Masterpieces on Paper from Budapest
02.28.2025 - 06.01.2025
This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and The Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, an esteemed institution that showcases treasures of international art spanning from Antiquity to the 21st century, and Hungarian art from the Middle Ages until today. Among the various collections that comprise its holdings, the Collection of Prints and Drawings stands out in both time range and quantity, gathering approximately 9,000 drawings and 100,000 prints by European artists.
An extensive and varied array of works, the show provides a comprehensive overview of art on paper from the 1400s to the present day, including such great artists as Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt, Francisco de Goya, Miklós Barabás, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele, Victor Vasarely, Vera Molnar, Judit Reigl, Dóra Maurer, and even Georg Baselitz, Katharina Grosse, and Gerhard Richter. The nigh on 150 masterpieces shed light on the centuries-old traditions of the genres; on how they are always open to renewal; on their various formal solutions; on their essential features and their characteristic aesthetic effects.
The presentation is structured around twelve thematic sections that feature the distinctive characteristics of each era, while also highlighting connections and relevant issues in the realm of drawing and printmaking. At the first level, it sets before the viewer the technical diversity of drawings and prints, while on a deeper level, it shows their various functions. All this allows visitors to eventually understand the significance of drawing and printmaking within the history of art and see how, in the midst of changes in styles and trends over the centuries, it is drawings and prints that remained truest to themselves.
The exhibition also gives an insight into the rich, eventful history of the Museum of Fine Art’s Collection of Prints and Drawings, the most valuable collection of works on paper in Hungary. A number of archival elements has been gathered to narrate its origins within the art collection of a highly important Hungarian noble family, the Esterházys, and the achievements reached thanks to the indefatigable work of many dedicated museum directors, keepers, and curators.
Galleries: 205, 206, 207, 209
Curators: Kinga Bódi and Marta Blàvia
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)
Profile Portrait of the Artist’s Son, Albert Rubens, ca. 1618–19
Black and red chalk, pen, brown ink, brown wash on paper, 246 × 202 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. 1745
Purchased from the Esterházy Collection, 1871
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
The Exhibition
Leonardo da Vinci (Anchiano, 1452–Amboise, 1519)
Studies of Heads, ca. 1504–05
Soft black chalk or charcoal and some traces of red chalk on paper
191 × 188 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. 1775
Purchased from the Esterházy Collection, 1871
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Albrecht Altdorfer (Regensburg(?), ca. 1480–Regensburg, 1538)
View of Sarmingstein on the Danube, 1511
Pen and black ink on paper
147 × 207 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. 21
Purchased from the Esterházy Collection, 1871
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Parmigianino (Parma, 1503–Casalmaggiore, 1540)
Venus Disarming Cupid, ca. 1527–30
Pen and wash in brown ink, heightened with white, over black chalk on pink prepared paper
188 × 143 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. 1890
Purchased from the Esterházy Collection, 1871
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Leiden, 1606–Amsterdam, 1669)
Dutch Farmhouse in Light and Shadow, 1635–36
Pen, brown ink, and brown wash on paper
165 × 225 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. 1576
Purchased from the Esterházy Collection, 1871
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Jean-Antione Watteau (Valenciennes, 1684–Nogent-sur-Marne, 1721)
Study Sheet, Two Female Models and Drapery, ca. 1717
Red, white, and black chalk on beige paper
242 × 337 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. 1912–719
Gift of Ferenc Kleinberger in Paris, 1912
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Rudolf von Alt (Vienna, 1812–Vienna, 1905)
View of Budapest, 1881
Watercolor on paper
343 × 565 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. 1933-2390
Transferred from the Imperial Collection, Vienna, 1932
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Vincent van Gogh (Zundert, 1853–Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890)
The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Winter, 1884
Pen and brown ink, heightened with white on paper
515 × 380 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. 1935-2791
Gift of Pál Majovszky, 1934
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Egon Schiele (Tulln an der Donau, 1890–Vienna, 1918)
Two Women Embracing, 1915
Watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper
482 × 327 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. 1915-933
Purchased from Galerie Arnot in Vienna, 1915
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
László Moholy-Nagy (Bácsborsód, 1895–Chicago, 1946)
Composition, 1922
Linocut on paper
200 × 150 mm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. no. L.68.16
Gift of a private individual, 1968
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Dóra Maurer (Budapest, 1937)
13 traces, 2016
Archival pigment print on paper
375 × 571 mm (piece); 2200 × 1750 mm (altogether)
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest; inv. nos. L.2021.1.1–L.2021.1.13
Gift of the artist, 2021
This image illustrates 1 of the 13 prints
© 2025 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Did you
know that...?
Spreading images and ideas
As part of the Didaktika project, the Museum designs on site educational spaces, online contents, and special activities that complement the exhibitions, offering tools and resources to aid appreciation of the works on display...
Engraving and etching
The first images cut into metal date back to Antiquity, when goldsmiths engraved motifs on metal as a form of decoration. Later, in the 15th century, they started to ink their designs and print them on paper, possibly to check or keep a record of their designs...
Lithography
Lithography was invented in Germany in 1796 by the playwright and composer Aloys Senefelder (b. 1771; d. 1834). At first, this technique served him to print his musical scores, as it was a more cost-effective medium than engraving...
