Field Trip to Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

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(All photos by Valerie Gottridge)

The Art History Majors Committee recently organized a field trip to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford to view a collection of rarely seen European drawings and attend a public lecture.

According to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, it has acquired a diverse group of nearly 1,250 European drawings since the mid-nineteenth century. The exhibition Paper, Color, Line: European Master Drawings from the Wadsworth Atheneum showcases about sixty to seventy artworks on display for the first time in decades, offering an overview of 500 years of draftsmanship in Europe.

A painting by Paul Klee during his early time at the Bauhaus design school in 1922.

In an evening lecture on January 30, the museum’s Curator of European Art Oliver Tostmann explored this rich history and examined his recent scholarship that positions the Wadsworth as an early collector among American museums.

Curator Oliver Tostmann explored the history of the Wadsworth’s collection of European drawings since the mid-nineteenth century in his lecture last Thursday.

Portrait of Otto Freund, 1910 by Egon Schiele (left) and Jupiter Sacrificing on the Island of Naxos, 1557 by Giorgio Vasari (right).

Our Majors Committee arranged roundtrip transportation on a Wesleyan van for this free event, where five Art History majors and two Wesleyan students participated. Viewing the exhibition at the galleries before the lecture, they met Emma Flaherty ’24, who is currently a Curatorial Fellow at the Wadsworth.

Emma Flaherty ’24 (left) and Sophie Raiskin-Wood ’25 at the Wadsworth exhibition.

The evening ended with a dinner at Main Street, Middletown, also provided by the Majors Committee Funds. The Committee hopes to organize more events in future and looks forward to your participation!

Paper, Color, Line opened on January 16 and will be on view through April 27, 2025. Click here for more information.