Checklist

Attributed to Titian (ca. 1488–1576)
Landscape with a Satyr, 16th century
Pen and brown ink on paper
7 7/16 x 8 1/8 in. (18.9 x 20.6 cm)
Purchased by The Frick Collection, 1936

The site of an enigmatic encounter between a goat and a satyr, this sun-drenched landscape evokes the Arcadian realm of ancient literature, in which the satyr is an often lustful and drunken presence. Here he sits with an urn (presumably filled with wine), his hairy, muscular body illuminated by the sun and modeled with vigorous cross-hatching. Thin, directional strokes of the pen distinguish the gently rolling hills and steep crags in the distance.
Claude Lorrain (1600–1682)
View from Tivoli, 1651
Black chalk, pen, iron-gall ink, and two shades of iron-gall wash on laid paper
7 7/8 x 10 1/2 in. (20 x 26.7 cm)
Purchased by The Frick Collection, 1982

In this drawing, one of many Claude made of the Roman countryside, the artist explores the optical effects of blazing sunlight. Alternating bands of light and dark in the foreground give way to a hazy rendering of the distant hills. Against this radiant backdrop, three hunters appear in blurred silhouettes.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669)
Landscape with Cottage, Trees, and Stream, ca. 1650
Pen with brown ink and brown and gray wash applied by brush on paper
6 5/16 x 9 1/16 in. (16 x 23 cm)
Purchased by Henry Clay Frick, 1913

Rembrandt exhibits his rapid handling of pen and ink in this view of rural life made from direct observation. With short, darting strokes and thick, looping lines, he achieves a sense of spatial recession, light, and atmosphere. A later hand added the gray wash to the stream running across the sheet.
Claude Lorrain (1600–1682)
Heroic Landscape, 1655–58
Pen, iron-gall ink, brown and gray wash, and white heightening on laid paper
11 7/8 x 15 11/16 in (30.1 x 39.8 cm)
Purchased by The Frick Collection, 1982

By applying wash in different densities and leaving areas of the paper untouched, Claude produces a wide range of tones, from the deep shadows of the foreground to the gleaming surface of the sea in the distance. The light and the movement of the figures, birds, and clouds convey a sense of impending drama. The drawing contains the initial idea for a painting of a biblical story, for which Claude constructs an appropriately magnificent, awe-inspiring landscape.
Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788)
Landscape with Cattle Crossing a Bridge, ca. 1785
Oil over black chalk with white chalk highlights on laid paper
8 5/8 x 12 5/16 in. (21.9 x 31.3 cm)
Purchased by Henry Clay Frick, 1913

This picturesque, hilly landscape is reminiscent of northwest England’s Lake District, a popular tourist destination to which Gainsborough first traveled in 1783. Applying layers of oil paint and varnish, he transforms the sheet into a small painting.
John Constable (1776–1837)
Cloud Study, ca. 1822
Oil on paper, laid down on board
11 1/2 x 19 in. (29.2 x 48.3 cm)
Bequest of Henrietta E. S. Lockwood in memory of her father and mother, Ellery Sedgwick and Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, 2000

This work belongs to a large series of oil studies in which Constable recorded the sky at various times of day and under different meteorological conditions. Working from direct observation in the open air, he captures the movement of the clouds and shifting light. In this study, downward strokes suggest the fall of rain from a dark cloud.
John Constable (1776–1837)
Cloud Study, ca. 1822
Oil on paper, laid down on board
11 1/2 x 19 in. (29.2 x 48.3 cm)
Bequest of Henrietta E. S. Lockwood in memory of her father and mother, Ellery Sedgwick and Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, 2000

This work belongs to a large series of oil studies in which Constable recorded the sky at various times of day and under different meteorological conditions. Working from direct observation in the open air, he captures the movement of the clouds and shifting light. In this example, much of the pink-brown ground layer shows through, lending warmth and depth to this image of pure atmosphere.
Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867)
Pond at the Edge of the Woods, 1853
Graphite on paper
7 1/2 x 12 13/16 in. (19.1 x 32.5 cm)
Bequest of Charles A. Ryskamp, 2010

With nothing more than a pencil, Rousseau produces a wide tonal range and brilliant luminosity in this view of a marshy clearing. Varying the direction and length of his strokes, he conveys the textures of foliage and grass and the play of light across their variegated surfaces.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875)
Study for “Souvenir de Mortefontaine,” ca. 1864
Charcoal with brown chalk and stumping on paper
9 3/16 x 12 11/16 in. (23.4 x 32.2 cm)
Purchased with a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Roswell L. Gilpatric, 1994

In this preparatory drawing, Corot formulates the composition of one of his most celebrated landscapes, a painting in the Louvre that presents a nostalgic recollection, or reminiscence, of the village of Mortefontaine. With an emphatic contour line, he establishes the overall shape of the mass of trees in the mid-ground and its vivid reflection in the water.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875)
Study for “Bank of the Pond after the Storm,” ca. 1870
Charcoal with stumping on cream-colored paper
16 1/8 x 23 7/16 in. (41 x 59.5 cm)
Purchased by The Frick Collection, 1965

In this sheet, Corot evokes the hazy, damp atmosphere of a tranquil moment after a storm through a technique known as stumping. Rubbing the charcoal into the paper with a small roll of leather (a stump), he softens the contours of the trees and creates the effect of windswept foliage. Figures engaged in mundane activities appear in complete harmony with nature.
Antoine Vollon (1833–1900)
View of Dieppe Harbor, 1873
Watercolor and graphite on laid paper
11 x 18 1/8 in. (28 x 46 cm)
Gift of Carol Forman Tabler in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander A. Forman III, 2014

This panoramic vista represents the northern French city of Dieppe, its gothic church prominent at center and its cliffs and chateau visible in the distance at left. Vollon applied the watercolor with a very wet brush pulled swiftly across the paper. The bold strokes of light blue in the sky suggest rapidly passing clouds and strong winds of salt air. Wearing headdresses, billowing skirts, and clogs, the two women in the foreground are residents of a longstanding fishing community in Dieppe that was characterized in the literature of the period as a simple, pre-industrialized society. The inscription indicates that Vollon gave this sheet to the wife of the writer Alexandre Dumas fils.
James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
Nocturne: Venice, 1880
Pastel on dark brown wove paper
8 x 11 7/8 in. (20.3 x 30.2 cm)
Purchased by Henry Clay Frick, 1915

With the sparest touches of blue and yellow pastel, Whistler captures the combined effect of natural and artificial light — the evening sky and the warm glow of gaslights reflected in the water. One of some hundred pastels the artist made during his fourteen-month stay in Venice, this drawing represents a distant view of the city from the far end of the Riva degli Schiavoni. Strokes of black suggest activity on the darkened shore, where Whistler also includes the stylized butterfly that was his signature.