The Collectors' Cosmos

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Justus Sadeler after Paul Bril, "A Landscape with a Town in the Distance," 1600–20

engraving, plate: 19.7 × 27.4 cm; sheet: 28.5 × 37.7 cm. Collection of Dr. Jonathan Meakins and Dr. Jacqueline McClaran. Photo: Denis Farley.

The Collectors’ Cosmos: The Meakins–McClaran Print Collection provides a glimpse into the making of what became one of the foremost private collections of European prints in Canada. Built over the course of four decades, the core of this collection comprises a wealth of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish prints. Drs. Jonathan Meakins and Jaqueline McClaran recently donated a significant portion of these works to the National Gallery of Canada, thus doubling the holdings of early Dutch and Flemish prints in the national collection. This generous gift advances the study of early Northern European printmaking, and includes an impressive number of print series depicting seasons or months of the year, times of the day, planets, elements, animalia and more. These works enrich our understanding of the role played by prints in Early Modern Europe, illustrating humanity’s quest to make sense of the world and find order in chaos.   

This touring version of The Collectors’ Cosmos, organized by the National Gallery of Canada, provides an overview of this remarkable donation, which includes works by Rembrandt, Hendrick Goltzius and Jacob van Ruisdael.