1515-1516

This is a preliminary study dating from 1515-16 for a group of soldiers in a tapestry of the Conversion of Saul, one of a series of ten scenes from the Acts of the Apostles woven in Flanders to Raphael’s designs (Vatican Museums).

• Material: Red chalk over stylus underdrawing
• Collection of Jean Bonna, Geneva.

1524

This wonderfully fluent drawing belongs to Parmigianino’s early career, probably dating from shortly before his departure from his native Parma to Rome in 1524.  A scene of intimate domesticity, the subject has no scriptural source and was essentially an invention of the artist.

• Material: Pen and brown ink, brush and grey-brown wash, over traces of black chalk, with a touch of white heightening (oxidised to grey)
• Collection of Jean Bonna, Geneva.

1578

The leading artist of the so-called ‘Dürer Renaissance’, centred on Nuremberg in the later sixteenth century, Hoffmann found his inspiration in Albrecht Dürer’s extraordinarily naturalistic depictions of plants and animals. Although this irresistible portrait of a piglet does not copy any of Dürer’s drawings directly, it echoes similarly detailed works such as his famous study of a hare in the Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna.

• Material: Watercolour and gouache on vellum
• Collection of Jean Bonna, Geneva.

1718-1719

Pioneered by Flemish artists like Rubens, the technique of combining red, black and white chalk (trois crayons) was adopted in France at the end of the seventeenth century and was taken by Watteau to new levels of refinement.

• Material: Black, red and white chalk with stumping, brush and grey-brown wash, on beige paper
• Collection of Jean Bonna, Geneva.

1900

A resolutely independent creative spirit, Redon largely ignored contemporary developments in art and explored instead the world of the imagination, beyond everyday vision. In the 1890s he took up oil paints and pastels and discovered the charms of colour; his art brightened considerably but retained a dark air of mystery.

• Material: Pastel
• Collection of Jean Bonna, Geneva.

1895-1900

This powerful drawing was made during Gauguin’s second and final protracted stay in the South Pacific, where he died in 1903.  Although in the past the studies have been linked to a painting of Women by the Sea (1899; Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg), the connection with the two women in Three Tahitians in the National Gallery of Scotland’s own collection is in fact much closer.

• Material: Conté crayon and charcoal
• Collection of Jean Bonna, Geneva.