Joaneath Spicer

Second in an ongoing series focussing on selected masterpieces from the permanent collection of prints and drawings from the National Gallery of Canada, this catalogue features nearly fifty of the oldest and most emotionally evocative sheets by Dutch and Flemish masters, from Gerard David to Rembrandt and Rubens.

Paper | 188 pages 
20.35 x 26.68 cm (8 x 10.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2003
Only available in French 

Sonia Couturier

Executed between the 17th and 19th centuries by artists such as Jacques Bellange, Charles de La Fosse, François Boucher, Jacques Louis David and Edgar Degas, the seventy works featured in this volume highlight the richness of the French drawings in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Paper | 188 pages 
20.35 x 26.68 cm (8 x 10.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2004
Available in French only

David Franklin

Seventy of the finest Italian drawings from the 16th to the 18th centuries in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada are featured in this volume. Brilliant examples by such artists as Giulio Romano, Parmigianino, Annibale Carracci and Piranesi were selected and described. This is the first in a series of catalogues presenting selected treasures from the Gallery's permanent collection.

Paper | 176 pages 
20.35 x 26.68 cm (8 x 10.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2003

Sonia Couturier, Pierre Rosenberg

Eighteenth-century Rome was a cosmopolitan centre that became a mecca for artists, collectors, and enlightened art lovers. It was also the primary destination for artists from France wanting to perfect their craft. This work highlights the artistic effervescence of the Eternal City, where French artists were able to study ancient monuments and masterpieces of sculpture and painting, benefitting from the protection of influential patrons with a passion for the arts. Featuring more than one hundred works, this volume offers an exceptional selection of drawings and prints together with a large number of paintings. It presents works by artists regarded as among the most significant of their day, in particular Hubert Robert, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and Jacques-Louis David.

Softcover | 256 pages 
23 x 28 cm (9 x 11 in.) 
Publication Date: 2011

Sarah Anne Johnson (b. 1976)
Explosions, 2011

Johnson’s work explores ideas of utopia and contemporary communities outside the mainstream that gather for idealistic reasons. Her feelings and memories of experiences with these groups is expressed by augmenting the photograph. She recreates scenes as dioramas or enhances images with paint, glitter, ink, and Photoshop manipulations.

9 x 6.5 cm (3.5 x 2.5 in.)

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Sarah Anne Johnson (b. 1976)
Explosions, 2011

Johnson’s work explores ideas of utopia and contemporary communities outside the mainstream that gather for idealistic reasons. Her feelings and memories of experiences with these groups is expressed by augmenting the photograph. She recreates scenes as dioramas or enhances images with paint, glitter, ink, and Photoshop manipulations.

Card dimensions: 17.5 x 13.5 cm (6.8 x 5.3 in.)
Blank inside. Envelope included.

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Winning Title (Pictorial), The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, 2025 

Sonia Del Re and Kirsten Appleyard

Delve into Canada’s premier collection of international drawings and discover never-before-seen artworks straight from the vault. Founded in 1921 and the first of its kind in the country, the National Gallery of Canada’s Department of Prints and Drawings boasts ever-evolving, world-class holdings of historical drawings dating from the 15th to the 20th century, in every medium – from graphite to ink, pastel to watercolour. Enjoy this rare opportunity to view works by Gustav Klimt, Théodore Géricault and Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, among many others, including newly acquired sheets and little-known but historically significant drawings that for conservation reasons are usually kept in the dark. The selection is wide-ranging, featuring everything from preparatory works for paintings to subjects drawn from history and mythology, portraits, landscapes, forays into abstraction and poignant explorations of the human condition.

Celebrate the legacy of the Department of Prints and Drawings first-hand through this captivating exhibition and richly illustrated catalogue marking its recent 100-year anniversary.

Feuille à feuille. La collection de dessins dévoilée is organized by the National Gallery of Canada. The publication is made possible with support from the Getty Foundation through its “The Paper Project: Prints and Drawings Curatorship in the 21st Century” initiative.

Hardcover | 203 pages
Publication Date: 2024

Also published in English under the title Gathered Leaves: Discoveries from the Drawing Vault

Karoo Ashevak (1940-1974)
Figure, 1974

Ashevak’s exaggeration of features and imaginative use of whale bone helped define the expressive style of the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut. The dissimilar eyes, which signify exceptional sight, and the mittened hand, a symbol of spiritual ability, together suggest that this figured is a powerful otherworldly being.

6.5 x 9 cm (2.5 x 3.5 in.)

