Museum to exhibit 19th-century drawings

Fairfield University's Bellarmine Museum of Art will partner with the Dahesh Museum of Art in an exhibition, "The Essential Line: Drawings from the Dahesh Museum of Art," opening at the Bellarmine Museum of Art with a free public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11. The works will remain on view through Jan. 18, 2013.

The display, which features world-class European drawings, marks the first ever in-depth exhibit of the Dahesh Museum's important drawing collection in Connecticut, according to a news release. Its opening also coincides with the Bellarmine Museum of Art's second anniversary.

The exhibit, organized by the Dahesh Museum of Art, New York City, comprises 25 works by masters of 19th-century European art, on loan from the Dahesh Museum of Art, the release states.

The works, genres of which range from portraiture to landscape, from history painting to Orientalism, include rare drawings by Lawrence Alma Tadema, Rosa Bonheur, Leon Bonnat, Alexandre Cabanel, Paul Delaroche, Gustave Dore, Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ, and Frederic Lord Leighton.

Exhibit programs include a gallery talk by Bellarmine Museum of Art director Jill Deupi at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14; a guest lecture by art history professor Patricia Mainardi, 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 5, in Bellarmine Hall's Diffley Board Room; and a series of Saturday afternoon Family Days from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 13, Nov. 10, and Dec. 8. Museum galleries will also be open to the general public between noon and 5 p.m. on these same Saturdays.

The Bellarmine Museum of Art is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on select Saturdays. Admission is free.

For information, call the Bellarmine Museum of Art, at 1073 North Benson Road in Bellarmine Hall, at 203-254-4046 or visit www.fairfield.edu/museum or www.daheshmuseum.org.