ONE HUNDRED MASTER DRAWINGS

An exhibition, opening at Hopkins Center at the end of this month, that 'makes smithereens of the Tenth Commandment.'

Dartmouth art historian and teacher Franklin W. Robinson has produced this fall an art event of signal interest and acclaim — a travelling exhibit of "One Hundred Master Drawings from New England Private Collections." Most of the drawings in the exhibit, a rich and varied sampling of art from the 15th century to the present by 90 European and American artists, have never been published or exhibited before, thus opening the door on a collection of privately-held drawings which.otherwise simply would not be available for public viewing.

Organized by Robinson under the auspices of the Hopkins Center Art Galleries and with the support of a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, the exhibit had its first exposure at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, from September 5 to October 14. It will be shown in the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth from October 26 to December 3, and then go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for a final six-week showing, December 14 to January 25.

As part of the Dartmouth showing, a special reception for alumni .and other visitors will be held at the Jaffe-Friede Gallery in the Hopkins Center on Friday evening, November 2, the eve of the Dartmouth-Yale game. The reception will include a talk by the distinguished scholar, collector, and museum director, Winslow Ames of Saunderstown, R.I., one of many people who assisted Robinson in what became for him a fascinating art treasure hunt.

To Robinson, the scheduling of a significant art event on a major football weekend happily dramatizes the added dimensions of Dartmouth since the advent of the Hopkins Center ten years ago.

Organization of the exhibit, providing in its own right a survey course in Western drawing since the Renaissance, culminates more than two years of an extra-curricular labor of love for Robinson involving staggering logistic problems and requiring the diplomacy of Metternich along with wide-ranging and discriminating scholarship. In his quest, he identified and visited more than 60 collections and viewed thousands of drawings. The collectors themselves, according to Robinson, represent "extraordinary variety." In one case, he said, the drawing lent to the exhibition is the only one in the owner's possession, while, in another case, the lender has over 2,000 drawings. All the collectors had in common, however, their residence in New England and their interest in drawings of the masters, old and new.

Artists include most of the great draftsmen of Western art, including Rembrandt, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Delacroix, Gainsborough, Daumier, Goya, Fragonard, Klee, Seurat and Dali. The earliest drawing in the show is "The Head of a Young Man" by Luca Signorelli, the 15th Century Italian artist, and is believed to be a sketch done in preparation for what Professor Robinson describes as Signorelli's "greatest work," the frescoes depicting the Resurrection in San Brizio Chapel in the Cathedral at Orvieto. The youngest artist represented is an American, Chuck Close, born in 1940.

As a guide to the exhibit, Robinson has prepared a handsomely printed catalogue containing full-page reproductions of all the drawings, as well as several drawings appearing on the reverse sides of the original sheets. Each work is accompanied by an informative and highly readable commentary and description of special characteristics and pedigree of ownership as far as is known. The catalogue, produced by the Stinehour Press and printed by the Meriden Gravure Company, will be sold for $7 postpaid during the exhibitions through January 25. After that date, it may be purchased for $10 a copy from the University Press of New England, Hanover, the distributor.

The exhibition already has drawn kudos from New York Times critic John Canaday, who commented in a lead article in the Sunday Times art page of September 2 on the wealth of exceptional drawings in the show and said, "you could cut the exhibition down by half and it would still be worth the time of a drawing fancier." In terms of drawings he would like for his own collection, Canaday said the exhibition "makes smithereens of the Tenth Commandment," enjoining man from coveting his neighbor's goods.

That confession delights Robinson, since he displays an almost messianic enthusiasm for both art and the art of collecting - particularly drawings. He finds in art a creative visual interpretation of life and, in drawing, the art form of the greatest immediacy and intimacy. Explaining that artists often test their ideas and images in drawings before executing more ambitious works on canvas, he said "It is, therefore, in drawings that you're with the artist in his first steps, seeing him first put on paper his mark, establish his lines of creative energy."

Clearly wishing to share the joy he finds in drawings, Robinson said his most important hope for the showing at Dart- mouth is that it will encourage more alumni to start collecting. He said it is a hobby that does not have to cost much. Indeed, he insisted that anyone can become a serious collector on a budget as low as $50 a year, which is about what he allows himself for that purpose. To prove his point, he said the classical study in the show of two muscular legs by Anton Raphael Mengs - which particularly attracted Canaday's attention - is owned by a young lawyer who spends less than $100 a year on his collection. "Yet," commented Robinson, "he owns a magnificent drawing—one that appeals to a critic of Canaday's caliber."

Speaking to alumni with the same enthusiasm he brings to his classes and which has earned him the accolade of "simply tremendous" in the undergraduate Course Guide, Robinson enumerates the several kinds of "joy" one can enjoy from collecting drawings. "First," he says, "there is the joy of the beauty of the image, and nothing can equal the beauty of an original drawing or print. There's the joy of having on your wall something direct from another culture or another century, direct from the hand of a master artist. In original works of art there's a feeling of contact with greatness that's almost personal. Then there's the peripheral joy of success in the hunt - of finding a drawing you like, and in the process the delight of getting to know about art, and getting acquainted with art historians, curators, dealers, and the artists themselves. Collecting drawings, like collecting in any art form, projects one into a wholly different world - meeting different persons with different outlooks on life. I guess I'm trying to say that collecting can add an important 'human thing' to one's life. And to me, it's not important whether you start with a Degas or Fragonard, a Picasso or a drawing by a talented Dartmouth undergraduate - as long as you start somewhere."

"Lastly," Robinson said, "in collecting you're leaving something for your children - and here I'm referring to something more important than money, although I know that's important, too. You are investing in a cultural heritage, an heirloom, a message from you to them."

As an art historian and teacher, Robinson said he's aware that sometimes people are shy about getting started in collecting when they feel they don't know much about drawings. But here, he said, Dartmouth alumni have a resource in the faculty and personnel of the Dartmouth galleries and art department who would always be happy to help with advice or guidance. "And that dialogue can prove - and already has proved in several instances - a rewarding way for alumni to find meaningful links with the College."

The self-portrait above was done by ChuckClose as a study for a finished painting thatmeasures 9x7 feet. Collection of Mr. andMrs. Stephen D. Paine. Contrasting withClose's "photographic reality" is the Neo-Impressionist style of Georges Seurat'scrayon sketch of a monkey. It was done asa study for one of the seminal paintings of19th centurv French art. A Sunday After- noon. Picnic on the Island of the Grande-Jatte, 1884-1886.

Anton Mengs (1728-1779), a Bohemian,did the study of the powerful legs above. InMengs' finished work the legs are those ofa shepherd striding toward the Christchild. In the drawing at left, by KoloMoser (1868-1918), the Viennese artist'serotic tastes are suggested by a pair ofpubescent girls and the death-like sleep ofthe central figure. Collection of Professorand Mrs. Julius S. Held.

Anton Mengs (1728-1779), a Bohemian,did the study of the powerful legs above. InMengs' finished work the legs are those ofa shepherd striding toward the Christchild. In the drawing at left, by KoloMoser (1868-1918), the Viennese artist'serotic tastes are suggested by a pair ofpubescent girls and the death-like sleep ofthe central figure. Collection of Professorand Mrs. Julius S. Held.