The site Under Cover Artists’ Sketchbooks has been put online to accompany an exhibition of the same name which was on display at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum last year.
The exhibit focuses on 10 sketchbooks. The sketchbooks of Edward Burne-Jones, Benjamin Champney, Henri-Edmond Cross, Jacques-Louis David, Paul Feeley, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Sanford Gifford, George Grosz, Frederic Leighton, and John Singer Sargent are featured and each page spread is reproduced on the site.
It is unfortunate that these glimpse’s into the artist at work are often broken up as many of them have been disbound and sold as individual sheets. Grab yourself a cuppa and browse the site and listen to podcast by Miriam Stewart, curator of the exhibition, as it’s great.
Artists have used sketchbooks for centuries, entrusting travel sketches, figure studies, compositional ideas, and notes of every kind to their pages. Designed to be easily portable, sketchbooks are often kept in a pocket, and offer an unusually personal glimpse of the artist at work. Leafing through sketchbooks can result in a disconcerting sense of having invaded the artist’s privacy, as if one were reading a diary or looking over a shoulder. In addition to drawings, notes and addresses, doodles and train schedules, sketchbooks can bear the familiar curve of the artist’s body, the mark of his or her hand. While sketchbooks are often small, some are capacious, allowing broad, expansive sketching.
Found with thanks via Notebookism
