NEW YORK, NY.- Johan Tobias Sergel (1740–1814) is one of Sweden's most important artists and a leading figure of European Neoclassicism, yet he remains relatively unknown outside Sweden. Internationally celebrated during his lifetime, and heralded by some as the greatest sculptor since antiquity, he later faded from the broader narrative of European art history. This fall, the Morgan Library & Museum introduces him to a new generation of audiences with Fantasy and Reality: The Art of Johan Tobias Sergel, the first major exhibition devoted to the artist outside Europe. On view October 30, 2026, through January 31, 2027, the exhibition brings together a significant selection of Sergel's works, including sculpture in terracotta, marble, bronze, and plaster, and a major group of the artist's drawings, which reveal his great humanity and keen eye for the complexities of human nature.
The exhibition has been organized by the Nationalmuseum, Sweden, in partnership with the Morgan Library & Museum. The Nationalmuseum, which holds most of Sergel's surviving work, having acquired the contents of the artist's studio from his descendants in the centuries following his death, is presenting a larger version of the exhibition from February 19 through August 9, 2026.
"Following our successful partnership with the Nationalmuseum on the 2017 exhibition Treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden: The Collections of Count Tessin, we were eager to collaborate with our colleagues in Stockholm on another exhibition," said Colin B. Bailey, Katharine J. Rayner Director. "We are grateful to our colleagues at the Nationalmuseum for making it possible to introduce Sergel and his remarkable work to a new audience. Their generosity and expertise have been fundamental in bringing this project to fruition."
"Although his career spanned artistic movements from Rococo to Neoclassicism to Romanticism, Sergel also seems at times a modern figure, one whose life can offer a rich story to contemporary audiences," said John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Department Head of Drawings and Prints, and Director of Curatorial Affairs. "Through his deeply personal drawings, visitors will encounter an artist who an astute observer of human relationships and a brilliant caricaturist. His drawings also reflect the creative communities that shaped eighteenth-century Europe."
Trained in Stockholm and Rome, Sergel united the ideals of classical antiquity with remarkable emotional expression and technical mastery. During his decade in Rome, he was regarded as one of Europe's leading sculptors and attracted patrons from across Europe. At the height of his success, however, Sergel was summoned back to Sweden to serve King Gustav III. There, a steady stream of portrait commissions for the royal court curtailed his artistic ambition, and by the age of forty, his most significant sculptural achievements were behind him. Although his sculpture helped shape the development of Neoclassicism, Sergel's most enduring artistic legacy may lie in his drawings, which offer an intimate visual record of his life, travels, and creative world.
Fantasy and Reality: The Art of Johan Tobias Sergel showcases Sergel's extraordinary drawings, bringing together an extensive group of self-portraits with works that illuminate his artistic friendships, his relationship with King Gustav III and the Stockholm court, and his life with his common-law wife, Anna Rella Hellstrm.
Sergel's candid, humorous, and deeply personal drawings demonstrate an irresistible talent for caricature, particularly when depicting himself (Self-Portrait with a Flask of Wine, ca. 1775) and his boisterous circle of friends, including the painters Henry Fuseli (Portrait of Fuseli in Rome, ca. 1770-77) and Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard (Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard in Rome, ca. 1772-77). In his later years, as poor health and depression took their toll, Sergel continued to draw, producing haunting works whose psychological intensity has been compared to that of Francisco Goya, as seen in A Torturous Dream from his Melancholy Suite (1795). Together, these drawings offer both a touching personal testament and a reflection of the anxieties of his age, embodying the dualities that define his art: lofty and low, public and private, solemnity and satire, fantasy and reality.
Joining these drawings are several terracotta models, including two versions of Cupid and Psyche (ca. 1770–72). These terracotta models have a drawing-like immediacy, revealing the artist's hand in every mark. The exhibition also features Sergel's first major marble sculpture The Faun (1774), presented together with its preparatory drawings, clay model, and a related bronze, allowing visitors to follow the work's development from initial conception to finished sculpture.
Throughout the exhibition, drawings by Sergel's friends and contemporaries, including Henry Fuseli, Jacob Philipp Hackert, Esprit Antoine Gibelin, Franois-Andr Vincent, George Romney, and Julien de Parme, provide broader context for the artistic circles in which he lived and worked.
Fantasy and Reality: The Art of Johan Tobias Sergel has been organized by the Nationalmuseum, Sweden, in partnership with the Morgan Library & Museum.
The Morgan's presentation is organized by John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Department Head of Drawings and Prints, and Director of Curatorial Affairs.
