Enfilade

Design drawing for a patinated bronze vase, anonymous, ca. 1780
(Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum)

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From the museum:

Process: Design Drawings from the Rijksmuseum, 1500–1900
Créer: Dessiner pour les arts décoratifs, 1500–1900 
Design Museum Den Bosch, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 5 November 2022 — 12 February 2023
Fondation Custodia / Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, 25 February — 14 May 2023

Curated by Reinier Baarsen

This pioneering exhibition is an opportunity to discover a collection of extraordinary design drawings from the Rijksmuseum. The drawings, which date from the period 1500–1900, have been brought together for the first time and are arranged according to the successive stages of the design process.

The focus here is not on big artistic names, but on the crucial role that drawings have played in design. We watch from close-by as the ideas for all sorts of items are formed and we also get to meet their inventors, makers, and patrons. Drawings of vases, chairs and clocks, stoves, sledges, and carriages are shown, from the first rough pencil sketches to beautifully worked-up and colourful presentations. The drawings in this exhibition were recently acquired by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where they belong to a special collection established by Senior Curator Reinier Baarsen. He offers us a unique insight here into the role that drawing has played in the design process, as well as the superb drawings it has produced.

Reinier Baarsen, Process: Design Drawings from the Rijksmuseum, 1500–1900 (Rotterdam: nai101, 2022), 464 pages, SBN 978-9462087354, €60 / $70.

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Note (added 28 February 2023) — The posting was updated to include the Fondation Custodia as a second venue.