During the spring and summer of 2005, The Frick Collection presented a selection of approximately seventy drawings from the Schlossmuseum and the Goethe-Nationalmuseum in Weimar, Germany, offering visitors a unique opportunity to view many works that have never before been exhibited outside the former Eastern bloc countries. A number of these sheets were once in the private collection of the renowned poet, novelist, playwright, and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) or were collected by Grand Duke Carl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, whom Goethe served as privy councilor from 1776. Assembled with Goethe's encouragement, the duke's collection of drawings was intended to survey the history of European art and provide aspiring artists with models from which to learn.
The exhibition included drawings by Jacques Callot, Claude Lorrain, Charles Le Brun, Jacques Bellange, Simon Vouet, Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Charles Natoire, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, and Charles-Louis Clérisseau, among others, and both shed new light on the individual oeuvres of these artists as well as deepened the viewer's understanding of their practice as draftsmen within the context of other French masters.
From Callot to Greuze was co-organized by The Frick Collection and the Schlossmuseum, Weimar, and its presentation in New York was coordinated by Chief Curator Colin B. Bailey. The exhibition was accompanied by an illustrated catalogue published by G + H Verlag, Berlin.
The exhibition was made possible, in part, through the generous support of The Christian Humann Foundation, The Florence Gould Foundation, and The Helen Clay Frick Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Fellows of The Frick Collection.