MASTER DRAWINGS at WORCESTER ART MUSEUM Hardcover

Drawings of the 16th and 17th centuries from Italy and the Low Countries form a focus, as do 18th- and 19th-century French examples, but the largest group is from 19th- and 20th-century America. Although the criteria used to select these particular works are not stated, Acton, the museum's curator of prints, drawings, and photographs, describes each one and offers full references. Accompanying each illustration is a summary of the artist's life, and the relationship between the drawing and the artist's other work is also explored. Acton explains how the individual drawings are skillfully built up using media such as pen or brush with ink, wash, charcoal, crayon, watercolor, graphite, pastels, gouache, and chalk. A glossary and a chapter about the historic use of ink are included. This catalog, both broad and focused, is a model of curatorial connoisseurship and would be of most use in art museum libraries.