Arti­cle Undergraduate Research and the Peck Collection

Focus on the Peck Feature

The four draw­ings on dis­play are amongst those stud­ied in detail by under­grad­u­ate stu­dents in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Depart­ment of Art and His­to­ry in the fall semes­ter of 2017. Fif­teen stu­dents in the Art His­to­ry Under­grad­u­ate Research Sem­i­nar pro­posed new inter­pre­ta­tions and under­stand­ings of fif­teen of the Peck Col­lec­tion draw­ings. The stu­dents had many oppor­tu­ni­ties to view the draw­ings up close, and they even had the chance to meet and share their find­ings with Dr. Shel­don Peck, who vis­it­ed the sem­i­nar in Octo­ber 2017. In their research, the four stu­dents whose draw­ings have been select­ed for this exhi­bi­tion made impor­tant discoveries.

The four draw­ings in this dis­play were amongst those stud­ied in detail by under­grad­u­ate stu­dents in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Depart­ment of Art and His­to­ry in the fall semes­ter of 2017. Fif­teen stu­dents in the Art His­to­ry Under­grad­u­ate Research Sem­i­nar pro­posed new inter­pre­ta­tions and under­stand­ings of fif­teen of the Peck Col­lec­tion draw­ings, which had been given to the uni­ver­si­ty just six months ear­li­er. The stu­dents had many oppor­tu­ni­ties to view the draw­ings up close, and they even had the chance to meet and share their find­ings with Dr. Shel­don Peck, who vis­it­ed the sem­i­nar in Octo­ber 2017. 

In their research, the four stu­dents whose draw­ings have been select­ed for this exhi­bi­tion made impor­tant dis­cov­er­ies. Through an exten­sive series of com­par­isons to works by other Rem­brandt stu­dents, Anselme Long, a Junior art his­to­ry major, was able to iden­ti­fy the stu­dio set­ting in which this draw­ing was made. Emily Edger­ton, anoth­er Junior art his­to­ry major, through detailed analy­sis of the per­spec­tive of this draw­ing, explored Thomas Wyck’s early focus on ruinous Ital­ian build­ings. Senior art his­to­ry major Ori Erna Hash­mon­ay worked out the pre­cise Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty rep­re­sent­ed in Koninck’s pro­ces­sion. Jere­my How­ell, who is a Senior dou­ble major­ing in art his­to­ry and his­to­ry, ana­lyzed Rembrandt’s straight­for­ward, yet sen­si­tive, depic­tion of an African ser­vant in sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry Amsterdam. 

Each draw­ing is delight­ful in its own right, but learn­ing so much more about them has deep­ened our appre­ci­a­tion and enjoy­ment of them.

Dr. Tatiana C. String, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Art History

Stand­ing Male Nude Hold­ing a Staff

Samuel van Hoogstrat­en, Dutch, 1627 – 1678, Stand­ing Male Nude Hold­ing a Staff, c. 1646. pen and brown ink with brown wash on paper. The Peck Col­lec­tion, 2017.1.43

See Stand­ing Male Nude Hold­ing a Staff in more detail here. 

Samuel van Hoogstrat­en cre­at­ed Stand­ing Male Nude Hold­ing a Staff around the time of his tute­lage under Rem­brandt van Rijn. The study is close­ly relat­ed to a series of draw­ings and etch­ings cre­at­ed by Rem­brandt and his stu­dents in 1646, a sig­nif­i­cant moment in Rembrandt’s teach­ing career as it falls in a peri­od in which he was keen on his stu­dents draw­ing nude mod­els. In the stu­dio, Rem­brandt worked along­side his pupils, often draw­ing the same model hold­ing the same pose. Through com­par­isons between work done by Rem­brandt and that of fel­low stu­dents, this draw­ing grants insight into Rembrandt’s ideas on draw­ing prin­ci­ples, notions of artis­tic imi­ta­tion, and con­cep­tions of the nude.

Anselme Long

A Court­yard in Italy

Thomas Wyck, Dutch, 1616 – 1677, A Court­yard in Italy, c. 1640-50, brush and gray wash over black chalk on paper. The Peck Col­lec­tion, 2017.1.98

See A Court­yard in Italy in more detail here. 

Thomas Wyck was a mem­ber of the so-called Bam­boc­cianti, a group of Dutch artists who trav­eled to Italy dur­ing the 1600s to gain expo­sure to the Ital­ian art world. Unlike many of their con­tem­po­raries who roman­ti­cized depic­tions of the Ital­ian land­scape and Roman mon­u­ments, Wyck and the Bam­boc­cianti showed all aspects of Ital­ian life. In this draw­ing, Wyck high­lights the crum­bling archi­tec­ture of the court­yard and the frayed bas­ket, which illus­trate the every­day set­ting of the major­i­ty of Ital­ians. While the per­spec­tive in this work is not pre­cise, Wyck cap­tured the essence of Italy. 

Emily Edger­ton

A Jew­ish Funer­al Procession

Philips de Kon­inck, Dutch, 1619 – 1688, A Jew­ish Funer­al Pro­ces­sion, c. 1660, pen and brush and brown ink on paper. The Peck Col­lec­tion, 2017.1.47

See A Jew­ish Funer­al Pro­ces­sion in more detail here. 

Philips de Kon­inck cre­at­ed A Jew­ish Funer­al Pro­ces­sion, a sketch per­haps prompt­ed by the newly con­gre­gat­ed Ashke­nazi Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in Ams­ter­dam, in the late sev­en­teenth cen­tu­ry. The arrival of the Ashke­nazi Jews marked a water­shed after var­i­ous pogroms had led the com­mu­ni­ty to seek reli­gious asy­lum in the north­ern Nether­lands between 1630 and 1640. Wear­ing caf­tans, tall hats lined with fur, and berets, and hav­ing untrimmed beards, the appear­ance of the Ashke­nazi com­mu­ni­ty was eas­i­ly iden­ti­fi­able, as seen in A Jew­ish Funer­al Pro­ces­sion. In this ink-wash draw­ing on paper, Kon­inck empha­sizes the gar­ments worn by the fig­ures in the pro­ces­sion with metic­u­lous and pre­cise shad­ing tech­niques. There are sev­en­teen fig­ures in total; the men to the far right of the com­po­si­tion wear tall, mitre-like hats, have beards, and are adorned in caf­tan robes while car­ry­ing staffs. 

Ori Erna Hashmonay

Study of a West African Woman

Attrib­uted to Rem­brandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606 – 1669, Study of a West African Woman, c. 1635, pen and brown ink on paper. The Peck Col­lec­tion, 2017.1.62

See Study of a West African Woman in more detail here. 

Study of a West African Woman offers insight into how Rem­brandt viewed con­tem­po­rary Africans liv­ing in the Nether­lands. Drawn with fewer than sixty lines, the sketch depicts a woman tot­ing a chick­en under her left arm, hav­ing been to the mar­ket. The woman was prob­a­bly one of the many African ser­vants in Ams­ter­dam who lived in a gray area between enslave­ment (which was not legal in Hol­land) and free­dom. Con­trary to many con­tem­po­ra­ne­ous Dutch artists, Rem­brandt attempt­ed to human­ize his African sub­jects. The sketch exem­pli­fies Rembrandt’s life­long pur­suit in depict­ing Africans as they truly were, which cul­mi­nat­ed in his paint­ing Two Moors (Mau­rit­shuis, The Hague, Nether­lands) from 1661.

Jere­my Howell

23 Feb­ru­ary 2018 – 22 April 2018