October 23, 2019 – March 22, 2020
Ellen Day Hale (American, (1855–1940), Portrait of a Woman, 1883, pencil, charcoal and white chalk on paper. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Paul G. Stein, 2016.505.
Alfred Jacob Miller (American, 1810–1874) Rocky Pass in a Storm, Caravan crossing the Heights, n.d., ink, ink wash, and white pencil on paper laid on board. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, gift of Paul G. Stein, 2016.519
Drawing in the nineteenth century was a popular medium for its convenience, requiring little beyond a sheet of paper and something with which to draw. Before painting, one learned to draw as an exercise, but it also came in handy for rendering quick impressions in the days before snapshot photography. In this way, nineteenth-century American artists rendered nearly all facets of daily life, whether recordings of their travels, commissioned illustrations, portraits of loved ones, or studies of a passerby on the street.
Fine Lines celebrates a recent gift to the High of 50 late nineteenth-century drawings from Atlanta collector Paul Stein that will be on view at the Museum for the first time. In addition, the exhibition features a suite of watercolors on loan from Stein. Together, these works highlight the diversity of makers (women and men, famous and obscure) and the range of uses (from the casual to the formal) associated with works on paper in nineteenth-century America.
This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
This exhibition is made possible by
The Antinori Foundation
Sarah and Jim Kennedy
Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot
Anne Cox Chambers Foundation
Tom and Susan Wardell
Rod Westmoreland
Lucinda W. Bunnen
Marcia and John Donnell
W. Daniel Ebersole and Sarah Eby-Ebersole
Peggy Foreman
Robin and Hilton Howell
Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones
Joel Knox and Joan Marmo
Margot and Danny McCaul
Elizabeth and Chris Willett
The Ron and Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust
Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, Isobel Anne Fraser–Nancy Fraser Parker Exhibition Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, and the RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund.
