American Drawings, Watercolors, Pastels, and Collages in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art

This volume, the first printed catalog of the holdings of American drawings, watercolors, pastels, and collages of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, documents 1,784 works by 645 artists, acquired through 1982. Black-and-white thumbnail illustrations accompany the entries, which are organized chronologically first by the birthdate of the artists and then by the works’ dates of execution.

While watercolor, gouache, pastel, acrylic, and collage are well represented, the collection is especially rich in drawings in pencil, ink, charcoal, and crayon. The greatest strength of the collection lies in the works executed from the 1840s to the early 1900s, including large portfolios by John Singer Sargent, Emanuel Leutze, and Elihu Vedder, as well as a solid representation of Hudson River school works.

Contemporary works by artists such as Robert Motherwell, Lee Bontecou, and Richard Diebenkorn are also included. When the Corcoran Gallery of Art closed in 2014 the National Gallery of Art accessioned much of its collection and became custodian of its publications. This and other out-of-print Corcoran volumes have been made freely available as PDFs in an effort to perpetuate the legacy of that institution.