Old Master Drawings

Exhibition Statement

From the Feitelson Collection of the University Art Museum, Santa Barbara.

Sant Barbara, March 19, 1986 J. David Farmer, Director, announced a gift of 41 sixteenth, 17th, and 18-century drawings to the University Art Museum by the Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg Feitelson Arts Foundation.

“This is a wonderful addition,” said Farmer, since it enriches our collection with further examples of outstanding artists from the Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque epochs. With this one gift, we now have a representative selection of Italian draftsmanship from its golden age.”

UCSB Art History Professor Alfred Moir, who organized an exhibition of the Feitelson Collection for the Museum in 1983 and produced an accompanying catalogue, said, “The Feitelsons bought what they liked and what they could afford,” eventually amassing a surprising and interesting group of drawings.

Both Helen Lundeberg Feitelson and her late husband, Lorser Feitelson, are well known artists. Having resided in Los Angeles for many years, for two decades, from the mid-50’s to the mid-70’s, they bought old master drawings — mostly from Southern California dealers– for modest sums.

“It is clear,” said Farmer, “that the quality of the collection is directly attributable to their perceptive eyes, for they acquired a drawing because it interested them and not because it bore a major name.”

Nevertheless, many of the drawings carry names of major figures. The collection includes works by the outstanding Genoese artist Luca Cambiaso, the great innovator Annibale Carracci, Luca Giordano and several sheets by Giovanni Battista and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. Professor Mair’s research and publication clarified the authorship of many drawings which were interesting but obscurely identified.

Most of the works are Italian in origin, although three of the most interesting are by the Northern Europeans Hans Rottenhammer, Anthony van Dyck, and Govaert Flinck.

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