The Josef Hegenbarth Archive in Dresden is showing an extensive collection of sketchbooks and individual sheets by the draughtsman, painter and graphic artist from its holdings for the first time. According to the Dresden State Art Collections, in the "Archive in your pocket" exhibition in the former home of Josef Hegenbarth (1884-1962), they are in dialog with works by artists with an equal passion for drawing: Ludwig Richter, Gerhard Altenbourg or Max Uhlig.
Hegenbarth always had a sketchbook with him for his impressions. This resulted in several thousand drawings, immortalized on hundreds of pages, which he returned to again and again over the course of time. The sketchbooks provide an insight into his creative process, as studies and sketches of heads, everyday scenes and animals were at the beginning of his works. He dissolved many of them in later years and reassembled individual pages, sorted according to groups of motifs.
Sketches and studies inspiration for great art
The ideas and impressions in paperback format usually form the basis of his artistic work, serving as an aid to thought or notes for large-format works. Hegenbarth captured a rhinoceros or "air-bathing women" on paper, Richter the feeding of llamas, Uhlig heads in New York and Altenbourg landscape, as exhibits show.
Hegenbarth, who came from Bohemia, studied at the Dresden Academy of Art under Oskar Zwintscher and Gotthard Kuehl, among others. From 1921, he lived in the house, which his widow bequeathed to the Kupferstich-Kabinett together with his estate on the condition that it be made accessible to the public. The artist's estate of over 13,700 works of art is preserved there, as well as his library and correspondence.
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