Dialogue with Drawings

Robert Landolt (1913-2008) was an art collector capable of combining his economic opportunities with a keen eye for talent, who worked as a paediatrician in Chur and spent much of his little free time for studying and acquiring drawings. To mark his 100th birthday, the Graphische Sammlung ETH is holding an exhibition of 80 works from his collection of drawings, now in private hands.

Robert Landolt built up his important collection from 1945 onwards, with a sensitive flair for quality. Today, these outstanding works of art provide an insight into the intimate world of the sketches and designs of the Old Masters. The rocky landscape penned by the hand of the Florentine monk Fra Bartolommeo, for example, appears remarkably modern some 500 years after it was created. From Bolognese artists such as Domenichino and Agostino Carracci to Lombard artists such as Morazzone and Tanzio da Varallo – each and every one of these works show the crucial role of hand drawing in the process of artistic composition.

Northern European schools are also prominently represented – notably by Hendrik Van Cleve‘s Roman ruins, the mythological world of Hendrick Goltzius and the landscapes of Adriaen van Ostade and Jan van Goyen. A technique especially associated with Switzerland, on the other hand, is the Scheibenriss – designs for stained glass windows in public or private buildings – of which the exhibition includes some fine sixteenth century examples. Specialists in the craft of the Scheibenriss included Hans Funk, who was born in Zurich and worked for many years in Berne, and Daniel Lindtmayer of Schaffhausen. A collection built up with such devotion is truly a feast for the eyes.

This text is based on a media release of the "Graphische Sammlung".