During his lifetime Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694–1774) assembled one of history’s finest and most renowned collections of drawings. He amassed over nine thousand sheets that were dispersed after his death, and today works from his collection are found in museums and private collections around the world, many of them still in Mariette’s distinctive blue mounts. Despite his importance as a collector and connoisseur, he has never before been the subject of an exhibition in the United States.

On view at the Morgan Library & Museum from January 22 through May 1, 2016, Pierre-Jean Mariette and the Art of Collecting Drawings explores the eighteenth-century collector’s pivotal role in shaping our modern view of the old masters and provides a rare opportunity to consider the particular ways in which Mariette studied, mounted, altered, restored, and displayed the drawings in his collection. Through the examination of his methods, the exhibition highlights practices of collecting that persist even today.

The heir to a well-established dynasty of printmakers, publishers, and print dealers from Paris, Mariette formed a collection that included drawings both by old masters and by contemporary artists such as the Italian painters Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734) and Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691/92–1765). The collection was encyclopedic in scope and included masterpieces and works by little known artists. Pierre-Jean Mariette and the Art of Collecting Drawings presents a selection of some twenty drawings representative of Mariette’s holdings. The works on view come primarily from the Morgan’s own collections, but the exhibition also includes sheets from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, and private collections. Among the artists represented are masters such as Parmigianino (1503–1540), Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), Guercino (1591–1666), Salvator Rosa (1615–1673), and Sébastien Bourdon (1616–1671).

“As one of the world’s pre-eminent repositories of works on paper, the Morgan is suitably positioned to mount this first exhibition on Mariette,” said Colin B. Bailey, director of the museum. “He was a firm believer that drawings reveal the true spirit of an artist, and devoted much of his life to their study. His scholarly writings, discriminating eye, and skill at categorizing and organizing drawings remain enormous contributions to the history of art.”