kunsthalle Bremen.

Jacques-Louis David / possibly Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Waterfall, 1768-1825

Pen and brush in brown, dark brown and black over pencil, 19,4 x 12,2 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Marie-Ernestine Serret, Children Nibbling, c. 1840

Black chalk, heightened with white, on yellowish paper, 44,7 x 36 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Anonymus, formerly attributed to Antoine Watteau, Hand Holding a Crayfish, c. 1700

Red chalk on cream-coloured paper, 8,7 x 14,7 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Charles Parrocel, Portraits of two soldiers, c. 1740

Red and black chalk, 29,7 x 48 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Jean-Baptiste Huet I, Two Ram's Heads, 1769

Oil colours over black chalk, on blue (faded) paper, 30 x 46,5 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Joseph Berger, Standing male nude, 1821

Chalk in black and white, 60,5 x 44,2 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Michel Corneille (gen. Michel II.), Kopf eines Bärtigen, Arme, Hand, Füße, Balusterfragment, um 1680

Schwarze Kreide, weiß gehöht, auf graubeigem Papier, 19 x 27 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

François Perrier (gen. Le Bourguignon) / Simon Vouet, Studie einer aufblickenden Nymphe, vor 1632

Schwarze Kreide, weiß gehöht, auf bräunlich-beigem Papier, 18,1 x 13,5 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Eugène Delacroix, Zwei Figurengruppen zum „Massaker von Chios“(?) und Reiterstudie, um 1824

Pinsel in Grau, Bleistift, 23,8 x 28,6 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Alexandre Evariste Fragonard, Der Greis und seine Kinder - Einigkeit macht stark, Illustration zu La Fontaine, Fables IV, 18, 1825-1830

Pinsel in Braun und Grau, weiß gehöht, über Graphit, 16,2 x 21,4 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Nicolas(?) Lagneau, Bildnis eines alten Mannes, 1686(?)

Schwarze und rote Kreide, 44,6 x 28,7 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

Antoine Coypel, Studie der Cumäischen Sibylle für das Gemälde „Aeneas in der Unterwelt“, 1715–17

Schwarze, rote und weiße Kreide, quadriert in schwarzer Kreide, auf gräulich-braunem Papier, 37 x 21 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

 

The show “Corot to Watteau” focuses on the complex histories of 38 selected drawings and two sketchbooks by French artists which were examined over the course of many years as part of a research project into their provenance. Critical attention was paid especially to those drawings that entered the Kunsthalle’s collection during and shortly after the Third Reich as a result of confiscation by the Nazis, particularly of Jewish property.

Among the works on display are numerous never-before-shown drawings by masters from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries such as Michel Corneille, Camille Corot, Antoine Coypel, Jacques-Louis David, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Baptiste Huet, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Amédée van Loo, Charles Joseph Natoire, Charles Parrocel, Hubert Robert, Marie-Ernestine Serret, Pierre Le Sueur, François Verdier, Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Simon Vouet

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