Examples from the Collection

 

In this diminutive image by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (measuring less than 5 x 6 inches), the fine pen work in black ink creates a wealth of pattern to describe forms and textures with precise detail. The sharpness of the metal pen point is evident in the darkest passages where repeated passes of the pen nib have roughened the paper surface giving it a velvety quality. As a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the artist sought graphic clarity and minute detail, as well as having a preference for Romantic and Literary subjects. This drawing is inspired by "The Sisters," a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson about a young woman's vengeful murder of her sister's lover.

 

The harvest in Arles, with its haystacks and light-filled atmosphere is a recurring theme in Vincent van Gogh's drawings and paintings. Van Gogh animated this drawing of haystacks with short blunt repetitive strokes of brown ink, using this personal calligraphy to express both texture and form. The larger haystack is constructed of short pale curved strokes overlaid with darker vertical lines and emphatic spots in the darkest ink. Variations in ink intensity could result from a more or less heavily charged pen or possibly from fading from exposure to light. Compare these blunt-ended strokes of fairly uniform width produced with the reed pen to the more sinuous fine lines made by the responsive quill in William Blake's A Destroying Deity. Although quill pens had largely replaced reed pens by medieval times, from time to time the powerful strokes produced by the reed pen have been preferred by modern artists. While in France, van Gogh wrote that he had discovered excellent reeds for pen and ink drawing."My drawings are made with a reed that is cut like a quill pen. I want to do a series like this. It's a process that I experimented with in the Netherlands some years ago, but I didn't have as good quality reeds as I do here."

 

A gifted and prolific artist as well as poet, William Blake often drew imposing figures placed within a shallow stage, as in A Destroying Deity, the subject of which has never been precisely determined. The flowing black ink lines, applied here over a preliminary graphite sketch, suggests the flexible handling of a quill pen as it defines the contours of the figure and the finer details of the face and wings. To create shape and volume the artist applied ink washes with broad brushstrokes, using subtle tints and touches of blue and red watercolor in the wings and lips to enliven the forms. The placement of the hands in the original graphite drawing was subtly adjusted by the ink lines, leaving the graphite to echo the forms and enrich the drawing. Other subordinate details, such as the spiral twists of his tridents and the small figures beneath the deity's wings, were merely suggested by the graphite, enhanced with an occasional ink line.

 

An author on subjects ranging from architecture to social reform, John Ruskin was regarded as the pre-eminent art critic of his time. Ruskin also wrote three artists' manuals, including "The Elements of Drawing", 1857, in which he advocated carefully drawn studies from nature such as Beanstalk seen here. This drawing is a beautiful example of the fine lines and delicate tones that can be produced with pen and ink and graphite pencil. Golden brown ink delineates the entire image, especially the veins of the leaves, and is most clearly visible in the tendrils at right. Ruskin further defines the stalk and leaves with faint strokes of black ink and graphite pencil, while additional touches of opaque white watercolor enhance the elegant forms of the leaves.