Collection Overview

three crosses

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-99)

The Three Crosses, 1653, drypoint with engraving, fourth of five states

 

 

 

 

The Davison Art Center collection consists chiefly of some 24,000 works of art on paper, mostly original prints and photographs, with smaller numbers of works in other media. Information about these objects is searchable by students, faculty, researchers, and the public via DAC Collection Search, which is now online in a bare-bones early form with frequent improvements under way.

Medium-specific pages on certain types of holdings offer more general glimpses into some aspects of the collection.

Prints

Photographs

Drawings

Paintings

Three-dimensional objects

Elsewhere on the DAC site, digital images of selected objects are available for online study in connection with specific Wesleyan courses and in systematic groups of objects.

erasmus

 

 

 

Félix-Henri Bracquemond (French, 1833-1914)

Portrait of Erasmus, 1863, Etching after Hans Holbein, first and eighth of ten states (photo: Phil)

 

 

 

The heart of the print collection was given to Wesleyan in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s by Harriet B. and George W. Davison (B.A. Wesleyan 1892), after whom the Davison Art Center is named. In 1952, the DAC was built to house the collection in an addition to the historic Alsop House. The collection continues to grow. In an average year, several hundred works (accepted if they serve the DAC's educational mission) are given to the museum and others are acquired by purchase; most purchases are made with funds raised by the Friends of the Davison Art Center. Some objects have been made available for loans to selected museums.

The DAC also has a Print Reference Library containing several thousand volumes of reference works. These are used in close conjunction with teaching and learning from original objects in the print collection.