GAINESVILLE, FLA.- Meant to Be Shared: Selections from the Arthur Ross Collection of European Prints at the Yale University Art Gallery is on view at the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida from Jan. 31 to May 28, 2017. The exhibition features nearly two hundred 18th- to 20th-century Italian, French and Spanish prints. These represent highlights of the more than 1,200 prints donated by the Arthur Ross Foundation to Yale University Art Gallery in 2012.

Philanthropist Arthur Ross (1910 – 2007) frequently lent to museums, especially those on academic campuses. In the spirit of the collector, Meant to Be Shared travels to the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida this winter and then to Syracuse University Art Galleries in the fall of 2017. The title of the exhibition, Meant to Be Shared, reflects the raison d’être of the collection. Arthur Ross collected these prints for his foundation with the express purpose, in the words of his widow, Janet C. Ross, “to lend first-class prints . . . to educational institutions in the United States and abroad that would not otherwise have access to such objects for study and enjoyment.”

“We are fortunate to be able to bring these works to the University of Florida campus and Gainesville community,” said Harn Curator of Modern Art Dulce Román. “Visitors will be able to see first-hand so many superb works by some of the most renowned printmakers of the 18th- to 20th-century. The experience will be enhanced by magnifying glasses offering opportunities for closer observation.”

Highlights of Meant to Be Shared include entire series of works by Francisco Goya, views of 18th-century and ancient Rome by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Eugène Delacroix’s illustrations of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” and Édouard Manet’s illustrations of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven.” Other artists represented in the exhibition include Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso.

Meant to Be Shared: Selections from the Arthur Ross Collection of European Prints at the Yale University Art Gallery is organized by the Yale University Art Gallery.

Admission to the museum is free.