ATLANTA, GA.-The High Museum of Art presents an acclaimed and rarely seen collection of American works on paper with “Object Lessons: American Drawings and Watercolors from the Princeton University Art Museum.” On view through July 23, 2006, this major exhibition marks the publication of the Princeton Museum’s extensive catalogue of American drawings and watercolors. Featuring over 75 masterworks from the 18th through the 20th centuries, the survey explores the role that drawing has played in the history of American art.

“This exhibition opportunity was brought to our attention by the American art historian and Princeton University professor John Wilmerding, a good friend of the High,” said Sylvia Yount, Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of American Art. “Its showing in Atlanta underscores the High’s commitment and ambition to displaying and collecting a wide range of significant works on paper—particularly in light of our new Works on Paper Study Center on the lower level of the Renzo Piano–designed Wieland Pavilion.”

Princeton’s collection of American drawings and watercolors was established in the 1930s by Frank Jewett Mather, Jr., the museum’s first director. The artists featured in the collection and exhibition include the 18th-century masters Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley; leading figures of the Hudson River School; late nineteenth-century favorites Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent; members of the early twentieth-century Ashcan School; modernists of the Stieglitz Circle; mid-twentieth-century realists Charles Burchfield, Edward Hopper, Charles White and Ben Shahn; post–World War II figures such as Jackson Pollock, Claes Oldenburg, David Smith and Lee Bontecou; as well as a contemporary work by Susan Rothenberg.

A roughly chronological survey, the exhibition is divided into three sequential and thematic groups, beginning with late 18th- and early 19th-century works that examine two artistic mainstays: the human figure and the native landscape. Postbellum images that represent more varied approaches to this subject matter form the largest grouping in the exhibition. Finally, the 20th-century selections explore a greater diversity of subjects and stylistic approaches.

“Selected from nearly 1,500 American watercolors and drawings, the works presented in ‘American Drawings and Watercolors’ provide a clear sense of the richness, depth, range and quality of a collection that is one of the best in the country,” said John Wilmerding, the Christopher B. Sarofim ’86 Professor of American Art at Princeton University, who organized the exhibition with Laura M. Giles, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Princeton University Art Museum. “The museum’s collection is impressive in both scope and quality, providing a comprehensive overview of the nation’s artistic traditions.”

The exhibition was first shown at the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, and then traveled to the Musée d’Art Américain, Giverny, France. Its final stop is the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia.