The Fitzwilliam Museum - University of Cambridge

18 Special Displays
Exhibitions
A Pleasing
Occupation:
Giovanna Garzoni,
Vase of Flowers on
a Ledge c. 1640-50
The strength of the Fitzwilliam’s permanent collections provides a rich resource on which
to base a wide-ranging programme of special displays highlighting the extraordinary breadth
and depth of the Museum’s holdings. No fewer than thirteen such displays were presented
during 2005/2006, with the Department of Paintings, Drawings and Prints being responsible
for ten of these. Two small loan exhibitions were also mounted.
SS (18 January – 17 April 2005, Charrington
Print Room) demonstrated the potential of
printmaking to transform subject matter and featured
progressive versions (or ‘states’) of prints by such artists
as Rembrandt, Blake and Picasso. (8
February – 24 April 2005, Shiba Gallery) displayed for
the first time a collection of spectacular prints by
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), the most important
Japanese woodcut artist of the Meiji period (1868-
1912), acquired with the help of the Art Fund.
PP OO PP aa aa
dd bb ww aa (3 May – 17 July
2005, Shiba Gallery) featured a new selection of
drawings from the Broughton Collection bequeathed
by Lord Fairhaven. The discovery of a drawing by the
famous Italian still-life painter Giovanna Garzoni,
who worked for the Medici, amongst the Museum’s
drawings attributed to Nicolas Robert was the impetus
behind the selection. Six large watercolours featuring
dizzying party scenes and subdued intimate portraits,
from a series of more than 100 works executed over
a twenty year period, filled the Octagon Gallery on
loan in RR DD (28 May – 11
September 2005). Remfry is fascinated by the human
predicament and his unusual composition, faces
leaning into the canvas and peering out at the viewer,
presents these scenes as windows on passing worlds.
A series of exhibitions allied to a conservation
programme of the Fitzwilliam’s outstanding collection
of Rembrandt prints included CC
(11 October 2005 – 19 February 2006, Charrington
Print Room), which featured dramatic etchings of the
Christmas story ranging from the dramatic Angel
appearing to the Shepherds of 1634 to intimate
scenes of Christ’s nativity and childhood. Many of the
images were conceived as nocturnes and the display
of multiple impressions from each plate revealed the
subtle variation of tonal effects achieved by using
different papers and inking. aa SS
(14 November 2006 – 11 March 2007) celebrated the
400th anniversary of Rembrandt’s birth and focused
on images of Rembrandt and his wife Saskia van
Uylenburgh (1612-42) captured in formal portraits
and intimate studies, as well as works where Saskia
was used as a model for other subjects.