Ex­pe­di­ti­on Dra­wing — Dutch Mas­ters un­der the ma­gni­fy­ing glass: An ex­ci­ting jour­ney of dis­co­very at the Wall­raf-Rich­artz-Mu­se­um

From 14 No­vem­ber 2025, the Wall­raf-Rich­artz-Mu­se­um in Co­lo­gne in­vi­tes you to a spe­cial ex­hi­bi­ti­on that will de­light art lo­vers and the cu­rious ali­ke: “Ex­pe­di­ti­on Dra­wing — Dutch Mas­ters un­der the Ma­gni­fy­ing Glass”. For the first time, the cu­ra­tors are pre­sen­ting the fa­sci­na­ting re­sults of a mul­ti-year re­se­arch pro­ject in which around 850 dra­wings from the 15th to 18th cen­tu­ries we­re ana­ly­sed in de­tail. The ex­hi­bi­ti­on ta­kes an unu­su­al look at mas­ter­pie­ces by ar­tists such as Rem­brandt, Ru­bens and Golt­zi­us and ta­kes vi­si­tors on a jour­ney th­rough the di­ver­si­ty of Dutch draughts­man­ship.

A to­tal of 90 sel­ec­ted works ta­ke cent­re stage, ran­ging from small stamp stu­dies to fu­rious sket­ches. The pre­sen­ta­ti­on tells the ex­ci­ting sto­ries be­hind the works and in­vi­tes vi­si­tors to get to the bot­tom of the se­crets of cen­tu­ries-old dra­wings. Vi­si­tors will learn how ori­gi­nals are di­stin­gu­is­hed from co­pies, what “equip­ment” is nee­ded for the art his­to­ri­cal ex­pe­di­ti­on and whe­ther the ex­perts got lost on their re­se­arch jour­ney — or whe­ther all roads lead to the sa­me de­sti­na­ti­on in the end. The “Ex­pe­di­ti­on Dra­wing” cuts a path th­rough un­ex­plo­red ter­rain and makes hid­den dis­co­veries vi­si­ble.