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Karoo Ashevak (1940-1974)
Figure, 1974

Ashevak’s exaggeration of features and imaginative use of whale bone helped define the expressive style of the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut. The dissimilar eyes, which signify exceptional sight, and the mittened hand, a symbol of spiritual ability, together suggest that this figured is a powerful otherworldly being.

Card dimensions: 13.5 x 17.5 cm (5.3 x 6.8 in.)
Blank inside. Envelope included.

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Josée Drouin-Brisebois 

Flagrant délit. La performance du spectateur is an ambitious exhibition which attests to the National Gallery of Canada's ongoing commitment to contemporary Canadian art. Eleven artists and collectives present an occasion for us to explore our roles as active participants in the artistic process; the active exchange between viewer and object becomes as significant as the artwork itself. The exhibition catalogue documents sixteen large-scale sculptural installations, while the essays provide illuminating perspectives on the artists' works in Flagrant délit. 

Hardcover | 256 pages
17 x 21.5 cm (6.7 x 8.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2008

Emily Carr (1871–1945)
Forest Landscape No.2, c. 1935 

"As her medium loosened, [Emily] Carr found herself better able to register both the immediacy of her own perceptions and the fluidity of her response to them."

- Excerpt from the catalogue Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment, an exhibition organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection with the exceptional support of the National Gallery of Canada.

Dimensions:
Image size: 20.5 x 30.5 cm ( 8 x 12 in.)
Paper size: 27.9 x 35.6 cm (11 x 14 in.)

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Sebastian Schütze Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen 

Around 1900, a small group of influential patrons, critics, writers, and artists turned Weimar; the capital of the small Duchy of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach in present-day Germany, into a utopian centre of modern art and thought. Artists like Max Klinger, Edvard Munch, and Ludwig von Hofmann, and writers like André Gide, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Rainer Maria Rilke sought to create a “New Weimar” and position Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) at its head as the radical prophet of modernity.

In 1902, two years after Nietzsche's death, Max Klinger was commissioned to carve his portrait. Only three monumental bronze versions were cast, one of which is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. With this sculpture in focus, Friedrich Nietzsche and the Artists of the New Weimar shows how Klinger and his patrons invented the “official” Nietzsche, transforming a highly expressionist portrait into an idealized classical cult image.

Softcover | 120 pages
20.5 x 24 cm (8 x 9.4 in.)
Publication Date: 2019

David Harris

Over the last fifty years, Gabor Szilasi, a Montreal artist born in Hungary, has created one of the most important photographic bodies of work in Canada, work that combines portraits, domestic and commercial interiors, cityscapes of Montreal and Budapest, and images from many regions of rural Quebec. This comprehensive publication contains a study of the artist, a catalogue of the works in the exhibition, and an exhaustive biography that explores the different private and professional facets of Szilasi's life.

Paper | 240 pages
23 x 29 cm (9 x 11.4 in.)
Publication Date: 2010
Available in French only

Peter Trepanier, Garry Neill Kennedy 

Known primarily as a painter, Garry Neill Kennedy has remained committed to a conceptual art practice in which he critiques painting, its processes, materials, and presentation, and reveals underlying assumptions about its making or its representation. Kennedy's printed matter serves as a valuable index to his artistic practice. This catalogue contains an inventory of more than one hundred items, and illustrates, identifies, and describes printed matter designed by or in collaboration with the artist from 1971 to 2009. 

Hardcover | 213 pages 
20 x 26 cm (7.8 x 10.2 in.) 
Publication Date: 2012

Winning Title (Pictorial), The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, 2025 

Sonia Del Re and Kirsten Appleyard

Delve into Canada’s premier collection of international drawings and discover never-before-seen artworks straight from the vault. Founded in 1921 and the first of its kind in the country, the National Gallery of Canada’s Department of Prints and Drawings boasts ever-evolving, world-class holdings of historical drawings dating from the 15th to the 20th century, in every medium – from graphite to ink, pastel to watercolour. Enjoy this rare opportunity to view works by Gustav Klimt, Théodore Géricault and Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, among many others, including newly acquired sheets and little-known but historically significant drawings that for conservation reasons are usually kept in the dark. The selection is wide-ranging, featuring everything from preparatory works for paintings to subjects drawn from history and mythology, portraits, landscapes, forays into abstraction and poignant explorations of the human condition.

Celebrate the legacy of the Department of Prints and Drawings first-hand through this captivating exhibition and richly illustrated catalogue marking its recent 100-year anniversary.

Gathered Leaves: Discoveries from the Drawings Vault is organized by the National Gallery of Canada. The publication is made possible with support from the Getty Foundation through its “The Paper Project: Prints and Drawings Curatorship in the 21st Century” initiative.

