Event Details

This exhibition provides an appealing survey of drawing styles and techniques from Randolph Caldecott in the 19th century to Chris Van Allsburg in the 20th—with many delightful and familiar artists in between including Ernest Shepard, Maurice Sendak, Tomie dePaola, and Jules Feiffer. The 40 works on paper by famed illustrators are supplemented by 13 books. Draw Me a Story will be staged with artworks hung slightly lower than usual, step stools available, and reading nooks in the galleries for visitors young and old. The illustrations span 100 years and include detailed watercolors, expressive pen drawings and experimental combinations of media. Viewers will get a sense of how an artist’s vision can tell a story with a single image or bring a familiar story to life in a new way. This family-friendly exhibition will be complemented by an adjacent exhibition drawn from the Frick’s permanent collection related to childhood at Clayton—books, toys, games, clothing, and period photographs will focus on the play time, work time and reading interests of the Frick children, Childs and Helen. Draw Me a Story: A Century of Children’s Book Illustration is a program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts.