Albertina: Old Master Drawings from Vienna

The Albertina in Vienna forms part of the city’s historic Hofburg complex, the heart of which is the former Imperial Palace - seat of the Habsburg dynasty in Central Europe. Albert, Duke of Saxe-Teschen (1738-1822), after whom the museum is named, assembled his renowned collection of master drawings during the latter part of the 18th century. Collecting fine works has continued since Duke Albert’s death, and today the museum is regarded as one of the world’s largest and most valuable repositories of graphic art.

Albert grew up at the Saxon court in Dresden, the eleventh child of Frederick Augustus II, Prince Elector of Saxony. In 1766 he became a member of the House of Habsburg through marriage to the favourite daughter of the Empress Maria Theresia. Thanks to his wife's considerable dowry, Albert was able to pursue his passion for the art of drawing and soon he began systematically collecting on a grand scale. A figure of the Age of Enlightenment in every respect, Albert set about the ambitious and far-sighted task of building, as a legacy to posterity, a collection which would be comprehensive in its representation, chronologically ordered and fully catalogued. Continually growing through new acquisitions, the Albertina currently holds more than 65,000 drawings and more than 1 million prints in its collection.

Conceived by the Albertina, this catalogue that accompanied at the Art Gallery of New South Wales is devised as a series of chronologically arranged chapters dealing with the most significant periods and styles while emphasising strong regional particularities. Together, these chapters form a compelling historical sweep and showcase, through the highest calibre of draughtsmanship, the development of the European drawing tradition.