• Drawn to Paper

    Degas to Rego

  • Piano Nobile are pleased to present Drawn to Paper: Degas to Rego.

    This exhibition showcases works on paper by some of the leading figures of European modernism. The works date from between the late nineteenth century and the late twentieth century, and they demonstrate the creative breakthroughs that British, American and European artists have made when confronting the blank sheet of paper. Starting with Edgar Degas in Paris shortly after the Franco-Prussian War, the exhibition continues with paragons of continental modernism, Picasso, Miró and Léger, and concludes with works made by Paula Rego and Lucian Freud in London in the 1980s and '90s.
    Piano Nobile are pleased to present Drawn to Paper: Degas to Rego. This exhibition showcases works on paper by some...
  • Publication, Drawn to Paper: Degas to Rego

     

    Publication

    Drawn to Paper: Degas to Rego

    To accompany the exhibtion, we have put together a publication that provides you with more information about the works in the show. Now more than ever, we are bombarded with digital information, and it is our hope that this physical catalogue, delivered to your door, will provide a small antidote.

    To order the book, please click here.

  • Introduction

    Works on paper often have a spontaneity which is not so readily apparent in other genres of image making. Some of the works in this exhibition were preparatory studies, many are not, but in all cases, the artist started with a blank sheet of paper: a clear expanse, suggestive of space or light, and inviting a tantalising array of possible outcomes. Paper is a malleable support, readily stained, torn, marked, scrubbed and re-marked, and it is these many possibilities which make it – and the works included in this exhibition – so exciting.

     

    Visit the exhibtion below. 
    • Edgar Degas Danseuse vue de dos: Port de bras, 1875-85, c.
      Edgar Degas
      Danseuse vue de dos: Port de bras, 1875-85, c.
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    • Vilhelm Hammershoi Self-Portrait, 1891 c.
      Vilhelm Hammershoi
      Self-Portrait, 1891 c.
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    • Walter Sickert Little Rachel, 1906 c.
      Walter Sickert
      Little Rachel, 1906 c.
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    • Jules Pascin Port de Havana, 1915-20, c.
      Jules Pascin
      Port de Havana, 1915-20, c.
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  • Drawing is the artist’s most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does paint.

    Edgas Degas
    • Walter Sickert Little Rachel, 1906 c.
      Walter Sickert
      Little Rachel, 1906 c.
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    • Duncan Grant David 'Bunny' Garnett Smoking a Pipe, 1918, c.
      Duncan Grant
      David 'Bunny' Garnett Smoking a Pipe, 1918, c.
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    • Raoul Dufy Dans les prairies de l'Eure, 1919, c.
      Raoul Dufy
      Dans les prairies de l'Eure, 1919, c.
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    • Alexander Calder Untitled, 1932
      Alexander Calder
      Untitled, 1932
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    • Jules Pascin Port de Havana, 1915-20, c.
      Jules Pascin
      Port de Havana, 1915-20, c.
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    • Irma Stern Portrait of a Woman, 1935
      Irma Stern
      Portrait of a Woman, 1935
      Available
  • THE ORIGIN OF WORKS ON PAPER, Leonardo da Vinci

    THE ORIGIN OF WORKS ON PAPER

    Leonardo da Vinci

    When you have been well-schooled in perspective and have committed to memory all the parts and forms of things, let it please you often when you are out walking to observe and contemplate the positions and actions of men in talking, quarrelling, laughing and fighting together – what actions there might be among them, among the bystanders, those who intervene or look on. Record these with rapid notations in this manner in a little notebook which you should always carry with you. It should be of tinted paper so that you cannot make erasures, but you must renew it when it is used up. For these things should not be erased but rather kept with great care, because so great is the infinity of shapes and attitudes of things that the memory is incapable of retaining them all.

     

    Quoted from Martin Kemp, ed., Leonardo on Painting: An anthology of writings by Leonardo da Vinci with a selection of documents relating to his career as an artist
    • Fernand Léger Construction, 1950
      Fernand Léger
      Construction, 1950
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    • Henry Moore A Land: His Lines Follow Life Back into the Stone, 1950
      Henry Moore
      A Land: His Lines Follow Life Back into the Stone, 1950
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    • Fernand Léger La Rue, 1950-55, c.
      Fernand Léger
      La Rue, 1950-55, c.
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    • Salvador Dalí Le Lion, 1956
      Salvador Dalí
      Le Lion, 1956
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    • Joan Miró Untitled, 1959
      Joan Miró
      Untitled, 1959
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    • Pablo Picasso Profils et Têtes, 1967
      Pablo Picasso
      Profils et Têtes, 1967
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  • It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.

    Pablo Picasso 
    • Lucian Freud Susanna, 1980, c.
      Lucian Freud
      Susanna, 1980, c.
      Available
    • Prunella Clough Wet Street, 1986
      Prunella Clough
      Wet Street, 1986
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    • Bridget Riley Bassacs, 1987
      Bridget Riley
      Bassacs, 1987
      Sold
    • Paula Rego Island of the Lights from Pinocchio, 1996 Series: Private Collection
      Paula Rego
      Island of the Lights from Pinocchio, 1996
      Series: Private Collection
      Sold

  • For availability, prices, or to arrange a private viewing at the gallery, please contact us.