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Home>Exhibitions>Past>1997>Building a Collection

Building a Collection

November 16, 1997 – April 19, 1998
East Building, Ground Floor, Northwest

Rembrandt van Rijn, Abraham Entertaining the Angels [recto], 1656, etched copperplate with drypoint, Gift of Ladislaus and Beatrix von Hoffmann and Patrons' Permanent Fund, 1997.85.1.a

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: An exhibition of 140 watercolors, drawings, prints, illustrated books, and photographs was organized to reveal the relationship of individual acquisitions to the collection as a whole. The recently acquired Rembrandt copperplate for Abraham Entertaining the Angels (1656) was displayed near the exhibition entrance. Drawings by George Bellows, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi, among others, also were included.

Organization: Andrew Robison, Andrew W. Mellon senior curator, National Gallery of Art, was exhibition curator.

Sponsor: The catalogue was made possible by The Circle of the National Gallery of Art.

Attendance: 42,265

Catalog: Building a Collection, by Andrew Robison. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1997.