Hardcover | 203 pages
Publication Date: 2024 

Also published in French under the title Feuille à feuille. La collection de dessins dévoilée

Edited by Cornelia Homburg and Christopher Riopelle with contributions by Elizabeth C. Childs, Dario Gamboni, Linda Goddard, Claire Guitton, Jean-David Jumeau-Lafond, and Alastair Wright

Accompanying the ground-breaking exhibition Gauguin: Portraits, this publication marks the first in-depth investigation of Gauguin’s portraits, revealing how the artist expanded the possibilities of the genre in new and exciting ways.

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) broke with accepted conventions and challenged audiences to expand their understanding of visual expression. Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in his portraits, a genre he remained engaged with throughout all phases of his career.

A welcome addition to the scholarship on one of the 19th century’s most innovative and controversial artists, this richly illustrated volume contains more than 160 illustrations, presenting fascinating insights into the crucial role that portraiture played in Gauguin’s overall artistic practice.

Hardcover | 272 pages
24.5 x 31 cm (9.6 x 12.2 in.)
Publication Date: 2019

Edited by Cornelia Homburg and Christopher Riopelle with contributions by Elizabeth C. Childs, Dario Gamboni, Linda Goddard, Claire Guitton, Jean-David Jumeau-Lafond, and Alastair Wright

Accompanying the ground-breaking exhibition Gauguin: Portraits, this publication marks the first in-depth investigation of Gauguin’s portraits, revealing how the artist expanded the possibilities of the genre in new and exciting ways.

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) broke with accepted conventions and challenged audiences to expand their understanding of visual expression. Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in his portraits, a genre he remained engaged with throughout all phases of his career.

A welcome addition to the scholarship on one of the 19th century’s most innovative and controversial artists, this richly illustrated volume contains more than 160 illustrations, presenting fascinating insights into the crucial role that portraiture played in Gauguin’s overall artistic practice.

Hardcover | 272 pages
24.5 x 31 cm (9.6 x 12.2 in.)
Publication Date: 2019

Edited by Adam Welch

Contributors: David Balzer, AA Bronson, Diedrich Diederichsen, Dominic Johnson, Theodore Kerr, Alex Kitnick, Sholem Krishtalka, Élisabeth Lebovici, Philip Monk, Diana Nemiroff, and Beatrix Ruf

General Idea (1969–1994) were pioneers of conceptual and media art whose work attained international prominence through the art world and the streets in equal measure. The ground-breaking collective practice of AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal spanned twenty-five years, addressing aspects of mass media, consumer culture, queer identity, the art economy and the AIDS crisis. They remain some of the most influential artists to have emerged from Canada.

This monumental publication presents a visual survey of General Idea’s artworks, from their earliest performances and actions to their use of consumer and advertising media in the public realm to their gallery and museum work. Including texts by a range of scholars and more than 500 illustrations, it is the definitive resource on General Idea. 

Softcover | 756 pages 
27 x 30 cm (10.6 x 11.8 in.) 
Publication Date: 2022

Edited by Adam Welch 

Contributors: David Balzer, AA Bronson, Diedrich Diederichsen, Dominic Johnson, Theodore Kerr, Alex Kitnick, Sholem Krishtalka, Élisabeth Lebovici, Philip Monk, Diana Nemiroff, and Beatrix Ruf

General Idea (1969–1994) were pioneers of conceptual and media art whose work attained international prominence through the art world and the streets in equal measure. The ground-breaking collective practice of AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal spanned twenty-five years, addressing aspects of mass media, consumer culture, queer identity, the art economy and the AIDS crisis. They remain some of the most influential artists to have emerged from Canada.  

This monumental publication presents a visual survey of General Idea’s artworks, from their earliest performances and actions to their use of consumer and advertising media in the public realm to their gallery and museum work. Including texts by a range of scholars and more than 500 illustrations, it is the definitive resource on General Idea.

Softcover | 756 pages 
27 x 30 cm (10.6 x 11.8 in.) 
Publication Date: 2022

This poster features a reproduction of the artwork AIDS, 1987 by General Idea. 

General Idea (1969–1994) were pioneers of conceptual and media art whose work attained international prominence through the art world and the streets in equal measure. The ground-breaking collective practice of AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal spanned twenty-five years, addressing aspects of mass media, consumer culture, queer identity, the art economy and the AIDS crisis. They remain some of the most influential artists to have emerged from Canada. 

Made in Canada 
61 x 61 cm (24 x 24 in.) 

Produced in conjunction with the exhibition General Idea organized by the National Gallery of Canada and presented in Ottawa from June 3 to November 20, 2022.